| We are relaunching our newsletter |
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We had pretty much given up on our newsletter – well let’s say grievously neglected it - and have decided to give it another go. This time we thought we would try to portray what is going on on the website: what we are thinking andplanning, which articles have been well read and those that we personally value (“Editor’s Choice) even if not receiving many clicks. In the past there were a number of topics that initially only a handful of people read, but in the meantime entered in the mainstream or are going in that direction, such as The Green New Deal, heterodox economics and the criticism of neo-classical economics, Modern Monetary Theory, or the gig economy. We shall be going from our monthly newsletter, which had appeared irregularly, to a weekly format, passing round the poisoned chalice among us. We wish ourselves the best of luck and that these newsletters find some appreciative readers |
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Climate Change: the new Reality |
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As you might know from a past newsletter, we are working on creating a “Politics and Climate Change Project”. Recently I ran across a quote from Bill McKibben: "We spent a long time thinking we were engaged in an argument about data and reason, but now we realise it's a fight over money and power." I am not sure if many of you have noticed, but we are making little or no progress towards slowing climate change. 2021 will be a record year for CO2 levels, also in Europe. Governments always decide in the interest of corporations and their profits. We in Europe on the other hand are supposed to be delighted by the reduction of plastic straws and bags as radical measures. When there is pressure from the street, the political class does not change policies, instead increasing their CO2 reduction targets, which are so far in the future that they will not have to deal with these lies. The only institutions that seem to take the situation seriously are some courts of law.
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The problem in perception, also among many NGOs, is that if the politicians simply understood the real danger and people want change, everything would be different. What McKibben and a few others have understood is that the problem is that the political class is corrupt and serve solely the interests of the corporations. Their sole interest regarding climate change is giving the impressiveness that they are doing enough to win the next election or remain in government. In other words our democracy is dysfunctional. This is true in every field where the common good is involved. |
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Greenwashing is viewed as an aberration, as a sort of exceptional cheating exposed by investigative journalistic research. It isn’t and we should stop treating it as such. It is general practice among companies and governments. In a few weeks COP26 will be celebrated as an incredible step forward in stopping the climate crisis, yet little will change. The same applies to the EU’s “Fit for 55”. 2022 will probably be the next record year for CO2 levels. Our goal at BRAVE NEW EUROPE will be to show the real aberrations – the few successful climate change policies and how they evolved, not to mention debunking the ubiquitous lies of corporations and governments. One does not have to be an investigative journalist to find these. |
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The most read articles in the past month |
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Editor’s Choice for the past week |
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Age of Economics – Barry C. Lynn: The corruption of economics
For many of us Lynn’s book “Cornered - The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction” was a seminal introduction to the new web of monopolies created by neo-liberalism. In this podcast he describes the corruption in the economics profession behind monopolies, inequality, and injustice. You cannot be more straightforward than this.
With COP26 coming up a good list of the minimums that should be expected – bu won’t happen Gig Economy Project – ‘We are the trade unionism of the future’: Interview with Alberto ‘Tito’ Álvarez The Gig Economy workers are today’s lumpenproletariat, long ignored by unions and the media. Mostly immigrants, young people, and women - invisible on the street, not worth noticing. Their growing struggle and self-organisation is impressive and Tito explains what the taxistas in Barcelona have done to stop the like of Uber
An excellent analysis debunking the “liquid hydrogen” myth as an easy fix for climate change
Neocolonialism is alive and well and living in the EU. González explains how the the plucky Tunisians are trying to resist the EU onslaught. |
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Upcoming Zoomcasts hosted by BRAVE NEW EUROPE |
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Robin McAlpine on 9 November 2021 at 8pm CET
“Start Counting: why a Green New Deal needs to be quantified”
Julia Steinberger on 24 November 2021 at 8pm CET
“Living well within planetary limits: is it possible? And what will it take? “
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