This powerpoint presentation is a condensed outline of a lecture that I gave at Pace University during the Earth Day 2011 celebrations. I would be happy to respond to requests for further clarifications. I can be reached at: wp.karam@gmail.com.

1. GREEN CAPITALISM: A Failure

2. GhassanKaram

3. “To be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise” ECOLOGIST: (Leopold)

5. Roegen *Malthus

6. Daly *Zizek

7. Naess *Harvey

8. Hardin *Foster

9. Bookchin *Wilson

10. Mumford *Marx

11. Ehrlich *Goodwin

12. Hansen *Lovelock

13. Diamond *Sagoff

14. Speth *TaintterReferences

15. Total failure at all levels Deal with superficial only Emphasize symptoms Never go to the root Avoid rocking the boat (teach what is known to be false) ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

17. 3/9 Planetary boundaries have been breeched

18. Millennium Ecosystem assessment Study.

19. Lovelock /Hansen /Speth projections

20. Peak Oil

21. Fisheries

22. I=f(P,A,T)

23. Water Scarcity

24. Desertification

25. Ecological foot printSigns, concepts & indicators of ecological degradation

26. Solution is NOT in ecology itself. Apply principle of Specificity. Call for a radical change in structure that created the problem: CAPITALISM What to do?

27. What is it that we wish to sustain? Intergenerational equity Veil of Ignorance Pareto Optimality Free market cannot guarantee sustainability Allocations always favour the present Sustainability

28. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics The more we do the less we have Substitutability vs Complimentarity Simplicity: Is it possible to revert to it? Entropy & Sustainability

29. Popularized by Daly Given rise to CASSE New Economics Foundation Tim Jackson New Economics Institute Goodwin Basic premise: Constant human population and constant physical output Steady State: A Possible Way Out

30. Competition and Tragedy of the Commons New Indulgances (Ex. BAU and organic) Greenwashing (Pretense: Climate Change) Three R’s (Is Recycling the only one compatable with perpetual growth?) Brown even wrote about a world with no need for new extracting activities lol. Capitalism, ecological crisis, economic and financial crisis. Critiques of Green Capitalism

31. Growth vs limits Could system be reformed ? (Not if the privileges of the global elite are maintained) Climate change is the product of a specific economic system and its negative effects fall primarily on those least responsible for the crisis. Critique cont.

32. Green Capitalist( Hawken, Brown, Cairncross, Lovin, Gore…) Belief to de-couple growth from carbon Efficiency leads to more and not less. De materialization is quite limited Green often creates new problems ( Cut the amazon to plant sugar cane for organic food stores and farm raised fish; certified wood) Technological solution

34. EV vs source for electricity

35. Priusvs Nickel

36. 60% of car pollution is in production

37. Clean Energy and base loadGreen Gone Wrong

38. Market based solutions have aggravated the problems: organic eco architecture bio fuels hybrid cars carbon offsets clean coal  Green Gone Wrong

39. Kyoto failed (Gr. & UK only 2 to meet target) Cap & Trade failed ( because of T. of Commons) Carbon Tax failed (They were kept too low) Can we decrease carbon foot print and use non conventional oil? Democrats and Republicans (RR, Bush Sr; Bush Jr ;Clinton and Obama oppose carbon taxes) Climate Change and Green Capitalists

41. How about abolishing obscene excesses, a modicum of equitable distribution? How about asking whether we are of the same specie , members of the same family and citizens of the same community?

42. Is there a moral obligation to others?Gore ….

43. Daily consumption 200 million B. Equivalent Renewables represent 0.6% The above indicates that large cuts are required but not for Green Capitalists: Sternest 1% cost in UK and Krugman 1.1-3% for US. ( That does not make any sense) Stern targets 550ppm when Hansen speaks of 350ppm. 550 ppm increase temp. by 3C (That’s where we were 3 million years ago) Green Capitalism vs Science

45. View that Max. exploitation and saving the planet are compatible is a farce.

46. CEO’s max for shareholders and not the public good.

47. Green Capitalists have been trying for 30 years: Eco system is still collapsing

48. Their diagnosis is accurate but their prescription is wrong

49. Underestimate severity of eco crisis and overestimate de-materialization

50. They conveniently forget that consumerism is not dispensable.

51. This is a capitalist crisis. It is about mode of production and system architecture.

52. Capitalist system carries within it the seeds of its own destruction since growth is not sustainable.

53. Einstein:” Insanity is to do the same thing over and over againbutexpecta different outcome”Conclusion

55. Green Capitalism is for the Environment as long as it can profit from it.

56. Easterbrook: “What’s in it for me?”

57. Green Capitalism is the problem and so it cannot be the solution.

59. Speth: In the end we need to trigger a response that in historical terms will come to be seen as revolutionary. Only such a response is likely to avert huge and even catastrophic environmental losses. Continued II