[Marxism] Ecology of Hurricane Mitch and now Hurricane Stan

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The google news site today reports that there has been a massive mud
slide that destroyed a village entombing a thousand or more people in
Guatemala. In 1998, there was Hurricane Mitch, a category 5 hurricane
that killed 10,000 and perhaps 15,000 in Honduras.

Some of the recent posts on ecology, including nuclear technology,
ignore the downside of development under capitalism. And that is the
only development that was and can be discussed. The masses of people in
the world do not have power to control technology. Even in the Soviet
Union and today in Cuba, the constraints on development are conditioned
by their geopolitical and military position in a hostile capitalist
world.  Paradoxically, the Cubans, knowing above all that its moral
position is its greatest strength in its confrontation with the U.S.,
has been able to balance ecology with development more harmoniously
than the USSR and China during the Cold War.

Under the present conditions of imperialist globalization, applause for
technology without seeing how it is being used, how it fits in with
over societal developments, why it is being used, who is making the
promises, who contributes the capital, where the profits are going, and
what is happening downstream (both physically and over time) makes no
sense at all.

As with Hurricane Katrina, there was an official report in 1998 before
Hurricane Mitch, one that also encompassed the conditions in the
Mississippi Gulf region as well. The same conditions apply to tropical
storm Stan:
http://lists.isb.sdnpk.org/pipermail/eco-list-old/1998-November/
001494.html

Brian Shannon


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism