This book made me recall the line 'Stop the world — I want to get off'. (I think it's actually the title of a Broadway musical back in the 1960s.) I won't attempt to do a review of Bright Green Lies,* but the opening gives you a glimpse of the problem: “We need to stop being guided by the general story that we can have it all,” Derrick concluded, “that we can have an … [Read more...] about Bright Green Lies
capitalism
Making Lithium Batteries
EV and their batteries don't only create huge environmental, health, and environmental justice problems in the mining process— they also create problems in the factories that make the batteries. This story describe harmful working conditions in the Ultium Cells plant in Ohio, but the same problems are found in other plants as well. Like other 'clean energy' plants, they have … [Read more...] about Making Lithium Batteries
Neocolonialism v. Stewardship & Rights of Nature
It's widely accepted that electric vehicles [EV] are a solution to the fossil-fuel problem. Unfortunately, the huge demand for lithium and other minerals is actually creating another massive wave of environmental degradation and environmental injustice. Have we learned nothing in the last 100 years about the disastrous effects of colonialism and irresponsible extraction‽ We … [Read more...] about Neocolonialism v. Stewardship & Rights of Nature
Nuclear Fusion: Eternal Energy = Eternal Damnation
By Don Fitz and Stan Cox Like a third-rate zombie movie on Netflix, delusions of nuclear fusion repeatedly rise from the dead. The cover story in the June 2023 issue of Scientific American by Philip Ball, “Star Power: Does Fusion Have a Future After All?” recycles the corporate line which was broadcast on December 13, 2022. The US Department of … [Read more...] about Nuclear Fusion: Eternal Energy = Eternal Damnation
The Rich Human Being: Marx and the Concept of Real Human Development
By Michael A. Lebowitz Editor’s Note: We mourn the loss of Michael Lebowitz who died at home on April 19. 2023. Mike was a superb Marxist economist, teacher, and author of many valuable works about Marx, the socialist project, and capitalism. Perhaps it is not an exaggeration to say that Mike more than any of his contemporaries contributed to reviving Marx’s ideas about … [Read more...] about The Rich Human Being: Marx and the Concept of Real Human Development
Let’s push for a radical labor movement in 2023
By Michael D. Yates The year 2022 saw a significant increase in working-class unrest in the United States. Millions of workers quit their jobs in 2021, and this trend has continued in 2022. Most moved on to different employment, while others continued their education or retired. Recently, many Twitter employees quit in response to the severe force reduction … [Read more...] about Let’s push for a radical labor movement in 2023
Who Are We?
By Robert Jensen Editors’ Note: This is the Introduction to the book An Inconvenient Apocalypse, by Robert Jensen and Wes Jackson. In the many phone conversations between the authors when this book was under construction, one of us would say that a particular point was so important that we need to get it right up front. After a few of these comments, we joked that there … [Read more...] about Who Are We?
US/China War Is No Longer Unthinkable
By Gary Olson China offers a threatening alternative model of development that is non-capitalist, non-Western, and non-colonial. As such, it undermines the West’s neocolonial domination of the Third World and its debt-trap-based forced underdevelopment of subservience and exploitation. — K.T. Noh If the United States were to posit that it could eliminate the economic … [Read more...] about US/China War Is No Longer Unthinkable
Capitalism, the Absurd System: A View from the United States
By John Bellamy Foster & Robert W. McChesney Originally published in Monthly Review, 2010, Volume 62, Issue 02 (June) A few years ago, in a class one of us taught, a discussion arose about how capitalism works as a system in which the need for the few to maximize profit drives the entire political-economic structure. The students appeared to grasp how the … [Read more...] about Capitalism, the Absurd System: A View from the United States
Will Democrats shape real climate action?
On Christmas Day, a natural gas processing plant in southwest PA caught fire, and several sources said that anyone calling the DEP emergency line to report the incident got only a voicemail. DEP denied these claims. DEP critics said the agency is ineffective in dealing with industry and communicating with the public. “They could have provided a much more detailed and … [Read more...] about Will Democrats shape real climate action?