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

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Banks put a price on Earth's life support

Click here to access article by Paul Brown from The Daily Climate.

It seems that some banksters at the highest level of banking are getting a bit concerned about the deep contradictions between their exploitative system of capitalism and our ecosystem. They have been forced by an abundance of scientific evidence and the almost daily occurrence of extreme weather events to finally acknowledge the reality of global warming. So, what's a bankster to do but come up with another plan to pretend to solve the problem. I'm sure some of them are sincerely concerned, although not enough to become a socialist in any sense, while others cynically view this as another public relations gimmick that will keep people off their backs.
They have agreed that the present economic system uses and often destroys the environment without paying to do so. And that, they say, is not sustainable.

The banks are also concerned that some companies are using up natural resources so fast, with no thought for their own future, let alone that of the planet, that they will collapse.