Reflections of a green ecosocialist.
"The time has come the walrus said
To talk of many things
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of cabbages and kings"
Lewis Carroll: Alice through the Looking Glass
Monday, 20 September 2010
The dash for the Arctic - New resource wars and environmental disaster
With global warming speeding up the race for the Arctic and its oil and gas deposits is on. Already Norway and Russia have signed a treaty about carving up the Barents Sea and the depositis there. Now Canda and Russia are arguing about the Lomonosov Ridge and control of a large part of the Arctic Ocean. Not only would this be a disaster for the global climate but also the impact on the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic would be immense. Already Greenpeace protesters have been off the coast of Greenland protesting about the impact of oil drilling there, where a large new oilfield has just been discovered.
We have recently seen the impact of a deepwater oil drill going wrong in the Gulf of Mexico but the impact of such an accident in the Artcic would be unimaginable. It would be far more difficult to deal with because of the extremes of temperature etc and it would hugely damage the Arctic's wildlife, particularly the krill on which so much of the ecosystem there is dependant. There is also the danger of future wars, as is referred to in this Russia TV report, along the lines of the resource wars we have seen in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Joseph Healy stood as the Green Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Vauxhall at the last general election.
Joseph was also Number 4 on the Green Party's European list in London.
He was Male Co-Convenor of Green Left, the ecosocialist, anti-capitalist platform within the Green Party, for two years and was the Secretary for the last year. He is an officer of Coalition of Resistance, the leading anti-cuts campaigning organisation. He resigned from the Green Party this February in protest against the Green Council in Brighton & Hove voting through budget cuts.
He has also been recently elected as the Treasurer of Queers Against the Cuts.
He was also the Green Party's delegate to the Stop the War Coalition and an active anti-war campaigner.
He is an active trade unionist and a member of UNITE.
He was working for four years as director of a Pan London disability charity in Brixton (Transport for All) campaigning for better accessible transport for disabled people and is himself disabled. He currently works for Lambeth's main disability organisation, Disability Advice Service Lambeth on a part time basis.
After having been Vice Chair of the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum, the largest public and patient involvement group in the NHS, he was elected Chair in 2010 and re-elected Chair in 2011.
He was also active as a pioneer in the LGBT rights movement in the Irish Republic in the 70s and early 80s and has campaigned strongly in London on issues connected with HIV and health.
Joseph lives in Camberwell with his partner and his cat.
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