Climate Change Social Change Conference Audio

Audio and video guide to the Climate Change Social Change Conference

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:08:28 PDT

This guide will be updated as more media items are made available. For updates subscribe to media via feed or by email.

A conference to strengthen radical social action to stop climate change
April 11-13, 2008, Sydney, Australia

AGENDA

Friday April 11 Redfern Community Centre

10.30-12 noon

Major workshop:

Indigenous communities, climate change and the struggle for country [Audio]--

Sam Watson, Biri Gubba, Munnejarl man from the Brisbane Murri community; activist since high school
Pat Eatock, Kairie community elder, Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Sydney, secretary NationalAboriginal Alliance

1 2.30pm
Major workshop

Nuclear is still not the answer [Audio]

Jim Green, Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner
Wenny Theresia, Australian Student Environment Network
Genevieve Kelly, anti-Lucas Heights reactor campaigner, lecturer University of Western Sydney

2.454.15pm
Concurrent workshops

Elite co-option of the environment movement [Audio] Mike Barker doctoral candidate, Australian School of Environmental Studies
Griffith UniversityCamp for Climate Action, Wenny Theresia

Sydney Girls High School

6 for 6.30pm:
Public meeting:

Climate change and its social roots [Audio]

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature [Video]
Patrick Bond, University of KwaZulu-Natal; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society
David Spratt, Carbon Equity, co-author Climate Code Red
James Goodman, social researcher, University of Technology in Sydney

Saturday April 12 Sydney Girls High School

9.30-11am
Plenary

Climate change solutions: what role for the market? [Audio]

Patrick Bond
John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC
Stuart Rosewarne, co-editor Journal of Australian Political Economy and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
Renfrey Clarke, Green Left Weekly

11.15am 12.45 pm
Major workshop

The Cuban experience: the challenge of fossil fuels and climate change [Audio]

Roberto Perez, Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuban NGO

Concurrent workshops

Equity in energy consumption: Getting the prices right for people and the environment [Audio & Slideshow] Patrick Bond
Critical anthropology of global warming [Audio] Hans Baer --anthology lecturer Melbourne University

On the precipice: why climate is an emergency, David Spratt

Protecting jobs and the environment [Audio] Tim Gooden Secretary Geelong Trades and Labour Council; Ben Courtice AMWU Victorian branch environment activist; Cam Walker Friends of the Earth Melbourne; Steve Phillips Rising Tide

1.453.15 pm
Plenary

Ecology, capitalism and socialism --John Bellamy Foster [Audio]

3.30 - 5pm
Major workshop

Power privatization and the environment [Audio]

Matt Thistlethwaite, Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary
John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC
Dick Nichols, author Environment, Capitalism, Socialism, Socialist Alliance national coordinator

Concurrent workshops

Marxism and the environment, John Bellamy Foster [Audio]
Are liveable cities just a dream? Dave Holmes [Text], Green Left Weekly and managing editor Resistance Books; Peter Droege professor, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, author, Urban Energy Transition: from fossil fuels to renewable power
Climate change and the global South beyond Third Worldism [Audio], James Goodman, IanMacGregor, University of Technology, Sydney
Biomass, biofuels and meat production: shifting to sustainable, low emission agriculture, Zane Alcorn and Trent Hawkins Resistance; Katrina Byrne Animal Liberation

6pm
Conference dinner

Roberto Perez: Cuba from economic collapse to sustainability

Roberto is a Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuban NGO

Sunday April 13 Sydney Girls High School

910.30 am
Plenary

Transitions to sustainability [Audio & Slideshow]

Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW
Adrian Whitehead, Zero Emission Network
Stephanie Long, Friends of the Earth Australia's international climate justice spokesperson
Roberto Perez

10.3010.45 am
Conference Greetings

Minister Counsellor Nelson Dávila Lameda,
Venezuelan Chargé d'Affaires in Australia

10.45am 12.15pm
Major workshop

Sustainable energy solutions [Audio & Slideshow]

Mark Diesendorf -- Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW

Concurrent workshops

Why we must ration the future [Audio] , Damien Lawson
Climate refugees, adaptation issues in the global south, Stephanie Long
Individual and collective solutions: getting the balance right [Text & Audio], Terry Townsend Democratic Socialist Perspective and editor of Links; Lauren Carroll-Harris Resistance
Cutting emissions, ditching coal, Graham Brown former coal miner; Angela Nagle RisingTide
Food security, eating oil and the future of agriculture: permaculture solutions, Robyn Francis international permaculture design and sustainability consultant, educator and facilitator

12.151.15 pm

Venezuela Solidarity Action [Video]

Venezuelan televison coverage of rally [Video]

1.15 2.45pm
Major workshop:

Radicalising the Australian climate change movement [Audio]

Simon Cunich, Resistance
Vanessa Bowden, Climate camp
Mel Barnes, Students Against the Pulp Mill
Ben Courtice, World Environment Day, Melbourne

Concurrent workshops

Setting up ecosocialist networks in your city [Audio], John Rice -Adelaide ecosocialist network
Securing water in a warmer Australia, Renfrey Clark Green Left Weekly
Drought-resistant plants and fart-free pastures: can GM crops save us? Adam Breasley former researcher, Australian Gene Ethics Network; Frances Murrell Mothers Against Genetic Engineering (MAdGE); Louise Sales Greenpeace
Energy revolution: Cuba and Venezuela, Tim Anderson political science lecturer, Sydney Uni,Marlene Obeid solidarity activist

3 4.45 pm Plenary & resolutions

Strategies for winning [Audio]

Dick Nichols
John Rice, Adelaide Ecosocialist Network
John Bellamy Foster
Read Conference statement

4.45 5pm
Conference close

Climate Change Conference DVD's now available

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:06:41 PDT

Climate Change | Social Change conference

DVDs available

Thanks to Actively Radical TV

AU$10 each or $35 for set of 4 (plus postage) available through Resistance Bookshops or online

VIDEO ONE

Friday 11^th April – Public meeting

Climate change and its social roots

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature

Patrick Bond, University of KwaZulu-Natal; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society

David Spratt, Carbon Equity, co-author Climate Code Red

James Goodman, social researcher, University of Technology in Sydney

Saturday 12^thApril – Plenary

Climate change solutions: what role for the market?

Patrick Bond

John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC

Stuart Rosewarne, co-editor Journal of Australian Political Economy and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism

Renfrey Clarke, Green Left Weekly

VIDEO TWO

Saturday 12^thApril – Feature workshop

Cuban experience: the challenge of fossil fuels and climate change

Roberto Perez, Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuban NGO, featured in The Power of Community: how Cuba survived peak oil

Plenary

Ecology, capitalism and socialism

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature

VIDEO THREE

Saturday 12^thApril – Feature workshop

Power privatisation and the environment

Matt Thistlethwaite, Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary

John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC

Dick Nichols, author Environment, Capitalism, Socialism, Socialist Alliance national coordinator

Sunday 13^th April – Plenary

Transitions to sustainability

Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW

Adrian Whitehead, Zero Emission Network

Stephanie Long, Friends of the Earth Australia's international climate justice spokesperson

Roberto Perez, Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity

Renfrey Clarke, Green Left Weekly

VIDEO FOUR

Feature workshop

Radicalising the Australian climate change movement

Simon Cunich, Resistance

Vanessa Bowden, Climate camp

Mel Barnes, Students Against the Pulp Mill

Ben Courtice, World Environment Day, Melbourne

Strategies for winning

John Rice, Adelaide Ecosocialist Network

Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth Melbourne

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature

Dick Nichols, author Environment, Capitalism, Socialism, Socialist Alliance national coordinator

--
CC|SC conference organising team

Sustainable energy solutions

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:56:27 PDT

Workshop with Mark Diesendorf (Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW) at the Climate Change Social Change Conference April 13th, 2008

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Watch Slideshow:Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy [Diesendorf]

Strategies for winning

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:20:11 PDT

The final plenary session at the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 13th, 2008.

Speakers:

Dick Nichols
John Rice
John Bellamy Foster
Pip Hinman

Read conference statement [Text]

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Critical anthropology of global warming

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:25:01 PDT

A workshop delivered to the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 12th, 2008.

Speaker: Hans Baer -- anthropology lecturer, Melbourne University.

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Radicalising the Australian climate change movement

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:25:41 PDT

A workshop delivered to the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 13th, 2008.

Speakers:

Simon Cunich, Resistance
Vanessa Bowden, Climate camp
Mel Barnes, Students Against the Pulp Mill
Ben Courtice, World Environment Day, Melbourne

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Elite co-option of the environment movement

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:26:14 PDT

A workshop delivered to the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 11th, 2008.

Speaker: Mike Barker doctoral candidate, Australian School of Environmental Studies

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Individual versus social solutions to global warming

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:26:55 PDT

Workshop at the Climate change Social Change Conference on April 13th.

Speakers:

Terry Townsend -- editor of Links
Lauren Carroll Harris - Resistance

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[This was a talk given by Terry Townsend (Managing Editor of the online journal Links) to the Climate Change Social Change Conference held in Sydney from April 11 to 13. The article on Greenwashing that is referred to is linked here]

I’m sure everybody here is aware of the basic facts of global warming and the likely consequences if rapid and serious action is not taken. There is virtually unanimous agreement among scientists and activists, and increasingly among millions of ordinary people, about the degree of the problem and the time frame we have to make fundamental changes to address it.

The main "solutions" being offered by the capitalist class, its politicians and the corporate-dominated mass media -- and endorsed by some key peak environmental organisations -- are consciously designed to shift the responsibility for, and the major costs of, addressing global warming away from the most polluting corporations and to preserve the basic structure and mechanisms of Western capitalist economies. They are also designed to delay the necessary political, economic and social changes for as long as possible, and to keep them to the minimum that are compatible (in their assessment) with both the survival of capitalist society and ameliorating the worst of climate change.

This is why major-party politicians and the corporate media -- and again unfortunately some peak environment groups – do not place serious demands on big business, but endorse -- even celebrate -- big business’ preferred measures of emissions trading, "green" taxes, carbon offsetting projects in the Third World and capitalism-friendly publicly subsidised techno-fixes such as so-called clean coal and agro-fuels.

These false "solutions" are not only inadequate, they are counterproductive. However, since other speakers and workshops will be focussing on those, I’ll concentrate on another of the establishment’s favoured -- and ultimately also counterproductive -- "solution" -- one that is intertwined with the others. The push for all individuals to voluntarily consume a little less, and "buy green" whenever they can. That the answer to global warming is for all of "us" -- consumers, workers, residents, pensioners -- to voluntarily change our wasteful behaviour.

Despite its benign aura of commonsense advice, this is a massive ideological campaign to drive home to "us" that it is ordinary working people who are ultimately to blame for climate change, and that it is "us who must pay for its solution. It is part of the ruling class’ overall offensive to shift the blame and cost of addressing global warming away from itself and its intrinsically environmentally destructive economic and social system.

As one commentator aptly noted in the usually system-friendly Grist e-zine "every time an activist or politician hectors the public to voluntarily reach for a new [fluro] bulb or spend extra on a Prius, Exxon Mobil heaves a big sigh of relief" because it diverts people’s attention from what is really necessary to address the crisis, and from who is really responsible.

Another radical commentator, George Marshall, has described this ideological offensive as "death [by] a thousand tips". He is referring to the literally tens of thousands of newspaper articles and web pages that, after having outlined the severe crisis we face and the sharply diminishing time society has to respond, direct the reader to a snappy, upbeat sidebar or list entitled "10 easy tips to save the planet" or some variation thereof. The same sort of lists have been the core of government-sponsored campaigns across the globe, including Australia.

Standard items include "change your light globes", "turn off unnecessary lights", "don’t leave your appliances on stand-by", "adjust your thermostats", recycle, compost, drive a fuel-efficient car, or drive less. Yet extremely rarely do these helpful hints mention political action, let alone make concrete demands on governments or business. On the odd occasion they do, it is vague and tokenistic – and tacked onto the end of the list.

Of course, there IS a place for action by individuals, and it should not be discouraged. It does make sense in terms of saving energy and water, reducing waste and saving money. Educating and facilitating such behaviour on a mass scale is a significant part of what is needed to halt global warming. But such suggestions should not be counterposed to, or used to drown out calls for, the urgent need for mass political action to force the necessary cuts to emission demanded by the science. And they should not be cynically presented, as they are by the corporate media and capitalist politicians, as THE way to save the planet.

In Britain, the government spent £22 million on a "Do your bit" campaign and had to admit that it produced no measurable change in personal habits. A poll in 2007 indicated that this campaign had miseducated people, with more than 40% saying that recycling household waste -- which would result in a relatively small reduction of emissions -- was the most important thing they could do. Only 10% nominated the far more effective regular use of public transport.

That £22 million would have been better spent to organise a movement to demand an end to the massive and wasteful packaging and advertising industries, or the mass expansion of public transport.

In Ireland, faced with greenhouse gas emissions that have increased 25% since 1990, the government’s response was to launch a multimillion euro "The Power on One" campaign, which provides -- yes, you guessed it -- "10 top tips" to "make a difference". Among the revolutionary actions suggested were: don’t overfill your kettle, but fill your dishwasher before use, and unplug your mobile phone charger.

As George Marshall quips, all "that sounds much nicer than curtailing road building or industrial growth. They are not called `easy tips’ for nothing."

On October 15, the UN Environment Program organised a "Blog Action Day" in which some 15,000 blog sites offered more "tips" to web surfers, from the inevitable changing light globes to one of Copyblogger.com’s "tiny actions [that] can save the world": quit your job requiring a long commute and start up a home-based business! Copyblogger’s not alone in making "tips" that are simply beyond the means of most debt-strapped working people in these days of widespread ``mortgage stress’‘ and rising interest rates. Common "tips" include buying more expensive hybrid cars and building architect-designed "carbon neutral" houses.

All such campaigns are premised on blaming working people for global warming. But as Dave Holmes, a veteran Australian socialist, points out in the latest Green Left Weekly, what real choice to do the mass of ordinary people have:
"the source of our current crisis is quite specific: it is the operations of modern capitalism. The drive for profits by the giant corporations has been relentless and has been pursued in complete disregard of any impact on the environment.

"The fundamental conditions under which we live — how we generate our power, how we get around, how our food is grown, etc. — are not decided by us but rather by the big corporations that control society’s means of production. Without the rule of corporate capital we could set in place radically different and ecologically sustainable arrangements.

"For example, the cars which most of us use are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions...The favouring of private motor vehicles over public transport hasn’t come about because we are innately a society of petrol-heads but is a consequence of the deliberate policies of a succession of capitalist governments loyally protecting the interests of their big business masters. The auto industry and its associated sectors make up a very large part of each national capitalist economy."

However well intentioned, appeals to people to change their individual habits bring trivial results when measured against the problem, and if not coupled to the much more urgent task of politically mobilising to demand serious government action to immediately reduce and rapidly halt greenhouse gas emissions, it derails mass concern about global warming from taking a political road.

It also sells the damaging lie that "clean", "green", "natural" and "organic" commodities are the answer, when they are fundamentally no better for the planet than any other over-produced commodities under capitalism. It plays into the hands of the mega-financed "Greenwashing" by corporations and governments of an unsustainable economic system.

If anything sums up this sort of operation, it was the massively publicised "Earth Hour" on March 29. The brainchild in 2007 of the World Wildlife Fund, Fairfax newspapers and the Leo Burnett advertising agency, Earth Hour declares on its website: "Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming." But you will search in vain for any demands for political action, just boilerplate "tips". It states: "Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference -- from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby."

There was more of the same in the 40-page, full-colour Earth Hour Magazine that was distributed "free" (free that is if you don’t consider the small forest and who knows how many tonnes of CO2 that were expended in its production and distribution) with the approximate 211,000 copies of the Sydney Morning Herald on March 17. Only one article, by Tim Flannery, made any serious attempt to point out the vested interests that need to be tackled and raised the issues of inadequate public transport, stopping new coal plants and setting adequate emission-reduction targets by 2050.

But his contribution was buried under an avalanche of yet more regurgitated "tips", feel-good stories and gumph such as this: "Many governments and communities have already made big changes to reduce emissions. The use of solar and wind power is on the increase. Other renewable energy sources are being investigated. Millions of dollars are being spent exploring ways to bury carbon dioxide or to produce cleaner coal. But more needs to be done and politicians need to be brave enough to make tough decisions. If those politicians know that a couple of million people in their homeland have joined Earth Hour, they can be confident that the people will support the hard decisions and will applaud leaders who have the will to act."

Don’t expect Fairfax to support "hard decisions" that impact on the big end of town, though. "Hard decisions" is code for making you and me pay higher bills.

The supplement was festooned with full-page ads by electricity suppliers such as EnergyAustralia, Integral Energy and Country Energy -- the ones that hawk all that coal power -- car companies such as Toyota, Fiat and Hyundai (Volvo waited for 8-page post-Earth Hour "Souvenir edition" Sydney Morning Herald), and even Cascade beer (100% Carbon Offset!). Corporate and government "greenwashing" was the central goal of the pre-hour hullabaloo. For all the talk of millions of Australians taking part, almost the sole yardstick of the night’s success was on corporate office blocks and huge neon advertising signs in the CBD switching off. The participation of major publicly owned landmarks is really what made the impact. Which begs the question, why aren’t all these lights and signs switched off every night?

Fossil fuel giant AGL loaned the giant WWF-logoed hot air balloon, which sailed over several capital cities beforehand, producing an estimated 378 kilograms of CO2 an hour. That’s the same AGL that is a shareholder in Victoria’s largest brown coal mine. Richard Branson gave his grin of approval, ever keen to "offset" the impact of his fleet of 38 747s. BP -- the world's third largest global energy company -- also promised to turn off all its "non-essential lighting". Let’s not mention that BP was named one of the "ten worst corporations" in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records. Or that it is busy trying to mine the ultra-polluting tar sands oil in Canada.

McDonald’s turned off it Golden Arches for an hour nationally! So the literally millions on tonnes of useless packaging produced by this lot, not to mention the clearing of Amazonian rainforest for beef for Maccas, is forgiven. Not surprisingly, Channel Nine’s support did not extend to urging people to switch of the tellie or to refusing to air the ads of CO2 polluters. Behind the scenes, advertising industry magazine Campaign Brief in league with the SMH offered an incentive to copywriters who "demonstrate the most effective and/or inspirational way to leverage Earth Hour 2008" -- two return trips to Cannes in France!

And last but certainly not least, the eco-friendly Department of Defence signed up to participate in Earth Hour. Federal Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced: "Defence takes its obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seriously and will have over 1330 buildings across Australia participating in Earth Hour." The minister of war also reported that the department had launched the Combat Climate Change initiative (clever pun) to provide information and "tips" to defence staff in the "workplace" and home to reduce energy use. Here’s a "tip" Joel: get all troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and end all support for those wars for US imperialist control of energy sources.

In the end, despite the hype and PR, the results were hardly impressive. In the hour, electricity consumption across whole city and the Illawarra dropped just 2-3%, while in the CBD it was just over 8%. Nationwide figures put the drop at 3.6%. Based on a survey of 3000, WWF claimed 59% of Sydneysiders took part -- a figure that doesn’t gel with the marginal power drop, if simply turning off lights is the way forward.

Anyway, it seems that the WWF and Fairfax were not going to let their advertisers down and were going to declare the night a success whatever the result. The Online Fairfax-owned Brisbane Times reported that "Brisbane made history this evening with the city’s first official Earth Hour going off without a hitch. Kellie Caught, of Earth Hour organiser World Wildlife Fund, said she was thrilled with the response." Only problem was, this was published on March 28, 26 hours before Earth Hour had even taken place!

The last word on Earth Hour should go to Jimmy Yan, a member of the Glen Waverley Secondary College Eco-Committee, whose excellent critique was carried on the committee’s blog: "Earth Hour rests on the assumption that the environmental movement can make any real progress without looking at the deeper social and political institutions and systems within our society that cause our environmental problems, one of them being a system that seeks to accumulate as much profit as possible for the sake of more accumulation and more competition irrespective of the human, environmental and social cost. Our environmental problems become another commodity that is bought and sold on the market ... Ultimately, events like Earth Hour ... rest on the idea that we can trust and work with those responsible for environmental destruction without holding them accountable for their crimes and the assumption that ordinary people are too stupid and nave to go beyond just turning off their lights for one hour."

We have to convince millions of people and build a mass movement for emission-reductions that genuinely address the real problem. For Australia, that’s at least 90% by 2030 -- not Labor’s anaemic 60% by 2050. A movement that demands that governments impose far-reaching measures that force giant industrial polluters to rapidly and massively slash their emissions, at the risk of massive fines. And if they refuse, they should be nationalised and run in the interests of the workers and consumers.

All public subsidies and tax concessions for the giant fossil fuel industries and resource corporations -- which amount to billions -- should be redirected to research the development of publicly owned renewable energy sources. We could help ordinary people implement individual actions, by supplying free or at a massive subsidy to all households solar waters heaters and water tanks. There should be a massive reorganisation of society to move away from private-car-based transportation to free and frequent mass public transport, and, redesign our cities to put people’s homes close to work and shops.

We need to think about ways of linking these wider demands with our more immediate campaigns, for example as we fight to stop the Tasmanian pulp mill, oppose power privatisation, end coal and uranium mining, and to stop the building of new freeways and toll roads, we have to also convince people that the workings of capitalism itself is both responsible for the crisis and also the main obstacle to its solution.

Through struggles for immediate and broader demands, masses of people can come to understand that the source of the problem lies with capitalism itself.

The scientific analysis of capitalism first made by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, illustrates how, despite the assertions of many environmental movement theorists over the years, Marxism not only provides essential insights into the fundamental cause of the environmental crisis ,but also offers a political guide to its solution.

Capitalism’s fundamentally anti-ecological trait is captured by Marx’s analysis of the working of capitalism. Capitalists buy or produce commodities only in order to sell them for a profit, and then buy or produce yet more to sell more again. There is no end to the process. Competition between capitalists ensures that each one must continue to increase their production of commodities and continue to expand in order to survive. Production tends to expand exponentially until interrupted by crises (depressions and wars) and it is this dynamic at the very core of capitalism that places enormous, unsustainable pressure on the environment.

Capitalism is a system that pursues growth for its own sake, whatever the consequences. This is why all schemes based on the hope of a no-growth, slow-growth or a sustainable-growth forms of capitalism are pipe dreams. As too are strategies based on a critical mass of individual consumers deciding to go "green" in order to reform the system.

People are not “consumers” by nature. A multi-billion-dollar capitalist industry called advertising constantly plays with our minds to convince us that happiness comes only through buying more and more "stuff", to keep up with endless wasteful fads, fashions, upgrades, new models and built-in obsolescence. The desire for destructive and/or pointless goods is manufactured along with them. In 2008, an estimated $750 billion will be spent on corporate advertising and public relations in the US alone. In Australia, such spending is now well in excess of $12 billion a year.

Many in the environmental movement argue that with the right mix of taxes, incentives and regulations, everybody could be winners. Big business would have cheaper, more efficient production techniques, and therefore be more profitable, and consumers would have more environment-friendly products and energy sources.

In a rational society, such innovations would lower the overall environmental impact of production. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a rational society. Any energy and money savings made through efficiency are used to make and sell more commodities, cheaper than their competitors.

Capitalism approaches technology -- in the production process or in the final product -- in the same way as it does everything else. What will generate the most profits? Whether it is efficient, clean, safe, environmentally benign or rational has little to do with it. The technologies that could tackle global warming have long existed. Even though research into them has been massively underfunded, renewable energy sources are today competitive with coal and nuclear power (if the negative social and environmental costs are factored in). Public transport systems have been around since the late 1800s.

Fundamental to capitalism’s development has been its power to shift the cost of its ecological and social vandalism onto society as whole. More profits can accrue if the big capitalists don’t have to bother themselves with the elimination, neutralisation or recycling of industrial wastes. It’s much cheaper to pour toxic waste into the air or the nearest river. Rather than pay for the real costs of production, society as a whole subsidises corporate profit-making by cleaning up some of the mess or suffering the environmental and/or health costs. Or the whole messy business can simply be exported to the Third World.

It is becoming abundantly clear that the Earth cannot sustain this system’s plundering and poisoning without the humanity sooner or later experiencing a complete ecological catastrophe.

To have any chance of preventing this, within the 10- to 30-year window that we have in relation to global warming, humanity must take conscious, rational control of its interactions with the planet and its ecological processes, in ways that capitalism is inherently incapable of doing.

Climate crisis—urgent action needed now!

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:27:22 PDT

Statement initiated by participants in the Climate Change|Social Change conference, Sydney, Australia, April 11-13, 2008

The following statement was started by the participants in the Climate Change|Social Change conference. Anyone who agrees with it is welcome to add their signature, and an updated list of signatories will be issued on a regular basis.

It is being distributed to environmental, trade union, Indigenous, migrant, religious and community organisations to help build the movement against global warming

The latest climate science shows that the global warming crisis is already here

The evidence about global warming is more alarming than ever. It is likely that critical “tipping points” once believed to lie in the future have already been passed (see Climate Change and Trace Gases, by James Hansen et al, 2007, available at www.carbonequity.info):

Arctic ice loss reached 20% by extent over the past two years as against 7% a decade over the period between 1979 and 2005; the volume of Arctic summer ice is estimated to have fallen by 80% over the last 40 years; glacier movement in Greenland is speeding up, producing massive “ice quakes”; in Antarctica the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf and the recent splitting of the Wilkins ice shelf raises the spectre of the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet (and sea levels rising 5 metres).
The feedback sources of global warming are accelerating, with declining reflection of solar radiation, falling carbon absorption capacity of soils, forests and oceans and increased forest fires and methane release from Siberian tundra permafrost. By 2006 global annual human CO₂ emissions were 9.9 gigatonnes of carbon, with only 4 gigatonnes being absorbed by the Earth’s “carbon sinks”. Some scientists project this figure to fall to 2.7 gigatonnes of carbon a year by 2030.
As a result, according to James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Science, “the Earth is gaining more heat than it is losing: currently 0.5 to 1 watts per square metre. This planetary imbalance is sufficient to melt ice corresponding to a 1 metre of sea level rise per decade, if the extra energy were used entirely for that purpose—and the energy imbalance could double if emissions keep growing.”

A 2º maximum average increase in world temperature probably won’t stop destructive climate change

A 2º increase in average global atmospheric temperature above pre-industrial levels has been widely accepted (for example, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) as the maximum allowable if uncontrollable global warming is to be avoided. The chance of a 2º increase has been rated at between 38% (IPCC) and 78% (Hadley Centre) if greenhouse gas concentrations reach 450 parts per million of CO₂equivalent (CO2e). But these have already reached 459ppm CO2e, producing a 0.8º increase and “locking in” another 0.6º. Clearly, an upper limit of 450ppm is too high, risking further destructive climate feedbacks.

We need a greenhouse gas reduction target that fits the global warming crisis

Existing broadly accepted targets for greenhouse gas reduction (GGR) are therefore far too little far too late. In particular, the commonly accepted GGR target of 60% by 2050 compared to 2000 (advanced by the Stern Review, European Union and the Australian Labor Party) would allow greenhouse gas concentrations to grow to 550ppm CO₂e, making a 3º average temperature increase a 50:50 chance and risking even more extreme increases—with catastrophic consequences for billions of human beings and entire ecosystems. This frightening reality dictates an approach of stopping greenhouse gas concentration increases as soon as possible, with the goal of reducing them to a long term safe and sustainable level (around 300-325ppm CO_2, roughly corresponding to a 0.5º increase from pre-industrial levels).

Despite the urgency of the crisis, solutions are possible

Despite the enormity of the global warming threat the carbon-reducing technologies, industrial processes and forms of economic and social organisation that can reverse it already exist or can be created. Many needed policies (e.g., rapid energy demand reduction and application of sustainable energy technologies) are already being introduced, albeit on an extremely inadequate and under-resourced scale. The central challenge is to speed up the replacement of carbon-intensive infrastructure and forms of economic and social organisation, setting in place the measures supporting climate sustainability at a pace that meets the timetable for the greenhouse gas emission cuts the Earth needs.

Vested interests stand in the way of climate sustainability and have to be confronted

Reaching this goal involves more than a debate about climate science and government climate policy. It is also, even primarily, a struggle against those forces with a vested interest in keeping the transition to sustainability within a framework that doesn’t risk the profitability of carbon-intensive investments. Also, while the global rate of investment in renewable and sustainable technologies is increasing rapidly from a low base, it still falls far short of that needed to produce the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions required by climate science.

Existing climate change policy is falling behind the challenge

Likewise, the presently preferred lead policies against global warming—carbon trading schemes and “feed-in” tariffs—have not speeded up the uptake of sustainable technologies to the pace needed. Even the most advanced Mandated Renewable Energy Targets envisaged by mainstream environmental organisations would see 60-70% of energy still being produced by carbon-intensive technologies (coal and oil) in 2020. In those states and regions where such policies done most to increase energy efficiency and stimulate private investment in sustainable technologies (Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Spain, California) energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are at best falling very slowly. At the international level the Kyoto Protocol failed and the Bali round threatens to repeat that failure on a larger scale.

The real road to climate sustainability has five basic elements

There can be no real shift to climate sustainability without five core elements—properly resourced public agencies to drive the sustainability effort, an international framework where the First World pays the vast bulk of the price of reversing global warming, an end to rampant consumerism, vastly strengthened campaigns for climate sustainability, and building a powerful political alliance for climate sustainability with social justice. These imperatives are explained in the next five sections.

We need properly funded public agencies to oversee the sustainability transition

Climate sustainability will never be achieved if basically entrusted to the profit motive and the market. At the core of any successful transition will be a public agency or agencies entrusted with guaranteeing that adequate targets are met. Without going into detail—which will vary widely by country and region and require ongoing elaboration to meet local conditions—the main tasks of any public agency overseeing the transition to climate sustainability will be to:

Drive the implantation of energy saving and efficiency programs, including mandatory and enforceable minimum standards for domestic and commercial buildings;
Oversee programs to convert existing building stock to zero-carbon status;
Implement a plan to introduce renewable energy technologies at all levels, simultaneously phasing out fossil fuel fired power generation;
Foster research, development and the application of sustainable technologies and processes, with a view to achieving their mass application as rapidly as possible;
Oversee the upgrading and spread of rail networks to provide the capacity to shift long-distance freight movement from road and air to rail;
Oversee the conversion of the car industry to non-polluting forms of propulsion;
Foster the growth of a new model of agriculture and forestry which includes the advances of methods like permaculture and aims to retain and increase the carbon-absorption capacity of the land biosphere;
Oversee the closure of polluting industries and the full retraining on full pay and conditions of the workers affected; and
Promote social instead of private ways of meetings basic human needs in housing, domestic work, child and aged care, transport etc.

We need international solidarity in the fight against global warming

The advanced industrial nations, whose own growth continues to depend on access on favourable terms to Third World resources, have been responsible for 76% of emissions since the beginning of industrialisation. Powers like the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia cannot now demand that those economies that are presently at earlier points on the path of industrialisation (or still locked in underdevelopment) pay the price for decarbonising the structures of production for which they are overwhelmingly responsible.

Accepting the cost burden of overseeing the transition to climate sustainability in developing countries involves the creation of a global sustainability fund overwhelmingly funded by the advanced industrial powers. Resources presently wasted on military spending could, if switched into such a fund, finance a rapid global switch to renewable energy sources.

We need a struggle against consumerism

The struggle for sustainability is also a struggle against the consumerist, individualist life-style of “developed” industrial society and a search for a human-centred and community based social existence. Solidarity with the struggles of Indigenous peoples whose environments have been stolen and most ravaged by “development” and the study of their values will teach a lot about what sustainability and care for ecosystems really mean.

In particular, attention to these values will be an important element in countering the mass lifestyles promoted by the vested interests of the corporations—with their ever higher levels of consumption, built-in obsolescence and throw away culture.

We need the broadest possible alliance for social justice and climate sustainability

The bedrock of the transition to climate sustainability lies in developing the alliance between the environmental and climate change movement and working people, young people, the unemployed and welfare recipients, and their union and community organisations. Such an alliance can only develop on the basis that the costs of the transition to climate sustainability are funded from reduced wasteful spending in government budgets (for example, on military hardware and subsidies to polluting industries) or through taxes borne by those who bear greatest responsibility for the climate crisis and those who can most afford to pay. Whatever the mechanisms used to reduce the use of carbon-intensive products and processes and to harvest the income to help fund the replacement of carbon-intensive infrastructure, the burden must fall primarily on the corporate world and the rich. The history of eco-taxation has already seen too many failed attempts at making ordinary consumers pay, leading to working-class and popular alienation from the environment movement, and providing dangerous openings for right-wing anti-environmental demagogues. If those opposed to radical action for climate sustainability succeed in turning the mass of working people against the global warming struggle there simply will not be a sustainability transition—the majority (especially the poorest and most oppressed) will see the fight against global warming as an attack on their living standards, social gains and rights, reproducing on a massive and debilitating scale the split between forest preservation movements and timber workers in places like Tasmania, the US and Canada.

The struggle for climate sustainability will also be weakened if it separates itself from other struggles for social justice and equality. By supporting all those campaigning for their rights the climate sustainability struggle will strengthen its own cause.

12. We must build all campaigns for climate sustainability

The emergence of movements that give powerful and sustained organisation to the profound community concern about global warming will be the key driver of the climate transition. The Climate Change|Social Change conference commits to helping build the movement for climate sustainability in Australia and elsewhere.

The signatories to this statement come from a wide range of backgrounds—climate activism, scientific climate research, Green, socialist, Indigenous, feminist and many more. We do not agree on all the issues in play in the great, complex debate about how to confront and defeat global warming, but we do agree on the basic approach outlined in this statement. We understand that ongoing involvement in the struggle for climate sustainability will give us the best chance of further developing policy against global warming and resolving present differences.

We are also committed to further developing the discussion that has taken place at this conference, and will form an email network to this end. We urge everyone committed to the vital cause of reversing global warming—even if they do not agree with the analysis and proposals presented here— to join it and use it to develop our collective understanding and effort to confront humanity’s most vital challenge.

Signatories (at April 23, 2008)

The signatories have signed in a personal capacity. Titles are for identification purposes only

John Bellamy Foster Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon. US. Editor, Monthly Review
Patrick Bond Director, Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies, South Africa
Roberto Pérez Rivero Environmental Education and Biodiversity Conservation Program Director, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuba
Ian Angus Coordinator, Climate and Capitalism web site, Canada
Merrill Singer Senior Research Scientist, Center for Health, Intervention and Prevention, University of Connecticut, US
Mark T Madsen Professor of Radiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, US
Pat Eatock Secretary, National Aboriginal Alliance, Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Australia
Sam Watson Deputy Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Australia
Cam Walker Campaigns coordinator, Friends of the Earth Australia
Damien Lawson Climate change coordinator, Friends of the Earth Australia
Jim Green National nuclear campaigner, Friends of the Earth Australia
Robyn Francis Permaculture educator, Erda Permaculture , Nimbin, NSW, Australia
Genevieve Kelly Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney, NSW, Australia
Stuart Rosewarne Co-editor, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism and Australian Journal of Political Economy, Australia
Tim Anderson Senior Lecturer, department of Political Economy, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Hans Baer Lecturer, School of Anthropology, Geography, and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne,Victoria, Australia
Adrian Whitehead Beyond Zero Emissions, Zero Emissions Network, Australia
Terry Townsend Editor, Links, International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Australia
Dick Nichols National Coordinator, Socialist Alliance, Australia
John Rice Co-ordinator, Adelaide Eco-socialist Network, South Australia
Kamala Emanuel National Environment Coordinator, Socialist Alliance, Australia
Graham Brown Retired coal miner, Cessnock, NSW, Australia
Renfrey Clarke Climate change analyst, Green Left Weekly, Australia
Ben Courtice Climate change group, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Victoria, Australia
Simon Cunich Climate change activist, Resistance, Newcastle, Australia
Melanie Barnes Students Against the Pulp Mill, Tasmania, Australia
Dave Holmes Manager, Resistance Books, writer on environmental issues, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Zane Alcorn Climate activist, Resistance, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Emma Murphy Co-editor, Green Left Weekly, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Stuart Munckton Co-editor, Green Left Weekly, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Peter Boyle National Secretary, Democratic Socialist Perspective (Affiliate of the Socialist Alliance, Australia)
Lisa Macdonald National Coordinator, Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network, Australia
Pip Hinman Stop the War Coalition, Sydney, Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Bruce Cohen Worcester State College, Massachusetts, US
Margaret Dutton California, US
Beth Brenneman. California , US
Richard Stiles, Lithgow, NSW, Australia
Kellie Gee Melbourne , Victoria, Australia
Peter Lach-Newinsky Australia
Del Weston Perth, WA, Australia
Leigh Hughes Canberra, ACT, Australia

Climate change and the global South -- beyond Third Worldism

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:42:08 PDT

A workshop delivered to the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 12th, 2008.

Speakers:James Goodman, IanMacGregor, University of Technology, Sydney

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Equity in energy consumption: Getting the prices right for people and the environment

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:48:34 PDT

Workshop delivered at the Climate Change Socisl Change Conference April 12th, 2008

Speaker:

Patrick Bond, University of KwaZulu-Natal; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society

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Protecting jobs and the environment,

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:47:06 PDT

Workshop at the Climate Change Social Change Conference April 12th, 2008

Speakers

Tim Gooden Secretary Geelong Trades and Labour Council;
Ben Courtice AMWU Victorian branch environment activist;
Cam Walker Friends of the Earth Melbourne;
Steve Phillips Rising Tide

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Transitions to sustainability

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:08:07 PDT

Panel at the Climate Change Social Change Conference April 13th, 2008

Speakers

Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW
Adrian Whitehead, Zero Emission Network
Stephanie Long, Friends of the Earth Australia's international climate justice spokesperson
Roberto Perez -- Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuban NGO

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Watch Slideshow:Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy [Diesendorf]

Power privatization and the environment

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:11:32 PDT

Workshop at the Climate Change Social Change Conference April 12, 2008

Speakers:

Matt Thistlethwaite, Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary
John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC
Dick Nichols, author Environment, Capitalism, Socialism, Socialist Alliance national coordinator

Original audio source

Marxism and the environment

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:23:56 PDT

Marxism and the environment was a workshop given by John Bellamy Foster to the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 12, 2008.

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Nuclear is still not the answer

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:17:34 PDT

Nuclear is still not the answer -- a workshop at the Climate Change Social Change C conference.April11, 2008

Speakers:

Jim Green, Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner
Wenny Theresia, Australian Student Environment Network
Genevieve Kelly, anti-Lucas Heights reactor campaigner, lecturer University of Western Sydney

Original audio source

Climate change solutions: what role for the market?

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:41:03 PDT

Recorded at the Climate Change Social Change Conference: April 12th, 2008

Speakers

Patrick Bond,University of KwaZulu-Natal; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society
John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC
Stuart Rosewarne, co-editor Journal of Australian Political Economy and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
Renfrey Clarke, Green Left Weekly

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Cuban experience: the challenge of fossil fuels and climate change [ Roberto Perez ]

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:38:29 PDT

Talk at the Climate Change Social Change Conference Sydney April 12th, 2008

Speaker

Roberto Perez, Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuban NGO

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Climate change and its social roots

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:36:17 PDT

Recording of the public meeting at the Climate Change Social Change Conference April 11, 2008.

Speakers

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature
Patrick Bond, University of KwaZulu-Natal; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society
David Spratt, Carbon Equity, co-author Climate Code Red
James Goodman, social researcher, University of Technology in Sydney

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Ecology, capitalism and socialism - John Bellamy Foster

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:33:43 PDT

Recorded at the Climate Change Social Change Conference : April 12th 2008

Speaker:

John Bellamy Foster
--editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature

Original audio source

Indigenous communities, climate change and the struggle for country

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:49:18 PDT

Climate Change | Social Change Conference
A conference to strengthen radical social action to stop climate change

Day I:Friday April 11 Redfern Community Centre
10.30-12 noon

Major workshop:Indigenous communities, climate change and the struggle for country --

Sam Watson, Biri Gubba, Munnejarl man from the Brisbane Murri community; activist since high school.
Pat Eatock, Kairie community elder, Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Sydney, secretary NationalAboriginal Alliance

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Why we must ration the future

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:54:16 PDT

A workshop delivered to the Climate Change Social Change Conference on April 13th, 2008.

Speaker: Damien Lawson

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Setting up ecosocialist networks in your city

ratbagradio@gmail.com — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:53:18 PDT

Workshop at the Climate Change Social Change Conference April 13th, 2008

Speaker: John Rice -- Adelaide ecosocialist network

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Climate Change Social Change Conference Audio

Audio and video guide to the Climate Change Social Change Conference

Climate Change Conference DVD's now available

Sustainable energy solutions

Strategies for winning

Critical anthropology of global warming

Radicalising the Australian climate change movement

Elite co-option of the environment movement

Individual versus social solutions to global warming

Climate crisis—urgent action needed now!

Climate change and the global South --­ beyond Third Worldism

Equity in energy consumption: Getting the prices right for people and the environment

Protecting jobs and the environment,

Transitions to sustainability

Power privatization and the environment

Marxism and the environment

Nuclear is still not the answer

Climate change solutions: what role for the market?

Cuban experience: the challenge of fossil fuels and climate change [ Roberto Perez ]

Climate change and its social roots

Ecology, capitalism and socialism - John Bellamy Foster

Indigenous communities, climate change and the struggle for country

Why we must ration the future

Setting up ecosocialist networks in your city

Climate change and the global South -- beyond Third Worldism