Cuarta revolución industrial, tecnologías e impactos

[Silvia Ribeiro ALAI AMLATINA, 31/10/2016] Según los más ricos y poderosos del planeta, la cuarta revolución industrial ya está en marcha y es resultado de la convergencia de robótica, nanotecnología, biotecnología, tecnologías de información y comunicación, inteligencia artificial y otras.  El Foro Económico Mundial, que reúne cada año en Davos a las mayores empresas del planeta, produjo en 2016 un informe donde afirma que con … Continue reading Cuarta revolución industrial, tecnologías e impactos

If Nature Had Rights

[CORMAC CULLINAN DRAWINGS, AMY FALSTROM] Read an extract from the author’s book Wild Law. It was the SUDDEN RUSH of the goats’ bodies against the side of the boma that woke him. Picking up a spear and stick, the Kenyan farmer slipped out into the warm night and crept toward the pen. All he could see was the spotted, sloping hindquarters of the animal trying to … Continue reading If Nature Had Rights

Introduction to ecofeminism

[Karen J. Warren] From Michael E. Zimmerman, J. Baird Callicott, George Sessions,Karen J. Warren, and John Clark (Eds.), Environmental Philosophy:From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall, 1993, pp. 253-267. Introduction The past few decades have witnessed an enormous interest in boththe women’s movement and the ecology (environmental) movement. Manyfeminists have argued that the goals of these two movements aremutually reinforcing; ultimately they involve the development … Continue reading Introduction to ecofeminism

El reposicionamiento de Beijing en América Latina

[Ulises Noyola Rodríguez, Alai, 18/10/2016] La caída de los precios de las materias primas evidencia la fragilidad de la relación económica entre China y América Latina que en la actualidad registra una importante desaceleración en las transacciones comerciales, situación de la cual Estados Unidos busca sacar ventaja a fin de reposicionarse en la región. El gobierno chino decidió apoyar la construcción de grandes obras de … Continue reading El reposicionamiento de Beijing en América Latina

Nature’s right to exist gets a boost from key organizations

[Mike Gaworecki, 2016-10-13] In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to enshrine in its constitution the right of nature to exist and thrive. Then Bolivia passed its Law of the Rights of Mother Earth in 2010, which not only recognizes the natural world’s rights but also grants Earth what’s been called a “legal personality,” thereby allowing legal action to be brought on the planet’s behalf … Continue reading Nature’s right to exist gets a boost from key organizations

El imperfecto manual sobre cómo vivir bien con menos

[Daniel Hernández Baldó, 13/10/2016, Fuego Amigo] Si para que crezca el PIB se tienen que usar más recursos naturales y quemar más combustibles fósiles que generan más emisiones nocivas para el planeta. Si a pesar de que el PIB aumente hay más desigualdad y el trabajo no da para llevar una vida digna, hagamos lo contrario. Decrezcamos. A grandes males, grandes remedios. Quienes defienden las … Continue reading El imperfecto manual sobre cómo vivir bien con menos

Français Le FSM à Montréal : Le défi de rassembler les luttes

[11/10/2016, Claude Vaillancourt] Les forums sociaux mondiaux (FSM) se sont peu à peu détachés de ce qu’ils étaient à l’origine : une réaction des mouvements sociaux, réunis à Porto Alegre, au Brésil, au Forum économique de Davos. Ils se sont tenus par la suite en d’autres lieux et à d’autres moments dans l’année. L’édition de 2016 a tenté une expérience particulière : pour la première fois, le … Continue reading Français Le FSM à Montréal : Le défi de rassembler les luttes

Globalization and its New Discontents

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] NEW YORK – Fifteen years ago, I wrote a little book, entitled Globalization and its Discontents,describing growing opposition in the developing world to globalizing reforms. It seemed a mystery: people in developing countries had been told that globalization would increase overall wellbeing. So why had so many people become so hostile to it? Now, globalization’s opponents in the emerging markets and developing countries … Continue reading Globalization and its New Discontents

Latin America in times of lumpencapitalism

Progressive illusions devoured by the crisis [Jorge Beinstein, ALAI AMLAT-en, 01/04/2016] The global situation is characterized by a deflationary crisis driven by the great powers. The fall of commodity prices, whose most signal effect, as of mid-2014, was that of oil, reveals deflated international demand, while the financial upsurge, that has been a strategic prop of the system over the past four decades, has stagnated. The … Continue reading Latin America in times of lumpencapitalism

El adiós al petróleo barato en la globalización

[Gerardo Honty, Alainet.org] A fines de 2015, el precio del petróleo había caído a valores propios de principios de siglo, luego de haber alcanzado un pico cercano a los US$ 150 por barril en 2008. Los pronósticos indican que los precios seguirán bajos durante 2016, algo que parece difícil de explicar en un mundo en el que cada vez es más costoso producir petróleo. Sin … Continue reading El adiós al petróleo barato en la globalización

Ecofeminism: Sociology and environmentalism

[Kathryn Miles] Ecofeminism, also called ecological feminism, branch of feminism that examines the connections between women and nature. Its name was coined by French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974. Ecofeminism uses the basic feminist tenets of equality between genders, a revaluing of non-patriarchal or nonlinear structures, and a view of the world that respects organic processes, holistic connections, and the merits of intuition and collaboration. … Continue reading Ecofeminism: Sociology and environmentalism

Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional arrangements and (de)colonial entanglements

[Katherine Walsh, Society for international development, 2010] In a world long organized around the western capitalist principle of living better and its correlate: having more‘development’ is a term and concept with a historically weighted significance. For many, it is, in essence, the‘paradogmatic’ (not just paradigmatic) frame against which the Global South in general and Latin America in particular have both measured themselves and been measured. … Continue reading Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional arrangements and (de)colonial entanglements

Ecofeminism

[from: http://www.thegreenfuse.com%5D Ecofeminism There is no single definition of ecofeminism, and ecofeminists may well disagree with at least some of explanations I give in this section, but there are core principles. Ecofeminists agree that the domination of women and the domination of nature are fundamentally connected and that environmental efforts are therefore integral with work to overcome the oppression of women. The primary aims of … Continue reading Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism: Historic and International Evolution

[Laura Hobgood-Oster] Ecofeminism emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as myriad forms of feminist and environmental theories and activisms intersected. The term was introduced by Francoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Feminisme ou la Mort [Feminism or Death] published in 1974. Some theorists, such as Ynestra King, name it as a third wave of feminism, while others place it in the general category of deep … Continue reading Ecofeminism: Historic and International Evolution

The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science

[Chris Mooney, 2011] “A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” So wrote the celebrated Stanford University psychologist Leon Festinger (PDF), in a passage that might have been referring to climate change denial—the persistent … Continue reading The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science

Se acelera el fin del ciclo progresista

[Raúl Zibechi, La Jornada, Opinion, 30/09/2015] Cada quien elige el lugar desde el cual mira el mundo, pero esa elección tiene consecuencias y determina lo que puede ver y lo que irremediablemente se le escapa. El punto de observación no es nunca un lugar neutro, como no lo puede ser el que observa. Más aún, el observador es modelado por el lugar que elige para … Continue reading Se acelera el fin del ciclo progresista

Marxism and Ecology: Common Fonts of a Great Transition

[from http://www.greattransition.org/] John Bellamy Foster October 2015 Socialist thought is re-emerging at the forefront of the movement for global ecological and social change. In the face of the planetary emergency, theorists have unearthed a powerful ecological critique of capitalism at the foundations of Marx’s materialist conception of history. This has led to a more comprehensive conception of socialism rooted in Marx’s analysis of the rift in … Continue reading Marxism and Ecology: Common Fonts of a Great Transition

Entre el engaño del poder y las alternativas a la crisis climática

[Pere Ariza Montobbio][1]
Buscando salidas creativas entre el engaño del poder y la potencia de las alternativas.

“Somos todo y parte, expansión en red,
Vida inabarcable, rebasa la pared.
Cuerpo, palabra y mente, las manos del corazón
late amor orgánico, clandestina revolución”
[2]

Sólo con el incremento de la temperatura media global del planeta de 0,85°C en los últimos 130 años[3] los impactos y consecuencias del cambio climático ya se están haciendo notar. El aumento de los eventos meteorológicos extremos como sequías, inundaciones o tifones son ya una realidad, con especial afectación sobre los socio-ecosistemas del Sur Global. En América Latina se han observado cambios en el ciclo hidrológico debido al cambio en los regímenes de precipitaciones y al deshielo de los glaciares andinos. Algunos glaciares permanentes podrían desaparecen en un intervalo de entre 20 y 50 años. Se prevé también que los bosques amazónicos sean sustituidos abrupta e irreversiblemente por sabanas hacia mediados o finales de siglo. Se estima que en África el cambio de temperaturas y de las precipitaciones afectará gravemente las zonas agro-climáticas adecuadas y los tiempos de crecimiento para varios cultivos, afectando gravemente la soberanía alimentaria. En Asia, así como en otras regiones, se ha observado la tendencia de la vegetación a desplazarse hacia arriba altitudinalmente y hacia los polos, modificándose la distribución de los principales ecosistemas y biomas. Estos son algunos de los muchos impactos observados y esperados[4]. Continue reading “Entre el engaño del poder y las alternativas a la crisis climática”

Other Economies Are Possible: Building a Solidarity Economy

[Ethan Miller, 2009] Consider this: thousands of diverse, locally-rooted, grassroots economic projects are in the process of creating the basis for a viable democratic alternative to capitalism. It might seem unlikely that a motley array of initiatives such as worker, consumer, and housing cooperatives, community currencies, urban gardens, fair trade organizations, intentional communities, and neighborhood self-help associations could hold a candle to the pervasive and … Continue reading Other Economies Are Possible: Building a Solidarity Economy

Development from the Bottom Up

[Sulak Sivaraksa, from The Wisdom of Sustainability, 2009] There is an old Thai saying, “In the fields there is rice; in the water there are fish.” Before colonialism, the fertile lands of Southeast Asia – known as the Rice Bowl of Asia – provided food for all its people. Plants grew everywhere, wildlife was plentiful, jungles produced teak and other hardwoods, and the human population … Continue reading Development from the Bottom Up