{"id":21484,"date":"2022-05-04T21:05:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T21:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=21484"},"modified":"2022-05-04T21:20:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T21:20:21","slug":"earth-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2022\/05\/04\/earth-champs\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth champs"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article written by Mike Small was first posted on \u00a0bella caledonia<\/a>. It highlights Labour’s continued gallop to the Right, this time over the environment.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

EARTH CHAMPS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Earth Day has long-gone as a meaningful exercise in anything other corporate greenwash as the grim realities wash over our exhausted timelines. The Sierra Club of America offers \u20186 Fun Ways for Families to Fete Earth Day\u2019 including \u2018Start a family garden\u2019 \u2013 \u2018Try your hand at worm composting\u2019 \u2013 and \u2018Start a daily sustainability practice\u2019 as a way of \u201ccombating anxiety while raising future champions for the planet is to take action, even in a small way\u201d. The endless appeal to individual actions as a counter to corporate ecocide is a dreary monotonous one that\u2019s been repeated over thirty years to no discernible effect. \u2018COP26\u2019 the\u00a0Official Twitter account of the UK\u00a0#COP26<\/a>Presidency has awarded Sir David Attenborough has been awarded the\u00a0UN\u00a0#EarthChamps<\/a>Lifetime Achievement Award.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s heresy I know, and sure Sir David is a \u2018national treasure\u2019 but it\u2019s all pathetic misdirection.<\/p>\n

As George Monbiot noted this week: \u201cWhile all eyes were on another horror, our war against the living world went nuclear. Over the weekend, temperatures at some weather stations in the Arctic\u00a0rose to 30C above normal<\/a>. Simultaneously, at certain weather stations in the Antarctic they hit 40C above normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now there is a healthy debate going on in ecological circles about the scale of systems failure and the pace of societal and ecological breakdown, and there is a massive disconnect between me posting apocalyptic facts from Guardian journos and any of this \u2018cutting through\u2019 to use the jargon of jaded media types.<\/p>\n

If sharing brutal realities had an impact it would have had an impact. If the problem was really individual lifestyle changes then the avalanche of lifesttyle environmentalism would have solved everything. The entire framing about the way to \u2018change; and \u2018save\u2019 the world has been a desultory three-decade-long experience. The Sierra Club (far from the only culprit but one of the most lucrative proponents of the brand) tells us that OneGreenThing founder Heather White, who\u2019s\u00a0written a book<\/a>\u00a0on the concept. They inform: \u201cHowever small, such actions are a great way to start making sustainability a habit for the whole family\u2014not to mention a fun dinner-table conversation topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ecology is both a bourgeois pre-occupation and a life-lesson in the iniquities of social justice.<\/p>\n

The Ferret investigate journalism group has revealed Scotland\u2019s Top 20 Polluters. They tell us that releases of potent greenhouse gas in Scotland trebled in a year; Carbon pollution from incinerators rises by 100,000 tonnes.; and Salmon farm pollution has risen 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

The report tells us that:<\/p>\n

\u201cBy far the biggest polluter was the petrochemical giant,\u00a0Ineos<\/a>. Five of the company\u2019s plants at Grangemouth emitted over three million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2020, down eight per cent from 2019.<\/p>\n

SSE\u2019s gas-fired\u00a0power station at Peterhead<\/a>\u00a0was the biggest single polluter in 2020, as it was in\u00a02019<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a02018<\/a>. The plant emitted 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2020, 18 per cent less than in 2019 because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Another major emitter was ExxonMobil\u2019s\u00a0ethylene plant<\/a>\u00a0at Mossmorran in Fife. Its emissions increased by a third to over 900,000 tonnes in 2020, though according to Sepa this was mainly due to the plant being closed for four months in 2019\u00a0for maintenance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other sites in the top 20 polluters\u2019 league included two in Shetland, EnQuest\u2019s\u00a0Sullom Voe oil and gas terminal<\/a>\u00a0and the TotalEnergies\u00a0Laggan-Tormore gas plant<\/a>. There were also two operated by Shell: the\u00a0St Fergus gas plant<\/a>\u00a0at Peterhead and the\u00a0Mossmorran gas plant<\/a>\u00a0in Fife.<\/p>\n

The sixth largest carbon dioxide emitter in 2020 was Tarmac\u2019s\u00a0cement works<\/a>\u00a0at Dunbar in East Lothian. Two waste incinerators, William Grant\u2019s\u00a0whisky distillery<\/a>\u00a0in Girvan and an O-I\u00a0glass manufacturing plant<\/a>\u00a0in Alloa were also in the top 20.\u201d<\/p>\n

These reports are relentless, and the sterling work of the Ferret is to be commended. It\u2019s not that no-one cares, it\u2019s that no-one has agency. People feel powerless because they are powerless.<\/p>\n

Not only do people feel disconnected and powerless when they are experiencing \u2018overwhelm\u2019 in so many aspects of our lives but even the most basic notions of environmental progress are undermined at every turn. The idea of a societal consensus is a myth.<\/p>\n

The excellent Caroline Molly at Open Democracy explains how Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour Party are awash with the same anti-ecological populism that is sweeping Britain. She reveals that two of the biggest donors to Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership campaign are former motor industry bosses: Starmer\u2019s bid to replace Jeremy Corbyn at the party\u2019s helm in 2020 received \u00a350,000 from former RAC and AA boss Trevor Chinn, and \u00a325,000 from AA\u2019s former chief financial officer, Martin Clarke.<\/p>\n

Big Auto funds Neo Labour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to the Just Stop Oil group, which \u2013 you may or may not have seen\u00a0blocked tankers and refineries<\/a>\u00a0to put pressure on the government over its continued investment in fossil fuels, Labour said it \u201cwould not just ban protests at oil terminals but also across Britain\u2019s road network\u201d. Its shadow justice secretary, Steve Reed, has continued the party\u2019s calls for \u201cimmediate injunctions<\/a>\u201d to protect \u201cpeople facing misery trying to get to work\u201d. His words echoed those of Tory environment secretary George Eustice, who said the protesters were \u201ctrying to cause havoc with people\u2019s lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour are doubling-down with the Tories in criminalising protest and framing peaceful protest against the climate catastrophe as in opposition to \u2018everyday life\u2019 It\u2019s Normies for the Apocalypse Week.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need for this political stupidity from Labour.<\/p>\n

Fuel Poverty is countered by bold house building, retro-fitting and insulation. The precarious outsourced economy is a \u2018cash-machine\u2019 for BP, it has nothing to do with helping ordinary people. We\u2019ve been saying this for decades.\u00a0 As Monbiot writes: \u201cThe truth is that\u00a0we can\u2019t afford not to<\/a>transform our economies. It\u2019s not decarbonisation that\u2019s unaffordable; it\u2019s climate breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s extraordinary about Labour\u2019s capitulation to the anti-eco backlash is that they actually have a perfect storm (as well as a moral duty) to do things differently. With Energy bills soaring by over 54% for 22 million households from the beginning of April, adding \u00a3693 to the annual bills of a typical household any decent mainstream Labour leader would be salivating at the open goal of exposing corporate greed, Tory malfeasance and the yawning opportunity for a Labour government to create jobs and solve fuel poverty.<\/p>\n

These revelations come in the same week\u00a0Euronews.Green<\/a>\u00a0tells us:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s biggest oil and gas companies, including Shell, Exxon and Gazprom, are projected to spend \u20ac857 billion on new oil and gas fields by 2030. This could grow to a staggering \u20ac1.4 trillion by 2040, says new research from Global Witness and Oil Change International. All 20 of the companies investigated by two NGOs claim to support the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below the critical 1.5C threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new analysis comes just a week after UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres called it\u00a0\u201cmoral and economic madness\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to invest in new oil and gas.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an on-message \u2018Happy Earth Day\u2019 message but the message is this: we either take back control of the economy for social justice and ecological survival or we die. Sorry folks, we all know this now.<\/p>\n

As France toys with fascism and Britain festers in it, the choice as\u00a0Cornelius Castoriadis<\/a>, and friends put it over fifty year ago is Socialisme ou Barbarie. Take your pick.<\/p>\n

24.4.22<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Greenwashing by Biden\u2019s Democrats and the SNP – Robert Belano of Left Voice<\/em> and Laurie MacFarlane, opendemocracy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    2. Two views of Cop26, Christopher Silver, bella Caledonia<\/em> and Michael Roberts blog<\/a><\/p>\n

    3.\u00a0A crime against humanity \u2013 the `Greenwash Festival\u2019 of Cop26<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n

     <\/p>\n

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