MEDIA: Time for a Global Glasnost, Says Gorbachev By Sabina Zaccaro VENICE, Oct 14 (IPS) - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has warned against the danger of letting the global financial crisis and other emergencies overshadow media attention on climate change.
"This financial turmoil, which will heavily affect the real economy, was absolutely predictable, and it is only one aspect of the wider crisis of all the current development systems," Gorbachev, former president of the former Soviet Union and the 1990 Nobel Peace laureate told IPS in an interview. "In fact, there are connected simultaneous crises that are rapidly emerging. These relate to energy, water, food, demography, climate change and the ecosystem devastation." The idea of unlimited growth has proven to be illusory because the resources of the earth are restricted, and they are running out, he says. "There are two ways of addressing the issue: making no mention of the truth and postpone unpopular decisions, or start telling people the truth and work together for change, while we are still in time. FULL: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44256 ==================================================================== JOSEPH STIGLITZ wrote No modern economy can function well without the government playing an important role. Even free marketeers are now turning to the government. But would it not have been better to have taken action to prevent this meltdown? This is a new kind of public-private partnership - the financial sector walked off with the profits, the public was left with the losses. We need a new balance between market and government. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
