For Saving the Earth We Need to Tell the Whole Truth -- An Eco-Socialist's Response to Richard Smith

1.12.2017

Dear friends,

A few days ago, I read an article by Richard Smith, an eco-socialist comrade, in which he has ably presented in short the eco-socialist case against both capitalism and "green" capitalism. In it Richard also called upon all his readers to "change the conversation". He asked, "What are your thoughts?" He wrote, if we don't "come up with a viable alternative, our goose is cooked." I fully agree. So I joined the conversation, in order to improve it – in the form of a response to Richard. In it you will find that I am not fully satisfied with his analysis, nor with his alternative. I find both a little deficient in some points. I have posted my response entitled

For Saving the Earth We Need to Tell the Whole Truth –
an eco-socialist's response to Richard Smith

as usual in my blog-site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

I hope you would find both Richard's article (link given) as well as my response interesting. And, if so, I would like to request you to forward both to your politically interested friends. I would be very glad if any one of you get both published in some journal – online or printed.

Yours faithfully

Saral Sarkar

Secessionism in the Era of Globalisation -- An Eco-Socialist View

15.11.2017

Dear friends,

in 2014, I had occasion to write an article entitled Unity or Separation? – Did the Scots Decide Sensibly? In that year, the Scots were asked in a referendum whether they wanted to secede from the UK, and the majority answered no. This year, 2017, between September and October, three referenda took place that had a roughly similar character: in Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan it was on the question of independence, and in two provinces of Italy it was on the issue of more financial autonomy. And we know that in Europe alone, several other regions have their own independence/separatist movements.
    It may now be called a trend. It is a bit contradictory, because until a few years ago, almost all European countries wanted to be a member of the EU. At the global level, almost all countries wanted to join the WTO and were prepared to accept restrictions on their freedom. In this article I have tried to indicate the factors involved in this contradictory behavior of the concerned states and regions. It is a tentative explanation. A full explanation will need an elaborate study, which I cannot do at present.
    As usual, I have posted the article on my blog-site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.de

I hope you would find the text interesting and request you to forward it to politically interested people you know. I would be much obliged if you also publish it in your journal.


Yours sincerely

Saral Sarkar

There is No Such Thing As a Free Lunch, For Humans -- Response To ....

19.08.2017

Dear friends,

On 28^th July, I posted an essay of mine entitled The Global Crisis and Role of So-called Renewable Energies in Solving It on my blog-site. It had been published a few days earlier in the online magazine Insurge-Intelligence as a contribution to a symposium on renewable energies (https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-clean-is-clean-energy-why-renewables-cannot-solve-the-global-crisis-10205baeb781)
    Several readers responded to it with comments, both positive and negative. Prof. Mark Diesendorf, another contributor to the symposium, who had expressed views totally opposite to those of mine (https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-feasibility-of-100-renewable-energy-f624d93e1424), also responded with two half dissenting and half agreeing comments.
    I thought it was necessary to respond to his comments with a short article to clarify some issues not dealt with in my original contribution, which was limited by space. I do not know whether Insurgence-Intelligence will publish it. So I now publish it in my own blog-site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.de

It is entitled There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, For Humans

I hope you would also read this contribution and would be very glad if you distribute it among your political friends and contacts.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

The Global Crisis and Role of So-called Renewable Energies in Solving It

 28.07.2017

Dear friends,

Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, publicist and editor of the online political magazine Insurge Intelligence
(https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence) has initiated a symposium on renewable energies, to which he has given the title Pathways To the Post-Carbon Economy. He had the idea when some readers of one of his articles on the subject criticized him for too gullibly repeating the tall claims of the most euphoric protagonists of renewable energies. He has already published the first two contributions, one of which is mine.
    I have today posted this essay entitled

The Global Crisis and Role of So-called Renewable Energies in Solving It

in my blog

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

I hope you would find it interesting. I would also be much obliged if you forward it to politically interested people and/or get it republished in some other journal.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

Climate Change -- Worst Case Scenarios. Can Something Be Done?

19.07.2017

Dear friends,

a few days ago, I read a very interesting essay entitled The Uninhabitable Earth written by the American journalist David Wallace-Wells, who interviewed several top-level climate scientists – among them some who had actually discovered global warming, climate change and related facts in the 1980s and thereafter. In his essay the author summarizes what he heard from these scientists
and what he read on the subject. In it he depicts the worst-case scenarios that would become reality if the worst fears of the climate scientists come true.
    The essay has gone viral, has been read by over 2 Million people and commented on by over 400 people including myself. I think all political activists and, especially, those leaders in politics and the media who make or influence policy, should read it.
    I admire the author for writing this important text. But I also find it deficient in its concluding part, in which he only repeats the technological optimism of scientists and engineers.
    I have today posted the links to the essay of Wallace-Wells and the text of my comment entitled Climate Change – The Worst-Case Scenarios. Can Something Be Done?

on my blog-site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

I hope you too will find the post important and interesting. I would also be much obliged if you forward it to other politically interested people.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

What is Eco-Socialism? Who is an Eco-Socialist?

9.06.2017

Dear friends,

A few days ago I read an interview that Prof. John Bellamy Foster had given to a leftist journal. Prof. Foster is a renowned American Marx scholar and a leading eco-socialist theoretician. Among other things, he expressed in the interview his high regard for Ms. Naomi Klein, who had, 2–3 years ago, published a best-seller entitled This Changes Everything –Capitalism vs. the Climate. Prof. Foster also said: "She is aligned with eco-socialism". Richard Smith, another leading American eco-socialist theoretician, took this rather unclear sentence as meaning Klein is an eco-socialist. According to Smith, however, she is not an eco-socialist. He criticized Prof. Foster for thinking so, probably meaning thereby also that Foster was thus diluting the content of eco-socialism.
    For me, this throws up the question

What is Eco-Socialism? Who is an Eco-Socialist?

This is the title of a short text that I have today posted in my blog site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

I hope you would find it interesting and would be much obliged if you forward it to your political friends and other activists and/or get it published in other political journals.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

Giving Rights to Trees, But Forgetting the Forests

20/25.05.2017

Dear friends,

you have seen that in my last blog I have commented on a rather abstract question, namely whether a river really becomes a "juristic/legal person/living entity" simply because a judge of a court declares it to be so. And I have also commented on the question of the practical significance of the court ruling for real environmental protection.
    In today's blog I have commented on another such abstract discussion in the same google discussion group (in which the rights of rivers discussion took place), namely  on the rights of individual non-human living beings like animals, e.g. chimpanzees, or even trees.

    I have posted it on my blog site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

under the title

Giving Rights to Trees, But Forgetting the Forests

I hope you would find it interesting and request you to forward it to politically interested friends and eco-activists.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

Rights of Rivers? -- Are They Realizable?

29.04.2017 

Dear friends, 

in March of this year, a High Court judge of the province of Uttarakhand in north India has issued a ruling giving the rivers Ganga and Jamuna, both considered holy by the Hindus, the juristic status of a person or "living entity". That means, these rivers or their legal representatives on their behalf can sue anybody or any juristic person if they feel aggrieved and seek redress.

    Is it good news for the environment? How realistic is it that, in case of pollution of their waters, the rivers can sue the government and a court would order the latter to stop all industrial development and dam building activities in their catchment areas?

    These and other related questions are now being discussed in India. I have taken part in the discussion by means of comments and letters, which I have now published in my blog site 

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com 

under the title  

Rights of Rivers? – Are They Realizable? 

I hope you are interested in the question and would read the texts. If you find them helpful for understanding the issues, may I request you to forward them to your political friends and other political activists?

 

With best wishes

 

Saral Sarkar

Nafeez Ahmed's Book: Failing States, Collapsing Systems, Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence

5.03.2017

Dear friends,

I know you as a politically interested person. You may even be a political activist. If you know me and my writings (www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com), then you know that I have been writing since long about limits to growth, peak oil, unviability of renewable energies, the general ecological crisis, crisis of capitalism, the danger of collapsing states etc.
    Recently, Johny Rutherford, a young friend from Australia, informed me about a publication which has pleased me very much. It is a small book, just 94 pages, by Nafeez Ahmed entitled

Failing States, Collapsing Systems, Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence.

In it the author has collated all the relevant biophysical data – global as well as from various problem countries – that explain why countries like Somalia or Yemen have failed and why he thinks that even such a rich country like Saudi Arabia is in danger of becoming a failed state. Ahmed thinks that even China, the second biggest economy of the world today, and India, a self-styled emerging economic superpower, may suffer the same fate.
    After reading a review-summary of the book made by Alice Friedman (see below), I find Ahmed's reasoning very convincing.
    The book is very dear, but the review-summary is available free of cost in the internet. I appeal to all politically interested and active people to read at least the latter and forward it to all political decision makers and opinion leaders of their country (add also your appeal to them) plus to all those who are worried about the fate of their native country and humanity at large. I am going to do the same.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar
-----------------------------------------------

Alice Friedmann:

http://energyskeptic.com/2017/book-review-of-failing-states-collapsing-systems-biophysical-triggers-of-political-violence-by-nafeez-ahmed/

John Foran's Response

13.02.2017 

Dear Friends, 

after I posted my essay The Ecology Movement is Not a Social Movement – A Response to John Foran's Article on the How-Question, Resilience.org, an online journal sponsored by the Post Carbon Institute (PCI) published it too. Thereupon, Foran published his response to my response in the said journal in the form of a letter to me. It is not just a comment, it is an article. I thought I should post the link to the article in my own blog, so that my readers who generally do not access Resilience.org are made aware of it. Here it is: 

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-02-08/the-current-crisis-letter-to-a-comrade/ 

With best wishes

 

Saral Sarkar

 

The Ecology Movement is Not a Social Movement -- A Response to John Foran's Article on the How-Question

1.02.2017

Dear friends, 

what I call the "how-question", i.e. how we could attain our goal(s), is very difficult to answer, particularly for ecologists, environmentalists, eco-socialists, eco-anarchists and others like them. I have been discussing this question with my friends and readers for many years now. There are some disagreements even among us.

    So I read with great interest a recent article by Prof. John Foran, in which he published his thoughts on this question. Here too there are points on which I disagree. I am particularly unhappy about how Foran reduced the goal itself to merely climate justice.

    I have now published my response to his article in my article entitled

     
 The Ecology Movement is not a Social Movement – A Response to John Foran's Article on the How-Question 

I have posted it today on my blogsite 

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

 I hope you would find it interesting, and would be much obliged if you would distribute it among your political friends. A publication in other journals – unabridged and unaltered – is most welcome.

 

With best wishes

 

Saral Sarkar