[Dissent-bristol-info] Fwd: Sustainable development briefing - proofed

[anarchist606 at hushmail.com]

Here is final the sustainable development text, suggested image 
links are at the bottom:


Bristol Dissent Group - Sustainable Development
briefing

Myths of the G8: Sustainable Development 

What Big Brother Won't Tell you

Buried in the recent rush of important news of who was
a celebrity and needed getting out of here, you may
have missed a series of reports that show that our
earth is being destroyed at an ever frightening rate:
"Worst sea bird breeding season" (BBC), or "The
polluted planet: Alarm as global study finds one-third
of amphibians face extinction" (Independent), or
"Hundreds of bird species going the way of the dodo"
(Guardian).  

If you think worrying about the natural world is for
hippy-tree-huggers, then consider that for every one
barrel of oil discovered, we are consuming three -
this while the UK's use of oil and gas is being
projected to rise each year until at least 2030.
Thanks to global warming, broad areas of Antarctica
now are now forming turf where there were once
ice-sheets and glaciers. Scary stuff.

By whatever measure you choose to take, the world of
globalisation and capitalism is just not sustainable.
To blind us to this reality, the politicians have
invented the concept of 'sustainable development' - in
their words, "A higher quality of life for all people
is the goal of sustainable development." (G7 1995
Meeting). The problem with this lofty statement is
that, for all people on the planet to achieve the
living standards of the US, it would require three
planets worth of resources - how is this possible with
the rat-race in full flow?

Blair to the Rescue!

Thankfully Tony Blair and his band of merry men are on
hand to save the day; "To become more resource
efficient we need to accelerate the de-coupling of
resource use and growth in GDP." In plain English,
Tony and his cronies are saying that we need to get
rich without using stuff (oil, timber, gas, metals
etc.) How is this economic magic going to work? Nobody
seems to be sure. Tony recently remarked, "If we were
to put forward as a solution to climate change
something which would involve drastic cuts in economic
growth or standards of living, it would not matter how
justified it was, it simply would not be agreed to."
Translation - I know there is no such thing as
sustainability within the current system, but I can't
tell you that. George Bush's plans for sustainable
development? Tax cuts for the rich. Drilling for oil
in the Alaska wildlife refuge and war without end.

Here's a final pearl of wisdom from the government;
"It is a simple fact that, as we become more efficient
at producing things we will get wealthier. And as we
get wealthier we are able to produce and consume more
goods and services. In the longer term therefore it is
only by finding new, less wasteful ways of meeting our
needs that we can move to a sustainable path." 
However being 'less' wasteful is not the same as being
'sustainable'. 'Less' means not as much as before.
'Sustainable' is a cycle that can be kept going
forever while 'development' (in this context) means
economic growth – growth that can be kept going
forever? In the words of Professor Richard Heinberg,
an expert on resource use and human ecology, "Beyond a
certain point nature does not negotiate. If all else
fails, there is always famine and disease to take care
of it."

Reject their deceit.  Their Babylon must fall.


Alternatives to the G8:  Life in Balance
Not every life on this planet needs to be reduced to
dollar bills. If we reject the notion that profit is
God, we can build a world that works with nature
rather than smashes it into submission. First we need
to reject the notion of capitalism. We are trained to
see money as trade as wealth – an inseparable trinity.
This is a lie. To say there can be no wealth or trade
without money is to say there can be no time without
hours. With this in mind, below are some inspirational
examples of life getting back into balance:

Co-operative Action
Acting together is the opposite of capitalism. We can
see this idea in action in many places. Born here in
the UK in 1844, the co-operative movement has grown to
mean some 750 million people work for organisations
that are owned and controlled by them, and not by
international capital markets, shareholders or a
wealthy family dynasty. Bristol has some 90
co-operatives doing everything from food production to
IT support. Some coops are run less as a company and
more along the lines of a club – for example the
Stroud based Catalyst Food Coop works to provide its
members with fairtrade and organic produce. See
http://www.avoncda.coop/ for more info on these.  

The Navdanya Organisation
Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian Physicist, has been
championing the idea of 'freedom zones': "It lead her
to help found the organization Navdanya, [translation
'nine seeds' meaning 'ecological balance'] which forms
seed banks and trains Indian farmers to produce
traditional crops without chemical pesticides or
fertilizers. To date, she says, about 100,000 farmers
have returned to traditional, organic farming methods
in villages now dubbed 'freedom zones '. Navdanya has
opened an organic market in New Delhi to sell the
produce." (This quote is from an article at
http://www.mindfully.org, plus you can find lots of
good information at http://www.vshiva.net/ and
http://www.navdanya.org. Bristol has a permaculture
group, see http://www.bristolfoe.org.uk/bpg/)

Buena Vista Fossil Fuel Club
Cuba is famous for laid-back funky music, rum and
socialism. It may soon be famous for showing the way
on sustainable farming methods. When the USSR mutated
into Ru$$ia and replaced one set of authoritarian rule
for another – it stopped the cheap supply of oil to
both Cuba and North Korea. While people in North Korea
starve, Cuba looked towards autonomous self-management
rather than militarism and the results have been
pretty spectacular. Outside of capitalism, Cuba is
successfully making the transition to a more
sustainable society: "The World Bank has reported that
Cuba is leading nearly every other developing nation
in human development performance. Because Cuba's
agricultural model goes against the grain of orthodox
economic thought, the World Bank has called Cuba the
'anti-model'... This despite that fact that the Cuban
model flies in the face of the neoliberal reforms
prescribed by both the World Bank and the IMF." (This
is from the article 'Drawing Lessons from Experience
Part 2' by Dale Allen Pfeiffer which can be found at
http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/. In addition Bristol
has a Peak Oil email group, see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristolpeakoilers)

(1077 words)

Suggested Images for Sustainable Development:
Landfill site
http://www.environment-
agency.gov.uk/commondata/figureimages/landfill_deposit.jpg

consumerism I
http://subvertise.org/img_med/59.gif

consumerism II
http://subvertise.org/img_big/724.jpg



	
	
		
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