[lbo-talk] Leave it in the ground.

[Barry Brooks]

http://www.monbiot.com/2012/07/02/false-summit/
...
The problem we face is not that there is too little oil, but that there is too much.
...
Industry and consumer capitalism, powered by abundant oil supplies, are more
resilient than many of the natural systems they threaten.
...
There is enough oil in the ground to deepfry the lot of us, and no obvious means
by which we might prevail upon governments and industry to leave it in the
ground. Twenty years of efforts to prevent climate breakdown through moral
persuasion have failed, with the collapse of the multilateral process at Rio de
Janeiro last month. The world’s most powerful nation is once again becoming an
oil state, and if the political transformation of its northern neighbour is
anything to go by (14,15), the results will not be pretty.

Humanity seems to be like the girl in Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece Pan’s
Labyrinth: she knows that if she eats the exquisite feast laid out in front of
her, she too will be consumed, but she cannot help herself. I don’t like raising
problems when I cannot see a solution. But right now I’m not sure how I can look
my children in the eyes.

*************

Here are a few tips about how to leave it in the ground:

http://home.earthlink.net/~durable/

Barry

Summary:
If we wish to end the exploitation of workers we might just give them money.
Then people could say, "Take this job and shove it." The sharing of unearned
income will lead to the euthanasia of the working class to be reborn as earth
people, end the need for hyper-active job-creation, and thus allow us to leave
most of the oil/coal in the ground.