Stories by George Monbiot

George Monbiot is the author Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning. Read more of his writings at Monbiot.com. This article originally appeared in the Guardian.subscribe to George Monbiot's rss feed

Can You Put a Price on Nature? Governments Are Trying But the Results May Be Catastrophic

Posted on Jun 7, 2011, Source: Monbiot.com

The idea of valuing nature as "ecosystem services" can be well-intentioned but has two big problems.

Corporate-Funded Online 'Astroturfing' Is More Advanced and More Automated Than You Might Think

Posted on Feb 24, 2011, Source: The Guardian

Every month more evidence piles up, suggesting that online comment threads and forums are being hijacked by people who aren’t what they seem to be.

Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Online Conversations?

Posted on Dec 15, 2010, Source: Comment Is Free

There are daily attempts to control and influence content in the interests of the state and corporations: attempts in which money talks.

The Tea Parties: Deluded and Propelled by Billionaires

Posted on Oct 25, 2010, Source: The Guardian

The Tea Party movement is remarkable in two respects. It's one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen and the biggest Astroturf operation in history.

OK, I Take It Back -- We Don't All Have to Eat Vegan to Save the Planet

Posted on Sep 8, 2010, Source: Comment Is Free

I used to think being a vegan was the only ethical way to eat. But an important new book suggests we can change our food system to allow for healthy meat consumption.

Why Climate Change Denial Has Nothing to Do With Science and Everything to Do With Politics

Posted on Aug 26, 2010, Source: Monbiot.com

How did the globe's biggest environmental problem because simply an issue of politics?

Why BP's Dumb Investors Need to Stop Crying

Posted on Jun 22, 2010, Source: Monbiot.com

Whenever greens or ethical investors warned them about BP's cavalier behavior, instead of thanking them, the big fund managers reacted with hostility.

Avatar Half-Tells a Story We Would All Prefer to Forget

Posted on Jan 18, 2010, Source: Monbiot.com

The real story of what happened to Native Americans is a story no one wants to hear, because of the challenge it presents to the way we choose to see ourselves.

Copenhagen Is Not Just About Climate Change -- It's About the What Kind of People We Want to Be

Posted on Dec 15, 2009, Source: Monbiot.com

Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become.

The Most Urgent Threat to World Peace Is Canada

Posted on Dec 2, 2009, Source: Monbiot.com

The harm this country could do in the next two weeks will outweigh all the good it has done in a century.

Modern Life Is Probably Screwed by Peak Oil, But It's Not Too Late to Avoid Mass Starvation

Posted on Nov 19, 2009, Source: Monbiot.com

The challenge of feeding 7 or 8 billion people while oil supplies are falling is stupefying. It'll be even greater if governments keep pretending that it isn't going to happen.

A Millionaire with a Super Yacht Is a Larger Strain on Resources Than Hundreds of Peasant Families

Posted on Oct 2, 2009, Source: Monbiot.com

It's time we had the guts to name the problem. It isn't population; it's consumption. It's not sex; it's money. It's not the poor; it's the rich.

Is There Any Point in Fighting to Stave off Industrial Apocalypse?

Posted on Aug 19, 2009, Source: The Guardian

The collapse of civilization will bring us a saner world, argues Paul Kingsnorth. No, writes George Monbiot -- we can't let billions perish.

Let's Make Some Money

Posted on Feb 2, 2009, Source: Dissident Voice

Money consists only of "an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange."

Monbiot Grills Shell Oil CEO: Is There Any Investment You Would Not Make on Ethical Grounds?

Posted on Jan 8, 2009, Source: Monbiot.com

Shell will pour big money into alternative energy when more lucrative opportunities are blocked. Where is the government brave enough to block them?

It's Official: We're Just a Few Years from Peak Oil

Posted on Dec 21, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

Until this year's report, the International Energy Agency mocked people who said that oil supplies might peak. Now they've changed their tune.

Forget the Polar Bears -- The Climate Crisis Is About All of Us

Posted on Dec 3, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

Do we want to be remembered as the generation that saved the banks and let the planet collapse?

The Triumph of Ignorance: How Morons Succeed in U.S. Politics

Posted on Oct 31, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

Obama has a lot to offer, but until our education system is fixed or religious fundamentalism withers, anti-intellectuals will flaunt their ignorance.

This Stock Collapse Is Petty When Compared to the Nature Crunch

Posted on Oct 15, 2008, Source: The Guardian

The financial crisis at least affords us an opportunity to now rethink our catastrophic ecological trajectory.

It's Pretty Clear That Europe Is Using 'Trade' Deals to Steal Food from Poor Countries

Posted on Aug 28, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

A new wave of food colonialism is taking food from the mouths of the poor.

Ultimate Nuke Hypocrites: That Would Be the U.S.

Posted on Aug 1, 2008, Source: The Guardian

By failing to disarm and breaking the rules when it suits them, nuclear states are driving proliferation as much as Ahmadinejad is.

Why Fair Trade May Be Our Only Hope

Posted on Jun 12, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

Fair trade might now be necessary not only as a means of redistributing income, but also to feed the world.

Face It, We All Aren't Going to Become Vegetarians

Posted on Apr 18, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

It's better for the planet to avoid eating meat, but the reality is we have to make it more sustainable for people who don't want to be vegetarians.

Solve Global Warming with Slave Trade Economics?

Posted on Feb 21, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

A major environmental UK report explains how human life can be priced and exchanged for goods and services.

Is There a Plan for Life After Peak Oil?

Posted on Feb 12, 2008, Source: Monbiot.com

Yes, but it involves a new generation of biofuels that are an environmental disaster.

The Threat of Population Growth Pales Beside the Greed of the Rich

Posted on Jan 31, 2008, Source: Comment Is Free

Some blame the poor for growing pressure on the world's resources, but the wealthy West takes the lion's share.

Bali: World Suckered by the U.S. Once Again

Posted on Dec 17, 2007, Source: Comment Is Free

America will keep on wrecking climate talks as long as those with vested interests in oil and gas fund its political system.

The Technology That Will Save Us from Runaway Climate Change

Posted on Dec 12, 2007, Source: Monbiot.com

All the talk in Bali about cutting carbon means nothing while ever more oil and coal are being extracted and burned.

Iran Didn't Spark a Middle East Nuclear Arms Race, It's Joining the One Israel Started

Posted on Dec 1, 2007, Source: Comment Is Free

When will the US and the UK tell the truth about Israel's nuclear weapons?

Biofuels Could Kill More People Than the Iraq War

Posted on Nov 10, 2007, Source: Monbiot.com

If the governments promoting biofuels do not reverse their policies, the humanitarian impact will be greater than that of the Iraq war.

Bring on the Recession

Posted on Nov 1, 2007, Source: Monbiot.com

How else will the destructive effects of growth be stopped?

Neoliberalism Dismantles Services to Make Elites Even Richer

Posted on Aug 28, 2007, Source: Comment Is Free

Neoliberalism demands minimal taxes, the dismantling of public services and social security and union busting to make the elite even richer, while leaving everyone else to sink or swim.

Water World: Slipping Toward Climate Catastrophe

Posted on Jul 12, 2007, Source: Monbiot.com

New reports issued by the IPCC might be absurdly optimistic about the pace of melting ice caps and rising sea levels.

The Olympic Games Myths Busted

Posted on Jul 5, 2007, Source: Monbiot.com

Everywhere they go, the games become an excuse for eviction and displacement -- they have become a license for land grabs. Also, watching the Olympics can make you lazy.

How to Stop the Planet From Burning

Posted on May 2, 2007, Source: South End Press

We know that climate change is happening. But can it be stopped? George Monbiot's book "Heat" shows how it can.

Short Changing 9/11: Popular Documentary Takes Us Nowhere

Posted on Feb 17, 2007, Source: AlterNet

The English author charges that infatuation with the 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change turns opponents of the Bush government into "gibbering idiots."

Torture Is Now Part of the American Soul

Posted on Dec 18, 2006, Source: The Guardian

You might have imagined that every possible means of inflicting pain had already been devised. But never underestimate the human capacity for invention. United States interrogators have found a new way of destroying a human being.

Shortcut To Catastrophe

Posted on Sep 1, 2006, Source: AlterNet

A prominent scientist's idea to re-engineer the atmosphere in order to cool the earth could be as dangerous as climate change.

Not Enough Fish in the Sea

Posted on Jun 30, 2006, Source: AlterNet

We need omega-3 oils for our brains to function properly. Yet we are rapidly destroying the only source of these oils -- the world's fisheries.

Shell and BP: Still Drilling

Posted on Jun 14, 2006, Source: AlterNet

Shell Oil and British Petroleum are trying to fool the public into thinking they've gone green. We're not buying it.

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