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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/30/amazon-public-money-earth-destruction-fossil-fuels-subsidies>
"In every conflict over the living world, something is being protected. And
most of the time, it’s the wrong thing.
The world’s most destructive industries are fiercely protected by governments.
The three sectors that appear to be most responsible for the collapse of
ecosystems and erasure of wildlife are fossil fuels, fisheries and farming. In
2021, governments directly subsidised oil and gas production to the tune of
$64bn (£53bn), and spent a further $531bn (£443bn) on keeping fossil fuel
prices low. The latest figures for fisheries, from 2018, suggest that global
subsidies for the sector amount to $35bn a year, over 80% of which go to
large-scale industrial fishing. Most are paid to “enhance capacity”: in other
words to help the industry, as marine ecosystems collapse, catch more fish.
Every year, governments spend $500bn on farm subsidies, the great majority of
which pay no regard to environmental protection. Even the payments that claim
to do so often inflict more harm than good. For example, many of the European
Union’s pillar two “green” subsidies sustain livestock farming on land that
would be better used for ecological restoration. Over half the European farm
budget is spent on propping up animal farming, which is arguably the world’s
most ecologically destructive industry.
Pasture-fed meat production destroys five times as much forest as palm oil
does. It now threatens some of the richest habitats on Earth, among which are
forests in Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Colombia,
Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Myanmar. Meat production could swallow 3m square
kilometres of the world’s most biodiverse places in 35 years. That’s almost the
size of India. In Australia, 94% of the deforestation in the catchment area of
the Great Barrier Reef – a major cause of coral loss – is associated with beef
production. Yet most of these catastrophes are delivered with the help of
public money."
Via Chris Ryan.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
