We Need System Change to Stop Climate Change by Chris Williams + Naomi Klein: Capitalism vs. the Climate

Dandelion Salad

by Chris Williams
socialistworker.org, Sept. 15, 2014
September 18, 2014

Image by Stephen D. Melkisethian via Flickr

World leaders are coming to New York City this week for another United Nations-sponsored summit on climate change. This time, though, they’ll be greeted by the largest climate justice march in history. What are we fighting for in New York City? Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, looks at what our side needs to do to successfully confront the challenges ahead.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

VIKING I landed on Mars, the Ramones released their first album, the Soweto Uprising began in South Africa, North and South Vietnam reunified to become the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Gerald Ford was in the White House.

Who Cares About The Planet Anyway? by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, and a participant in the ecosocialist coalition System Change Not Climate Change, reports on the latest report on climate change–and the Wall Street non-response to it.
SocialistWorker.org
October 1, 2013

Image by 350.org via Flickr

“The conventional wisdom on the world’s stock markets is that all listed reserves will be exploited and burnt.”
— “Unburnable Carbon 2013: Are the World’s Financial Markets Carrying a Carbon Bubble,” report by Carbon Tracker Initiative

“Developing new green technology, hiring workers and investing in new productive facilities involves a real risk: it may not be as profitable as purely speculative investments.

How Much Change On Climate Change? by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, examines the rhetoric and reality of Barack Obama’s speech on global warming.
SocialistWorker.org
June 26, 2013

Image by Enigma Photos via Flickr

THE VAST majority of people own no significant amount of stocks or other financial assets. Every single person breathes air. Every single person depends on the growing of food and the nutrition it provides to stay alive. We can’t live underwater. From these axioms, we should be able to divine a sense of what rational societal priorities reflect and emphasize.

Imperial Recipes for a Burnt Planet by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

Image by jeancliclac via Flickr

by Chris Williams
SocialistWorker.org
April 2, 2013

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, explains the critical connection between imperialism and ecological destruction.

AT THE turn of the 19th century, industrialist and weapons manufacturer par excellence Alfred Nobel, the guilt-ridden inventor of dynamite, established the Peace Prize that carries his name, proposing that it go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Capitalism Stands As A Death Sentinel Over Planetary Life by Chris Williams

Image by jeancliclac via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Chris Williams
SocialistWorker.org
February 8, 2013

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, looks at the battles ahead for those who will protest for the planet next week.

CAPITALISM STANDS as a death sentinel over planetary life.

Recent reports from institutions such as the World Bank detail how, as a result of human activity, we are on track for a four-degree Celsius increase in average global temperatures.

Chris Williams: Hurricane Sandy’s Brutal Wake Up Call–Act Now or Face Catastrophe

Dandelion Salad

http://www.haymarketbooks.org/event/3663

Image by Restore_the_Rock via Flickr

Southern Connecticut State University
December 4, 2012

No longer is the impact of climate change a question of if, but rather a question of when. The New York Times says storms like Sandy could become a yearly event.

Featured Speaker: Chris Williams– author, activist and professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University.

How the 1 Percent Conjured a Monster Storm by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

by Chris Williams
SocialistWorker.org
October 30, 2012

Image by EagleEyez via Flickr

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, examines the man-made factors contributing to the disaster of Hurricane Sandy.

“If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.

Barry Commoner, The Citizen Scientist by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

by Chris Williams
SocialistWorker.org
October 9, 2012

Image by Indiana Stan via Flickr

IN THE same sad week that saw the deaths of several globally renowned revolutionary voices, another intellectual giant of the left passed away at the age of 95: ecologist, activist and scientist Barry Commoner.

A life-long champion of the need for scientific engagement with the public at large, Commoner constantly sought to bring to light the iniquities of industrial capitalism, beginning with his campaign against above-ground nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s, and continuing with his opposition to nuclear power–that is, the transition to more polluting and toxic but highly profitable synthetic compounds in place of natural ones.

A New Dust Bowl? by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, argues that the drought gripping the U.S. can’t be separated from climate change.
SocialistWorker.org
Aug. 6, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

MORE THAN 50 percent of counties in the United States are now officially designated “disaster” zones. The reason given in 90 percent of cases is the continent-wide drought that has been devastating crop production. Forty-eight percent of the U.S. corn crop is rated as “poor to very poor,” along with 37 percent of soy; 73 percent of cattle acreage is suffering drought conditions, along with 66 percent of land given to the production of hay.

Capitalism’s disastrous priorities by Chris Williams

Dandelion Salad

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, reports on an independent investigation into Japan’s nuclear nightmare.
SocialistWorker.org
July 12, 2012

Image by SandoCap via Flickr

THEY MAY not live in castles anymore, but the glass-plated skyscrapers that tower over the great cities of the world, in faceless anonymity, still signify the imperious domain of the ruling elite. It is these places, not the featureless depths of the earth’s roiling crust, which were the decisive cause of the triple nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant on March 11, 2011.

How the climate kooks front for polluters by Chris Williams

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Chris Williams, a contributor to the International Socialist Review on environmental issues, looks at the campaign to drown out science on the question of global warming.
SocialistWorker.org
February 18, 2010

AS A result of some bizarre political time warp, just when it seemed like the battle over climate-change-as-reality was over, we appear to have regressed back to the George W. Bush medieval era of non-science passing for science.

A few months ago, it seemed like the remaining few–though loud and remarkably well-funded–voices denying that man-made climate change was happening were increasingly marginalized. Science was back in the saddle in the White House, and the Obama administration was going to ride to the rescue in Copenhagen at the UN climate summit in December.