SC SM / PC / SVT / SC TECH / SC ECO
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
LM HUMANITIES / HUMAN SCIENCES
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
LM ARTS JUNE 2011
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
Friday, 24 June 2011
THE MOROCCAN BACCALAUREATE ENGLISH EXAM JUNE 2011 KEY AND MARKING SCALE ALL STREAMS
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
SC SM / PC / SVT / SC TECH / SC ECO
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
LM HUMANITIES / HUMAN SCIENCES
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
LM ARTS JUNE 2011
SC SM / PC / SVT / SC TECH / SC ECO
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
LM HUMANITIES / HUMAN SCIENCES
KEY AND MARKING SCALE
LM ARTS JUNE 2011
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
IF I WERE A GREEK, I WOULD BE OUT ON THE STREETS TOO
IF I WERE A GREEK, I WOULD BE OUT ON THE STREETS TOO
Why should Greeks accept austerity when they know foreign taxpayers will finance their extravagence?
Simon Jenkins
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 June 2011
What would you do this morning if you were a Greek? Would you agree to your government cutting public sector jobs, pay and pensions, and increasing taxes? Or would you do what thousands of Greeks are doing and take to the streets, calling the bluff of Germans and French and making them dig deeper into their pockets?
I would not hesitate. I would take to the streets. Britain may not have that option, but Greece does. Eurozone bankers have been lending the Greeks loads of money for years, knowing they could not repay and assuming Europe's taxpayers would come to the rescue. The rescue is now costing $155bn and rising. This is not to save Greece's economy but merely to service the loans it already has. Why should Greeks accept the anguish of austerity when they know their extravagance will be financed from across Hamlet's "bourn from which no traveller returns", from foreign taxpayers beyond the grave?
Closer European union, so called, was a bad idea for precisely the reason now seen on the streets of Athens. It was an attempt by a supranational economic authority to supersede national democracy. Bluntly, it assumed the commercial culture of "greater Germany" could be imposed on a wide variety of cultures by virtue of geographical propinquity. Countries with a high propensity to work and save would discipline those with a lower one. Banks would finance it all. It was fantasy born of utopia, the perfect precondition for a sovereign credit bubble.
Greece is to a united Europe what Northern Ireland is to the United Kingdom. It forms just 2% of the European economy – having been admitted in the latter's most imperial earlier phase in 1981 and richly subsidised ever since. Greek politics has adjusted to half of all workers being reliant on the state. Eight hundred thousand civil servants have their jobs protected by the constitution. Prevented by euro membership from devaluing its currency, Greece has found the cost of financing its budget deficit way beyond its capacity. But this is no problem as Europe continues its subsidies and stands behind its loans. In particular, Germany always pays.
Now Germany is fed up – but it is fed up with the inevitable consequence of its own unionism. The EU admitted Greece when it was just seven years from corrupt military dictatorship; 30 years since, it still produces governments addicted to external support. There is no way Greece can sustain an overnight shift to Germanic efficiency, with an overvalued currency, slashed wages and hundreds of thousands thrown out of work. The parallel with Weimar Germany is too uncomfortable.
Sometimes political theory meshes with practice to serve a nasty message. If you invent a federation that requires nations to converge their economies, you must accept what happens when convergence fails. The Greeks were openly encouraged to believe that EU taxpayers would ease them painlessly into a modern economy, a foolish, implausible and now dangerous prospectus. Eurosceptics said so at the time.
Europe's paymasters can huff and puff, just as Greece's politicians can pledge and promise, but come the July meeting of the eurozone financiers, they will do what the politics of the moment demands, which is to keep the money flowing down Europe's arteries into Greece's bank balances. Europe will pay and Greece will again be off the hook.
There may be some "debt reordering" but the banks have already insisted they will help only in a "purely voluntary" role in this. As during the credit crunch they expect their risk-taking to be underpinned by Europe's taxpayers. The banks will play their old trump card, promising a "global credit meltdown" if Greece is not helped to finance its debts. Any hysteria will do to avoid them losing money.
The Greek predicament is a system failure. Democracy works only where accountability bites, where taxing and spending within a given timeframe are related to voting for party representatives. It arose in Greek city states, where people knew and could discipline each other in the arts of war and peace. It is thus within Britain's "united kingdom". No one talks about a Northern Irish budgetary crisis because that budget is subsumed under a general consensus. However economically rotten parts of the UK may be, London always pays.
European union requires richer nations to subsidise poorer ones. This includes Britain because, whatever David Cameron says, it signed up to "ever closer union" with Greece. These cross-subsidies, especially those supporting sovereign debts in Greece, Portugal and Ireland, enjoy no democratic accountability. They are the creation of banks and browbeaten ministers at late-night meetings. The ministers are the Fifa of high finance, an oligarchy in thrall to lobbies and special interests, floating on national subscriptions.
I assumed that one day Germany would get fed up with having its 20th-century war guilt exploited by a spendthrift Europe. But that day is not today. German and other banks need Europe's taxpayers to bail out their Greek and other loans. Debt must be indulged and subsidised again, whatever the political spin that covers it.
Everyone seems to agree that what should happen will not happen – that is a shrinking of the eurozone, a devaluation of Europe's peripheral "currencies" and a corresponding cut in their indebtedness. Germany and France, the joint custodians of "Europe", are not ready for such a step. A union is a potent thing. It usually takes a war to break one up, and Europe is not at war.
The EU has become so constitutionally flawed that few of its states dare put continued membership to referendum. The lesson is clear. Sovereign states with distinct political cultures should never surrender control over internal affairs to foreign agencies unless their people are amenable to such a loss of autonomy. Greeks eagerly joined the EU and the euro because they thought there was money in it. They were absolutely right. Why should anyone reject 30 years of such gift horses when others are paying?
European union was a commendable bid to rectify the failings of the past. But it is now something quite different, a bid to dump the failings of the present on the heads of the future. As a result one cynical motto should be hung round the neck of every EU institution: don't worry, the children will pay.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/21/eurozone-greece-debt-crisis
Why should Greeks accept austerity when they know foreign taxpayers will finance their extravagence?
Simon Jenkins
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 June 2011
What would you do this morning if you were a Greek? Would you agree to your government cutting public sector jobs, pay and pensions, and increasing taxes? Or would you do what thousands of Greeks are doing and take to the streets, calling the bluff of Germans and French and making them dig deeper into their pockets?
I would not hesitate. I would take to the streets. Britain may not have that option, but Greece does. Eurozone bankers have been lending the Greeks loads of money for years, knowing they could not repay and assuming Europe's taxpayers would come to the rescue. The rescue is now costing $155bn and rising. This is not to save Greece's economy but merely to service the loans it already has. Why should Greeks accept the anguish of austerity when they know their extravagance will be financed from across Hamlet's "bourn from which no traveller returns", from foreign taxpayers beyond the grave?
Closer European union, so called, was a bad idea for precisely the reason now seen on the streets of Athens. It was an attempt by a supranational economic authority to supersede national democracy. Bluntly, it assumed the commercial culture of "greater Germany" could be imposed on a wide variety of cultures by virtue of geographical propinquity. Countries with a high propensity to work and save would discipline those with a lower one. Banks would finance it all. It was fantasy born of utopia, the perfect precondition for a sovereign credit bubble.
Greece is to a united Europe what Northern Ireland is to the United Kingdom. It forms just 2% of the European economy – having been admitted in the latter's most imperial earlier phase in 1981 and richly subsidised ever since. Greek politics has adjusted to half of all workers being reliant on the state. Eight hundred thousand civil servants have their jobs protected by the constitution. Prevented by euro membership from devaluing its currency, Greece has found the cost of financing its budget deficit way beyond its capacity. But this is no problem as Europe continues its subsidies and stands behind its loans. In particular, Germany always pays.
Now Germany is fed up – but it is fed up with the inevitable consequence of its own unionism. The EU admitted Greece when it was just seven years from corrupt military dictatorship; 30 years since, it still produces governments addicted to external support. There is no way Greece can sustain an overnight shift to Germanic efficiency, with an overvalued currency, slashed wages and hundreds of thousands thrown out of work. The parallel with Weimar Germany is too uncomfortable.
Sometimes political theory meshes with practice to serve a nasty message. If you invent a federation that requires nations to converge their economies, you must accept what happens when convergence fails. The Greeks were openly encouraged to believe that EU taxpayers would ease them painlessly into a modern economy, a foolish, implausible and now dangerous prospectus. Eurosceptics said so at the time.
Europe's paymasters can huff and puff, just as Greece's politicians can pledge and promise, but come the July meeting of the eurozone financiers, they will do what the politics of the moment demands, which is to keep the money flowing down Europe's arteries into Greece's bank balances. Europe will pay and Greece will again be off the hook.
There may be some "debt reordering" but the banks have already insisted they will help only in a "purely voluntary" role in this. As during the credit crunch they expect their risk-taking to be underpinned by Europe's taxpayers. The banks will play their old trump card, promising a "global credit meltdown" if Greece is not helped to finance its debts. Any hysteria will do to avoid them losing money.
The Greek predicament is a system failure. Democracy works only where accountability bites, where taxing and spending within a given timeframe are related to voting for party representatives. It arose in Greek city states, where people knew and could discipline each other in the arts of war and peace. It is thus within Britain's "united kingdom". No one talks about a Northern Irish budgetary crisis because that budget is subsumed under a general consensus. However economically rotten parts of the UK may be, London always pays.
European union requires richer nations to subsidise poorer ones. This includes Britain because, whatever David Cameron says, it signed up to "ever closer union" with Greece. These cross-subsidies, especially those supporting sovereign debts in Greece, Portugal and Ireland, enjoy no democratic accountability. They are the creation of banks and browbeaten ministers at late-night meetings. The ministers are the Fifa of high finance, an oligarchy in thrall to lobbies and special interests, floating on national subscriptions.
I assumed that one day Germany would get fed up with having its 20th-century war guilt exploited by a spendthrift Europe. But that day is not today. German and other banks need Europe's taxpayers to bail out their Greek and other loans. Debt must be indulged and subsidised again, whatever the political spin that covers it.
Everyone seems to agree that what should happen will not happen – that is a shrinking of the eurozone, a devaluation of Europe's peripheral "currencies" and a corresponding cut in their indebtedness. Germany and France, the joint custodians of "Europe", are not ready for such a step. A union is a potent thing. It usually takes a war to break one up, and Europe is not at war.
The EU has become so constitutionally flawed that few of its states dare put continued membership to referendum. The lesson is clear. Sovereign states with distinct political cultures should never surrender control over internal affairs to foreign agencies unless their people are amenable to such a loss of autonomy. Greeks eagerly joined the EU and the euro because they thought there was money in it. They were absolutely right. Why should anyone reject 30 years of such gift horses when others are paying?
European union was a commendable bid to rectify the failings of the past. But it is now something quite different, a bid to dump the failings of the present on the heads of the future. As a result one cynical motto should be hung round the neck of every EU institution: don't worry, the children will pay.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/21/eurozone-greece-debt-crisis
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
THE MOROCCAN BACCALAUREATE ENGLISH EXAM JUNE 2011 ALL STREAMS
THE MOROCCAN BACCALAUREATE ENGLISH EXAM JUNE 2011 ALL STREAMS
SC SM / PC / SVT / SC TECH / SC ECO JUNE 2011
LM HUMANITIES / HUMAN SCIENCES JUNE 2011
LM ARTS JUNE 2011
SC SM / PC / SVT / SC TECH / SC ECO JUNE 2011
LM HUMANITIES / HUMAN SCIENCES JUNE 2011
LM ARTS JUNE 2011
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
Saturday, 4 June 2011
THE DETERMINATION OF THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS
AUTUMN OF THE AUTOCRATS?
THE DETERMINATION OF THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS
By ESAM AL-AMIN
June 3, 2011
After the relatively swift triumphs of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions in deposing their dictators earlier this year, other Arab dictators drew a different set of lessons than their populations did.
Fed up with decades of repression, corruption, and the break down of state institutions, as well as the complete loss of faith in any meaningful political or social reforms in their societies, people across the Arab world this spring have waged simultaneous mass movements to force sweeping changes.
Arab autocrats, sustained for decades by the powerful security state, were shocked and startled as they observed in horror the dismantling of the security apparatuses in Tunisia and Egypt, facing fearless populace willing to sacrifice their lives to liberate themselves from the yoke of tyranny and regain their freedoms and dignity.
To their credit, in both the Tunisian and Egyptian models, the armies refused to shoot at their people after the failure of the security forces to clamp down. The popular uprisings spread across each country with incredible determination and zeal as the fear barrier of the ruthless regimes completely broke down.
Shortly after the fall of the Egyptian dictator, people across the Arab world took to the streets in peaceful uprisings against their long time repressive rulers. The concurrent massive demonstrations were especially widespread in Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain, against the decades-old repressive regimes of Muammar Gaddhafi in Libya (41 years), Ali Saleh in Yemen (33 years), the Assad family in Syria (Bashar and his father before him- 40 years), and the minority Al-Khalifah dynasty in Bahrain (230 years.)
The primary lesson learned by the Arab masses watching the revolutions unfold in Tunisia and Egypt was that the people’s collective power and determination can ultimately triumph in the face of isolated regimes that have been ruling them with an iron fist.
However, the authoritarian regimes drew different lessons from the Tunisian and Egyptian experience. They did not see the power and determination of the people but the weakness of the regimes and fragility and indecisiveness of its leaders.
In each case, though engulfed in its own particular circumstances and distinct features, the overall framework of how each regime dealt with its own popular uprising is strikingly similar.
As in the Tunisian and Egyptian models the first response of each regime was to rely on the security forces to put a quick end to the uprisings before they spread. When such attempts fail within the first few days, the next step is to try to contain the demonstrations by embracing the demands of the protesters while asking for a return to calm in order to implement reforms.
The problem with these initial steps is that they are perceived by the people as disingenuous and are almost always too late. Like Tunisia and Egypt before them, in each of the cases in Yemen, Libya, Syria, or Bahrain, the initial brutal response of the security forces had an adverse effect and did not stop the protests. In fact, the increasing casualties in the streets intensified the opposition and the revolts became widespread.
For instance, the initial demonstrations that started in Benghazi in mid-February to protest the arrest of a human rights lawyer quickly spread to western Libya, where they were met with repression. Similarly the protests in Yemen spread the same week from Sanaa to the rest of the country as Saleh’s security forces cracked down on the demonstrators. When the people of the southern city of Dar’aa in Syria protested in mid-March calling for freedom and reforms, the protests quickly spread as the Syrian army shortly thereafter surrounded the city killing dozens and arresting hundreds of protesters.
In the next phase of the confrontation between the people and the authoritarian regimes the dictators would call for dialogue and claim to have embraced the calls for reforms. For example, within days of the fall of the eastern city of Benghazi to the opposition, Qaddafi’s son, Saiful Islam, promised that if the protests ended then all demands were on the table. But then he asserted that no reforms or dialogue would be initiated unless the protests ended. President Saleh in Yemen made similar overtures to his people promising to form a national unity government and initiate political reforms if the protests ended.
In Syria the regime announced several steps for political reforms and the end of the state of emergency, which had been in place for almost a half century. The Syrian people held hope that their president would announce, and immediately take steps for far-reaching constitutional and political reforms.
But when the Syrian president addressed the parliament at the end of March it became clear that the reforms embraced by the regime were superficial and vague while requiring a significant amount of time to implement, a ploy that seemed designed to contain the popular uprising. Moreover, the party officials entrusted to propose and implement these reforms were themselves people known to defend the status quo that has favored them for decades.
As in Egypt, when the trick of calling for dialogue and the embrace of a reform agenda fails to attract the people and the opposition groups – mostly marginalized for decades- the regimes would then mobilize their supporters to mount counter-demonstrations.
However, many of the supporters of these regimes act like goons, bullies, and criminals, as they beat up and abuse the opposition. Such elements supporting the regimes include thousands of security officers or party loyalists roaming the streets in civilian clothes. They were called baltagies in Egypt, balatega in Yemen and Shabbiha in Syria. Their main role is to brutalize the people and punish them for their protests in a desperate attempt to halt them. But often times, the end result is the opposite as the people link these thugs to the regimes and become even more enraged.
As the casualties mount and international condemnations of the regimes become widespread, the dictators employ a new tactic by charging that there are armed “Islamic terrorist” groups tied to Al-Qaeda who are killing the protesters and wreaking havoc upon society.
Ultimately, the main strategy of each regime is to regain the initiative from the streets so they continue to use these different tactics in order to split the opposition or wear down the people. Endless promises, delay tactics, and old style propaganda techniques and maneuvers are utilized. President Saleh employed his infamous delaying schemes to wear down the opposition, thus promising to step down five different times as a result of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative, only to renege each time. Eventually, the GCC itself completely abandoned its own initiative. The Syrian president officially lifted the state of emergency. Yet since then, over 1200 people have lost their lives and over 12,000 have been detained without trial. Electricity as well as water and phone lines were cut off from some cities that were under siege by the military for many days.
Watching Hosni Mubarak, his sons, and other high-ranking officials in Egypt dragged to prison and tried for political and financial corruption solidified in the minds of these regimes the fate that awaits them. In essence, the dictators and their cronies are fighting, not just to stay in power, but also to literally escape punishment for their crimes. But perhaps the most brutal and effective tactic to derail any peaceful revolution is to drag the country into civil war.
Regional players such as Israel and the Saudi ruling family, as well as other international players are very nervous about the popular discontent and the changes sweeping the region. The status quo has benefited these regimes and the international order for a long time.
People in the Arab world are instead determined to rely on themselves with an uncompromising will to continue their just struggle for freedom and dignity echoing the voice of another young leader in the Latin American jungles many decades ago, as Che Guevara reminded his comrades “Until victory always” but “better to die standing, than to live on your knees.”
THE DETERMINATION OF THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS
By ESAM AL-AMIN
June 3, 2011
After the relatively swift triumphs of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions in deposing their dictators earlier this year, other Arab dictators drew a different set of lessons than their populations did.
Fed up with decades of repression, corruption, and the break down of state institutions, as well as the complete loss of faith in any meaningful political or social reforms in their societies, people across the Arab world this spring have waged simultaneous mass movements to force sweeping changes.
Arab autocrats, sustained for decades by the powerful security state, were shocked and startled as they observed in horror the dismantling of the security apparatuses in Tunisia and Egypt, facing fearless populace willing to sacrifice their lives to liberate themselves from the yoke of tyranny and regain their freedoms and dignity.
To their credit, in both the Tunisian and Egyptian models, the armies refused to shoot at their people after the failure of the security forces to clamp down. The popular uprisings spread across each country with incredible determination and zeal as the fear barrier of the ruthless regimes completely broke down.
Shortly after the fall of the Egyptian dictator, people across the Arab world took to the streets in peaceful uprisings against their long time repressive rulers. The concurrent massive demonstrations were especially widespread in Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain, against the decades-old repressive regimes of Muammar Gaddhafi in Libya (41 years), Ali Saleh in Yemen (33 years), the Assad family in Syria (Bashar and his father before him- 40 years), and the minority Al-Khalifah dynasty in Bahrain (230 years.)
The primary lesson learned by the Arab masses watching the revolutions unfold in Tunisia and Egypt was that the people’s collective power and determination can ultimately triumph in the face of isolated regimes that have been ruling them with an iron fist.
However, the authoritarian regimes drew different lessons from the Tunisian and Egyptian experience. They did not see the power and determination of the people but the weakness of the regimes and fragility and indecisiveness of its leaders.
In each case, though engulfed in its own particular circumstances and distinct features, the overall framework of how each regime dealt with its own popular uprising is strikingly similar.
As in the Tunisian and Egyptian models the first response of each regime was to rely on the security forces to put a quick end to the uprisings before they spread. When such attempts fail within the first few days, the next step is to try to contain the demonstrations by embracing the demands of the protesters while asking for a return to calm in order to implement reforms.
The problem with these initial steps is that they are perceived by the people as disingenuous and are almost always too late. Like Tunisia and Egypt before them, in each of the cases in Yemen, Libya, Syria, or Bahrain, the initial brutal response of the security forces had an adverse effect and did not stop the protests. In fact, the increasing casualties in the streets intensified the opposition and the revolts became widespread.
For instance, the initial demonstrations that started in Benghazi in mid-February to protest the arrest of a human rights lawyer quickly spread to western Libya, where they were met with repression. Similarly the protests in Yemen spread the same week from Sanaa to the rest of the country as Saleh’s security forces cracked down on the demonstrators. When the people of the southern city of Dar’aa in Syria protested in mid-March calling for freedom and reforms, the protests quickly spread as the Syrian army shortly thereafter surrounded the city killing dozens and arresting hundreds of protesters.
In the next phase of the confrontation between the people and the authoritarian regimes the dictators would call for dialogue and claim to have embraced the calls for reforms. For example, within days of the fall of the eastern city of Benghazi to the opposition, Qaddafi’s son, Saiful Islam, promised that if the protests ended then all demands were on the table. But then he asserted that no reforms or dialogue would be initiated unless the protests ended. President Saleh in Yemen made similar overtures to his people promising to form a national unity government and initiate political reforms if the protests ended.
In Syria the regime announced several steps for political reforms and the end of the state of emergency, which had been in place for almost a half century. The Syrian people held hope that their president would announce, and immediately take steps for far-reaching constitutional and political reforms.
But when the Syrian president addressed the parliament at the end of March it became clear that the reforms embraced by the regime were superficial and vague while requiring a significant amount of time to implement, a ploy that seemed designed to contain the popular uprising. Moreover, the party officials entrusted to propose and implement these reforms were themselves people known to defend the status quo that has favored them for decades.
As in Egypt, when the trick of calling for dialogue and the embrace of a reform agenda fails to attract the people and the opposition groups – mostly marginalized for decades- the regimes would then mobilize their supporters to mount counter-demonstrations.
However, many of the supporters of these regimes act like goons, bullies, and criminals, as they beat up and abuse the opposition. Such elements supporting the regimes include thousands of security officers or party loyalists roaming the streets in civilian clothes. They were called baltagies in Egypt, balatega in Yemen and Shabbiha in Syria. Their main role is to brutalize the people and punish them for their protests in a desperate attempt to halt them. But often times, the end result is the opposite as the people link these thugs to the regimes and become even more enraged.
As the casualties mount and international condemnations of the regimes become widespread, the dictators employ a new tactic by charging that there are armed “Islamic terrorist” groups tied to Al-Qaeda who are killing the protesters and wreaking havoc upon society.
Ultimately, the main strategy of each regime is to regain the initiative from the streets so they continue to use these different tactics in order to split the opposition or wear down the people. Endless promises, delay tactics, and old style propaganda techniques and maneuvers are utilized. President Saleh employed his infamous delaying schemes to wear down the opposition, thus promising to step down five different times as a result of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative, only to renege each time. Eventually, the GCC itself completely abandoned its own initiative. The Syrian president officially lifted the state of emergency. Yet since then, over 1200 people have lost their lives and over 12,000 have been detained without trial. Electricity as well as water and phone lines were cut off from some cities that were under siege by the military for many days.
Watching Hosni Mubarak, his sons, and other high-ranking officials in Egypt dragged to prison and tried for political and financial corruption solidified in the minds of these regimes the fate that awaits them. In essence, the dictators and their cronies are fighting, not just to stay in power, but also to literally escape punishment for their crimes. But perhaps the most brutal and effective tactic to derail any peaceful revolution is to drag the country into civil war.
Regional players such as Israel and the Saudi ruling family, as well as other international players are very nervous about the popular discontent and the changes sweeping the region. The status quo has benefited these regimes and the international order for a long time.
People in the Arab world are instead determined to rely on themselves with an uncompromising will to continue their just struggle for freedom and dignity echoing the voice of another young leader in the Latin American jungles many decades ago, as Che Guevara reminded his comrades “Until victory always” but “better to die standing, than to live on your knees.”
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
2BAC ENGLISH EXAM LANGUAGE PRACTICE ANSWERS
2BAC ENGLISH EXAM LANGUAGE PRACTICE
GIVE THE CORRECT FORM OF THE VERBS IN BRACKETS.
1-She (study)……….for four years at university before she got married.
Had studied or had been studying
2-The number of Moroccan NGOs (double) ………..by the year 2018.
Will have doubled
3-He got a good mark because he (revise)…………well before.
Had revised
4-The teacher (start)…………the lesson before we got in the classroom.
Had started
5-She (finish)……….her homework and then she went to bed.
Had finished
6-Many illiterate people got enrolled because the ministry of education (launch)……….. a literacy programme.
Had launched
7-She set up a small enterprise after she (become)…………… an educated woman.
Had become
8-By the end of this decade, more women (become) ……………….. more educated.
Will have become
9-Last month, he got a prize from the association because he (make)………..great efforts in assisting illiterate people.
Had made
10-Students must keep on (do)………well at school.
Doing
11-I can't imagine Sally (play)………..the saxophone.
Playing
12-After my aunt (do)………..a lot of housework yesterday, she went to her literacy class.
Had done
13-When I met him yesterday, he told me that he (learn)………….his lessons for the test.
Had learnt / learned
14-By the end of this decade, young people (regain)………..confidence in political parties.
Will have regained
15-Paul is fond of (watch)………..political TV shows.
Watching
16-Nadia (never read) ………..such an interesting story before she moved to university in Spain.
Had never read
17-She felt tired because she (work)……………..a lot all the week.
Had worked or had been working
18-Gifted people are used to (score)………..best in every competition.
Scoring
19-He (have)……….. a part-time job for two years before he finished his university studies.
Had had
20-By the end of the second decade, most Moroccan big cities (be)………….. linked by highway.
Will have been
21-Developing rural areas (become)…………….a necessity by 2015.
Will have become
22-By 2017, many youths (start)………….to take part in political life.
Will have started
23-Sami is looking forward to (get)…………the first mark in the Olympiad of Maths organised in Rabat next month.
Getting
24-I enjoy (read)…………. novels because I feel transported in the world of imagination.
Reading
25-The young athlete was upset about (lose)………… the race.
Losing
26-The young inventors agreed (set up)…………… a worldwide association.
To set up
27-Are you thinking of (participate)…………. in the national contest for young entrepreneurs?
Participating
28-My parents are looking forward to (celebrate)…………. my success in the baccalaureate examination.
Celebrating
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT LINKING WORD FROM THE LIST
due to / as a result / because of / however / therefore / despite / moreover / as well as / although / in spite / consequently /
1-She gets higher marks…………studying in difficult conditions.
In spite of / despite
2-Her parents were illiterate……….., they didn't send her to school when she was young.
As a result / therefore / consequently
3-She couldn't see or hear,…………, she was able to feel people's hands.
However
4- …………..of his illiteracy, Jamal is a member in different human rights organisations.
In spite
5-Greenpeace is a non-profit organisation,…………… , its work is voluntary.
Moreover
6- ……………many organisations denounce human right violations, there are still many victims.
Although
7- ……………of spending much time at work, working women are able to perfectly manage their households.
In spite
8- ………..globalisation has a positive impact on Moroccan women's situation; there is fear of losing local traditions.
Although
9- ………… being illiterate, some women use the magazine's pictures as resources for dressmaking.
Despite
10-Better schools attract families to move to the city,………., classes become crowded.
As a result / therefore / consequently
11-City life appears more interesting………… , people draw away from rural communities.
As a result / therefore / consequently
12-Educated working women look after their houses. …………. their husbands and children.
As well as
13-Moroccan rural women need education …………health care.
As well as
14-Many developing nations are in debt and poverty…………drought and lack of rain.
Due to / because of
15-Educated women have fewer children…………… , they have better personal life and nutrition.
Moreover
16-Cities have grown so large……………the increasing industrialisation.
Due to / because of
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE APPROPRIATE PHRASAL VERB
to apply for / turned down / handed out / look up / drop in / put off / find out / cut down on / brings about / put up
1-The teacher………..an article to students about Moroccan and British cultural values.
Handed out
2-The teacher told the students to…………the meanings of difficult words in the dictionary.
Look up
3-Intolerance…………dislike and conflicts.
Brings about
4-They didn’t ………….. this year's Mawazin festival.
Put off
5-In France, you can't………….to a friend's house unless you get his permission.
Drop in
6-If he doesn't…………..fast food, he will get more obese.
Cut down on
7-He didn't stay in a hotel. Some relatives………him ………...
Put up
8-The local cultural festival has been…………….. but I didn't…………. until a few days ago.
Put off / find out
9-When Jamal went ………….a visa to England, they………………. his application .
To apply for / turned down
REWRITE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES AS SUGGESTED
1-"A lot of people participated in the campaign."
He said that…………………………………….
A lot of people had participated….
2-"I will participate in a conference on citizenship."
He told the journalists that…………………………
He would participate ……
3-"How long are you going to stay there?"
He wanted to know………………………………..
How long I was going to stay / we were going to stay there.
4-"Did you watch yesterday's show about citizenship?
He asked me ……………………………………….
If I / we had watched yesterday’s show…..
5-"Don't underestimate voluntary work."
He told me …………………………………………
Not to underestimate…..
6-"Please, bring me a copy of the report."
He begged me……………………………….
To bring him……..
7-"How can I help in sensitising people to become good citizens?"
He asked the audience…………………………………………
How he could help in……
8-"Responsibility means being in charge of our choices and our lives."
The teacher explained that ………………………………………
Responsibility meant being in ………
9-My friend didn’t write his report last week because he didn’t have enough time.
If……………………………………………………………………………….
He had had enough money, he would / could / might have written his report.
10-He didn’t connect on the net because he didn’t have the password.
If……………………………………………………………………….
He had had the password, he would / could / might have connected on the net.
11-He couldn't go to the cyber café because he had no money.
If………………………………………………………………
He had had money / some money, he would / could / might have gone to the cyber café.
He had had money / some money, he could have been able to go to the cyber café.
12-The teacher gave him a bad mark because he didn’t do the homework.
If………………………………………………………………….
He had done the homework, the teacher wouldn’t have given him a bad mark.
13-My friend couldn't call an ambulance because his mobile phone did not work.
If …………………………………………………………………….
My friend’s mobile phone had worked, he would / could / might have called an ambulance.
My friend’s mobile phone had worked, he could have been able to call an ambulance.
14-He ate a lot, so he had a terrible stomach-ache.
If……………………………………………………………………..
He hadn’t eaten a lot, he wouldn’t have had a terrible stomach-ache.
15-Our government opened new schools. They wanted to reduce illiteracy rates.
Our government opened new schools so that…………………………………….
Would / could reduce illiteracy rates
16-Radio and television are used because they wanted to reach people everywhere.
Radio and television are used in order………………………………………………..
To reach people everywhere.
That they would / could reach people everywhere.
17-Adults go to literacy classes. They want to learn how to read and write.
Adults go to literacy classes so that ………………………………………………….
They will / can learn how to read and write.
18-They use the media. They want to sensitise people to the advantages of literacy.
They use the media so that …………………………………………………………….
They will / can sensitise people to the advantages of literacy.
19-Husbands should give a helping hand to housewives.
A helping hand………………………………………..
Should be given to housewives by husbands.
20-Women direct many associations.
Many associations…………………………………..
Are directed by women.
21-They gave a Nobel Prize to Marie Curie.
A Nobel Prize………………………………
Was given to Marie Curie.
22-People have admired Celin Dion for some decades.
Celin Dion………………………………………………
Has been admired for some decades.
23-The NGO will grant more micro credits to unskilled women.
More micro credits…………………………………………..
Will be granted to unskilled women by The NGO.
24-A women association has recently honoured many women.
Many women…………………………………………………..
Have recently been honoured by a women association.
25-The Moroccan woman's associations support maid servants.
Maid servants……………………………………………………
Are supported the Moroccan woman's associations.
26-People shouldn't consider as inferior.
Women……………………………………………………………
Shouldn’t be considered as inferior.
27-The Prime Minister is going to present a new economic plan to the Parliament.
A new economic plan………………………………………………….
Is going to be presented to the Parliament by the Prime Minister.
28-Said Naciri will open a new morning talk show on 2M.
A new morning talk show………………………………….
Will be opened on 2M by Said Naciri.
29-They have translated her books into many languages.
Her books……………………………………………………..
Have been translated into many languages.
30-Society must offer women more opportunities.
More opportunities………………………………………………..
Must be offered to women by society.
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT MODAL
had to / must / must have / can't
1-The audience has been watching Mr. Bean's film for more than two hours. The film ………..be interesting.
Must
2-I want to watch Mr. Beans' film but the CD player isn't working. The children …………damaged it.
Must have
3-If Brahim doesn't have a password, he …………..have access to the humorous web sites.
Can’t
4-Yesterday, Brahim and Ann ……………stay late to watch the film.
Had to
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT RELATIVE PRONOUN
which / who / whose
1-One of the problems ……………..the Arab countries suffer from is brain drain.
Which
2-My uncle, ……………….got his university degree, emigrated to Canada to continue his studies.
Who
3-India, ……..highly skilled labour is IT engineers, has remarkably succeeded in reversing brain drain lo brain gain.
Whose
4-Experts………….came from around 50 African countries were given a special reception at the hotel.
Who
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT COLLOCATION
common good / culture shock / family code / sustainable development / civil society / rural areas / renewable energies / boarding school /
1- ……………..is concerned with society's needs and well being in the short, medium and long term.
Sustainable development
2-Non-governmental, non-profit organisations and voluntary associations make up what is referred to as ……… .
Civil society
3-One way to sustain development is to link ………..with urban ones.
Rural areas
4-A person may experience ………… when he moves to a cultural environment which is different from his own.
Culture shock
5-Thanks to the new Moroccan……………, the status of women has noticeably changed.
Family code
6- …………..are forms of energy that are renewed as quickly as they are used (ex. solar energy, wind, etc) .
Renewable energies
7-As our family used to live in the countryside, I had to go to a …………….. live and study.
Boarding school
8-A good citizen always works for the……………….of his community.
Common good
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT WORD
skilled / tempting / invest / donations / campaigns / charter / bilateral / conference / equality / ignorance / inferiority / associations / emancipation / stereotypes / non-governmental / literacy / compulsory / dropouts / partnership / abstract / skills / eclectic / motivated
1-Countries should settle………..conflicts by peaceful means and shouldn’t resort to war.
Bilateral
2-Gifted youths are able to understand…………….concepts and ideas.
Abstract
3-Our government signed a……………. with many NGOs to work together to combat illiteracy.
Partnership
4-All over the world, women have always had a continuous struggle for their…………….. .
Emancipation
5-The fourth world………………. about women took place in China in 1995.
Conference
6-Talented professionals immigrate to developed countries to earn………….wages and secure a better future.
Tempting
7-The World Bank urged countries to……………. in education to develop economy and combat poverty effectively.
Invest
8-To keep their independence from governmental influence, NGOs are financed by………and benevolent contributions.
Donations
9-Amnesty International is an independent pressure group which……..for the release of imprisoned or maltreated people.
Campaigns
10-According to the United Nations …………. , member states shouldn’t use force against other member states.
Charter
11-Many human rights associations call for ……………between men and women in public and political life.
Equality
12-Women's illiteracy and ………….are linked together.
Ignorance
13-Women feel a complex of……………. . They are as equal as others.
Inferiority
14-1,000,000 of highly ………..professionals entered the American labour market between 1990 and 2000.
Skilled
15-The ministry of education launched a ………… programme in order to encourage adults to be educated.
Literacy
16-In Morocco, there are many human rights ………..that combat violence against women.
Associations
17-Primary education in Morocco is ……….. ; parents must send their children to school.
Compulsory
18-Gifted youths are highly ………….as they show great willingness to learn new things and examine unusual ideas.
Motivated
19-Negative ……………are obstacles that hinder women's advancement in different domains.
Stereotypes
20-Gifted youths commonly learn basic …………….quickly, and with little practice.
Skills
21-More efforts should be made to encourage ………… to return to school.
Dropouts
22-Greenpeace is a …..organisation that works for environmental conservation and the preservation of endangered species.
Non-governmental
23-Gifted youths are………in their way of thinking. They select the things that are suitable and appropriate to them.
Eclectic
GIVE THE CORRECT FORM OF THE VERBS IN BRACKETS.
1-She (study)……….for four years at university before she got married.
Had studied or had been studying
2-The number of Moroccan NGOs (double) ………..by the year 2018.
Will have doubled
3-He got a good mark because he (revise)…………well before.
Had revised
4-The teacher (start)…………the lesson before we got in the classroom.
Had started
5-She (finish)……….her homework and then she went to bed.
Had finished
6-Many illiterate people got enrolled because the ministry of education (launch)……….. a literacy programme.
Had launched
7-She set up a small enterprise after she (become)…………… an educated woman.
Had become
8-By the end of this decade, more women (become) ……………….. more educated.
Will have become
9-Last month, he got a prize from the association because he (make)………..great efforts in assisting illiterate people.
Had made
10-Students must keep on (do)………well at school.
Doing
11-I can't imagine Sally (play)………..the saxophone.
Playing
12-After my aunt (do)………..a lot of housework yesterday, she went to her literacy class.
Had done
13-When I met him yesterday, he told me that he (learn)………….his lessons for the test.
Had learnt / learned
14-By the end of this decade, young people (regain)………..confidence in political parties.
Will have regained
15-Paul is fond of (watch)………..political TV shows.
Watching
16-Nadia (never read) ………..such an interesting story before she moved to university in Spain.
Had never read
17-She felt tired because she (work)……………..a lot all the week.
Had worked or had been working
18-Gifted people are used to (score)………..best in every competition.
Scoring
19-He (have)……….. a part-time job for two years before he finished his university studies.
Had had
20-By the end of the second decade, most Moroccan big cities (be)………….. linked by highway.
Will have been
21-Developing rural areas (become)…………….a necessity by 2015.
Will have become
22-By 2017, many youths (start)………….to take part in political life.
Will have started
23-Sami is looking forward to (get)…………the first mark in the Olympiad of Maths organised in Rabat next month.
Getting
24-I enjoy (read)…………. novels because I feel transported in the world of imagination.
Reading
25-The young athlete was upset about (lose)………… the race.
Losing
26-The young inventors agreed (set up)…………… a worldwide association.
To set up
27-Are you thinking of (participate)…………. in the national contest for young entrepreneurs?
Participating
28-My parents are looking forward to (celebrate)…………. my success in the baccalaureate examination.
Celebrating
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT LINKING WORD FROM THE LIST
due to / as a result / because of / however / therefore / despite / moreover / as well as / although / in spite / consequently /
1-She gets higher marks…………studying in difficult conditions.
In spite of / despite
2-Her parents were illiterate……….., they didn't send her to school when she was young.
As a result / therefore / consequently
3-She couldn't see or hear,…………, she was able to feel people's hands.
However
4- …………..of his illiteracy, Jamal is a member in different human rights organisations.
In spite
5-Greenpeace is a non-profit organisation,…………… , its work is voluntary.
Moreover
6- ……………many organisations denounce human right violations, there are still many victims.
Although
7- ……………of spending much time at work, working women are able to perfectly manage their households.
In spite
8- ………..globalisation has a positive impact on Moroccan women's situation; there is fear of losing local traditions.
Although
9- ………… being illiterate, some women use the magazine's pictures as resources for dressmaking.
Despite
10-Better schools attract families to move to the city,………., classes become crowded.
As a result / therefore / consequently
11-City life appears more interesting………… , people draw away from rural communities.
As a result / therefore / consequently
12-Educated working women look after their houses. …………. their husbands and children.
As well as
13-Moroccan rural women need education …………health care.
As well as
14-Many developing nations are in debt and poverty…………drought and lack of rain.
Due to / because of
15-Educated women have fewer children…………… , they have better personal life and nutrition.
Moreover
16-Cities have grown so large……………the increasing industrialisation.
Due to / because of
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE APPROPRIATE PHRASAL VERB
to apply for / turned down / handed out / look up / drop in / put off / find out / cut down on / brings about / put up
1-The teacher………..an article to students about Moroccan and British cultural values.
Handed out
2-The teacher told the students to…………the meanings of difficult words in the dictionary.
Look up
3-Intolerance…………dislike and conflicts.
Brings about
4-They didn’t ………….. this year's Mawazin festival.
Put off
5-In France, you can't………….to a friend's house unless you get his permission.
Drop in
6-If he doesn't…………..fast food, he will get more obese.
Cut down on
7-He didn't stay in a hotel. Some relatives………him ………...
Put up
8-The local cultural festival has been…………….. but I didn't…………. until a few days ago.
Put off / find out
9-When Jamal went ………….a visa to England, they………………. his application .
To apply for / turned down
REWRITE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES AS SUGGESTED
1-"A lot of people participated in the campaign."
He said that…………………………………….
A lot of people had participated….
2-"I will participate in a conference on citizenship."
He told the journalists that…………………………
He would participate ……
3-"How long are you going to stay there?"
He wanted to know………………………………..
How long I was going to stay / we were going to stay there.
4-"Did you watch yesterday's show about citizenship?
He asked me ……………………………………….
If I / we had watched yesterday’s show…..
5-"Don't underestimate voluntary work."
He told me …………………………………………
Not to underestimate…..
6-"Please, bring me a copy of the report."
He begged me……………………………….
To bring him……..
7-"How can I help in sensitising people to become good citizens?"
He asked the audience…………………………………………
How he could help in……
8-"Responsibility means being in charge of our choices and our lives."
The teacher explained that ………………………………………
Responsibility meant being in ………
9-My friend didn’t write his report last week because he didn’t have enough time.
If……………………………………………………………………………….
He had had enough money, he would / could / might have written his report.
10-He didn’t connect on the net because he didn’t have the password.
If……………………………………………………………………….
He had had the password, he would / could / might have connected on the net.
11-He couldn't go to the cyber café because he had no money.
If………………………………………………………………
He had had money / some money, he would / could / might have gone to the cyber café.
He had had money / some money, he could have been able to go to the cyber café.
12-The teacher gave him a bad mark because he didn’t do the homework.
If………………………………………………………………….
He had done the homework, the teacher wouldn’t have given him a bad mark.
13-My friend couldn't call an ambulance because his mobile phone did not work.
If …………………………………………………………………….
My friend’s mobile phone had worked, he would / could / might have called an ambulance.
My friend’s mobile phone had worked, he could have been able to call an ambulance.
14-He ate a lot, so he had a terrible stomach-ache.
If……………………………………………………………………..
He hadn’t eaten a lot, he wouldn’t have had a terrible stomach-ache.
15-Our government opened new schools. They wanted to reduce illiteracy rates.
Our government opened new schools so that…………………………………….
Would / could reduce illiteracy rates
16-Radio and television are used because they wanted to reach people everywhere.
Radio and television are used in order………………………………………………..
To reach people everywhere.
That they would / could reach people everywhere.
17-Adults go to literacy classes. They want to learn how to read and write.
Adults go to literacy classes so that ………………………………………………….
They will / can learn how to read and write.
18-They use the media. They want to sensitise people to the advantages of literacy.
They use the media so that …………………………………………………………….
They will / can sensitise people to the advantages of literacy.
19-Husbands should give a helping hand to housewives.
A helping hand………………………………………..
Should be given to housewives by husbands.
20-Women direct many associations.
Many associations…………………………………..
Are directed by women.
21-They gave a Nobel Prize to Marie Curie.
A Nobel Prize………………………………
Was given to Marie Curie.
22-People have admired Celin Dion for some decades.
Celin Dion………………………………………………
Has been admired for some decades.
23-The NGO will grant more micro credits to unskilled women.
More micro credits…………………………………………..
Will be granted to unskilled women by The NGO.
24-A women association has recently honoured many women.
Many women…………………………………………………..
Have recently been honoured by a women association.
25-The Moroccan woman's associations support maid servants.
Maid servants……………………………………………………
Are supported the Moroccan woman's associations.
26-People shouldn't consider as inferior.
Women……………………………………………………………
Shouldn’t be considered as inferior.
27-The Prime Minister is going to present a new economic plan to the Parliament.
A new economic plan………………………………………………….
Is going to be presented to the Parliament by the Prime Minister.
28-Said Naciri will open a new morning talk show on 2M.
A new morning talk show………………………………….
Will be opened on 2M by Said Naciri.
29-They have translated her books into many languages.
Her books……………………………………………………..
Have been translated into many languages.
30-Society must offer women more opportunities.
More opportunities………………………………………………..
Must be offered to women by society.
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT MODAL
had to / must / must have / can't
1-The audience has been watching Mr. Bean's film for more than two hours. The film ………..be interesting.
Must
2-I want to watch Mr. Beans' film but the CD player isn't working. The children …………damaged it.
Must have
3-If Brahim doesn't have a password, he …………..have access to the humorous web sites.
Can’t
4-Yesterday, Brahim and Ann ……………stay late to watch the film.
Had to
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT RELATIVE PRONOUN
which / who / whose
1-One of the problems ……………..the Arab countries suffer from is brain drain.
Which
2-My uncle, ……………….got his university degree, emigrated to Canada to continue his studies.
Who
3-India, ……..highly skilled labour is IT engineers, has remarkably succeeded in reversing brain drain lo brain gain.
Whose
4-Experts………….came from around 50 African countries were given a special reception at the hotel.
Who
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT COLLOCATION
common good / culture shock / family code / sustainable development / civil society / rural areas / renewable energies / boarding school /
1- ……………..is concerned with society's needs and well being in the short, medium and long term.
Sustainable development
2-Non-governmental, non-profit organisations and voluntary associations make up what is referred to as ……… .
Civil society
3-One way to sustain development is to link ………..with urban ones.
Rural areas
4-A person may experience ………… when he moves to a cultural environment which is different from his own.
Culture shock
5-Thanks to the new Moroccan……………, the status of women has noticeably changed.
Family code
6- …………..are forms of energy that are renewed as quickly as they are used (ex. solar energy, wind, etc) .
Renewable energies
7-As our family used to live in the countryside, I had to go to a …………….. live and study.
Boarding school
8-A good citizen always works for the……………….of his community.
Common good
FILL IN THE GAP WITH THE CORRECT WORD
skilled / tempting / invest / donations / campaigns / charter / bilateral / conference / equality / ignorance / inferiority / associations / emancipation / stereotypes / non-governmental / literacy / compulsory / dropouts / partnership / abstract / skills / eclectic / motivated
1-Countries should settle………..conflicts by peaceful means and shouldn’t resort to war.
Bilateral
2-Gifted youths are able to understand…………….concepts and ideas.
Abstract
3-Our government signed a……………. with many NGOs to work together to combat illiteracy.
Partnership
4-All over the world, women have always had a continuous struggle for their…………….. .
Emancipation
5-The fourth world………………. about women took place in China in 1995.
Conference
6-Talented professionals immigrate to developed countries to earn………….wages and secure a better future.
Tempting
7-The World Bank urged countries to……………. in education to develop economy and combat poverty effectively.
Invest
8-To keep their independence from governmental influence, NGOs are financed by………and benevolent contributions.
Donations
9-Amnesty International is an independent pressure group which……..for the release of imprisoned or maltreated people.
Campaigns
10-According to the United Nations …………. , member states shouldn’t use force against other member states.
Charter
11-Many human rights associations call for ……………between men and women in public and political life.
Equality
12-Women's illiteracy and ………….are linked together.
Ignorance
13-Women feel a complex of……………. . They are as equal as others.
Inferiority
14-1,000,000 of highly ………..professionals entered the American labour market between 1990 and 2000.
Skilled
15-The ministry of education launched a ………… programme in order to encourage adults to be educated.
Literacy
16-In Morocco, there are many human rights ………..that combat violence against women.
Associations
17-Primary education in Morocco is ……….. ; parents must send their children to school.
Compulsory
18-Gifted youths are highly ………….as they show great willingness to learn new things and examine unusual ideas.
Motivated
19-Negative ……………are obstacles that hinder women's advancement in different domains.
Stereotypes
20-Gifted youths commonly learn basic …………….quickly, and with little practice.
Skills
21-More efforts should be made to encourage ………… to return to school.
Dropouts
22-Greenpeace is a …..organisation that works for environmental conservation and the preservation of endangered species.
Non-governmental
23-Gifted youths are………in their way of thinking. They select the things that are suitable and appropriate to them.
Eclectic
REGARDS FROM TAHRIR SQUARE REVOLT IN SPAIN
REGARDS FROM TAHRIR SQUARE REVOLT IN SPAIN
CROSSING THE SUN DOOR PLAZA DEL SOL
By CONCHA MATEOS
June 1, 2011
Something that looked impossible is happening.
Not a miracle: there is no God acting, no divine intervention. Only human will and the crowd.
Thousands of people were there, with the same ideas, the same objectives, the same desire for change. They lived in different places and cities and countries, but they were in reality at the same Puerta del Sol, although none of them did know.
One day of May 2011 they happened to gather together driven by the same and only cause.
Have you ever taken a decision together with thousands of people in which each person’s opinion is heard and treated equally?
Thousands of people were there, in the same ideas, in the same objectives, in the same need of changes, in the same Puerta del Sol, but they didn´t know it. The unknowed companions have meet together. Have you ever taken a decision with thousands of people considering them all the same?
The square, whatever square, has become a school in democracy – pure, radical, real, and effective democracy. (Democracia real ya – real democracy now – is the name of one of the groups making up the movement.) While corporations try everyday to captivate audiences sat in front of the TV, swallowing garbage TV entertainments, the protest is in the form of an acampada (camp) in the squares. There you have people listening to each other sitting on the ground taking and sharing the floor. The sun assembly shines every night at Puerta del Sol.
We build agreement where politicians want rivalry. We look for solutions where politicians want oppression. We don’t fight: we resist, we protest creatively. Consent, participation, respect (for one another, for animals, for the environment), dialogue are our methodology. We raise our hands and shout: these are our weapons. And work hard and patiently to reach agreement.
After thousands of years of human civilization, one system of production has appeared in the last period and managed to oppress more people and destroy more resources than ever before.
Beyond its plastic face, capitalism has brought ruin to the way of life of millions of human beings, as well as those regarded as sub- human, the immigrants trying to survive within the sub-democracy, without rights, a place to live or the entitlement to vote, living on a pittance, a dishonor for them but a cause of shame for the rest of us.
The welfare state is being destroyed, huge areas of the planet are condemned never to become part of it.
Another system is possible. Stop lying with your corporate media.
This Spanish revolution is a revolution because people have been changed in the process. That is the first and the main step forward in any protest, the transformation it brings about within the individual.
We were angry at the beginning. Capitalism has wasted four centuries spreading out reasons for the protest, barriers we have climb over to get a job, to get a house, to get an education, to get healthcare, to win political, social and cultural rights, real rights, to defend our dignity.
Corruption, privilege, politicians paid by corporations to manipulate the economic system, putty in corporate hands, TV entertainment offered us instead of participation. Capitalism planted the seeds of the anger of the indignados. But outrage is not our goal. We are not doing this to remain angry.
The indignation we felt was identified a long time ago. But who were “we”? Nobody knew. But we do now. We discovered this “we” in Puerta del Sol on 15th May, 15th, we discovered that our indignation is wide spread, we are thousands of people, a booming process of collective conscience.
A new political subject has emerged. We are the first to be transformed. That is because this is a revolution.
We have rescued that word from TV and cultural theory. We are giving back its meaning to the people, ordinary people throughout Madrid’s various neighborhoods made their voices heard in meetings held last Saturday (May 28). Hundreds of local assemblies held throughout Spain, with women, men, mothers, grandfathers, students, professors, workers, immigrants, real people living a real democracy taking shape in their local areas for the first time in their lives.
Indignation became joy. And now that joy is seeing us through to organizing.
Anger plus joy produces strength. Strength plus organization is the start of structural change.
Yes, we camp. We have camped and we will camp into the future.
The Puerta del Sol camp is not going to fade away; it is going to explode, to set up camp deep in the thinking of people. No police force or government can remove it from the mind of the new political subject that has burst onto the stage shouting Democracia real ya.
Remove the current electoral system, get rid of the economic privileges the political class has allowed itself, make the corporations responsible for the crisis pay for the crisis, stop the economic reforms dictated by international economic power, and let our reason govern our world, not the capitalist reason. Claim, support and defend all this through democratic meetings, horizontally, and peacefully. It is happening, and it is not a miracle. It is something more powerful, a lot of people have experienced the pleasure of recovering the political sense of our lives. Debate and decide in assembly.
We held two general assemblies yesterday, May 29. The assembly of local committees in the morning and the general one at night, lasting more than four hours each. The need and the plan and the dream of restructuring the camp at Puerta del Sol, a camp that is a symbol and reference point for so many people. We connected live with companions in Athens and Paris. We condemned the police actions against them.
Have you ever taken a decision with thousands of people in a public square? Have you ever experienced the energy of that collective will and responsibility?
It is hard work. To turn anger into joy, and joy into agreement for action. Truly hard labor, but the only one that can give us back our dignity.
CROSSING THE SUN DOOR PLAZA DEL SOL
By CONCHA MATEOS
June 1, 2011
Something that looked impossible is happening.
Not a miracle: there is no God acting, no divine intervention. Only human will and the crowd.
Thousands of people were there, with the same ideas, the same objectives, the same desire for change. They lived in different places and cities and countries, but they were in reality at the same Puerta del Sol, although none of them did know.
One day of May 2011 they happened to gather together driven by the same and only cause.
Have you ever taken a decision together with thousands of people in which each person’s opinion is heard and treated equally?
Thousands of people were there, in the same ideas, in the same objectives, in the same need of changes, in the same Puerta del Sol, but they didn´t know it. The unknowed companions have meet together. Have you ever taken a decision with thousands of people considering them all the same?
The square, whatever square, has become a school in democracy – pure, radical, real, and effective democracy. (Democracia real ya – real democracy now – is the name of one of the groups making up the movement.) While corporations try everyday to captivate audiences sat in front of the TV, swallowing garbage TV entertainments, the protest is in the form of an acampada (camp) in the squares. There you have people listening to each other sitting on the ground taking and sharing the floor. The sun assembly shines every night at Puerta del Sol.
We build agreement where politicians want rivalry. We look for solutions where politicians want oppression. We don’t fight: we resist, we protest creatively. Consent, participation, respect (for one another, for animals, for the environment), dialogue are our methodology. We raise our hands and shout: these are our weapons. And work hard and patiently to reach agreement.
After thousands of years of human civilization, one system of production has appeared in the last period and managed to oppress more people and destroy more resources than ever before.
Beyond its plastic face, capitalism has brought ruin to the way of life of millions of human beings, as well as those regarded as sub- human, the immigrants trying to survive within the sub-democracy, without rights, a place to live or the entitlement to vote, living on a pittance, a dishonor for them but a cause of shame for the rest of us.
The welfare state is being destroyed, huge areas of the planet are condemned never to become part of it.
Another system is possible. Stop lying with your corporate media.
This Spanish revolution is a revolution because people have been changed in the process. That is the first and the main step forward in any protest, the transformation it brings about within the individual.
We were angry at the beginning. Capitalism has wasted four centuries spreading out reasons for the protest, barriers we have climb over to get a job, to get a house, to get an education, to get healthcare, to win political, social and cultural rights, real rights, to defend our dignity.
Corruption, privilege, politicians paid by corporations to manipulate the economic system, putty in corporate hands, TV entertainment offered us instead of participation. Capitalism planted the seeds of the anger of the indignados. But outrage is not our goal. We are not doing this to remain angry.
The indignation we felt was identified a long time ago. But who were “we”? Nobody knew. But we do now. We discovered this “we” in Puerta del Sol on 15th May, 15th, we discovered that our indignation is wide spread, we are thousands of people, a booming process of collective conscience.
A new political subject has emerged. We are the first to be transformed. That is because this is a revolution.
We have rescued that word from TV and cultural theory. We are giving back its meaning to the people, ordinary people throughout Madrid’s various neighborhoods made their voices heard in meetings held last Saturday (May 28). Hundreds of local assemblies held throughout Spain, with women, men, mothers, grandfathers, students, professors, workers, immigrants, real people living a real democracy taking shape in their local areas for the first time in their lives.
Indignation became joy. And now that joy is seeing us through to organizing.
Anger plus joy produces strength. Strength plus organization is the start of structural change.
Yes, we camp. We have camped and we will camp into the future.
The Puerta del Sol camp is not going to fade away; it is going to explode, to set up camp deep in the thinking of people. No police force or government can remove it from the mind of the new political subject that has burst onto the stage shouting Democracia real ya.
Remove the current electoral system, get rid of the economic privileges the political class has allowed itself, make the corporations responsible for the crisis pay for the crisis, stop the economic reforms dictated by international economic power, and let our reason govern our world, not the capitalist reason. Claim, support and defend all this through democratic meetings, horizontally, and peacefully. It is happening, and it is not a miracle. It is something more powerful, a lot of people have experienced the pleasure of recovering the political sense of our lives. Debate and decide in assembly.
We held two general assemblies yesterday, May 29. The assembly of local committees in the morning and the general one at night, lasting more than four hours each. The need and the plan and the dream of restructuring the camp at Puerta del Sol, a camp that is a symbol and reference point for so many people. We connected live with companions in Athens and Paris. We condemned the police actions against them.
Have you ever taken a decision with thousands of people in a public square? Have you ever experienced the energy of that collective will and responsibility?
It is hard work. To turn anger into joy, and joy into agreement for action. Truly hard labor, but the only one that can give us back our dignity.
GLOBAL WARMING CLIMATE ON THE BRINK
CLIMATE ON THE BRINK
May 30, 2011
In keeping with predictions made by the world’s most sober and clear-eyed climate and energy experts, the rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions is occurring more rapidly than official reports forecast, and a disastrous average global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius appears imminent and unavoidable.
The faster-than-expected increase in greenhouse gas emissions is due to expanding, under-regulated economic activity, which is the one aspect of the climate crisis that humans could do something about. But as long as the international political will to limit pollutive industrial activity and reign in the commercial practices that guarantee it remains nonexistent, the predictions of our most gloomy prophets will continue to be the most reliable ones, as these most recent findings show. —ARK
The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius—which scientists say is the threshold for potentially “dangerous climate change”—is likely to be just “a nice Utopia”, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel—a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.
... The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape the most damaging effects of global warming, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year’s emissions rise by as much as they did in 2010, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule, making it all but impossible to hold warming to a manageable degree.
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency.
The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.
"I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions," Birol told the Guardian. "It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That is what the numbers say."
Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire. "These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a 'business as usual' path. According to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections, such a path ... would mean around a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100," he said.
"Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict. That is a risk any sane person would seek to drastically reduce."
Birol said disaster could yet be averted, if governments heed the warning. "If we have bold, decisive and urgent action, very soon, we still have a chance of succeeding," he said.
The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape the most damaging effects of global warming, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year's emissions rise by as much as they did in 2010, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule, making it all but impossible to hold warming to a manageable degree.
Emissions from energy fell slightly between 2008 and 2009, from 29.3Gt to 29Gt, due to the financial crisis. A small rise was predicted for 2010 as economies recovered, but the scale of the increase has shocked the IEA. "I was expecting a rebound, but not such a strong one," said Birol, who is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on emissions.
John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said time was running out. "This news should shock the world. Yet even now politicians in each of the great powers are eyeing up extraordinary and risky ways to extract the world's last remaining reserves of fossil fuels – even from under the melting ice of the Arctic. You don't put out a fire with gasoline. It will now be up to us to stop them."
Most of the rise – about three-quarters – has come from developing countries, as rapidly emerging economies have weathered the financial crisis and the recession that has gripped most of the developed world.
But he added that, while the emissions data was bad enough news, there were other factors that made it even less likely that the world would meet its greenhouse gas targets.
• About 80% of the power stations likely to be in use in 2020 are either already built or under construction, the IEA found. Most of these are fossil fuel power stations unlikely to be taken out of service early, so they will continue to pour out carbon – possibly into the mid-century. The emissions from these stations amount to about 11.2Gt, out of a total of 13.7Gt from the electricity sector. These "locked-in" emissions mean savings must be found elsewhere.
"It means the room for manoeuvre is shrinking," warned Birol.
• Another factor that suggests emissions will continue their climb is the crisis in the nuclear power industry. Following the tsunami damage at Fukushima, Japan and Germany have called a halt to their reactor programmes, and other countries are reconsidering nuclear power.
"People may not like nuclear, but it is one of the major technologies for generating electricity without carbon dioxide," said Birol. The gap left by scaling back the world's nuclear ambitions is unlikely to be filled entirely by renewable energy, meaning an increased reliance on fossil fuels.
• Added to that, the United Nations-led negotiations on a new global treaty on climate change have stalled. "The significance of climate change in international policy debates is much less pronounced than it was a few years ago," said Birol.
He urged governments to take action urgently. "This should be a wake-up call. A chance [of staying below 2 degrees] would be if we had a legally binding international agreement or major moves on clean energy technologies, energy efficiency and other technologies."
Governments are to meet next week in Bonn for the next round of the UN talks, but little progress is expected.
Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, said the global emissions figures showed that the link between rising GDP and rising emissions had not been broken. "The only people who will be surprised by this are people who have not been reading the situation properly," he said.
Forthcoming research led by Sir David will show the west has only managed to reduce emissions by relying on imports from countries such as China.
Another telling message from the IEA's estimates is the relatively small effect that the recession – the worst since the 1930s – had on emissions. Initially, the agency had hoped the resulting reduction in emissions could be maintained, helping to give the world a "breathing space" and set countries on a low-carbon path. The new estimates suggest that opportunity may have been missed.
May 30, 2011
In keeping with predictions made by the world’s most sober and clear-eyed climate and energy experts, the rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions is occurring more rapidly than official reports forecast, and a disastrous average global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius appears imminent and unavoidable.
The faster-than-expected increase in greenhouse gas emissions is due to expanding, under-regulated economic activity, which is the one aspect of the climate crisis that humans could do something about. But as long as the international political will to limit pollutive industrial activity and reign in the commercial practices that guarantee it remains nonexistent, the predictions of our most gloomy prophets will continue to be the most reliable ones, as these most recent findings show. —ARK
The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius—which scientists say is the threshold for potentially “dangerous climate change”—is likely to be just “a nice Utopia”, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel—a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.
... The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape the most damaging effects of global warming, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year’s emissions rise by as much as they did in 2010, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule, making it all but impossible to hold warming to a manageable degree.
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency.
The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.
"I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions," Birol told the Guardian. "It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That is what the numbers say."
Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire. "These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a 'business as usual' path. According to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections, such a path ... would mean around a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100," he said.
"Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict. That is a risk any sane person would seek to drastically reduce."
Birol said disaster could yet be averted, if governments heed the warning. "If we have bold, decisive and urgent action, very soon, we still have a chance of succeeding," he said.
The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape the most damaging effects of global warming, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year's emissions rise by as much as they did in 2010, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule, making it all but impossible to hold warming to a manageable degree.
Emissions from energy fell slightly between 2008 and 2009, from 29.3Gt to 29Gt, due to the financial crisis. A small rise was predicted for 2010 as economies recovered, but the scale of the increase has shocked the IEA. "I was expecting a rebound, but not such a strong one," said Birol, who is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on emissions.
John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said time was running out. "This news should shock the world. Yet even now politicians in each of the great powers are eyeing up extraordinary and risky ways to extract the world's last remaining reserves of fossil fuels – even from under the melting ice of the Arctic. You don't put out a fire with gasoline. It will now be up to us to stop them."
Most of the rise – about three-quarters – has come from developing countries, as rapidly emerging economies have weathered the financial crisis and the recession that has gripped most of the developed world.
But he added that, while the emissions data was bad enough news, there were other factors that made it even less likely that the world would meet its greenhouse gas targets.
• About 80% of the power stations likely to be in use in 2020 are either already built or under construction, the IEA found. Most of these are fossil fuel power stations unlikely to be taken out of service early, so they will continue to pour out carbon – possibly into the mid-century. The emissions from these stations amount to about 11.2Gt, out of a total of 13.7Gt from the electricity sector. These "locked-in" emissions mean savings must be found elsewhere.
"It means the room for manoeuvre is shrinking," warned Birol.
• Another factor that suggests emissions will continue their climb is the crisis in the nuclear power industry. Following the tsunami damage at Fukushima, Japan and Germany have called a halt to their reactor programmes, and other countries are reconsidering nuclear power.
"People may not like nuclear, but it is one of the major technologies for generating electricity without carbon dioxide," said Birol. The gap left by scaling back the world's nuclear ambitions is unlikely to be filled entirely by renewable energy, meaning an increased reliance on fossil fuels.
• Added to that, the United Nations-led negotiations on a new global treaty on climate change have stalled. "The significance of climate change in international policy debates is much less pronounced than it was a few years ago," said Birol.
He urged governments to take action urgently. "This should be a wake-up call. A chance [of staying below 2 degrees] would be if we had a legally binding international agreement or major moves on clean energy technologies, energy efficiency and other technologies."
Governments are to meet next week in Bonn for the next round of the UN talks, but little progress is expected.
Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, said the global emissions figures showed that the link between rising GDP and rising emissions had not been broken. "The only people who will be surprised by this are people who have not been reading the situation properly," he said.
Forthcoming research led by Sir David will show the west has only managed to reduce emissions by relying on imports from countries such as China.
Another telling message from the IEA's estimates is the relatively small effect that the recession – the worst since the 1930s – had on emissions. Initially, the agency had hoped the resulting reduction in emissions could be maintained, helping to give the world a "breathing space" and set countries on a low-carbon path. The new estimates suggest that opportunity may have been missed.
GLOBAL WARMING THE SKY REALLY IS FALLING
THE SKY REALLY IS FALLING
By Chris Hedges
May 30, 2011
The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with two kinds of self-delusion. There are those, many of whom hold elected office, who dismiss the science and empirical evidence as false. There are others who accept the science surrounding global warming but insist that the human species can adapt. Our only salvation—the rapid dismantling of the fossil fuel industry—is ignored by both groups. And we will be led, unless we build popular resistance movements and carry out sustained acts of civil disobedience, toward collective self-annihilation by dimwitted pied pipers and fools.
Those who concede that the planet is warming but insist we can learn to live with it are perhaps more dangerous than the buffoons who decide to shut their eyes. It is horrifying enough that the House of Representatives voted 240-184 this spring to defeat a resolution that said that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.” But it is not much of an alternative to trust those who insist we can cope with the effects while continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Horticulturalists are busy planting swamp oaks and sweet gum trees all over Chicago to prepare for weather that will soon resemble that of Baton Rouge. That would be fine if there was a limit to global warming in sight. But without plans to rapidly dismantle the fossil fuel industry, something no one in our corporate state is contemplating, the heat waves of Baton Rouge will be a starting point for a descent that will ultimately make cities like Chicago unlivable. The false promise of human adaptability to global warming is peddled by the polluters’ major front group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which informed the Environmental Protection Agency that “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” This bizarre theory of adaptability has been embraced by the Obama administration as it prepares to exploit the natural resources in the Arctic. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced recently that melting of sea ice “will result in more shipping, fishing and tourism, and the possibility to develop newly accessible oil and gas reserves.” Now that’s something to look forward to.
“It is good that at least those guys are taking it seriously, far more seriously than the federal government is taking it,” said the author and environmental activist Bill McKibben of the efforts in cities such as Chicago to begin to adapt to warmer temperatures. “At least they understand that they have some kind of problem coming at them. But they are working off the science of five or six years ago, which is still kind of the official science that the International Climate Change negotiations are working off of. They haven’t begun to internalize the idea that the science has shifted sharply. We are no longer talking about a long, slow, gradual, linear warming, but something that is coming much more quickly and violently. Seven or eight years ago it made sense to talk about putting permeable concrete on the streets. Now what we are coming to realize is that the most important adaptation we can do is to stop putting carbon in the atmosphere. If we don’t, we are going to produce temperature rises so high that there is no adapting to them.”
The Earth has already begun to react to our hubris. Freak weather unleashed deadly tornados in Joplin, Mo., and Tuscaloosa, Ala. It has triggered wildfires that have engulfed large tracts in California, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. It has brought severe droughts to the Southwest, parts of China and the Amazon. It has caused massive flooding along the Mississippi as well as in Australia, New Zealand, China and Pakistan. It is killing off the fish stocks in the oceans and obliterating the polar ice caps. Steadily rising sea levels will eventually submerge coastal cities, islands and some countries. These disturbing weather patterns presage a world where it will be harder and harder to sustain human life. Massive human migrations, which have already begun, will create chaos and violence. India is building a 4,000-kilometer fence along its border with Bangladesh to, in part, hold back the refugees who will flee if Bangladesh is submerged. There are mounting food shortages and sharp price increases in basic staples such as wheat as weather patterns disrupt crop production. The failed grain harvests in Russia, China and Australia, along with the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, have, as McKibben points out, been exacerbated by the inability of Midwestern farmers to plant corn in water-logged fields. These portents of an angry Gaia are nothing compared to what will follow if we do not swiftly act.
“We are going to have to adapt a good deal,” said McKibben, with whom I spoke by phone from his home in Vermont. “It is going to be a century that calls for being resilient and durable. Most of that adaptation is going to take the form of economies getting smaller and lower to the ground, local food, local energy, things like that. But that alone won’t do it, because the scale of change we are now talking about is so great that no one can adapt to it. Temperatures have gone up one degree so far and that has been enough to melt the Arctic. If we let it go up three or four degrees, the rule of thumb the agronomists go by is every degree Celsius of temperature rise represents about a 10 percent reduction in grain yields. If we let it go up three or four degrees we are really not talking about a planet that can support a civilization anything like the one we’ve got.
“I have sympathy for those who are trying hard to figure out how to adapt, but they are behind the curve of the science by a good deal,” he said. “I have less sympathy for the companies that are brainwashing everyone along the line ‘We’re taking small steps here and there to improve.’ The problem, at this point, is not going to be dealt with by small steps. It is going to be dealt with by getting off fossil fuel in the next 10 or 20 years or not at all.
“The most appropriate thing going on in Chicago right now is that Greenpeace occupied [on Thursday] the coal-fired power plant in Chicago,” he said. “That’s been helpful. It reminded people what the real answers are. We’re going to see more civil disobedience. I hope we are. I am planning hard for some stuff this summer.
“The task that we are about is essentially political and symbolic,” McKibben admitted. “There is no actual way to shut down the fossil fuel system with our bodies. It is simply too big. It’s far too integrated in everything we do. The actions have to be symbolic, and the most important part of that symbolism is to make it clear to the onlookers that those of us doing this kind of thing are not radical in any way. We are conservatives. The real radicals in this scenario are people who are willing to fundamentally alter the composition of the atmosphere. I can’t think of a more radical thing that any human has ever thought of doing. If it wasn’t happening it would be like the plot from a Bond movie.
“The only way around this is to defeat the system, and the name of that system is the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry in the world by a large margin,” McKibben said. “Fighting it is extraordinarily difficult. Maybe you can’t do it. The only way to do it is to build a movement big enough to make a difference. And that is what we are trying desperately to do with 350.org. It is something we should have done 20 years ago, instead of figuring that we were going to fight climate change by convincing political elites that they should do something about this problem. It is a tactic that has not worked.
“One of our big targets this year is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is the biggest front group for fossil fuel there is,” he said. “We are figuring out how to take them on. I don’t think they are worried about us yet. And maybe they are right not to be, because they’ve got so much money they’re invulnerable.
“There are huge decisive battles coming,” he said. “This year the Obama administration has to decide whether it will grant a permit or not for this giant pipeline to run from the tar sands of Alberta down to the refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. That is like a 1,500-mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet. We have to figure out how to keep that from happening. The Obama administration, very sadly, a couple of months ago opened 750 million tons of western coal under federal land for mining. That was a disgrace. But they still have to figure out how to get it to port so they can ship it to China, which is where the market for it is. We are trying hard to keep that from happening. I’m on my way to Bellingham, Wash., next week because there is a plan for a deep-water port in Bellingham that would allow these giant freighters to show up and collect that coal.
“In moral terms, it’s all our personal responsibility and we should be doing those things,” McKibben said when I asked him about changing our own lifestyles to conserve energy. “But don’t confuse that with having much of an impact on the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. You can’t make the math work one house or one campus at a time. We should do those things. I’ve got a little plaque for having built the most energy-efficient house in Vermont the year we built it. I’ve got solar panels everywhere. But I don’t confuse myself into thinking that that’s actually doing very much. This argument is a political argument. I spend much of my life on airplanes spewing carbon behind me as we try to build a global movement. Either we are going to break the power of the fossil fuel industry and put a price on carbon or the planet is going to heat past the point where we can deal with it.
“It goes far beyond party affiliation or ideology,” he said. “Fossil fuel undergirds every ideology we have. Breaking with it is going to be a traumatic and difficult task. The natural world is going to continue to provide us, unfortunately, with many reminders about why we have to do that. Sooner or later, we will wise up. The question is all about that sooner or later.
“I’d like people to go to climatedirectaction.org and sign up,” McKibben said. “We are going to be issuing calls for people to be involved in civil disobedience. I’d like people to join in this campaign against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s very easy to sign up. If you don’t own a little business yourself, you probably shop at 10 or 20 of them a week. It’s very easy to sign those guys up to say the U.S. Chamber doesn’t speak for me. We can’t take away their [the Chamber’s] money, but we can take away some of their respectability. I would like people to demonstrate their solidarity with people all around the world in this fight. The next big chance to do that will be Sept. 24, a huge global day of action that we’re calling ‘Moving Planet.’ It will be largely bicycle based, because the bicycle is one of the few tools that both rich and poor use and because it is part of the solution we need. On that day we will be delivering demands via bicycle to every capital and statehouse around the world.
“I wish there was some easy ‘end around,’ some backdoor through which we could go to get done what needs to be done,” he said. “But that’s not going to happen. That became clear at Copenhagen and last summer when the U.S. Senate refused to take a vote on the most mild, tepid climate legislation there could have been. We are going to have to build a movement that pushes the fossil fuel industry aside. I don’t know whether that’s possible. If you were to bet, you might well bet we will lose. We have been losing for two decades. But you are not allowed to make that bet. The only moral action, when the worst thing that ever happened in the world is happening, is to try and figure out how to change those odds.
“At least they knew they were going to win,” McKibben said of the civil rights movement. “They didn’t know when, but they knew they were going to win, that the tide of history was on their side. But the arch of the physical universe appears to be short and appears to bend towards heat. We’ve got to win quickly if we’re going to win. We’ve already passed the point where we’re going to stop global warming. It has already warmed a degree and there is another degree in the pipeline from carbon already emitted. The heat gets held in the ocean for a while, but it’s already there. We’ve already guaranteed ourselves a miserable century. The question is whether it’s going to be an impossible one.”
By Chris Hedges
May 30, 2011
The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with two kinds of self-delusion. There are those, many of whom hold elected office, who dismiss the science and empirical evidence as false. There are others who accept the science surrounding global warming but insist that the human species can adapt. Our only salvation—the rapid dismantling of the fossil fuel industry—is ignored by both groups. And we will be led, unless we build popular resistance movements and carry out sustained acts of civil disobedience, toward collective self-annihilation by dimwitted pied pipers and fools.
Those who concede that the planet is warming but insist we can learn to live with it are perhaps more dangerous than the buffoons who decide to shut their eyes. It is horrifying enough that the House of Representatives voted 240-184 this spring to defeat a resolution that said that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.” But it is not much of an alternative to trust those who insist we can cope with the effects while continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Horticulturalists are busy planting swamp oaks and sweet gum trees all over Chicago to prepare for weather that will soon resemble that of Baton Rouge. That would be fine if there was a limit to global warming in sight. But without plans to rapidly dismantle the fossil fuel industry, something no one in our corporate state is contemplating, the heat waves of Baton Rouge will be a starting point for a descent that will ultimately make cities like Chicago unlivable. The false promise of human adaptability to global warming is peddled by the polluters’ major front group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which informed the Environmental Protection Agency that “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” This bizarre theory of adaptability has been embraced by the Obama administration as it prepares to exploit the natural resources in the Arctic. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced recently that melting of sea ice “will result in more shipping, fishing and tourism, and the possibility to develop newly accessible oil and gas reserves.” Now that’s something to look forward to.
“It is good that at least those guys are taking it seriously, far more seriously than the federal government is taking it,” said the author and environmental activist Bill McKibben of the efforts in cities such as Chicago to begin to adapt to warmer temperatures. “At least they understand that they have some kind of problem coming at them. But they are working off the science of five or six years ago, which is still kind of the official science that the International Climate Change negotiations are working off of. They haven’t begun to internalize the idea that the science has shifted sharply. We are no longer talking about a long, slow, gradual, linear warming, but something that is coming much more quickly and violently. Seven or eight years ago it made sense to talk about putting permeable concrete on the streets. Now what we are coming to realize is that the most important adaptation we can do is to stop putting carbon in the atmosphere. If we don’t, we are going to produce temperature rises so high that there is no adapting to them.”
The Earth has already begun to react to our hubris. Freak weather unleashed deadly tornados in Joplin, Mo., and Tuscaloosa, Ala. It has triggered wildfires that have engulfed large tracts in California, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. It has brought severe droughts to the Southwest, parts of China and the Amazon. It has caused massive flooding along the Mississippi as well as in Australia, New Zealand, China and Pakistan. It is killing off the fish stocks in the oceans and obliterating the polar ice caps. Steadily rising sea levels will eventually submerge coastal cities, islands and some countries. These disturbing weather patterns presage a world where it will be harder and harder to sustain human life. Massive human migrations, which have already begun, will create chaos and violence. India is building a 4,000-kilometer fence along its border with Bangladesh to, in part, hold back the refugees who will flee if Bangladesh is submerged. There are mounting food shortages and sharp price increases in basic staples such as wheat as weather patterns disrupt crop production. The failed grain harvests in Russia, China and Australia, along with the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, have, as McKibben points out, been exacerbated by the inability of Midwestern farmers to plant corn in water-logged fields. These portents of an angry Gaia are nothing compared to what will follow if we do not swiftly act.
“We are going to have to adapt a good deal,” said McKibben, with whom I spoke by phone from his home in Vermont. “It is going to be a century that calls for being resilient and durable. Most of that adaptation is going to take the form of economies getting smaller and lower to the ground, local food, local energy, things like that. But that alone won’t do it, because the scale of change we are now talking about is so great that no one can adapt to it. Temperatures have gone up one degree so far and that has been enough to melt the Arctic. If we let it go up three or four degrees, the rule of thumb the agronomists go by is every degree Celsius of temperature rise represents about a 10 percent reduction in grain yields. If we let it go up three or four degrees we are really not talking about a planet that can support a civilization anything like the one we’ve got.
“I have sympathy for those who are trying hard to figure out how to adapt, but they are behind the curve of the science by a good deal,” he said. “I have less sympathy for the companies that are brainwashing everyone along the line ‘We’re taking small steps here and there to improve.’ The problem, at this point, is not going to be dealt with by small steps. It is going to be dealt with by getting off fossil fuel in the next 10 or 20 years or not at all.
“The most appropriate thing going on in Chicago right now is that Greenpeace occupied [on Thursday] the coal-fired power plant in Chicago,” he said. “That’s been helpful. It reminded people what the real answers are. We’re going to see more civil disobedience. I hope we are. I am planning hard for some stuff this summer.
“The task that we are about is essentially political and symbolic,” McKibben admitted. “There is no actual way to shut down the fossil fuel system with our bodies. It is simply too big. It’s far too integrated in everything we do. The actions have to be symbolic, and the most important part of that symbolism is to make it clear to the onlookers that those of us doing this kind of thing are not radical in any way. We are conservatives. The real radicals in this scenario are people who are willing to fundamentally alter the composition of the atmosphere. I can’t think of a more radical thing that any human has ever thought of doing. If it wasn’t happening it would be like the plot from a Bond movie.
“The only way around this is to defeat the system, and the name of that system is the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry in the world by a large margin,” McKibben said. “Fighting it is extraordinarily difficult. Maybe you can’t do it. The only way to do it is to build a movement big enough to make a difference. And that is what we are trying desperately to do with 350.org. It is something we should have done 20 years ago, instead of figuring that we were going to fight climate change by convincing political elites that they should do something about this problem. It is a tactic that has not worked.
“One of our big targets this year is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is the biggest front group for fossil fuel there is,” he said. “We are figuring out how to take them on. I don’t think they are worried about us yet. And maybe they are right not to be, because they’ve got so much money they’re invulnerable.
“There are huge decisive battles coming,” he said. “This year the Obama administration has to decide whether it will grant a permit or not for this giant pipeline to run from the tar sands of Alberta down to the refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. That is like a 1,500-mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet. We have to figure out how to keep that from happening. The Obama administration, very sadly, a couple of months ago opened 750 million tons of western coal under federal land for mining. That was a disgrace. But they still have to figure out how to get it to port so they can ship it to China, which is where the market for it is. We are trying hard to keep that from happening. I’m on my way to Bellingham, Wash., next week because there is a plan for a deep-water port in Bellingham that would allow these giant freighters to show up and collect that coal.
“In moral terms, it’s all our personal responsibility and we should be doing those things,” McKibben said when I asked him about changing our own lifestyles to conserve energy. “But don’t confuse that with having much of an impact on the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. You can’t make the math work one house or one campus at a time. We should do those things. I’ve got a little plaque for having built the most energy-efficient house in Vermont the year we built it. I’ve got solar panels everywhere. But I don’t confuse myself into thinking that that’s actually doing very much. This argument is a political argument. I spend much of my life on airplanes spewing carbon behind me as we try to build a global movement. Either we are going to break the power of the fossil fuel industry and put a price on carbon or the planet is going to heat past the point where we can deal with it.
“It goes far beyond party affiliation or ideology,” he said. “Fossil fuel undergirds every ideology we have. Breaking with it is going to be a traumatic and difficult task. The natural world is going to continue to provide us, unfortunately, with many reminders about why we have to do that. Sooner or later, we will wise up. The question is all about that sooner or later.
“I’d like people to go to climatedirectaction.org and sign up,” McKibben said. “We are going to be issuing calls for people to be involved in civil disobedience. I’d like people to join in this campaign against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s very easy to sign up. If you don’t own a little business yourself, you probably shop at 10 or 20 of them a week. It’s very easy to sign those guys up to say the U.S. Chamber doesn’t speak for me. We can’t take away their [the Chamber’s] money, but we can take away some of their respectability. I would like people to demonstrate their solidarity with people all around the world in this fight. The next big chance to do that will be Sept. 24, a huge global day of action that we’re calling ‘Moving Planet.’ It will be largely bicycle based, because the bicycle is one of the few tools that both rich and poor use and because it is part of the solution we need. On that day we will be delivering demands via bicycle to every capital and statehouse around the world.
“I wish there was some easy ‘end around,’ some backdoor through which we could go to get done what needs to be done,” he said. “But that’s not going to happen. That became clear at Copenhagen and last summer when the U.S. Senate refused to take a vote on the most mild, tepid climate legislation there could have been. We are going to have to build a movement that pushes the fossil fuel industry aside. I don’t know whether that’s possible. If you were to bet, you might well bet we will lose. We have been losing for two decades. But you are not allowed to make that bet. The only moral action, when the worst thing that ever happened in the world is happening, is to try and figure out how to change those odds.
“At least they knew they were going to win,” McKibben said of the civil rights movement. “They didn’t know when, but they knew they were going to win, that the tide of history was on their side. But the arch of the physical universe appears to be short and appears to bend towards heat. We’ve got to win quickly if we’re going to win. We’ve already passed the point where we’re going to stop global warming. It has already warmed a degree and there is another degree in the pipeline from carbon already emitted. The heat gets held in the ocean for a while, but it’s already there. We’ve already guaranteed ourselves a miserable century. The question is whether it’s going to be an impossible one.”
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