Thursday 27 August 2009

Crisis is Business as Usual

The struggle at Vestas is the tip of the iceberg.

The UK government
has given £52.8m to coal bosses to extend a range of mines around Britain, while the Guardian report that they have given only £2.3m to Marine Renewables.

The world's armed forces use 25% of the world's aviation fuel, 42 million tons per year.
The arms trade uses 30% of the world's aluminium.
The US military alone is the world's largest oil consumer. It emits more toxins than the top 5 chemical companies combined; half the world's CFC and two thirds of the world's CFC-113.

"With its never-ending emphasis on production and profit, and its indifference to environment, transnational corporate capitalism appears determined to stand outside nature. The driving goal of the giant investment firms is to convert natural materials into commodities and commodities into profits, transforming living nature into vast accumulations of dead capital."
Michael Parenti

The IMechE say we will be able to build artificial trees in ten years but do not advocate any immediate action such as re-foresting land currently used for meat production with proper trees.

"Government policies and economic and political inequalities, rather than human fertility, are the major causes of forest destruction, through the promotion of coffee and other export crops; colonial tax policies that stimulate migration and land clearing; and privatization of common lands for extractive concessions."
James Oldham

Share of energy from renewable sources in final consumption of energy (according to the House of Lords!)

Belgium 2.2%
Bulgaria 9.4%
The Czech Republic 6.1%
Denmark 17.0%
Germany 5.8%
Estonia 18.0%
Ireland 3.1%
Greece 6.9%
Spain 8.7%
France 10.3%
Italy 5.2%
Cyprus 2.9%
Latvia 34.9%
Lithuania 15.0%
Luxembourg 0.9%
Hungary 4.3%
Malta 0.0%
The Netherlands 2.4%
Austria 23.3%
Poland 7.2%
Portugal 20.5%
Romania 17.8%
Slovenia 16.0%
The Slovak Republic 6.7%
Finland 28.5%
Sweden 39.8%
United Kingdom 1.3%

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