Tag: pr0

K2L Bulletin Board, #1

Welcome to my little project, dubbed “Capitalism to Livelihood.” I am Professor Emeritus of Sustainability from Ramapo College, having retired in July, 2015.

I have continued several themes that emerged from two specific courses, World Sustainability and Ecology, Economics and Ethics. Such daunting challenges required a lot of background, mostly in political economy, perhaps political ecology.

My commitment: Work out the systematic scenario speculation of what might occur between now (early November 2019) and 2030, even 2050 — but the further the time horizon, the vaguer the scenario.

Let me get this out of the way: This effort comes from my concern that Humanity and Nature will be degraded significantly within either time horizon in the default case of business as usual (BAU).

These concerns pertain not to some way distant future, like 2100 (when your kids may wonder where were you when this was going down). I make my point by referencing this morning’s New York Times (I haven’t peeked):

President Trump formally withdraws the US from Paris Accords on climate.

Trump formally withdraws the US from the UN Paris Agreement on climate change. See Secretary of State Pompeo’s Tweet. Thus, the largest economy in the world continues to shred the international order. Uh, neither China nor Russia nor India have joined the Paris Accord. Get the Big Picture? Ain’t happening anyway. This is what Aristotle termed an Aporia: no path through it.

Trump huffed and puffed:

President Trump had long held that the accord would cripple growth and intrude on American sovereignty.

“Environment” to “Creation”

This blog initiates a glossary around the theme that I am not an environmentalist but my concern is the defilement of Creation, a sublime gift from God. The latter reflects the influence of Laudato Si’ by Pope Francis.

OED

On Nov 2, 2019, I ventured into the OED to explore a word I find disagreeable: environment. But, wait, you say: “Aren’t you an environmentalist?.” Uh, no, as in: emphatically, “NO!”

Counterintuitively, at my personal introduction to my scores of classes, I would, with little fanfare, so indicate. My friend Larry Susskind once told me that he, too, was not an environmentalist. So, I figured I better address this in my blog post.

Let me confound this further: So when asked, “Then what are you?” My tantalizing response: “I am Pro-Life,” in the sense of an intense advocacy of all life, all of Creation (a gift from God), Nature writ-large. Thus, any and all degradation, rupture, debasement, denigration, reductionism of the dignity and sustenance of any and all life viscerally offends me. Are you listening, the occupant of the Oval Office?

Definitions

I would like to get my language straight, presented as a glossary to which I will refer throughout this project:

  • environment: The OED etymology refers to the French origin as nearby surroundings.
  • neighbor: My neighbor are the “near-dwellers” who surround me, for whom we should build reciprocal relations.
  • bio-region refers to the ecology that nestles and which I inhabit, dwell, and to which I am obliged to reciprocate
community: social capital, networks
Includes networks
See Putnam and Gordon
capitalism: thus capital itself, implies wealth, investment
See OED re capitalism:

Discussion

Gather the provisional glossary as blog here but switch to html5 page as support on website. Use definition lists and copious links, internal and external. Thus, this blog initiates a writing process after WordPress failed login and poor support from Aabaco web server.

See Guardian on environmental writing.