The Global financial meltdown and melting of the polar ice caps both emphatically teach the same lesson: if there is one thing we cannot afford, it is unbrildled profiteering.   A.C.Grayling

Paul Mason warns that the growth model is over; and George Monbiot warns of the scale of the climate problem: GDN.

Kick-starting the 'green' economy is part of what's needed - 'Green New Deal' - but Michael S. Northcott digs deeper, exposing the 'mechanistic modelling of human behaviour' which is the bedrock of the current neoliberal dystopia.   [AMC]

The dilemma posed to those participating in the upcoming Copenhagen summit on climate change is alluded to in Nicholas Stern's paper in New Scientist calling for a 'green industrial revolution'.

No argument with that, but he pins his hopes on carbon trading, a corporate con which keeps the world firmly within the neoliberal growth model. Worse, it does so in a context of first world countries 'delegating' emissions reductions to poorer nations.   Scrap carbon trading

Is the global economy a Ponzi scheme? Part 1

'CO2 reduction treaties useless'

'No such thing as society'

Professor Michael S. Northcott condemns what he calls the "mechanistic modelling" of human behaviour by neoliberalism:

The modern moral climate is then a construct of three assumptions: that the human moral agent is an autonomous reasoning sovereign, that human economic exchange is a realm of contractual mediation between autonomous agents, and that the social contract is relationally independent of the cause—effect mechanism of the cosmos.    AMC

Thus neoliberalism is fully committed to the notion that human beings should be autonomous individuals with only - and largely fleeting - contractual relationships with others, and that the planet - like other people - is also there to be 'objectified', and exploited for personal - and short-term - satisfaction.

This is rational choice theory in action.

However, on examination it transpires that rationalism takes a back seat to darker forces. As Mark Buchanan explains in
  'Why money messes with your mind'

Money switches many of us into Martin Bubers' "Ich-es" relationship with other people.

It's also the negation of Gaia, since 'wants' trump 'needs'.

A key facet of this extreme manifestation of Cartesian dualism is the Josef Fritzl school of ethics:

"I'll do exactly as I please, and if someone else gets hurt, that's tough."

The resistance to undertaking the measures needed to massively reduce CO2 emissions can only be understood when this particular, er, 'philosophy' is factored into consideration.

This is also a world-view obsessed with the nostrum that there is a technical fix for every problem, be it climate change, peak oil, or species extinction.

Whatever it is, the corporate-political spin machine will assure us - without a shred of supporting evidence - that they are 'on the case'.

This is a further demonstration of neoliberalism's ethical desert, since the assumption behind the 'techo-fix' frame of reference is that we can carry on as before with the same exploitative greed-driven agenda.

Examined from this point of view, Nicholas Stern's otherwise commendable call for much greater efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are vitiated by his belief that these can be achieved by carbon trading, which will allow growth to continue. [GIR]

Confirmation that the 'mechanistic modelling of human behaviour' is now pandemic is confirmed by reports such as these:

A&E patients 'left in agony'

Posturing and laughter as victims rot

The man who lost £28bn of RBS cash

Children found next to dead mothers

Israeli comedy show satirises Gaza violence

'Liquid cosh' treatment kills dementia patients

Patient with Down's syndrome starves in hospital

Massacre of a family seeking sanctuary

'Hawking the Technofix'

Bangladesh is set to disappear ...