#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #CANADA #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - Eco-skepticism and its flaws (ca, de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]

 We are republishing this very interesting text by Jean-Pierre Tertrais , militant

of the Anarchist Federation in France, published in Le Monde Libertaire n°1824.
Some assert that the planet is not sick, maintain that ecology has its roots only
in the nauseating mire, believe that technology will compensate for the
finiteness of the earth's resources, claim that the collapse will not take place
because the capitalists are smart enough not to saw off the branch on which they
are sitting... Others see "beneath the love of nature, the hatred of men", in
degrowth a game for rich kids or a return to cave age. For those most affected,
man can do without natural resources, and even escape his biological destiny....
So many rantings that never address the very heart of the ecological question.
And if it was only blindness, bad faith, intellectual imposture,

No, ecology cannot be reduced to traditionalist conservatism or reactionary
romanticism

It is not a question of denying that nationalist and racist movements were
nourished by the ideological current animated by E. Haeckel (the "father" of
ecology), or that fascism, Nazism and Pétainism mobilized themes revolving around
"life", "soil" and "blood". It is only a question of bringing these movements
back to their fair proportion, relatively small. In The ecological society and
its enemies, S. Audier writes: "Not only is reactionary ecology not the only one
possible, but it is also a dead end with regard to the cause it claims to defend:
saving the planet". And further: "Within the socialist, anarchist and republican
currents (...) elements or seeds of what one could retrospectively call an
"ecological society" have been laid, without however experiencing the development
that their inventors hoped for". Only dishonesty or ignorance can equate
consideration of the intrinsic value of nature with the sacrifice of human rights.

Aware that "civilization" is a process which can progress but also retreat,
inducing no superiority of one society over another, E. Reclus wrote inMan and
the earth: "So when we compare our world society, so powerful, with the small
imperceptible groups of primitive people who have managed to keep themselves
apart from the "civilizers" - too often destructive - we can be led to believe
that these primitives were superior to us and whom we have demoted on the path of
the ages". In LG Gauny, the plebeian philosopher , J Rancière writes: "Ecology,
vegetarianism, intellectual emancipation will be claimed in particular within the
anarchist current".

If he does not claim to be an anarchist, C. Castoriadis is still closer to the
libertarian movement than to Opus Dei! However, in an interview dating from 1992,
he stressed "that we can no longer conceive of a policy worthy of the name
without major ecological concerns". He even recommends, given the importance of
the stakes, to "proceed with the greatest caution, and not as if nothing had
happened". Inviting questions about the meaning of work, he writes: "The idea
that the sole purpose of life is to produce and consume more must be abandoned;
the capitalist imaginary of a pseudo-rational pseudo-mastery, of unlimited
expansion, must be abandoned". Recognizing that "ecology can very well be
integrated into a neofascist ideology", he concludes that "man's main danger is
man himself". In A society adrift, he also writes; "Ecology is subversive because
it challenges the capitalist imagination that dominates the planet".

While recalling the ambiguities of anarchism on the question of progress, with
scientism and rationalism as driving forces, J. Ardillo, libertarian essayist,
writes, in La liberté dans un monde fragile - evoking the small anarchist
communities in the 1900s in France and Germany: "These deserters from industrial
society are not isolated figures: they form a libertarian tradition which
continues until the beginning of the 21st century". And in the same work: "...
any serious analysis of the dominant society leads sooner or later to a
reflection on the limits of nature as well as on human responsibility. However,
the works of original thinkers such as HD Thoreau, E. Reclus, P. Kropotkine, W.
Morris, G. Landauer or E. Armand represent so many anchor points for a reflection
of this type".

Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, C. Taibo recalls that many
Spanish anarchist peasants were clearly fighting for a simple and austere life.
And that "every day we are more dependent because we have accepted more and more
complex societies". In Direct action, autonomy, self-management, he writes:
"There are four verbs which, in my opinion, adapt libertarian thought to the
ecological crisis and its challenges: to decrease, to deurbanize, to
detechnologize and to decomplexify". And further: "Any challenge to capitalism
that emerges in this world in the 21st century must by definition be decreasing,
anti-patriarchal, self-management and internationalist". Concluding with
lucidity, "There are good reasons to defend the fact that capitalism has entered
a terminal phase".

No, man will not break free from the physical limits of the planet

"Matter, energy and environment form an interconnected and inseparable triptych"
(F. Graner and R. Lehoucq - CNRS), from which man cannot escape. "90 billion tons
of materials are extracted each year and the state of the "stocks" becomes
critical". Economic and demographic growth require more and more energy
resources, rare earths and metals, and water. However, physical limits are
inherent in all processes and materials. Here is the lifetime of the profitable
reserves of the main metals necessary for the technologies of the future, in
years of exploitation and at the current rate of exploitation: antimony 12 years,
tin 17 years, lead, gold and zinc 18 years, strontium 19 years ... ( The war of
rare metals , G. Pitron). Derisory reserves on the scale of humanity.

We risk freeing ourselves from fossil fuels... to fall into a new dependence,
that of rare metals in particular. Because the most profitable oil wells (like
the most fertile agricultural land) have been tapped first, the economy finds
itself subject to the law of diminishing returns. The energy efficiency rate is
steadily decreasing: in terms of oil, when half a century ago, one calorie
invested brought in a hundred, today it produces 30, even 15.

An article from Le Canard enchaîné(14/10/2020) recalled that the battery of the
(clean!) electric car - which weighs a quarter of the total weight of the
vehicle! - contains 16 kg of nickel (35 years of reserves at the current rate of
extraction), 15 kg of lithium (risk of thermal runaway, effects on health), 10 kg
of cobalt (harvested in Congo by children for barely two dollars a day). But we
have to catch up with China! And R. Heinberg, one of the great popularizers of
the issues related to fossil fuels, recalls that "the best theoretical battery
offers only a very low density compared to petroleum products".

Regarding water resources, 1.6 billion people are currently living in shortage.
And forecasts indicate that by 2030, 47% of the world's population will live in
areas with water deficit (Mexico, North Africa, Near East, Western United
States). In China, more than half of the underground resources are contaminated
by residues from industry and agriculture. The melting of the great glaciers of
the Himalayas compromises the supply of several large rivers (in China, Pakistan,
India). In Bangladesh, salt water is already contaminating fresh water sources.

When it comes to life in the oceans, today globally, 80% of "stocks" (admirable
expression!) of "commercial" fish are either overexploited or fully exploited.
Despite the increase in the number of boats and their power, for more than twenty
years, world catches have stagnated around one hundred million tonnes per year.
Modern technology, electronics and satellite means are draining the oceans. And
1% of the vessels alone make 50% of the catches. However, this overfishing, legal
or not, deprives hundreds of millions of inhabitants of poor countries of their
only intake of animal protein, seafood. But perhaps on a more hospitable planet...

The management of our exponential production of waste has developed recycling
channels. What if it was a dangerous illusion? Recycling is not only
insufficient, it can be counter-productive and encourage people to produce
more... especially since capitalism does not support the reduction in
consumption! Out of around sixty metals, 34 have a recycling rate of less than
1%. Less than 2% of used plastics are ideally recycled in a closed circuit. As
for the circular economywhich extends it, it is evaluated in two sentences by K.
De Decker: "The circular economy - the last magic word, in the vocabulary of
sustainable development - promises economic growth without destruction or waste.
However, the concept only focuses on a small part of the total resource use and
does not take into account the laws of thermodynamics". Ditto for the famous
"decoupling". A 2014 report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers notes that the
decoupling between emissions growth and economic growth has averaged just 0.9%
since 2009!

Jean-Pierre Tertrais

Posted 17 hours ago by Collectif Emma Goldman

http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2022/01/de-lecolo-scepticisme-et-de-ses-tares.html
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca