Nature is the 99%, too

[tabatha]

What if rising sea levels are yet another measure of inequality? What if the degradation of our planet's life-support systems - its atmosphere, oceans and biosphere - goes hand in hand with the accumulation of wealth, power and control by that corrupt and greedy 1 per cent we are hearing about from Zuccotti Park? What if the assault on America's middle class and the assault on the environment are one and the same?

It's not hard for me to understand how environmental quality and economic inequality came to be joined at the hip. In all my years as a grassroots organiser dealing with the tragic impact of degraded environments on public health, it was always the same: Someone got rich and someone got sick.

In the struggles that I was involved in to curb polluters and safeguard public health, those who wanted curbs, accountability and precautions were always outspent several times over by those who wanted no restrictions on their effluents.

We dug into our own pockets for postage money, they had expense accounts. We made flyers to slip under the windshield wipers of parked cars, they bought ads on television. We took time off from jobs to visit legislators, only to discover that they had gone to lunch with fulltime lobbyists.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011116132856199157.html

[sasha031]

1. thanks, this is a very important read

I'm going to bookmark for later.
it breaks my heart what has happened to the environmental movement, it has to be continually talked about it.
This planet does not only belong to humans,and I fear people will relive this when it;s too late.

[G_j]

2. knr

[Raksha]

3. Good article. Naomi Klein postulates a way out of the dilemma

which I just posted as a new OP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2327548

That capitalism is a disaster for the environment is a given, which the Al Jazeera article spells out very well. But the cure for both environmental degradation and economic inequality will inevitably turn out to be one and the same. In this area the free-market fundamentalists are actually ahead of progressives--they just have a very different take on it. After all, the end of capitalism is the ultimate nightmare from their POV.

[Amonester]

4. k & r

"If you drag heavy fishnets across the ocean floor and pulverise an entire ecosystem, ending thousands of years of dynamic evolution and depriving future generations of a healthy ocean, it's called free enterprise. But if, like Tim DeChristopher, you disrupt an auction of public land to oil and gas companies, it's called a crime and you get two years in jail."





I hope no DUer has "no problem" with that...