FEATURES OF CAPITALISM AND CLIMATE CHANGE

TWENTY FEATURES, MECHANISMS, LIABILITIES of US CAPITALISM versus ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE, AND CORRECTIVES, REMEDIES.  A Topical Guide to Breaking the Chains of Capitalism That Are Destroying the Climate.  By Dick Bennett

Klein, No Is Not Enough.   “…the culture of maximum extraction, of endless grabbing and disposing, has reached some kind of breaking point.  Clearly, it is the culture itself that must be confronted now, and not policy by policy, but at the root” (262).

Klein, This Changes Everything.  “The “real reason we are failing to rise to the climate moment is because the actions required directly challenge our reigning economic paradigm.  Only when we identify these chains do we have a chance of breaking free” (63). 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

     What are the features of capitalism?  Here are twenty:

Human Domination, Alienation from Nature, Depreciation of Nature, 
        Resulting in Exploitation by Market System

Capital accumulation, Drive for personal profit, need for continuous growth        

Commodification, turning everything into a product for sale

Growth essential to profit, exceeding natural boundaries, exhausting
      resources

Over-Consumption in developed countries

Monopoly, Consolidation, Purchase of or Merger with Competitors

Massive Criminal Corporations: Wells Fargo, Johnson & Johnson….

Instability of Market System

Advertising, Inducing Consumption, Creating Needs 

Hostility to the Commons, reduction of social safety net

Hostility to Organized Workers, Unions

Work Precariousness, Danger

Hostility to Government Oversight

Hostility to Taxes

Inequality in 2016 of 1%/99%

GDP as Measurement of Economic Success

WARS and imperialism for resources, space

WASTE  (see Advertising)

Globalism

Absence of Left

TWENTY FEATURES EXPANDED IN CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Human Domination, Estrangement, Alienation from Nature, Depreciation of Nature,       Exploitation by Market System liabilities: Human Ecocide against commons of water, air, flora, fauna, leading to self-destruction

Climate: Drive for profit led to extraction from commons until CO2, warming, weather extremes, extinctions

Alternative: Attitude of equality of human, other species, air, soil; rejection of commodification as source of value, 

Capital Accumulation, Drive for personal profit, need for continuous growth        

    Liabilities: inequality, poverty, accentuation of class gaps; as illust. by the 6^th Extinction, capital accumulation destroys itself

    Relevance to climate catastrophe: unequal economic adaptation to cc, particular vulnerability of the poor to cc consequences

    Alternative: labor theory of value, altruism, equality, cooperation, welfare of all

Commodification

     Liabilities: turning all the earth’s resources into capital even though they are finite; selfishness, gluttony, competitiveness, shortsightedness, using up
         resources as fast as possible for growth and profit

Climate catastrophe: disastrous pillage of the planet

     Alternative:  generosity, cooperation, long-range planning, affirmative government

Growth

     Liabilities: exceeding the planetary boundaries, exhaustion of resources, 6^th Great Extinction  

     Climate catastrophe: all other causes are exacerbated by endless growth

     Alternative: Quality of Life not GDP as measure of success, Why the GDP Is Not A Good Measure of A Nation's Well Being ...

Consumption

   Liabilities: consumption as end itself, acquire even what you don’t need, individual obesity, diabetes; 

    Climate catastrophe: exhaustion of resources, carnivorism major cause of methane

Alternative:   Radically reduce-reuse-recycle.  Film, Downsizing by Alexander Payne.   Vegetarianism, Veganism.

Monopoly, Consolidation, Purchase of or Merger with Competitors

    Liabilities:  Ceaseless efforts to eliminate competition, monopoly goal to
     ensure  profit.   NADG (9-13-16).  “Merger to Create Largest Fertilizer Firm.” 
          “Horizon Will buy Drugmaker for $80M.”

         Climate Catastrophe:  minimizing, marginalizing public influence in economic system, prices, quality

         Alternative or corrective:  strict anti-trust laws and enforcement; cooperation, co-ops, worker ownership

Massive Criminal Corporations

Liabilities: Too big to fail or prosecute and the public to pay;  e.g., Exxon denial of climate change

Climate Catastrophe:  destruction of the planet

Alternative, Corrective:  Seize their assets to fund reduction of carbon emissions

Instability of Market System

Liabilities: Boom leading by overproduction to Bust, businesses destroyed, enormous economic and human waste, periodic crises encouraged by advertisement of over-accumulation compelling investors to seek foreign markets (excellent one-paragraph summary of Boom and Bust in Creating an Ecological Society p. 339 footnote #9).

Climate Catastrophe:  Periodic implosion of people’s savings and investments
     when money needed for mitigation and adaptation

 Alternative: cooperatives, close government watch of Wall Street

Advertising, Inducing Consumption, Creating Needs,  
     Liabilities:  culture of deception, society of deceit, persistent subversion
         of truth and trust: (Valera promoting its “clean”  gasoline)

        Climate catastrophe:   chief mechanism of exhaustion of resources by consumption

        Alternative:  strict government oversight of lying about products, critical 
         thinking education K-12.

Hostility to the Commons

Liabilities:  If there is to be profit, the commons should be unregulated: government protections of the public’s land should be minimal, and therefore

growth, commodification, consumption, capital accumulation, monopoly should be free of hindrances.

Climate Catastrophe: The Commons is a bulwark against commercial exploitation and therefore of warming; for example the national forests.  The Resilient Federal forests Act of 2017 backed by the timber industry would eliminate thorough assessments of deforestation, reduce management requirements, would fast-track more cuttings, limit judicial restraining orders, and more. 

Alternative:  Preservation and expansion all public ownership (parks, monuments, etc.).

Hostility to Organized Workers, Unions

Liabilities:  Workers’ solidarity interferes with owner profit, capital accumulation, monopoly.

Climate Catastrophe:  Unions are another bulwark against unregulated owners who would trash workers and nature and the planet.

Alternative:

Work Precariousness,  Danger:
Liabilities: The casualisation of work is no aberration of capitalism. It is the logical outcome of a system based on profit.

Climate Change;  Injury at work will increase as money decreases for regulation and oversight decrease on account of wars and warming.

Alternatives:  Fully active OSHA

Hostility to Government Oversight

     Liabilities: abandonment of affirmative government,  the only power strong enough to control corporate abuses

          Climate Catastrophe:  dismantling of government regulatory agencies intended to assist and protect the people (Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed)

         Alternative: return to concept of affirmative government of, by, and for the p eople

Hostility to Taxes

     Liabilities:  enfeebling even elimination of the institutions of civilization in health, education, and so on, that require financial support

          Climate Catastrophe:  all estimates of what will be needed for mitigation and adaptation reach trillions of dollars

          Alternative:  a just tax system that minimizes gaps between the rich and the poor (definition of just is fair)

INEQUALITY inevitably large gaps between rich an poor

GDP as Measurement of Economic Success

   Liabilities: gives false assessment of real needs of society

      Climate catastrophe:  GDP measurement encourages growth

  Alternative: Quality of Life as measure of national success

WARS and IMPERIALISM for RESOURCES, SPACE

     Liabilities:  ecocide/ecological warfare, extractionism rampant, enormous waste of nations’ resources and treasuries; incalculable suffering by death and relocation of all species,    

      Climate Catastrophe: resource wars destroy entire nations; e.g. Syria 2016, incalculable cost of restoration

      Alternative: conversion of military to civilian needs, abolition of nuclear weapons, prosecution of all war criminals or at the least public confession.

WASTE  (see Advertising)

     Liabilities: “…today’s monopoly-finance capitalism is a system built on waste.  The larger part of production is squandered on negative (or specifically capitalist) use values, in such forms as military spending; marketing expenditures; and the inefficiencies, including planned obsolescence, built into every product.”

     Climate Catastrophe:  production and consumption of useless commodities increase CO2.

     Alternative:  Because marketing induces people to buy things they would not otherwise purchase, here’s where we can cut without decreasing the quality of life. 

GLOBALISM

Liabilities: Today, global sales account for half the revenue of the S&P 500.  Consequently, the consuming public is not the highest priority it was following WWII.

Climate Catastrophe:

Alternative:

ABSENCE OF THE LEFT

Liabilities: Early in the last century a genuine socialist movement awakened the populace to democratic, equalitarian reforms.  Today, the plutocrats have little to fear from an organized opponent.

Climate Catastrophe:

Alternative:

Sources:

Fran Alexander, “This Land Is Whose Land?”  NADG (June 20, 2017). 

Ian Angus, Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the
     Earth System

Katherine Chiglinsky, et al.  “Boeing Uses Shares to Cut Pension Deficit.” 
     (Bloomberg News).   NADG (9-16-17). 

Ashley  Dawson, Extinction: A Radical History.  2017.

Foster, John Bellamy.  “The Long Ecological Revolution.”  Monthly Review (Nov. 2017).  Pp. 12-13 on waste.

Isbister, John.  Capitalism and Justice: Envisioning Social and Economic Fairness.  Kumarian, 2001.

Konczal, Mike.  “Monopolized.”  The Nation (June 6/13, 2017).

Lockwood, Frank.  “Westerman Pushes Bill to Grease Wheels on Cutting in
     Forests.”  NADG (June 22, 2017).  The Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017
      proposed by Arkansas’ Rep. Bruce Westerman.

Marx, Karl.  Capital.

Marxist Student Federation by Marxist Student (April 29, 2019).   https://mronline.org/2019/05/04/precarious-work-a-marxist-explanation/?utm_source=MR+Email+List&utm_campaign=86a5460383-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_MRONLINE_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4f879628ac-86a5460383-295821469&mc_cid=86a5460383&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e   

Michael Lowy, Ecosocialism: A Radical Alternative to Capitalist Catastrophe.   

Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams, Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a
      Revolutionary Transformation.  Monthly  Review P, 2017.

Richman, Shaun.  “How Union-Busting Bosses Propel the Right Wing to Power .” 
     Working in These Times (6-23-17).

Smith, Richard.  Green Capitalism: The God That Failed.  World Economics Assoc., 2016

Stiglitz, Joseph.  The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers our Future.  2012.

James Surowiecki.  “Moaning Moguls.”  The New Yorker (July 7 & 14, 2014).  Globalism and absence of the Left.

Wallerstein, Immanuel.  The Human Costs of Economic Growth.

Del Weston, The Political Economy of Global Warming: The Terminal Crisis.
      Routledge, 2014.

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER, MAY 8, 2019

OMNI

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER,

WEDNESDAY (2^ND WEDNESDAYS), MAY 8, 2019.

Edited by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

To be removed from this mailing, drop me a note unsubscribe.  

      OMNI’s director is Gladys Tiffany.  OMNI is located at 3274 Lee Avenue parallel to N. College southeast of the Village Inn and 2^ND building south of Liquor World.  More information: 935-4422; 442-4600.     Or take College to Harold St (at Flying Burrito), turn east (right if you’re heading north). Go one block to Lee and turn left.  Go one block to Bertha.   We’re the gray brick on the corner, 2nd house south of Liquor World, solar panels on roof!

This Newsletter is about food and its consequences in 3 categories: food, animals, and climate.  Tell people you know who would like to know about OMNI, our Veg Potluck, and Newsletter.                                

     OMNI’s MAY VEGETARIAN/VEGAN POTLUCK (NEWSLETTER #58), is Wednesday, MAY 8, 2019 (2^ND Wednesdays), at OMNI, Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology.  We start eating at 6:00.      All are welcome. 

CONTENTS, #58, MAY 8, 2019

HEALTH

Articles in Good Medicine (Spring 2019) by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

“Plant-based Whopper Sales to Expand.”  NADG (4-30-2019).   Burger King is expanding its popular plant-based burger “Impossible Whopper.”

Local economical healthy eating: CiCi’s Pizza.  $12.02 for 2 seniors ($5 discount), soup, all you can eat vegetarian, soup, pizza, salad bar, drink, dessert.   

ANIMALS

Animal Matters from The Intercept on animal rights movement.

     GMOs and pesticides in meat.

CLIMATE

Animal Matters from The Intercept on animal rights movement.

     Statistics on ruin of Amazon rain forest by cattle agriculture.

Philpott, case against carnism.

CNN, British call for significant cut in sheep and cattle production.

Contents #57

TEXTS

HEALTH

Articles in Good Medicine (Spring 2019) praising plant-based eating.
    “Vegan Diet Gives Athletes an Edge over the Competition”
    “Vegan Meals Are Beneficial for Gut Hormones”
    “Time for McDonald’s to Break Up with Bacon”
    “’Bacon Is a Killer’ TV Ad Runs in States Hardest Hit by Colorectal Cancer.”
    “Dr. Barnard Headlines Australia’s First Plant-Based Nutrition Conference”
    “Native Americans Are Healing Diabetes with Plant-Based Diet”
    “’Go Vegan for Someone You Love’ Urge Billboards in India”
    “Physicians Committee Is Top 10 Health Influencer in China”
    “Heather Shenkman, M.D.: “Healing Hearts with a Plant-Based Diet”

Center for Science in the Public Interest
“America’s Food Watchdog.”  Publishes Nutrition Action.
Examples of topics:
Useful vs. useless or harmful supplements
False or deceptive claims on food labels.
Evaluations of specific food products in every number of NA.

“10 Superstars…For Better Health.”

“Plant-based Whopper Sales to Expand.”  NADG (4-30-2019).   Burger King is expanding its popular plant-based burger “Impossible Whopper.”

ANIMALS

“Animal Matters”: Episode Two.  The Intercept. The second episode of our video series “Animal Matters” focuses on the transformation of the animal rights movement from a fringe leftist topic to a bipartisan and non-ideological issue. Hosts Glenn Greenwald and Sentient Media co-founder Grant Lingel examine the evidence of that transformation, the reasons behind the change, and how the shift provides opportunities for the animal rights struggle and for a new ideological paradigm in democratic societies. Watch Animal Matters→

Time to get Real and Ditch That Hamburger, Because Cows Don't ...

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/498140408766070633/

70% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is due to cattle agriculture. Here are 5 reasons why cows have no business grazing in what was once a thriving forest.

HIGH STEAKS | YOUR FOOD, YOUR ENVIRONMENT, YOUR...

www.scoop.it/topic/agriculture-gmos-pesticides/p/4030936226/2014/11/.../high-steaks

Nov 2, 2014 - Friends of The Earth, October 31, 2014 -▷ HIGH STEAKS: THE CASE FOR ... The Guardian Environment, December 21, 2012- Tom Philpott.

Judd Tolson.  “For Helpless Animals.”  LTE, NADG (4-13-19).   House Bill 1778, which would strengthen penalties for cruelty to dogs and cats, failed to pass.  No mention of the thousands of animals slaughtered for food for the animal at the top of the chain.

CLIMATE

Tom Philpott.  “High Steaks.”  Mother Jones (May/June 2019).  Philpott continues to make a strong case against carnism: “…a spate of new studies have argued that cutting way back on meat can help our climate enormously.”  See if you have better luck than I in finding the online text of Philpott’s MJ article. 

Combat climate change by cutting beef and lamb production, report says

By Tara John, CNN.  Updated 9:58 AM ET, Thu November 15, 2018\

CNN)A new report a British advisory body has called for a 20%-50% cut in the number of sheep and cattle to help combat climate change -- adding to the growing international consensus that eating red meat is not only bad for your health, it is also bad for the environment.

Lamb, beef and dairy production accounts for the majority of greenhouse gases emitted by farms in Britain, with sheep and cattle directly responsible for around 58% of agricultural emissions in the UK in 2016, says the report by the government's Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

The advisory body suggests that a dramatic reduction in the consumption of cow and sheep products could release up to 7 million hectares of grassland, which could instead be planted to create forests and help store carbon.

It recommends that the UK's land under forestry should increase to 19% from 14%.

The ideal diet to combat climate change

The committee also said a reduction in beef and lamb consumption would lead to a rise in the consumption of plant-based food, as well as chicken and pork.

The government's "Eatwell Guide" for a healthy and balanced diet outlines the proportion of a person's diet that each food group should provide. The report says that following these guidelines would lead to a dramatic reduction in the amount of red meat eaten by the population, with an 89% reduction for beef and a 63% reduction for lamb. This would also see a 20% decline in dairy products.

The target of reducing sheep and cattle numbers by 20%-50% also relies on people following the recommended diet, with the 20% goal achievable if people replace red meat with chicken and pork. The higher 50% goal would involve people switching to meat alternatives or substitutes.

The report, which has an overarching goal to create a "a new land use policy" that will help mitigate climate change, also includes recommendations to increase Britain's forested area as well as the restoration of the country's peatlands and the reduction of flood risks.

'Meat taxes' would save many lives and cut health care costs, study says

"This is a wake-up call for a complacent government that we must completely transform the way we use land, to avoid climate breakdown and make space for nature," Friends of the Earth campaigner Guy Shrubsole said in a statement.

"As the Committee on Climate Change says, we need to free up land from agriculture by eating much less meat and dairy, and stop landowners burning and degrading peat bogs -- our single biggest carbon store."

Animal farming is responsible for 14.5% of the world's greenhouse emissions, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, making it a significant contributor to climate change. Of those emissions, 65% comes from beef and dairy cattle.

A recent report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized the need for people to consume about 30% less animal products. Eating less meat is one of a number of mitigation strategies suggested by the IPCC to overhaul agricultural and land-use practices, including the protection of forests.  A study last month predicted that as a result of population growth and the continued consumption of large amounts of red meat and processed food in the West, the environmental pressures from the food system could increase by up to 90% by 2050.CNN's Meera Senthilingam contributed to this report.

Asparagus – The only vegetable on the list is also the most surprising entry. Asparagus creates 8.9 kilos of emissions per kilo produced, according to the NRDC. But how?  
The problem is mostly in the air miles. NRDC's Sujatha Bergen explains: "Much of the asparagus in the United States is flown in from Latin America, which results in greater climate emissions than foods that are transported by trucks. While it's not the only produce item that is flown into the country, a higher proportion of it is transported this way than most other common fruits and vegetables (many of which we import from Mexico). In general, if people are looking to minimize their climate impacts, they should avoid air freighted foods as much as possible."

Pork – One kilo of pork creates 7.9 kilos of carbon emissions. The NRDC estimates that changes in the American diet avoided approximately 271 million tons of climate-warming pollution between 2005 and 2014, roughly equivalent to the tailpipe pollution of 57 million cars for one year. In the list of foods that contributed the most to this reduction, pork is third behind beef and orange juice.

Veal – Another entry that belongs to the beef and dairy cattle supply chain, veal has a lower environmental impact than beef because the calves are slaughtered at a younger age, typically at around 20 weeks versus 18 months. Each kilo creates 7.8 kilos of carbon emission, according to the NRDC.

Chicken – Eating less chicken meat is one of the contributing factors that have led to a reduction in per-capita emissions linked to food in the US, but poultry still ranks in the top 10, with just over 5 Kg of CO2 per kg of product.

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Turkey – Turkey has the same carbon footprint as chicken, at around 5 kilos of emissions per kilo of meat.
The NRDC has excluded from this list some foods that most people are not familiar with or are difficult to deliberately avoid, because they are often used in ingredients in other products as opposed to purchased directly by consumers in large amounts. These include: lard and beef tallow (11.92 kg of CO2 per kg of food), dry milk products (10.4 kg of CO2 per kg of food), and other added fats and oils such as palm oil (6.30 kg of CO2 per kg of food).

Beef – Beef is widely recognized as the most climate-damaging of all foods. A 2017study by the Natural Resources Defense Council on food consumption in the US calculates that each kilogram of beef produces 26.5 kilograms of CO2 emissions -- the highest among all the foods observed in the study, and five times more than chicken or turkey meat.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of the world's greenhouse emissions, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, making it a significant contributor to climate change. Of those emissions, 65 percent come from beef and dairy cattle.

Reducing beef consumption is an effective way of curbing global emissions. According to the NRDC, Americans now consume 19 percent less beef than just over a decade ago, in 2005. This is equivalent to a reduction of 185 million metric tons of emissions, or the annual tailpipe pollution of 39 million cars.
But why is beef so bad? "The feed is largely produced using lots of pesticide and fertilizer, which requires fossil fuels," explains Sujatha Bergen, one of the authors of the study. "Also, the digestive system of the cows produces methane, which is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And the manure emits additional greenhouse gases."

Lamb – Another ruminant, lamb, comes at number two -- confirming that red meat is particularly resource-intensive and, as such, damaging to the environment. For each kilo of lamb meat consumed, there are 22.9 kilos of emissions, the NRDC study estimates.
Meat production also requires large amounts of animal feed, mainly the resource-intensive corn and soy. The synthetic fertilizer and the manure used to grow these also releases nitrous oxide, a climate-warming pollutant 298 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Butter – The third most damaging food, by some distance, is butter: one kilo of butter equals nearly 12 kilos of CO2 -- about half as many as beef. It belongs to the same supply chain, making dairy and beef cattle an environmentalist's nightmare. 
While Americans have greatly reduced their consumption of red meat in recent years, the NRDC reports that butter and other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt actually enjoyed a surge in the observed period, from 2005 to 2014.
Butter is the most climate damaging of all dairy products because there are several steps involved in producing it that are energy-intensive: "For example, butter production requires separating raw milk into low-fat milk and cream, pasteurizing the cream, cooling the cream, ripening and churning," Sujatha Bergen told CNN.

Shelllfish – Shellfish costs the environment 11.7 kilos of CO2 for every kilo of food produced, just marginally less than butter. Along with milk, pork, and high-fructose corn syrup -- widely used as a sweetener in soft drinks -- shellfish is among the key foods that Americans are eating less of. Overall, changes in the American diet since 2005 have led to a 10 percent decrease in per-capita climate pollution related to food, according to the NRDC.

Cheese – Another dairy product, cheese, comes in fifth place with 9.8 kg of emissions per kg produced. "Our list is a an average of several common cheeses," explains Sujatha Bergen, "Cheeses that require refrigerated transport or are flown in from abroad, however, tend to have higher climate impacts."

Contents #57, April 10, 2019
Health
Articles in Good Medicine (Spring 2015) by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
     Articles for Nutrition
     Articles against Animal Testing
     2 Progrressive Bills Pass in CA Lege
Center for Science in the Public Interest, Nutrition Action Health Letter
Healthline, EcoWatch, Vegan Sources of Calcium
Burger King Expanding Plant-based “Meat”
2 Chemicals in US Food Banned in EU

Farm Animals
PCRM’s Campaign against Experimenting with Animals

PETA v. Industrial Food Production

Climate
Google Search:  Climate Change, Global Warming, Cattle, Meat

Contents #56  March 2019

                      

END VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER,

WEDNESDAY (2^ND WEDNESDAYS), MAY, 2019, #58.