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Third way is the way
Capitalism will fail just as socialism did, and eco-socialism should take over, claims Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism - A Critical Analysis of Humanity's Fundamental Choices by Saral Sarkar, a scholar born near the India-Bangladesh border and presently active in Germany. The author begins by investigating why the Soviet bureaucratic model of socialism failed, arguing that, early on, it ran up against both environmental and resource related limits to growth. He then shows that a free market capitalist economy built on our current model of industrial production and mass consumerism will eventually encounter a similar fate. Nor will a modified 'eco-capitalism' provide a solution to the problems of environmental destruction and social injustice. Sarkar looks, therefore, to a fundamentally different future based on an alternative notion of progress. This new vision of eco-socialist society, he says, must have some historical continuity with the great socialist tradition of justice and public participation. Contact Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK.
"Seen at night above, cities light up continents. A satellite image of the Earth shows bright dots, the glow cast by urban centres, illuminating much of Japan, Western Europe and the United States." This marks the beginning to Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet by Molly O'Meara, a new report by the Wordwatch Institute that traces the rapid pace of urbanisation over the last century and provides advice for the future. Half of the planet's population (about 3.2 billion people) will soon live in urban areas, says the report. To reduce the negative impacts of cities on humans and the planet, change is needed in six areas - water, waste, food, energy, transportation and land use. Urban areas could produce more of their own food and energy, align their consumption with realistic needs and recycle more of their waste. O'Meara concludes that concentrating human resources and the power of citizens to cooperate are the keys to implementing sustainable solutions and overcoming the obstacles posed by influential financial and political groups.
Saving Our Planet - Fixing Our Home presents an easy-to-read collection of 27 case studies of good practises by environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the Newly Independent States (NIS), published by the Tacis Environmental Awareness Raising Programme (TEAP), a European Union initiative for the NIS and Mongolia. At a TEAP conference in Crimea in August 1999, three best good practices were voted in, including: the closure of a military training ground in the Caucasus by the Environmental Law Group based in Tbilisi, Georgia; the revival of traditional methods for using natural resources by Gaya, an NGO based in Sevastopol, Ukraine; and "Green Sign," a campaign against industrial pollution by Bahmat, an NGO based in Artemovsk, Ukraine. Bahmat's involvement of local actors and children resulted in extensive coverage of the campaign by local press and the end to a local company's dumping of waste into the Bahmat River. Contact the Tacis Information Office, European Commission, Aarlenstraat 88 Rue d'Arlon 1/06,B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. |
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