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EARTH ACTION WEEKLY BULLETIN #41
--- August 10, 2003---
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Earth Action
Breadalbane RR#2 PEI C0A 1E0
902-621-0719
slabchuk@isn.net
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In this issue:
"Are you going to hear Paul Hawken speak in Charlottetown?" I don't know how many times I've been asked this. There's been a lot of hype surrounding his visit to PEI this week but no critique whatsoever of his ideas. This issue of the Bulletin presents critiques from a number of sources and from different perspectives.
The federal government, in co-operation with the provincial government, is bringing Hawken to PEI for a public lecture as well as to meet with the federal government's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. An American businessman, lecturer and author, he is best known for his ideas on the economy and the environment as presented in a book written with Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins - 'Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution'. Hawken believes capitalism can be reformed - sort of a win-win situation - to benefit not only the environment but the corporations as well.
I won't be going to hear Hawken. I don't believe corporations and capitalism can be reformed to save the planet. But if you know little or nothing about his ideas, you should read his book, check the internet or go to the lecture. He is the darling of the mainstream environmental movement which mostly supports a more regulated or reformed industrial capitalism. Corporations and governments like him as well. He's been the key note speaker for hundreds of corporations, governments and non-profit organizations, including the Liberal Party of Canada.
Sharon Labchuk
Following are 3 critiques of Paul Hawken and Natural Capitalism.
1. David Orton, Green Web, Nova Scotia. Speech to the Green Party of Canada
2. Ted Trainor, University of New South Wales, Australia. Australian Radio Interview
3. Michael Albert, activist, author, public speaker and co-founder of Z Magazine and ZNet. Z Magazine article.
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This Bulletin is too long to post on Sust-Mar so for full text of the critiques you can email Earth Action and we'll send you this Bulletin. Included here is one critique from David Orton, Green Web, and links to the other two critiques:
2. Ted Trainor, University of New South Wales, Australia. Australian Radio Interview
http://www.mnforsustain.org/trainer_fe_radio_simon_natural_capitalism_critique.htm
Natural Capitalism Challenged
"Earthbeat"
Australian Radio Interview
July 22, 2000
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3. Michael Albert, activist, author, public speaker and co-founder of Z Magazine and ZNet
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/apr97albert.html
Natural Capitalism?" Michael Albert, Z Magazine, April 1997
Critique from the left of another, emergent eco-ideology: Paul Hawken's "Natural Capitalism."
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1. Excerpt from Talk to the Green Party of Canada Convention in Ottawa, August 6, 2000
Is Left Biocentrism Relevant to Green Parties?
By David Orton
Natural capitalism
One way of prolonging the life of industrial society was through the propagation and acceptance of the concept of 'sustainable development.' Helga and I went to the "1st Planetary Meeting of Green Parties" in Rio, May 30/31, 1992 as observers, and the statement coming out of that meeting
endorsed sustainable development. But sustainable development is now old hat.'
The latest "offering," to encourage activists to continue working with and not in fundamental opposition to this society, is to be found in the 1999 book _Natural Capitalism_, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. This book, by its title, suggests that capitalism is "natural", and that Nature can be treated within a capitalist framework. The authors see the solutions to the environmental crisis as bringing Nature within this accounting framework. This assumes that forests, seas, wild animals, etc. have "prices," not, as in deep ecology, intrinsic values. Also, that the inherent growth/profit/ consume-oriented capitalist economic model should be worked with, and not opposed as fundamentally anti-ecological. The authors aim to show through their many examples that "resources" (I do not myself use this term) can be saved, more profits can be made, growth can continue, and employment can increase if we start "costing" Nature. This is the ultimate anthropocentrism!
There are lots of interesting examples in this book, of waste being eliminated and more profits being made. The book also speaks of "human capitalism", although this is a secondary focus, where "responsible government" is combined with "vital entrepreneurship". Curitiba in Brazil, is used as
an example of this human capitalism. _Natural Capitalism_ acknowledges that natural capital is rapidly declining and becoming a limiting factor on continued growth. Increasing population is taken for granted by the authors. Generally in this book, there is a much more progressive view of
capitalism, in alleged harmony with Nature and with a social conscience. So this is against Thatcherism or Reaganism. But the fundamental questions remain for the activists' dilemma.
Can one reform capitalism? Is it here forever? Or do we work from the position that we must create an alternative?
Contact the Green Web for full text of speech: greenweb@ca.inter.net
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Subscribe to Earth Action's Weekly Bulletin (it's free). Send an email to <majordomo@flora.org> with the following command in the body of your email message:
subscribe earth-action
*****************
Sharon Labchuk
Earth Action
Breadalbane RR#2
Canada C0A 1E0
phone 902-621-0719
slabchuk@isn.net
===============
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