OscailtCuba Flies Lone Flag for SustainabilityAccording to a new study on ecological sustainablity published in New Scientist, Cuba is showing the way on life in a post-oil world.
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2007-12-04T11:49:39+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=84625http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifCuba Librehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/84625#comment2145622007-12-04T11:49:39+00:00Eamonoreamon at yahoo dot co dot ukOf course to qualify this it must be stated that one of the reasons that Cubans ...Of course to qualify this it must be stated that one of the reasons that Cubans may not leave such an ecological footprint is because they cannot afford- to a large degree- travel within the island and certainly not internationally. The equivalent of 20 US dollars a month leaves little for leisure travel and many recreational activites that the developed world can afford and that can harm the environment. Perhaps this is a factor in them 'showing the way'.Bad examples...are never allowed to be free.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84625#comment2198412008-02-15T23:27:18+00:00Tech1.0Eamon, I'm sure the constraining of consumption is a factor. But as Monbiot poin...Eamon, I'm sure the constraining of consumption is a factor. But as Monbiot points out in Heat, ( <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/11/07/heat/" title="http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/11/07/heat/">http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/11/07/heat/</a> ) air travel will need to be constrained practically completely anyway, as there's no way it can continue as it is. <br />
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Cuba is an example of an efficient delivery of a wide range of public services within what the Earth can take. Due, largely, to its unfortunate history it is not an example in terms of democratically reaching a sustainable solution. But that doesn't stop us from examining how such a human-development vs consumption result can be generated for the Earth as a whole. <br />
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Personally I think it shows a possible solution although ideally coupled with more participatory mechanisms....<br />
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<em>Protecting the Environment in a Participatory Economy</em><br />
<a href="http://www.greens.org/s-r/34/34-18.html" title="http://www.greens.org/s-r/34/34-18.html">http://www.greens.org/s-r/34/34-18.html</a><br />
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"....The crucial difference between participatory planning and market economies in this regard is that <em>the participatory planning procedure generates quantitative estimates of the costs and benefits of pollution while markets do not.</em> Consequently, even “good faith” efforts to internalize the cost of pollution through taxes or permits in market economies are “flying blind,” and opportunities for “bad faith” intervention are ever present. Estimates from “contingent valuation surveys” and “hedonic regression studies” are less accurate than the indicative prices for pollutants that are generated automatically by the participatory planning procedure. Moreover, because everyone knows estimates based on surveys and studies are unreliable, it is possible for interested parties in market economies to challenge estimates they find inconvenient. Interested parties frequently finance alternative surveys and studies that arrive at predictably different conclusions regarding the damage from pollution and benefits from environmental preservation.<br />
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Since, unlike participatory planning, market systems generate no “objective” estimates that could serve as arbiters, debates over the size of pollution taxes in market economies invariably devolve into a cacophony of “he says, she says.” The participatory planning procedure described above, on the other hand, provides credible estimates of the damage done by pollution because the above procedure makes it in the interest of pollution victims to reveal the extent of the damage they suffer truthfully as a byproduct of simply participating in the planning procedure. ..."