[Mayworks-org] Financial Crisis and Ecological Amnesia

[The Bullet]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 161 ... December 1, 2008
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Financial Crisis and Ecological Amnesia

Laurie E. Adkin

As OECD governments and political parties rush to pour billions of dollars
into the generation of more credit to stimulate more consumption, no one
seems to be pointing out that only a short time ago, the same governments
were insisting that there was no money for a significant reduction of
greenhouse gases. There was no money for transition to renewable energy
sources. There was, in short, no money to invest in the ecological
transformation of our economies. Now, it is as if politicians everywhere
have developed a severe case of ecological amnesia. Is there no longer a
global warming crisis? A collapse of fish stocks in the oceans? An
historically unprecedented rate of extinction of species? Millions of
people living without clean drinking water or sanitation? Endemic illnesses
caused by ubiquitous toxins? Or any of the other socio-environmental crises
that scientists and social ecologists around the world have worked so hard
to document and to bring to the public's attention?

Suddenly all that matters is that "consumers" in the rich countries
redouble their efforts to over-spend, over-consume, and generate more waste
so that the global economy does not remain in recession. And let's not
mention that personal debt is a huge problem in North America, as well as a
leading cause of the current crisis. Have all these economic experts and
politicians had their memories and imaginations surgically removed?

Unbelievably, there is serious talk of handing over billions to the big
three auto-makers to restore demand for private vehicles. Are cars not one
of the major sources of greenhouse gases that only a short time ago we
were, supposedly, trying to discourage people from buying and using? Where
are the billions for investment in urban public transportation and rail
transportation? In environmentally-sustainable jobs for the thousands of
autoworkers who face unemployment due to the short-sighted,
profit-maximizing strategies of their employers? Heck, if governments can
nationalize banks in a crisis, why can't they buy controlling shares in the
auto manufacturers and redesign the plants to produce electric buses,
trains, and other pollution-reducing products? The collision between the
old "endless growth and consumption" economics and the environmental crisis
will not be averted by pouring billions into the old, destructive model.
Nor will sustainable livelihoods be created for autoworkers and their
children.

In Alberta, the oil and gas giants are putting their expansion projects in
the tar sands on hold, now that the price of oil has fallen by half since
last year. Ah, what a carbon tax could not achieve, a financial crisis has
wrought – at least in future emissions of greenhouse gases – at least
temporarily. And what is the response of the Alberta Government? The sky is
falling!! Quick, cut the budget (public services first, of course)! Spend
when you've got it; invest nothing in the future; follow corporations'
interests wherever they lead; do nothing to direct the economy in a greener
direction; run around like headless chickens when the budget surplus
falls... That's Conservative economics. What should we expect next? A
"rescue plan" for Syncrude, Shell, Suncor, Albion, and the rest? Funny how
there is never any money for child care, or for investment in renewable
energy growth, and no thought of making mega-emitters internalize the costs
of their greenhouse gas emissions.

At the federal level, the Harper government seizes the opportunity to cut
the salaries of civil servants and remove their collective bargaining
rights, and to undercut the public funding of political parties in the hope
of weakening their opponents in the next election. Neoliberal ideologues
and political tacticians to the end, eh, never mind what's going on in the
real world. Never mind that it is renewed public investment in services and
green infrastructure and a revitalized democratic politics that are needed
to get us out of economic and ecological crisis and into a greener future.

What an opportunity to grab the horns of this financial crisis and turn it
in the direction of a green economic transition! Are there any political
leaders out there with the courage to do it before the moment has passed? •

Laurie E. Adkin teaches Comparative Politics at the University of Alberta.

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