Road Hauliers gear up for fuel protests - do you support them?

[teuchter]

Exactly my point, environmental and anti-road protestors should be there too, we / they need to jump on the bandwagon they are starting and highjack the protest.

Environmentalists should blockade the blockaders. Then the government can no longer solve the short term crisis by reducing tax on fuel, and would have visible support for increasing the tax, and introducing road pricing and other schemes that seek to hasten the much needed transition.

I think it's a good idea, actually. I'd join you in doing so.

I don't think the truck drivers would react too kindly, of course...

 

[stavros]

Could this period, however long it lasts, not be used to jump start a move to rationing, beginning with fuel? I appreciate to have the desired effect it would need to be international, but what do people think of the proposal of Contraction & Convergence?

 

[roryer]

Contraction & Convergence is an eminently sensible solution, however can you honestly see the American, European and other developed governments giving up any part of their standard of living without a fight, they'd much rather fight it out in the Middle East for the remaining oil, and watch runaway climate change destroy the world, than risk disturbing the capitalist hegemony with idle talk of an equitable sharing of resources.

Meanwhile the Indians and Chinese are knocking hard at the door, and having been poor for decades they are unlikely to concede any of their hard fought share of global resources to the poorer countries of the world.

Now we see that even London voters along with the rest of the UK have chosen to swing firmly to the right, supporting the cause of the corporate elite in the name of economic development at all costs, the primacy of 'standard of living' over 'quality of life', individualism and consumerism over the building of communities, what chance is there for advancing the idea global equitable solutions to global problems?

Instead I see us blaming the poor, and hoarding our advantage, a 'send em home' philosophy to immigrants that try to come here due to the wars and starvation our government is complicit in causing.

 

[stavros]

Unfortunately I think you're right. The one issue that also needs addressing, but is always tip-toed around by politicians, commentators, and campaigners for both the environment and poverty, is overpopulation. I'm not talking immigration here, but global numbers. Post-war, the human population has roughly tripled and is predicted to rise further and quicker. I see this partly as a symptom of the obsession with economic growth, but religions have also had a part to play, re. contraception. Maybe it's time to fuck democracy and try to get a cross-party concensus on these matters, because the current sport of point-scoring is driving us deeper and faster into the shit.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Unfortunately I think you're right. The one issue that also needs addressing, but is always tip-toed around by politicians, commentators, and campaigners for both the environment and poverty, is overpopulation.

The problem with looking at overpopulation as a cause of climate change is it results in rich nations, where population growth is fairly static on the whole, pointing the finger at very poor countries where population growth is much higher and blaming them for the problem. Obviously there is a link between population and carbon emissions but it certainly isn't the primary cause.

 

[stavros]

The problem with looking at overpopulation as a cause of climate change is it results in rich nations, where population growth is fairly static on the whole, pointing the finger at very poor countries where population growth is much higher and blaming them for the problem. Obviously there is a link between population and carbon emissions but it certainly isn't the primary cause.

Perhaps not, although I think one of the problems with the mainstream debates on climate change is that people are constantly looking for "the" solution; "What's the point of doing X when someone else is doing Y?" Such is the perhaps infinite complexity of this planet which sustains life that we really can't afford to prescribe individual fixes but downsize our activities wholesale.