The G-20 meeting in London was widely considered a triumph for Barack Obama and the West. (Even Paul Krugman said so.) The Guardian's George Monbiot sees it differently, He writes:
Here is the text of the G20 communique, in compressed form.
"We,
the Leaders of the Group of Twenty, will use every cent we don't
possess to rescue corporate capitalism from its contradictions and set
the world economy back onto the path of unsustainable growth. We have
already spent trillions of dollars of your money on bailing out the
banks, so that they can be returned to their proper functions of
fleecing the poor and wrecking the Earth's living systems. Now we're
going to spend another $1.1 trillion. As an exemplary punishment for
their long record of promoting crises, we will give the IMF and the
World Bank even more of your money. These actions constitute the
greatest mobilisation of resources to support global financial flows in
modern times.
about the environment. We don't have any definite plans as yet, but
we'll think of something in due course."
Perhaps the collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antartica will remind the world of what is at stake — nothing less than the planet we know (and presumably love) today.
Oh, right. I'm dreaming. Never mind.
Kit Stolz 