CNS
is a journal of ecosocialism.
We welcome submissions on red-green politics and the anti-globalization
movement; environmental history; workplace labor struggles; land/community
struggles; political economy of ecology; and other themes in political
ecology. CNS especially wants to join (relate) discourses
on labor, feminist, and environmental movements, and theories
of political ecology and radical democracy. Works on ecology and
socialism are particularly welcome.
Join
this discussion on this website. We welcome your thoughts.
April
is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot told us. 2010 was a veritable
wasteland of environmental disaster. April 20, 2010, a British
Petroleum oil well exploded killing 11 workers and threatens environmental
disaster on the US Gulf Coast. April 23, 2010, natural gas drillers
will continue to threaten New York State and New York City drinking
watersheds in their search for natural gas using the destructive
technique of hydrofracking even under New York State's Department
Of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) procedures. April 5, 2010,
the West Virginia, Upper Big Branch coal mine exploded killing
29 workers. April 1, 2010, in a long overdue decision, the Obama
Administration promulgated a still too low automobile fuel economy
standard of 35.5 miles per gallon not to go into effect until
2016. April 2, 2010, NYSDEC ruled the Indian Point Nuclear Power
Plant violates the Clean Water Act because it kills fish, paying
no attention to what the long-term storage of nuclear wastes will
do to human beings.
Guidance
to understanding the environmental wasteland is given to us in
José A. Tapia Granados’ March 2010 CNS tour de force
essay “Economists, Recessions, and Profits.” There
we are led through an analysis of various theoretical understandings
of what causes the business cycle. It is a full fledged review
of the history of economic ideas in a 19 page essay. Granados
concludes: Profits drive the business cycle. The business cycle
is inherent in the capitalist system. The environment is bound
to suffer under the pursuit of profit.
In
April petroleum, natural gas, coal, the slow application of technology
designed to protect the environment, and the continued use of
nuclear energy all make his point.
What do you think? What other environmental disasters occurred
during April 2010? Is José’s essay sufficient to
explain the disaster you describe? What additional explanation
might be needed?
Maarten de Kadt
