I’m sure many Leftfield readers will have been watching the latest series of Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe, pretty much the best satire on telly.

I loved the second series of this vital show, taking down the lies and fantasies of the media at every turn. But I didn’t love most of the bits featuring “US comic and drunk [big woop] Doug Stanhope.”

This guy has a persona of an absolute misanthrope: he hates the world and everyone in it. His most objectionable bit was the one embedded above, talking about overpopulation.

In this little rant, Stanhope tries to make out like he’s telling the world a hidden truth, something hidden by the media because it doesn’t fit with the mainstream environmentalist agenda. This supposed truth is that there are too many people in the world, using up too many resources, and the only way we can really save the environment is to stop having kids.

But the reality is that this idea is a very powerful one, and it’s been used by the ruling class as an excuse for nearly 200 years now.

In 1798 English cleric and economist Thomas Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population. He argued that population growth would always outstrip the expansion of the food supply, and that as more workers became available wages would be driven down, leading to poverty.

2.Many.Malthuses.

In other words, the working class in Britain were to blame for their own poverty. It had nothing to do with the exploitation they suffered at the hands of the capitalists, who owned the places where they worked, and got rich on the back of their labour.

The thing is, he was wrong. Food production has grown faster in the last 200 years than at any other time in history, and has rapidly outstripped population growth. Famines aren’t caused by food shortages, but by unequal distribution of food.

But blaming the poor for poverty and hunger was a convenient solution for the people who were really responsible-the rich.

In the 1960s Malthus’ arguments were revived by environmentalists, who argued that population growth in the third world was causing an ecological crisis and must be stopped.

These people never however stopped to think about the centuries of looting that the third world has suffered at the hands of European empires. Nor did they consider that many people in poor countries have many children to ensure that some of them survive the harsh realities of an impoverished childhood.

In fact, the rate of world population growth is slowing. It peaked in the 1960s, and ever since the rate of increase has been getting slower.

The population theorists thought that if the world’s resources were a pie, reducing the number of people who wanted a slice would mean everyone gets more. But what about the 1 or 2 people that are eating three-quarters of the pie, leaving the rest of us fighting over the crumbs?

Delicious pie: Time to fight for a bigger slice

Most mainstream environmentalists don’t want to confront the realities of inequality, caused by capitalism. It’s much easier to tell everyone that they have to play their part, change their lightbulbs etc., than to say “A tiny minority of the world’s population are fucking everything up to make themselves rich.” The reason it’s easier is that rich people are very powerful, and taking them on is a hard fight. But if we’re really going to prevent the worst of climate change, and save the global environment, then we’ll have to take them on and beat them.

As a system, capitalism is based on economic growth. Every year we must produce more products, consume more, and make more money. But growth is unequal-the economy is constantly funneling more and more wealth from the hands of the majority into the those of the rich.

Right now, 10% of the world’s population own 54% of the world’s wealth. The richest 50 humans on Earth make more money than the poorest 416 million put together. In their unceasing quest to get richer, these people are trashing the Earth, by pulling out everything of value from the ground, the sea, and the soil, and by pumping back the toxic waste left over. These are the people who are really responsible for climate change, and must be defeated.

The best way to reduce population growth is to start ending the poverty afflicting most of the world’s population. For decades the world’s rich countries and financial institutions have forced poorer countries to cut their public spending, preventing them from having decent health services. If more poor countries were able to follow the example of Cuba, and set up world beating health services, then less babies would die and parents would have less children. Another key issue is women’s access to proper sex education, and reproductive rights to control their own bodies.

If we’re really going to save human civilisation from the potential catastrophes on the horizon, we can’t be human-haters. We need to change our society to be more eco-friendly, and at the same time more people-friendly. It’s more than possible to meet all the basic needs (clean water, housing, enough to eat, a fulfilling life) for all the people in the world.

The people in the way of us achieving this would much rather believe that all humans are equally responsible. I’m sorry to disappoint them, but with unequal wealth and power comes unequal responsibility. So Doug Stanhope isn’t bringing us a radical message that they don’t want you to hear. His hatred of humanity (which conceals a real misogyny-see his comments about “a tired old whore” and women’s wombs) actually suits the mainstream agenda just fine. Because it lets the people who’s fault it really is off the hook.

This map uses colour and distortion to show two different things. The extent to which a country is squeezed or inflated shows the extent to which countries are consuming their fair share, based on population, of the world’s resources. Starved-looking countries consume less than their fair share (most of Africa), whereas stuffed-looking countries consume far more than their share (most of Europe and North America). The colour of the countries shows the balance between whether a country has, within its borders, can generate enough resources and cope with its own waste within its environment (green, like environmentally rich Brazil and Canada) or not (like the Middle East and, yes, the United States). (via www.pthbb.org)

Since June of last year, environmental activists have been occupying the site of a proposed new open-cast coal mine in Mainshill, Lanarkshire.
Despite vehement opposition to the mine from the local community, and the devastating environmental impact of open-cast mining  locally, not to mention the impact on climate change globally, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Coal and wealthy landowner Lord Home have pressed on with their plans to tear up Mainshill wood and proceed with the mine. Now… a conglomeration of big business, local government bureaucrats and a Conservative peer putting their own interests before that of the local community and environment… who’d have thought it?!

This video shows the hypocrisy and corruption of some of the politicians involved in the decision making process, and exposes the cosy relationship many of them enjoy with Scottish Coal, who operate on numerous sites across Lanarkshire.

Over the past seven months, those occupying the site have been resisting any attempt to begin work at the site. This has involved the sabotage and destruction of machinery, lock-ons and blockades, as well as maintaining a sizeable human presence in the wood. However, this morning (Monday 25 January), bailliffs acting under the instruction of Lord Home moved into to begin the eviction of the Solidarity Camp, assisted by police. This morning saw the arrest of several activists, with many more still dug into tunnels and in treehouses, and the eviction is expected to last several days, if not longer.
The camp have had full community support throughout, who know the devastating effects that open-cast mining can have first hand, with the landscape around the village of Douglas scarred by them.
As the utter failure of the Copenhagen talks to reach any worthwhile deal on carbon emissions demonstrated, capitalism cannot, and will not, sacrifice profit for the sake of environmental or human concerns. It’s now up to us to halt the potential environmental catastrophe that climate change will bring, fighting alongside local communties who’re facing the brunt of the system that pits profit above all else.
There’s regular updates from Mainshill Solidarity Camp on Indymedia Scotland & on their twitter at https://twitter.com/MainshillCamp.

What have SSY been up to lately? Well, the weather hasn’t exactly encouraged doing much aside from huddling to keep warm. In the meantime, it’s important to bear in mind that, despite the cold in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, it’s still quite likely that 2010 will be one of the hottest years on record. If you’ve encountered folk in everyday life who are as daft as John Redwood, then be sure to point them in the direction of this Monbiot article on the Guardian site.

In fact, one of the important points to remember about climate change is that it makes the future highly unpredictable. One of the possible consequences, disruption of ocean currents like the Gulf Stream, could actually lead to the removal of a factor that helps keep the British Isles temperate. An unusual set of circumstances that has led to exactly that appears to be the cause of our current cold snap. The current situation is just an unusual freak event, but in fact global warming in the tropics actually pushes water north that by the time it reaches us is pretty cold. The Gulf Stream is thought to have slowed 30% in the last 12 years. The past couple of weeks for those of us in Scotland could really be a taste of how winters might get in years to come.

Things are hotting up (quite literally, haha!) over in Copenhagen as the world’s great and good arrive in the Danish capital, and begin gearing up to save the world from its continuing descent into climate oblivion. Or at least this is what we’re being told.
In reality, what these summits achieve is normally very little. It gives world leaders a nice chance to stand around for awkwardly posed group photographs and pretend that they’re doing something to alleviate world poverty/ rescue the world economy/ save the universe. Then maybe sign some kind of vague, watered down agreement that was carved up in closed doors negotiations two weeks previously.

And with very little forthcoming among all the diplomatic wrangling that’s taken place in the weeks leading up to Copenhagen, it now looks likely that, at the very best, we’ll get ‘an outline agreement to be firmed up next year, and even this would depend on the compliance of the US Senate, hostile towards anything resembling an effective deal’.
So says the environmentalist George Monbiot, who lays much of the blame for this stalemate situation on the fact that almost every US Senator is tied up with corporate interests who aren’t really that keen for effective emission targets to be implented. You know the type.. big oil, big pharma, the petro-chemical industry…
It becomes evident pretty quickly that capitalism can’t save the planet. An economic system built purely on growth, greed and increasing profits cannot possibly bring about the dramatic cut in carbon emissions we need to prevent the 2C temperature rise, which climatoligists say is key if we’re to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
When the global economy crashed, the IMF and national governments were on hand to bail out the crumbling financial institutions to the tune of trillions of dollars, and pretend everything was okay again. Mass unemployment, sweeping cuts, job losses, a generation lost, tearful bankers – but hey, we’ll get over it, right?
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of nature – it doesn’t do bailouts. There can be no second chances as far as the climate goes.

Whatever pathetic agreement eventually comes out of Copenhagen in the months or years to come, it isn’t going to be enough: a 15% drop in 1990 emission levels will not be nearly enough to stave off environmental catastrope. 
The necessity of socialism – of an economy that’s planned with human and environmental concerns at the forefront of its agenda, rather than the chaotic, unrelenting madness of capitalism which pits profit ahead of all else - is being proved more than ever, and time is running out.

JOIN SSY ON THE WAVE DEMONSTRATION IN GLASGOW THIS SATURDAY 5 DECEMBER – assembles 10.30am at Bellahouston Park. www.the-wave.org.uk/scotland

I did started getting pretty suspicious when I found out that they don’t even accept cardboard for recycling.
And now, as if we needed any further evidence  that Glasgow City Council LOVE the global rise in temperatures caused by human activity that’s probably going to KILL US ALL, news reaches Leftfield that they’ve gone and denied the annual demonstration against climate change their intended route through the city centre.

The demo, monikered ‘The Wave’, is being billed as Scotland’s largest ever demonstration against climate change, and is taking place on December 5th. However, rather than taking its planned route from Glasgow Green through to Kelvingrove Park, the powers that be at the council parades committee have decided to reroute it to a starting point at Bellahouston Park on the southside, from where it will march the 2.5 miles up to Kelvingrove Park, managing to completely avoid the city centre. The reason?
Christmas, of course! Yes, seems that the annual festival of capitalist consumption, consumerism and um, Jesus (so I gather anyway), is being given greater priority than an issue which the entire planet’s future depends on, all because it might interfere with a few shoppers doing some no-doubt-vital-to-the-planet’s-survival Christmas shopping.
Oh, and because the police are saying that there’s the ‘risk of disorder’ on the route that was initially applied for. What, are we really to believe that the Climate Change Denial Nutcase Brigade are marching the same day? Nah, I didnt think so. Glasgow City Council are just being bastards, and quite clearly sending out a message that they’re willing and able to stop marches in the city centre if they want to, having announced earlier this year that they want to curtail them by 90%. The idea ostensibly being to clamp down on the hundreds of Orange marches that take place each year – but as we’re seeing, they’ll use it against anyone.

Now, as it happens, the last lot of protestors to be taken out the city centre and abandoned somewhere in the Paisley Road West area were none other than… the scumbag Scottish Defence League. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.
On the bright side, let’s all just be really fucking grateful that Glasgow City Council aren’t in any way involved in the Copenhagen summit. Although, to be fair, they probably couldn’t make much more of a mess of it than Ed Miliband and co will no doubt do…

march with SSY on The Wave – assembles 10.30am, Sat 5 Dec at Bellahouston Park
more info  and a map of the route here: www.the-wave.org.uk/scotland