On Bookchin’s Social Ecology and its Contributions to Social Movements
– For Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, March 2008 Murray Bookchin was a leading theoretical progenitor of the many currents of left ecological thought and action that emerged from the 1960s, and his voluminous and many-faceted work has continued to influence theorists and activists to this day. Marcel van der Linden of the International Institute of Social […]
Toward a New Agenda for Climate Justice
For Synthesis/Regeneration Spring 2008 With all the fanfare that usually accompanies such gatherings, delegates to last December’s UN climate talks on the Indonesian island of Bali returned to their home countries declaring victory. Despite the continued obstructionism of the US delegation, the negotiators reached a mild consensus for continued negotiations on reducing emissions of greenhouse […]
Global Warming and the Struggle for Justice
– For Z Magazine, January 2008 If 2006 was the year that the “inconvenient truth” of global climate disruption made its way into the popular consciousness—and sparked a huge new wave of green products and corporate greenwashing—then hopefully the results of 2007’s revelations about the earth’s rapidly changing climate will prove more substantive and long-lasting. […]
Taking it to the Streets: Challenging Biotech PR
– For GeneWatch, Spring ‘07 Since 1999, activists across North America have created comprehensive educational events, colorful parades, and determined oppositional media campaigns in response to the annual conventions of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). BIO is the world’s largest biotech lobbying organization. Their annual conventions have grown in recent years to bring nearly 20,000 […]
The New Energy Debates
– For Z Magazine, January 2007 One of the most pressing issues facing us all, including the new Democratic-controlled Congress, is what to do about energy policy and climate change. With sweeping changes in the leadership of key congressional committees, and heightened public concerns about the consequences of disruptive climate shifts, the time appears ripe […]
The Real Scoop on Biofuels
Green Energy: Panacea or Just the Latest Hype? You can hardly open up a major newspaper or national magazine these days without encountering the latest hype about biofuels, and how they’re going to save oil, reduce pollution and prevent climate change. Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems’ Vinod Khosla, and other major venture capitalists are investing millions […]
Murray Bookchin Tribute
Murray Bookchin, visionary social theorist, dies at 85 A tribute by Brian Tokar. Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in Burlington, Vermont. During a prolific career of writing, teaching and political activism that spanned half a century, Bookchin forged a new […]
Can we buy our way to an ethical society?
– For World Magazine X (Norway) Today we live in the most narrowly market-driven society the world has ever seen. Social movements in many countries are at a low ebb, and people’s lives are utterly shaped by the norms of the commercial marketplace. This is especially true in North America, but its effects are increasingly […]
Climate talks in Montreal: Averting catastrophe?
For Z Magazine, February 2006 Expectations were high in early December of last year, as 10,000 delegates, representing 189 countries, converged in Montreal to discuss the future of international measures to limit global climate change. A broad spectrum of international NGOs, from Friends of the Earth to the corporate-friendly Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), described […]
The Greens as a Social Movement: Values and Conflicts
– For Green Parties: Reflections on the First Three Decades, edited by Frank Zelko and Carolin Brinkmann, Heinrich Böll Foundation of North America, 2006. In the America of the mid 1980s, the dreams of a more just and ecological society that had flourished during the 1960s and seventies seemed in danger of disappearing into the […]
