Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The U.N. Would Never Lie to George Monbiot

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The U.N. Would Never Lie to George Monbiot

by Joe Giambrone from OpEd News.

Because there is a lot of information in this article and more provided by links, the article requires careful study to really appreciate the issues. I recommend that you first listen to the Democracy Now debate between George Monbiot and Helen Caldicott, then read the article and links contained therein.

I see Monbiot as a classic liberal as reflected in his writings in the Guardian, Britain's most notable liberal newspaper. As such he has done much to point out the data and arguments that support the fact of climate change (see this, this, and this), and has done much to criticize the influence that industry lobbyists have in denying climate change. But he has also blamed environmentalists, "the cowardice of governments, the natural human tendency to deny what we don't want to see", and consumers.

It appears to me that he has become so brainwashed with the TINA (there is no alternative) view, that he simply cannot question the capitalist system. (Or else, he dare not go there if he wants to keep his income from the Guardian newspaper.) Hence, he too sees the only alternative as being the adoption of nuclear energy which alone can feed the growth demands of capitalism. Thus he is forced to insist on the sanctity of the information from the UN's IAEA and WHO who seem to be in collaboration with each other. He simply cannot even question that these organizations may also be influenced by the great capitalist powers that largely control these world bodies.

Caldicott, on the other hand, as a physician is solely concerned with the health effects of nuclear energy, and has devoted much of her life to the study of this.