Environment and Technology

‘Transitional Communities’ - a dead end for the environment

At a recent meeting of a local Labour Party Branch in Worcester, a slick high tech presentation was given by a group called Transition Worcester, who said they had the answer to the environmental crisis. It is to turn the clock back 200 years to a mythical age where all trade was local and people enjoyed the benefit of locally grown meat, fruit & veg. Within this presentation were ideas such as we should no longer trade with developing countries and we should therefore export our unemployment to the third world.

Capitalism Versus Science

We are constantly bombarded with the myth that capitalism drives innovation, technology, and scientific advancement. But in fact, the precise opposite is true. Capitalism is holding back every aspect of human development, and science and technology is no exception.

Sweeping Our Emissions Under the Carpet: Is Carbon Capture a Silver Bullet?

Earlier this year, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband ended years of silence from the Government as to how they are going to address the issue of climate change, and how they plan to replace Britain's aging power plants, many of which are nearing the end of their lifetime, threatening to plunge the country into darkness due to a lack of electricity. The Government's answer lies in a technology called "Carbon Capture and Storage", or CCS, which they claim will be the silver bullet that simultaneously kills the problems of global warming and national energy supply.

This article raises some concerns about CCS as part of the ongoing discussion inside the Labour movement about socialism and our natural resources.We welcome any comments on this contribution and the issues it raises.

Exxon Valdez: corporate greed and environmental catastrophe

On 23rd March 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez left normal shipping lanes and smashed into the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Within hours, the once mighty vessel had spilled over ten million gallons of oil into the icy waters: the largest oil spill in ever recorded in US waters.Over the coming months, around eleven thousand square miles of open sea became contaminated. Local wildlife - many species of which were rare or endangered elsewhere - perished in vast quantities. News reports brought back footage of over 1,300 miles of shoreline turned black and scattered with dead or dying fish, birds, and seals.

Big business loots carbon trading scheme

The European Union set up an Emissions Trading Scheme as a market solution to deal with pollution. Pollution is of course, overwhelmingly generated by big business (‘market’) activities. Now the scheme has turned around to bite them.As a result of the crisis, polluting companies have found themselves strapped for cash. So they’ve cashed in their carbon credits for short term readies.

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