Jon Queally writes at CommonDreams
That Was Easy: In Just 60 Years, Neoliberal Capitalism Has Nearly Broken Planet Earth. An excerpt:
Humanity's rapacious growth and accelerated energy needs over the last generation—particularly fed by an economic system that demands increasing levels of consumption and inputs of natural resources—are fast driving planetary systems towards their breaking point, according to a new pair of related studies.
Prepared by researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the first study looks specifically at how "four of nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed as a result of human activity." Published in the journal Nature on Thursday, the 18 researchers involved with compiling evidence for the report—titled 'Planetary Boundaries 2.0'—found that when it comes to climate change, species extinction and biodiversity loss, deforestation and other land-system changes, and altered biogeochemical cycles (such as changes to how key organic compounds like phosphorus and nitrogen are operating in the environment), the degradation that has already take place is driving the Earth System, as a whole, into a new state of imbalance.
"Transgressing a boundary increases the risk that human activities could inadvertently drive the Earth System into a much less hospitable state, damaging efforts to reduce poverty and leading to a deterioration of human well-being in many parts of the world, including wealthy countries," said Professor Will Steffen, a researcher at the Centre and the Australian National University, Canberra, who was lead author for both studies.
In addition to the four boundaries that have already been crossed, the study looked five other ways in which the planetary systems are under assault by human activity. They include: stratospheric ozone depletion; ocean acidification; freshwater use; atmospheric aerosol loading (microscopic particles in the atmosphere that affect climate and living organisms); and the introduction of novel entities into ecosystems (e.g. organic pollutants, radioactive materials, nanomaterials, and micro-plastics).
"I don't think we've broken the planet but we are creating a much more difficult world," Sarah Cornell, another report author, told Reuters. […]
The conclusion that the world's dominant economic model—a globalized form of neoliberal capitalism, largely based on international trade and fueled by extracting and consuming natural resources—is the driving force behind planetary destruction will not come as a shock, but the model's detailed description of how this has worked since the middle of the 20th century makes a more substantial case than many previous attempts.
"When we first aggregated these datasets, we expected to see major changes but what surprised us was the timing. Almost all graphs show the same pattern. The most dramatic shifts have occurred since 1950. We can say that around 1950 was the start of the Great Acceleration," says Steffen. "After 1950 we can see that major Earth System changes became directly linked to changes largely related to the global economic system. This is a new phenomenon and indicates that humanity has a new responsibility at a global level for the planet."
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—John Dean Nails Down Cheney’s True Goal:
John Dean recently published an essay on Dick Cheney’s true goal, which is remarkably similar to what Cheney and the gang tried to do back in the days when he and others were scheming inside the Nixon White House. In short, the Bush White House is looking for every opportunity it can get to roll back congressional power and do what it wants unchecked by Congress, even a GOP congress.
Creating a constant war environment and passing a Patriot Act can only push this along to fruition.
From RonK, we get an actual example of Mitch Daniels and the gang at OMB carrying out such a Nixonian power grab of congressional budget-making authority.
Tweet of the Day
Kiss my ass. RT @davidfrum Isn’t the whole concept of presidential libraries anyway obsolete in the digital age?
— @dick_nixon
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: A Greg-less round-up today. "Soft power" at the Gop retreat. Sarah Palin re-re-launches TV show. And it's spelled wrong. 2016 players round-up. Saud-ish blogger gets temporary reprieve. Some of those bent curves on health care. Midwestern Republicans do immigration differently.
Rosalyn MacGregor says Republicans coincidentally have another wildly bigoted wacko rising in their ranks: MI RNC member Dave Agema. What part of "shall not be infringed" do I not understand? The part that takes three weeks to teach that. Lastly, a KITM-style parsing of a report that the White House knew about the CIA's Senate snooping.
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