Murray Bookchin Applied to a News Article - Essay Example

Murray Bookchin Applied to a News Article Murray Bookchin Applied to a News Article Introduction The environmental movement, also called the ecology movement, dates back to the early nineteenth century (Dalton, Reccia and Rohrschneider 2003). In North America, the roots of contemporary environmental movement date back to Murray Bookchin’s work Our Systematic Environment. Since then, American environmentalists and other environmentalists around the world have campaigned against a myriad of issues. Currently, they are debating about climate change and the related phenomenon of global warming. This paper compares and contrasts a new article entitled Spy Cables: Greenpeace’s Kumi Naidoo Targeted by Intelligence Agencies as "Security" Threat with one of Murray Bookchin’s essay entitled Ecology and Revolutionary Thought. The essay claims that man plays a major role in today’s environmental problems. In his essay, however, Bookchin is oblivious of the role of politics in the environmental debates that include climate change. Summary of the News Article In February 2015, Al Jazeera obtained and broadcast leaked diplomatic cables in which a number of countries requested the South African intelligence to monitor the activities of certain NGOs, activists and politicians (Goodman and González 2015). In one of the documents, in the run-up to the 2010 G20 leaders’ summit in Seoul, South Korea asked the South African intelligence to specifically assess Kumi Naidoo, the International Executive Director of Greenpeace, terming him a security threat. Greenpeace is an international NGO that is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands and involved in environmental conservation (Greenpeace International 2014).The organization campaigns on a variety of global issues that include climate change overfishing, genetic engineering, nuclear weapons and commercial whaling. Both Naidoo and the South Korean government attended the 2010 G20 leaders summit. Naidoos organization enjoys a general consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council(United Nations Economic and Social Council 2011). At the summit, the pushed it nuclear agenda on South Africa, Turkey and India among other countries(Goodman and González 2015). Asked why the South Korean government would want him spied on, Naidoo described South Korean government’s action as an act of desperation: like many other deniers of the existence of climate change, the South Korean government realized that it was losing the debate to Greenpeace and other environmental groups. The South Korean government resorted to fighting environmentalists hard. As of the time of publication of the news item, the South African government had neither denied nor confirmed the allegations (Goodman and González 2015). Naidoo maintains that the South African government must clear the air on the matter. In the face of this revelation, it not clear what the relationship between Naidoo, his organization and the South Korean is going to be like given that both parties sit in the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Bookchin Applied to the News Article Both Naidoo and Bookchin are in agreement that the ecosystem is a delicate one. Chomsky, a political activist was also in tandem with the views of Naidoo and Bookchin with regard to environmental conservation. This is so due to her remarks “With the environmental crisis, if nothing significant is done about it, and pretty quickly, then maybe some humans will survive, but it will be scattered and nothing like a decent existence, and well take a lot of the rest of the living world along with us.” Chomsky went ahead to add that “Is anything going to be done about it? The prospects are not very auspicious. There was an international conference on this last December. A total disaster. Nothing came out of it. The emerging economies, China, India, and others, are currently doing little about it” This was said after a conference held 30th September 2010. Therefore, if it is to benefit current and future generations, the environment must be used sustainably(Bookchin 77-104). In his usual philosophical manner, Bookchin argues that at creation God made man the custodian of the environment, not just an exploiter of it. Unfortunately, man has failed miserably at his mandatChe. Rather than protect, man has been the main agent of the destruction of the environment. Technology, while making life easier and more convenient, has also given man ever increasing power to destroy the environment. An example is the automobile that have helped man overcome the friction of distance. Because of the advent and development of the automobile, today it is possible for a person living at the edge of the city to patronize a departmental store at the other end of the city rather than the one in their neighborhood. However, besides enhancing mobility, the same vehicle, over its lifespan, emits tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The accumulated carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses traps and prevents terrestrial heat from escaping into the upper atmosphere, thereby leading to increased atmospheric temperatures. While emphasizing the role of man in degrading the environment, Bookchin does not deny that natural processes also contribute to the process. Even so, he is categorical that man contributes to environmental degradation far more than natural processes(Bookchin 77-104). Indeed, this is a point Naidoo and Chomsky would be in total agreement. By contrast, those who deny the existence of anthropogenic climate change like the South Korean government maintain that climate change is purely the result of natural processes. Consequently, this camp that includes major oil companies downplays the need for any drastic action. According to Naidoo the oil companies own many governments (Goodman and González 2015). While his claim may not be easy to verify, it is unlikely that such companies would welcome any drastic action that would bring about reduced oil consumption. Bookchin argues that if a reversal of the trend of continued environmental destruction is to be realized, there must some revolutionary thinkers: people who are willing to push themselves beyond their comfort zones and champion environmental conservation(Bookchin 77-104). In a way, Naidoo represents this group. In the final analysis of the matter, however, the climate change debate is a political one. The debate pits those who see climate change as man-driven and therefore, demand for action and those who hold that climate change is an expression of nature taking its course. It is probable that each camp has vested interests. For instance, replacing oil with cleaner forms of energy would drive oil companies out of business. As a result, such companies may be willing to fund the work of scientists who will trash man-driven climate change. In the end, it is the relative balance of power that will determine who win the debate, even though Naidoo claims that his camp has already won (Goodman and González 2015). Despite the importance politics of environmental debates (Dalton, Reccia and Rohrschneider 2003), Bookchin failed to capture it in his essay. Opinion and Conclusion In a way, Bookchin was a futurist, his philosophical over-indulges notwithstanding. At a time when American environmentalists were preoccupied with nuclear power, then largely an issue for the developed world but now a global one(Dalton , Reccia and Rohrschneider 2003), he foresaw grave global environmental problems driven by man. Even though climate change then was not the hot potato that it is today, many of his ideas are relevant to the climate change debate. For instance, he argued that the earth’s ecosystem is a fragile one(Bookchin 77-104). If man, in the process of development, continues to interfere with it, there will come when it will no longer be able to replenish itself. Then it will stop supporting life, including the very human being. Indeed, global warming is the direct result of the earths lower atmosphere being unable to release excess heat into the atmosphere because the heat has been trapped by greenhouse gasses emitted from mans activities. Bookchins other idea that has relevance in the on-going climate change debate is that of revolutionary thinkers. To some extent, environmentalists such as Naidoo represent progressive thinkers who are pushing for the reversal of the trend of global warming. Overall, the ideas contained in both the news article and Bookchin’s article are in agreement even though the latter did not oversee the role of politics and balance of power in environmental issues. Indeed, the action the South Korean government to ask its South African counterpart to spy on Naidoo is a political one. Naidoo and other environmentalists may be winning the debate, but ultimately governments are in a more position by virtue of the resources at their disposal. Thus, further debate on the issue must bear in mind the influence of politics in the debate and how it may affect the outcomes. References Bookchin, Murray. 77-104. "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought ." In Past-Scarcity Anarchism, by Murray Bookchin, 77-104. Montreal-Buffalo: Black Rose Books. Dalton, Russell, Steve Reccia, and Robert ROHRSCHNEIDER. 2003. "The Environmental Movement and the Modes of Political Action." Comparative Political Studies 1-29. Goodman, Amy, and Juan González. 2015. Spy Cables: Greenpeace’s Kumi Naidoo Targeted by Intelligence Agencies as "Security" Threat. February 25. Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/25/spy_cables_greenpeaces_kumi_naidoo_targeted. Greenpeace International . 2014. Annual Report 2013. Annual Report, Amsterdam : Greenpeace International . United Nations Economic and Social Council. 2011. List of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council as of 1 September 2011. New York: United Nations Economic and Social Council. Read More