A range of books that can map a path through the ecological crisis
Tue Jun 5, 2012 10:46 pm (PDT)
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.asp?filename=Ne090612READING.asp
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 23, Dated 09 June 2012
CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKS
Reading The Crisis
A range of books, each with a distinct line of enquiry, can map a path
through the ecological crisis, says Nagraj Adve
WHEN SPEAKING to college students about global warming, one question
invariably comes up: "What are the possible ways forward?"
In climate change literature, the answers to that question falls under three
broad heads: technological and/or mainstream market solutions; decentralised
models and grassroots initiatives, for both a bottom-up and top-down
approach; and radical transformation, usually advocated by Marxist
ecologists who view the crisis as rooted in capitalism.
A delightful example in the 'tech' category is Risto Isomäki's 64 Ways to
Absorb Carbon and Improve the Earth's Reflectivity (Into Publishing, 2009).
Those ways include storing carbon in anthills, or in sea water, and using
magnesium cement instead of the energy- intensive cement currently produced!
This lucid book has feasible suggestions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and yet obviously reflects a capacity to think out of the box. One work that
adamantly refuses to budge boxed boundaries is the influential The Economics
of Climate Change: The Stern Review (Cambridge, 2007). It presents a number
of taxation, pricing and technology policy measures for mitigation,
adaptation and international collective action in arguing that "reducing
emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change is feasible" and what's
more, its costs "can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each year".
James Hansen, among the world's most respected climate scientists, says
(Storms of My Grandchildren, Bloomsbury, 2009) there's no way to solve the
problem without phasing out coal emissions. He pushes for energy efficiency,
renewable energy, and a rising tax on carbon-based fuels, as does
scientist-activist Vandana Shiva who thinks a carbon tax - on corporations -
is the way forward (Soil Not Oil, Women Unlimited, 2009). Hansen also, to
the dismay of many environmentalists, advocates nuclear power, specifically
fast breeder reactors. His science is brilliant, politics not quite, and he's
silent on equity. But to be fair, he's stuck his neck out on coal and shale.
Unlike Hansen, Praful Bidwai (The Politics of Climate Change and the Global
Crisis, Orient BlackSwan, 2012) is vehemently anti-nuclear, and sees hope
and change in the 'renewables revolution', particularly grid-connected solar
photovoltaic and wind. He discusses local initiatives on solar power and
also presents decentralised models that include varied sources of energy,
looking at their "local availability, costs, ecological impacts and local
communities' access to and control over them". Bill McKibben's The End of
Nature (Penguin, 1990) touches on local initiatives (in the US) and ends by
advocating 'deep ecology', a need to "change the way we think", emphasising
that the human species doesn't belong at the top in every way, but is one
species among many.
The criticism that technological solutions or mainstream economics'
approaches to the deepening and varied ecological crises ignore what
Jonathan Neale calls "the underlying problem - capitalism" (Stop Global
Warming, Bookmarks, 2008) is valid. Not only should we cover the world with
wind turbines and solar power, "ordinary people have to take control of the
economy" and break the power of profit; produce for need instead. Rather
than despair about whether and when this will happen, John Bellamy Foster, a
prolific Marxist ecologist argues (The Ecological Revolution, Cornerstone
Publications, 2009) that "the struggle for ecological revolution is firmly
rooted in the principle of hope".
Ecological crises are so complex and urgent that we need to work at all
levels, simultaneously. Push for clean technologies, not just grid-connected
but also in decentralised forms, by which there is greater scope for people's
control over their use. Strengthen grassroots initiatives, for they contain
not just seeds of hope for the future, but also are a barrier against a
right-wing backlash fuelled by environmental crises and resource
constraints. And deepen the ongoing struggles, for equity and against
capitalism, with an ecological worldview.
Adve is a climate change activist.
