2-25-08, 11:00 am

Original source: The Guardian

Last year the UN declared that the struggle against climate change should not prevent developing nations from addressing their social and economic needs.

The developed nations have high per capita emissions, and Australia and the US have the worst. However, climate change is threatening the entire planet, and it’s crucial for all greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced as rapidly as possible, including those emanating from developing nations.

Raising the standard of living in less developed nations, while simultaneously reducing their emissions, cannot be achieved by using the most developed capitalist nations as a model. If the entire world used the same types of motor vehicles and power generation as is predominantly used in developed nations, and to the same extent, greenhouse gas emissions would explode.

Raising the standard

Improving the standard of living in less developed nations would be assisted by helping them acquire industrial facilities which counteract climate change, for example renewable energy electricity generators. This would boost their industrial production, minimise their operating costs and enable them to benefit from carbon trading.

However, the development of renewable energy sources and technology is bitterly opposed by the extremely powerful groups of industries which benefit from the existing mining and power generation arrangements, and which have the ear of many current western governments.

A good example is provided by battery-operated electric cars. Practical examples of these vehicles have already been produced, and the use of solar and wind energy to power them is feasible, offering the prospect of zero-emission vehicular transport systems.

In the early 1990s, after the passing of anti-pollution laws in California, General Motors and other companies were forced to produce electric cars. Development of new battery systems meant that the GM cars could travel 290 kilometres without recharging. Their radically simple engineering and low maintenance requirements were of potentially huge benefit to less-developed nations.

However, marketing of electric vehicles seriously threatened the existing markets for petrol-driven vehicles. Anticipating repeal of the Californian legislation, GM had refused to sell its electric cars, and only leased them out, with little marketing. In 1996, after a court decision in their favour, the corporation recalled all but one of them, and literally crushed them to a metal pulp. The sole surviving example of this brilliant technical innovation now stands in a US motor museum.

Planet’s resources

Capitalism’s resistance to radical new environmental innovations is not the only problem. Living standards are to a great extent dependent on material possessions, production of which largely depends on access to the planet’s material resources.

However, these resources are being depleted more rapidly than they can be replaced, in order to force-feed the world’s markets (particularly in the most developed nations) with commodities.

It therefore follows that raising the standard of living in developing nations, while simultaneously reducing the global extraction of resources, will require a reduction in the consumption of commodities in the most developed nations.

Recycling of commodities and materials is an important aspect of dealing with the resources crisis, but the essence of the solution is political. In recent world history, Cuba has shown how the loss of material resources (in their case petroleum, fertilisers and other goods imported from the former Soviet Union) can be overcome, while maintaining quality of life.

But Cuba has a socialist government. In contrast, the capitalist economies of the developed western world depend for their stability (and the corporations for their profits) on ever-expanding markets for new commodities. Any suggestion that they should use the earth’s resources more modestly and responsibly is bound to be bitterly opposed by the predominant sectors of capitalism.

The major barrier to dealing with climate change while preserving the earth’s resources lies within the political economies of the developed nations. For example, a government which really acted in the interests of the Australian people would maximise the development, production and use of renewable energy sources and would, for example, take over the Mitsubishi plant to produce state of the art zero-emission vehicles.

We’re still a long way short of reaching that stage. But it’s possible to get there, and it’s crucial that we strain every muscle to do so.

From The Guardian