Re: [Marxism] Trawling the oceans to exhaustion

[ehrbar <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

S. Artesian wrote:

> So the "logic" is:
> 
> 1. Oil is running out.
>
> 2. Protests by fisherman (and truckers I guess, and soon enough everybody as 
> the lights go out) are selfish, short-sighted, useless.  And stupid.  It's 
> like demanding the government do something about the amount of daylight.

Monbiot's main criticism was not leveled at the fishermen but at
government policies which, instead of allowing a "gentle" decline of a
fishing capacity which is overfishing the oceans, keeps too many boats
in business for too long and even invests in new boats.

> 3. The high price of oil is a good thing as it will delay climate change, 
> and allow fish to replenish themselves.

One of the main mechanisms which has made overfishing the oceans (and
overpumping water for agriculture and many other excesses)
economically feasible is the low price of fossil fuels.  Now that
fossil fuels are getting scarcer this has some of the effects, in a
much cruder fashion and with much higher human sacrifice, which a
missing rational fisheries policies should have had.

> 4. The end of oil is probably a better thing as there will an even longer 
> delay to climate change and even more fish.

Unfortunately the end of oil will come too late.  If we pump all the
oil that is available, we will fry the planet.  The dilemma of a
rational environmental policy in the present uproar over the high oil
prices is that we must say that the oil and other cheap fossil fuels,
which everybody is craving for, must stay in the ground.

> 5. The problem is the greed of the fishermen and not, of course, capitalism.

The environmental movement's failure to see that capitalism is the
enemy is coming to a close.  In the book "Bridge at the end of the
world," Gustave Speth, the ultimate environmental insider, has come to
the conclusion, after 40 years of trying to promote sensible climate
policies from the inside, that the capitalist system is the main
problem.

> There is a point of demarcation between Marxism and "radicalism," where the 
> latter converges with a sort of reactionary naturalism.  Monbiot's "logic" 
> is just such a convergence. 

Monbiot's logic is impeccable.  It is the Marxists who, in their need
to be politically correct at every step, miss the boat.  They make
themselves irrelevant for the coming upsurge of environmental
struggles.  These environmental struggles are a new form of class
struggles, and it saddens me that many Marxists, who should be in the
vanguard of these struggles, have not thought enough about environmental
issues and therefore cannot give guidance to these struggles.

Hans.

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