"It's the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun
"Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of
birth determines your right to life. Let us be outraged, let us be
loud, let us be bold." - Brad Pitt, actor
"Safety
and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective
consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most
vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." -
Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa
ON the SIDE of JUSTICE by Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Source: I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
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speaking of Sandy Hook, not to minimize the importance of all human life,
List of Children Killed by US (Drone Strikes) in Yemen and
Pakistan
[The following list was issued by Drones Watch on 20 January 2013. The names were compiled from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports.] Name | Age | Gender Noor Aziz | 8 | male Abdul Wasit | 17 | male Noor Syed | 8 | male Wajid Noor | 9 | male Syed Wali Shah | 7 | male Ayeesha | 3 | female Qari Alamzeb | 14| male Shoaib | 8 | male Hayatullah KhaMohammad | 16 | male Tariq Aziz | 16 | male Sanaullah Jan | 17 | male Maezol Khan | 8 | female Nasir Khan | male Naeem Khan | male Naeemullah | male Mohammad Tahir | 16 | male Azizul Wahab | 15 | male Fazal Wahab | 16 | male Ziauddin | 16 | male Mohammad Yunus | 16 | male Fazal Hakim | 19 | male Ilyas | 13 | male Sohail | 7 | male Asadullah | 9 | male khalilullah | 9 | male Noor Mohammad | 8 | male Khalid | 12 | male Saifullah | 9 | male Mashooq Jan | 15 | male Nawab | 17 | male Sultanat Khan | 16 | male Ziaur Rahman | 13 | male Noor Mohammad | 15 | male Mohammad Yaas Khan | 16 | male Qari Alamzeb | 14 | male Ziaur Rahman | 17 | male Abdullah | 18 | male Ikramullah Zada | 17 | male Inayatur Rehman | 16 | male Shahbuddin | 15 | male Yahya Khan | 16 |male Rahatullah |17 | male Mohammad Salim | 11 | male Shahjehan | 15 | male Gul Sher Khan | 15 | male Bakht Muneer | 14 | male Numair | 14 | male Mashooq Khan | 16 | male Ihsanullah | 16 | male Luqman | 12 | male Jannatullah | 13 | male Ismail | 12 | male Taseel Khan | 18 | male Zaheeruddin | 16 | male Qari Ishaq | 19 | male Jamshed Khan | 14 | male Alam Nabi | 11 | male Qari Abdul Karim | 19 | male Rahmatullah | 14 | male Abdus Samad | 17 | male Siraj | 16 | male Saeedullah | 17 | male Abdul Waris | 16 | male Darvesh | 13 | male Ameer Said | 15 | male Shaukat | 14 | male Inayatur Rahman | 17 | male Salman | 12 | male Fazal Wahab | 18 | male Baacha Rahman | 13 | male Wali-ur-Rahman | 17 | male Iftikhar | 17 | male Inayatullah | 15 | male Mashooq Khan | 16 | male Ihsanullah | 16 | male Luqman | 12 | male Jannatullah | 13 | male Ismail | 12 | male Abdul Waris | 16 | male Darvesh | 13 | male Ameer Said | 15 | male Shaukat | 14 | male Inayatur Rahman | 17 | male Adnan | 16 | male Najibullah | 13 | male Naeemullah | 17 | male Hizbullah | 10 | male Kitab Gul | 12 | male Wilayat Khan | 11 | male Zabihullah | 16 | male Shehzad Gul | 11 | male Shabir | 15 | male Qari Sharifullah | 17 | male Shafiullah | 16 | male Nimatullah | 14 | male Shakirullah | 16 | male Talha | 8 | male YEMEN Afrah Ali Mohammed Nasser | 9 | female Zayda Ali Mohammed Nasser | 7 | female Hoda Ali Mohammed Nasser | 5 | female Sheikha Ali Mohammed Nasser | 4 | female Ibrahim Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 13 | male Asmaa Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 9 | male Salma Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 4 | female Fatima Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 3 | female Khadije Ali Mokbel Louqye | 1 | female Hanaa Ali Mokbel Louqye | 6 | female Mohammed Ali Mokbel Salem Louqye | 4 | male Jawass Mokbel Salem Louqye | 15 | female Maryam Hussein Abdullah Awad | 2 | female Shafiq Hussein Abdullah Awad | 1 | female Sheikha Nasser Mahdi Ahmad Bouh | 3 | female Maha Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 12 | male Soumaya Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 9 | female Shafika Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 4 | female Shafiq Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 2 | male Mabrook Mouqbal Al Qadari | 13 | male Daolah Nasser 10 years | 10 | female AbedalGhani Mohammed Mabkhout | 12 | male Abdel- Rahman Anwar al Awlaki | 16 | male Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki | 17 | male Nasser Salim | 19 |
| In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) |
Don't Believe the (Liberal Zionist) Hype:
Israel's Elections Ratified the Apartheid Status Quo
By Alex Kane
The
liberal American Zionists are utterly delusional, grasping at any
straw to try and convince the world that there is a possibility for a
two-state solution and that Israel can make peace.
Endgame Scenarios
Saudi Arabia v. Qatar on Syria
By Peter Lee
I
am surprised that relatively little is written, in English anyway,
about the divergence of aims between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Western Hypocrisy Exposed:
Syria: From Rebellion to Civil War:
By Nir Rosen - Audio:
Journalist
Nir Rosen spent eight months in Syria during the current uprisings
with unprecedented access to all parties to the conflict, from
opposition leaders and activists on the ground, to insurgent leaders
and fighters on the ground, to Syrian army, security and loyalist
militias (leaders and fighters on the ground)
Engineering consent for an attack on Iran:
The Viral Campaign to Set a "Red Line" for Iran
By Eli Clifton
A viral video calling
on world leaders to a "set the red line" to prevent Iran from acquiring
a nuclear weapon has garnered over 1.3 million YouTube views thanks to
a savvy social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
War on Terror Forever
By Pepe Escobar
Exit "historical"
al-Qaeda, holed up somewhere in the Waziristans, in the Pakistani
tribal areas; enter al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In
Dempsey's words, AQIM "is a threat not only to the country of Mali, but
the region, and if... left unaddressed, could in fact become a global
threat."
Russia To West:
We Told You Not To Overthrow Qaddafi!
By Michael Kelley
"Those whom the French
and Africans are fighting now in Mali are the [same] people who ...
our Western partners armed so that they would overthrow the Gaddafi
regime," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference.
List of Children Killed by US (Drone Strikes) in Yemen and Pakistan
By Jadaliyya Reports
The following list was issued by Drones Watch on 20 January 2013.
Obama's Legacy Of Murderer
Putting Our Bodies on the Line to Stop Drone Warfare
By Joy First
National, statewide,
and local groups are all mobilizing and coming together to work to stop
drone warfare. They have formed a coalition called Network to Stop
Drone Surveillance and Warfare (NSDSW).
How the US Ignored International Law to Become World's Kidnapper and Torturer
By Ian Cobain
The CIA would decide
who was to be killed and who was to be kept alive in a network of
secret prisons, outside the US, where they would be systematically
tormented until every one of their secrets had been delivered up.
A Rape a Minute, a Thousand Corpses a Year
Hate Crimes in America (and Elsewhere)
By Rebecca Solnit
Here in the United States, there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes, and one in five women will be raped in her lifetime.
Afghanistan: Bomb kills 5 in Nangarhar blitz:
The
incident happened in Basolan area of Nawa district when a landmine
exploded on dismounted police, said Muhammad Ismail Hotak, deputy head
of Herlmand police coordination centre.
NATO Occupation Force Solider Killed In Afghanistan:
One
soldier with the NATO-led coalition forces were killed Wednesday in
insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition forces confirmed
in a press release.
Pakistan: Three cops killed in twin blasts in Karachi:
Three
police personnel including DIP Kamal Khan Mangan have been killed and
several others were injured in two bomb blasts at Sher Pao Colony,
Landhi on Thursday.
Second Pak politician shot dead :
A
Pakistani politician was shot dead in Karachi in the second such
killing in a week, police said Wednesday, fuelling fears that violence
may overshadow general elections expected this year.
Desecrations alarm Pakistan's Ahmadi sect:
Ahmadi community identifies itself as Muslims, but are considered as heretics by majority of Pakistanis.
US kills seven people in Yemen:
Wednesday's strike targeted a vehicle near the town of Khawlan, around 30km (20 miles) from the capital, Sanaa.
Malian Army accused of executing 33 civilians:
The
Malian Army summarily executed several people for allegedly helping
Islamist rebels and threw the bodies into nearby wells, according to
eyewitnesses independently interviewed by the Associated Press (AP) and
the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
Mali's Ansar Dine rebel group splits into two:
In
a statement published Thursday by RFI radio, former Ansar Dine leader
Alghabass Ag Intalla says the new group will be called the Islamic
Movement for the Azawad. Intalla said the group is looking for a
"negotiated solution," adding his men are willing to fight Ansar Dine.
Russia's Putin says regional revolts led to Algeria hostage:
Putin
and other Russian officials have said the United States and its NATO
allies have sacrificed stability to their political ambitions in the
Middle East and North Africa, often playing into the hands of radical
Islamists.
Russia says West to blame for arms used by Mali rebels:
"Those
whom the French and Africans are fighting now in Mali are the [same]
people who ... our Western partners armed so that they would overthrow
the Gaddafi regime," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news
conference.
UK, Germans, Dutch warn of threat to Westerners in Benghazi, Libya; urge nationals to leave:
Britain,
Germany and the Netherlands urged their citizens to immediately leave
the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday in response to what
they called an imminent threat against Westerners.
In Libya, fears of oil field attack grow:
While
Libya has ratcheted up its protection of Benghazi and its nearby oil
fields, its government downplayed the situation on Thursday. "The
Ministry of Interior strongly denies existence of threats against the
stabilities and security of the Western citizens and residents who live
in Benghazi, and assure that the Benghazi security situation is
stable,"
How US Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria:
If
the new Libyan government was sending seasoned Islamic fighters and
400 tons of heavy weapons to Syria through a port in southern Turkey-a
deal brokered by Stevens' primary Libyan contact during the Libyan
revolution-then the governments of Turkey and the U.S. surely knew about
it.
France sees no sign Syria's Assad will be toppled soon:
"Things
are not moving. The solution that we had hoped for, and by that I mean
the fall of Bashar and the arrival of the (opposition) coalition to
power, has not happened," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in his
annual New Year's address to the press.
Western Hypocrisy:
Syria: From Rebellion to Civil War: Audio:
Journalist
Nir Rosen spent eight months in Syria during the current uprisings
with unprecedented access to all parties to the conflict, from
opposition leaders and activists on the ground, to insurgent leaders
and fighters on the ground, to Syrian army, security and loyalist
militias (leaders and fighters on the ground).
Police fire tear gas at protesters on eve of Egypt revolution anniversary:
Egyptian
riot police fired tear gas and clashed Thursday with dozens of
protesters as they tried to tear down a cement wall built to prevent
demonstrators from reaching the parliament and the Cabinet building in
central Cairo.
42 Shia Muslims Killed in a Suicide Bomb by Saudi-Backed Terrorists in Iraq:
A
suicide bomber made his way into a Shia mosque north of Baghdad and
blew himself up in the middle of a packed funeral on Wednesday, killing
42 people and leaving corpses scattered across the floor.
Iraqi security forces arrest 250 Saudi-backed terrorists:
According
to the commander of the Iraqi forces, Saudi spy chief Bandar bin
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had allocated 250 million US dollars for
the terrorist operations in Iraq.
Sadr Movement Withdraw from Maliki's Committee?:
Sadr
movement leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, struck a fatal blow to the
seven-member committee tasked by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik to
consider the demands of protesters, announcing the withdrawal of all
Sadr movement trend ministers from this commission.
Witness: Israeli soldier killed woman 'in cold blood':
This,
says Suad Jaara, 28, is what she witnessed Wednesday afternoon when
Israeli officers near al-Arrub refugee camp shot her and her friend
Lubna al-Hanash. Lubna, 22, died hours later.
Abbas to invite Israeli politicians to talk peace:
Abed
Rabbo says Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants to sit down with
Israeli lawmakers before Israel forms its next government. He said
Thursday that all Israeli parties, "particularly the new ones," would
be invited for dialogue on future accords.
After Israeli elections, Palestinians bracing for illusion of change:
But
to the Western diplomats who see the elections as a victory for
Israel's center-left, PLO representatives say that while Yesh Atid may
be a centrist party in Israel, for the Palestinians it is a right-wing
party in every way since it supports keeping the settlements in place
and sees East Jerusalem as part of Israel's capital.
US says Israel likely to boycott UN rights review:
Israel
is expected to boycott the UN Human Rights Council next week despite
the United States urging its ally to show up for an examination of its
record, the US ambassador said on Thursday.
Jordan's Islamists and other critics win quarter of the seats in new parliament:
The
surprise victory of 37 Islamist and other government critics despite
an election boycott injects a degree of dissent into Jordan's newly
empowered parliament.
Kerry: 'Do what we must' to stop Iran on nukes:
Sen.
John Kerry, President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of state,
said Thursday that the United States will "do what we must" to prevent
Iran from developing a nuclear weapon even as he signaled that
diplomacy remains a viable option with Tehran.
Engineering consent for an attack on Iran:
"Nuclear Iran" is "approaching": Kissinger:
"The
consequences of an Iranian nuclear program is that other countries in
the area will also want nuclear weapons," and when nuclear weapons
become "almost conventional," "we would face a nuclear war at some
point, which would be a turning point in world history," he said.
Iran president warns against issues causing Shia-Sunni division:"
"The
Zionist regime [of Israel] has established its dominance over a group
of Muslims through deceit and lies, and Muslims are not united enough
to confront this occupying regime because of different and incomplete
interpretations of Qur'an."
17 million low-income Iranians to receive staple food coupons: report:
The
government and the Majlis (parliament) agreed to give out rice, sugar
and cooking oil to poor people and allocate two billion U.S. dollars to
support low-income families in light of shortages of basic commodities
and high inflation rate, according to Mehr.
12 suspected militants including 2 warlords killed in mountains of Chechnya:
Officials
in Chechnya say 12 suspected militants were killed in a special
operation in this Russian North Caucasus republic that was launched
after two policemen were killed and seven injured in an attack on a
police station.
DPRK threatens "all-out action" against U.S.: -
The
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday vowed to
conduct more rocket launches and a higher-level nuclear test targeting
its "sworn enemy" -- the United States.
Assange calls WikiLeaks film 'propaganda attack':
Julian
Assange has lashed out at a Hollywood film about WikiLeaks, calling it
"a massive propaganda attack" against the whistle blowing website,
also accusing it of fanning "flames of war" against Iran.
400 Christian Leaders to Lobby against Hagel Nomination:
At
least 400 Christian leaders will travel to Capitol Hill next week to
lobby senators against the nomination of Chuck Hagel for secretary of
defense, pro-Israel group Christians United for Israel (CUFI) announced
Wednesday.
Rand Paul Brutalizes Hillary Clinton: 'I Would Have Fired You!': Video -
Watch the Full Clinton-Paul Exchange from the Benghazi Hearing
Anti-War Protester Interrupts Kerry Hearing :
A
protester interrupts Kerry's statement. She says, "you're killing
people in the Middle East for no reason... I'm tired of my friends in
the Middle East dying."
Assault weapons ban introduced in the Senate:
Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced a bill banning
assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, briefing members of
Congress in front of a display featuring various deadly firearms that
would be prohibited under the ban.
Andrew P. Napolitano: Guns and the President: Op-Ed :
Who has killed more children, Adam Lanza or Barack Obama?
China, India to grow fastest in world: IMF:
The
IMF forecasts that the eurozone will stay in recession in 2013 with
the currency area's economy contracting by 0.2 per cent.
Obama Wants 100,000 American Students to Study in China:
Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday will celebrate the launch of a
newly rebranded organization called the "100,000 Strong Foundation,"
which aims to have 100,000 American students studying in China by 2014
Spain's unemployment rate reaches record high:
Nearly 55 percent of Spanish youth under 25 years out of job as unemployment rate surges to 26 percent in final quarter.
Posted: 24 Jan 2013 11:23 PM PST
Indonesia
is the world’s largest exporter of coal for power stations. The
government is planning new infrastructure, including a US$2.8 billion
railway, to help increase exports even further. How does this fit with
the same government’s promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Obviously, it doesn’t.
This week, Greenpeace released a new report highlighting 14 [...]
Policy News
Government decree says local firms should merge to reach global scale
-
US way out in front on snooping on citizens
-
US garage openers might work in Blighty - if mobe operators pipe down
-
Opinion Biz types have Tories' ear... so if they win election, all bets are off
Security News
Microsoft mum on privacy, security policies
-
Payback for Op Payback's $5.5m web cannon blast
-
Hidden accounts 'needed for remote tech support'
-
NASA systems among 1,000,000 computers suspects accused of infecting
-
Leak of millions of Brits' sensitive info preventable, says ICO
-
OAuth permission snafu spooks researcher
-
One in 10 banking IT bods say 'budget constraints' an issue
-
Jeux sans Frontières
Software News
Former Linus lieutenant leaving for 'family reasons'
Science News
Euclid mission heading to L2 in 2020
-
Rover has lasted 36 times longer than planned mission
-
Anonymity only goes so far
-
Scratch off yet another IPCC doom warning
-
Who needs global warming when science finds universal cooling?
Nature’s Capital Is The Limiting Resource–Paul Craig Roberts
January 24, 2013
Categories: Articles & Columns
Tags: Amazon, Australia, Bristol Bay, Cockburn, Diamond, EPA, external costs, fracking, GDP, Hecht, Heinlein, Huber, Montana, nature's capital, NRDC, Robert Redford, 
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Life will perish as the environment perishes
21st century ecological economist
Paul Craig Roberts
Only in science fiction can humans escape the consequences of destroying their own habitat. In Robert A. Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love, the “Great Diaspora of the Human Race” began “more than two millennia ago” and has spread to more than “two thousand colonized planets.” The once “lovely green planet” Earth is a slum planet barely able to support life where only the poorest live, Earth’s natural capital having been consumed over two thousand years ago. Humans have found the ability to rejuvenate themselves and to live almost endless lives, but they are unable to rejuvenate the planets whose natural capital they devour. Humans have not encountered “one race as mean, as nasty, as deadly as our own.” As homo sapiens use up the environments of colonized planets, “human intergalactic colony ships are already headed out into the Endless Deeps,” leaving their ruins behind them.
In his book, Collapse, University of California biogeography professor Jared Diamond describes the nonfictional past and present destruction of Earth’s natural capital. Surprisingly, Diamond begins his story of the self-destruction of Easter Island, Anasazi, and Maya civilizations with present-day Montana and ends with Australia. We think of these two lands as scenic, lightly populated, and largely untouched, but they have been brought to the brink of ruin. Diamond’s point is that modern scientific and technological man is no better at managing nature’s capital than previous societies.
Many associate ecological destruction with population pressure. However, the toxicity associated with mining, fracking, chemical fertilizer and GMO farming, and the adverse watershed effects of logging is turning even low density states such as Montana into an environment with ruined soil and water.
In Montana mining has produced a legacy of toxicity–mercury, arsenic, cyanide, cadmium, lead, and zinc. These toxic substances have found their way into Montana’s fishing rivers and into reservoirs. From reservoirs toxic substances have leaked into groundwater and into the wells that supply homes. In 1981 groundwater serving family wells in areas of Montana was found with arsenic levels 42 times higher than federal standards permit.
Before Montana could find ways to retrieve its water resources from the toxic run-offs from mining, a new threat has appeared: hydraulic fracking. Fracking uses huge amounts of surface water, which it infuses with toxic chemicals to aid the extraction of underground gas and oil deposits that are otherwise unrecoverable. The energy industry and its media shills are touting “energy independence” in order to sway the public away from environmentalists, who are warning of the dangers.
Some of fracking’s toxic wastes stay in the ground and seep into aquifers, destroying the water supply. The toxic water that comes back up with the gas or oil has to be disposed of. On occasion, it ends up in city or town waste water treatment plants, which cannot detoxify the water, and in streams where toxic run-off can reduce nitrogen and phosphorus and produce golden algae (prymnesium parvum) which destroys all aquatic life. The use of surface water for fracking might already have depleted the streams that supplied the water, lowering their volume and thus making them vulnerable to other pollution, such as septic tank run-offs and algae from higher temperatures due to a lower water level.
While promising “energy independence,” fracking actually threatens to destroy our fresh water supplies. Recently, researchers have given attention to the fact that water might be the limiting resource and end up more valuable than oil, gas, or gold.
Fracking is still in its infancy, but Pennsylvania is already hard hit. There have been reports that some homeowners have been warned to open their windows when they take a shower, because of the methane content of the water which is high enough in some instances for the water to actually burn.
Energy spokesmen claim that methane found in ground water near fracking sites is a natural condition. However, residents say that their water was not infused with methane prior to the fracking operations. A study recently published by the National Academy of Sciences found that the type of methane gas that has appeared in water supplies is the same as the gas nearby wells are extracting with fracking operations. This indicates that the methane is moving into water supplies through underground fractures.
In 2012 Robert Oswald, professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, published with a coauthor, Veterinarian Michelle Bamberger, a peer-reviewed article that indicated a link between fracking and neurological, reproductive, and gastrointestinal problems of livestock exposed via air or water to toxic chemicals used in fracking.
Fracking, like deep sea drilling and all other dangerous exploitations of nature’s resources, promises large short-run profits for corporations at the expense of everyone else and the future. The cost of the polluted water, dead fish, infertile humans and animals, polluted soil and air, and the increase in diseases are all external costs imposed on third parties who have no stake in the ill-gotten profits.
Pennsylvania, possibly the most corrupt state in the US, has passed a law that prevents health care professionals from sharing information about the health care effects of fracking. “I have never seen anything like this in my 37 years of practice,” says Dr. Helen Podgainy, pediatrician from Coraopolis, Pa.
In other words, as in Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love, in Amerika today a handful of rich control everything. Nothing else counts or matters. Oxfam, an international philanthropy organization, announced on January 18 that the world’s 100 richest people earned an average of $2.4 billion each in 2012. Imagine that! An annual income of $2,400 million, or a daily income of $6,575,000. Compared to this, one of the early billionaires back in the 1990s, Sir James Goldsmith, was a poor man.
Easter Island is a clear example of a civilization that destroyed itself by stripping its environment of its resources. Professor Diamond observes: “ Easter Island was as isolated in the Pacific Ocean as the Earth is in space. When the Easter Islanders got into difficulties there was no where to which they could flee, nor to which they could turn for help; nor shall we modern Earthlings have recourse elsewhere” if we destroy the natural capital of our planet. Indeed, Diamond asks, “if mere thousands of Easter Islanders with just stone tools and their own muscle power sufficed to destroy their environment and thereby their society, how can billions of people with metal tools and machine power now fail to do worse?” Diamond might have added that people producing toxic wastes that poison the air, water, and soil and armed with nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are certain to destroy Earth, especially when almost every government is unaccountable.
On Easter Island trees were the major resource for the population. Trees provided food, housing, watershed that protected against soil erosion, compost, and the large canoes that allowed the inhabitants to leave the island and to fish offshore. What, Professor Diamond asks, was the ruler thinking when the last tree was cut down?
The answer perhaps is that the ruler was thinking of his own glory. How would his
stone monument be rolled into place without the aid of the last tree? What counts, the ruler thought, is not that the Easter Island population survive, but that I have no less glory in my monuments than my predecessors. Thus, with the last tree felled, Easter Island’s death warrant was signed.
When the original colonists arrived in Australia, they made a mistaken inference and concluded bountiful harvests were in their reach. Alas, there is salinity under the soil and irrigation brings the salt to the surface where it destroys the crops.
Salinity brought to the surface by irrigation then runs off into the surface water. The Murray/Darling River accounts for about half of Australia’s agricultural production. But as the river flows downstream, more and more water is extracted. The river becomes progressively salty as its volume decreases and more released salt deposits run off into the river. Diamond reports that “in some years so much water is extracted that no water is left in the river to enter the ocean.”
Clearing the land of its native vegetation contributes to the release of salinity. Diamond writes that 90% of Australia’s original native vegetation has been cleared.
The problems with Australia’s soils and waters are profound, but don’t expect the government to take them into account. Capitalist enterprises can make short term profits by destroying the fragile soils and waters of Australia. The small population of Australia is all the country can support considering its fragile ecology.
This brings us to the rain forests of Brazil, the most extraordinary modern example of the wanton destruction of immense natural resources by the blind force of unregulated capitalist greed, a destructive force as dangerous as that of nuclear weapons.
In The Fate of the Forest, Susanna Hecht and Alexander Cockburn take us through centuries of destruction of the most valuable forests on earth and the indigenous peoples that inhabited them. This book is an extraordinary learning experience and covers many centuries of man’s destruction of the Amazon rain forests, medicinal plants, waters, indigenous peoples, and animal, vegetable and insect species. Every development plan failed, whether originating in a Brazilian government, private capitalist such as Henry Ford and Daniel Ludwig, or international organization.
Briefly what happened is this. In order for outsiders to gain title to land inhabited by natives, rubber tappers, Brazil nut gatherers, and others who had use rights to the forests and knew how to exploit the forests without damaging them, the trees had to be felled, because titles were granted to cleared land.
Land speculators and cattle ranchers acquired vast land holdings by wiping out forests of mahogany, rubber, and Brazil nut trees along with the native inhabitants. The cleared land, deprived of its stewards and its nutrients, became compacted and infertile after a few years. Cattle farming is profitable for a short time before the soil is exhausted, but the-short term profits exist only because of government subsidies and because the external costs of the value of the forests that were destroyed in order to gain a land title are not counted in the cost of the cattle.
The Fate Of The Forest was published in 1990 by the prestigious University of Chicago Press. The information in the book goes to 1988. What has happened to the Amazon since I do not know. Hecht and Cockburn report that remnants of indigenous peoples, despite the murder of many of their leaders by the land barons who were never held accountable, succeeded in forcing the corrupt government of Brazil to establish “extractive reserves” that were supposed to protect the use rights of existing social organizations to the forests. The authors indicate as of their time of writing that the corrupt rich and well-connected were able to take advantage of the extractive reserves to continue their process of land theft. The same misuse is made of national parks. The indigenous inhabitants are moved off national park lands, but favored capitalists are given access to exploit the resources.
I recommend this book to everyone. It shows conclusively without being didactic that unregulated capitalism is one of the greatest forces of destruction of peoples, animal and plant life, and the Earth’s ecology. The book shows that for short-term profit, capitalists are willing to destroy irreplaceable resources. Future profitability is not important to them.
And so we have GDP accounting that measures the Gross Domestic Product of countries without regard to the cost of polluted air, water, and soil, and without regard, for example, to the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico from oil spills and chemical fertilizer run-off from farming. We add to GDP the value of the fracked oil and gas, but do not subtract the value of the ruined water supply of peoples and the life in the streams.
When mining corporations blow off the tops of mountains, GDP counts the minerals extracted as an addition to value, but does not offset this value with the cost of the ruined scenery and environmental effects of destroyed mountains.
When fishermen dynamite coral reefs in order to maximize their fish catch, the value of the fish obtained by destroying the environment that produced the fish is not offset by the destruction of the coral environment that would have produced a future supply of fish. The dynamite purchase is counted as GDP, but the destroyed reef is not counted as an offsetting cost.
Ohio has experienced earthquakes from fracking. How severe will these become as the earth is fractured in the interest of short-term profit?
Heinlein recognized “Mankind The Destroyer” and depicts humans as destroyers first of their Galaxy and then of other Galaxies.
Will the real human race, as compared to Heinlein’s fictional one, have the possibility of escaping from a destroyed Earth to other planets? Or is the destruction of Earth’s ecology much closer in time than the ability of humans to colonize space?
Economists have responsibility for earthlings’ ignorance about their environmental dependence. Economics claims that man-made capital is a substitute for nature’s capital. As nature’s capital is depleted, reproducible man-made capital will take its place. This assumption is embodied in the production function that is the basis of modern economic theory. The assumption is absurd, because it assumes that finite resources can support infinite growth. Economists should begin their education with courses in physics.
The correct description of the production process is that natural resources are transformed into useful products and waste products by labor and man-made capital. Nature’s capital and man-made capital are complements, not substitutes. Nature’s capital is used up as resources are exploited to make useful products, and air, land, and water become polluted with the waste products from production. The capacity of the planet’s “waste sinks” is limited.
GDP accounting does not include the costs of environmental destruction as a cost of production. For example, the costs of the unexpected consequences of genetically modified crops are not included in the prices of the wheat, corn, and soybeans. In 2011 plant pathologist and soil microbiologist Don Huber described these costs to the US Secretary of Agriculture. Toxic effects on soil microorganisms have disrupted nature’s balance, resulting in an increase in plant diseases. Soil fertility, micronutrients, and the nutritional value of foods have all been harmed. Animal reproductive problems, weak immune response, and premature aging are linked to herbicide-resistant GMOs that have become animal feed.
According to ecological economist Herman Daly, if all the costs of production are included, the decrease in nature’s capital could outweigh the value of the increase in GDP. As Hecht and Cockburn make clear, this has certainly been the case in the exploitation of the Amazon. The output is worth far less than the resources that were ruined in order to produce it.
There is very little of the earth left that has not been ruined by humans. The little that is left is the Antarctic, the Arctic, and some parts of Alaska such as the wilderness above Alaska’s Bristol Bay. The Antarctic is protected by treaty largely because no major power has figured out how to claim it. However, Shell Oil Company, with Obama’s blessings, is now involved in offshore drilling in the Arctic, and a consortium of global mining corporations is lobbying Congress, the White House, and the Environmental Protection Agency for a green light for the Pebble Mine, an enormous open-pit mine to be placed in wilderness above Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Scientists have concluded that the mine will make a dead zone out of a huge area of spectacular scenery encompassing the largest remaining wild salmon runs, and the wildlife, native inhabitants, and commercial fisherman dependent on the fish.
EPA’s scientists have concluded that the Pebble Mine would be environmentally and economically devastating, but this is a weak argument in the face of the greed of a few powerful moneybags for more profit. Just as Easter Islanders cut down their last trees, Americans are set to destroy their last wilderness and its fish, wildlife, and water resources. The mining lobbyists call this ecological destruction “progress” and “jobs” but do not count as an offset the 14,000 jobs related to the salmon fishery that will be destroyed by the Pebble Mine or the dead waters, fish, and wildlife that their toxic process will certainly produce.
Robert Redford and the National Resources Defense Council have arrayed with the EPA scientists against the Pebble Mine. Will Washington listen to fact, or will homo sapiens yet again discard fact for temporary profit and take another step toward finishing off the planet’s life-sustaining capability?
Will the idiots who rule the earth destroy it before humans can escape to other planets? From all evidence, the destruction of earth’s ecology has an immense head start on homo sapiens’ ability to colonize space.
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