It’s a question that’s been debated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau eyed broader emergency powers for the federal government and left the door open to using cellphone data to track compliance with physical-distancing rules.
George Monbiot: Capitalism relies upon perpetual growth, which cancels out all our efforts in combating climate change
The following is adapted from the opening remarks made by George Monbiot in a Munk Debates Podcast with Andrew McAfee. Listen to the whole episode on climate change and capitalism here:
For decades Noam Chomsky has been a leading intellectual troublemaker. His books and speeches have helped to explain how a world run by corporations and billionaires has led to endless war and catastrophic climate change. Now he is helping to explain how corporations and billionaires are actually making the coronavirus pandemic worse by pursuing savage policies that benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the world before our very eyes. In less than 3 months, it has exposed the grotesque nature of the capitalist system to millions, ground the world economy to a halt, and revealed how truly interconnected our little planet really is.
The following editorial from Britain's daily Financial Times is not revolutionary, but it's "liberal" enough to be shocking, not just interesting. This is especially true since, as someone once observed, the Financial Times is the one reliable media organ of the ruling class because the ruling class needs at least one place where they can get the straight story about what's happening.
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has spread to almost every country on the planet earth. The virus will take many lives, disrupt communities and institutions, and leave behind trauma and a devastated world economy.
From: Patrick Bond Date: April 8, 2020 at 12:33:48 PM PDT Subject:Thanks to musician John Prine - critic of King Coal in Kentucky; victim of Coronavirus
Covid-19 driven collapse of global supply chains, demand and mobility will painfully spawn next great tech-led economic models
Nobody, anywhere, could have predicted what we are now witnessing: in a matter of only a few weeks the accumulated collapse of global supply chains, aggregate demand, consumption, investment, exports, mobility.
