…by supposing to turn something into private property: Read the summary of the article “Resolving the Tragedy of the Commons by Creating Private Property Rights in Wildlife” to have another example for the the bullheadedness of the bourgeois mind:

During humanity’s relatively brief existence on this planet, it has relied on the bounty of its flora and fauna for his existence. For most of history, this exploitation had little impact on the earth’s resources. Only in recent centuries has man’s exploitation of wildlife begun to have a deleterious effect, even though there is increasing evidence that primitive societies had a profound impact on many species. Overexploitation of wildlife is not a peculiar characteristic of Western civilization, nor is it a consequence of commerce.

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Nobody can survive without water, water is necessary for all life on earth. For the first time since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 60 years ago, the UN General Assembly is finally poised to recognize the Human Right to Water and Sanitation. By the end of July 2010, the General Assembly will consider an historic resolution brought to the UN member states by the Bolivian government.

July 22 is an international day of action to protest against multinational corporations and pollution, calling for the human right to water and sanitation.

One and a half billion people across the world lack drinking water and another two billion lack clean water generally. In 20 years’ time these numbers will have doubled. Agricultural and industrial pollution is degrading the quality of fresh water supplies everywhere.
Billions of people are suffering because the world is not focused on providing water and sanitation for all. A strong UN General Assembly resolution will signal that water and sanitation is key priority for the international community. The date set for UN member states to consider the resolution is Wednesday, July 28th.

see also: http://www.blueplanetproject.net
http://www.ourwatercommons.org

In a short animation video, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism, towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane. View his full lecture at the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

You can’t imagine a more just, more sustainable planet, without also imagining a new kind of city. More than half of the world’s population is urban, and cities often amplify many of the problems we face as a planet: inequality, violence, pollution, isolation. Luckily, people around the world are joining forces to re-imagine how we design and live in cities, and they’ve come up with a number of exciting proposals!

Provoking: Female care work seen as a “Common”:

“The roots of sexism and racism are the same: a situation where you need workers without rights. Enslavement is essential to this process of accumulation and these have not been one time events; these developments became structural to capitalist society. In the last twenty years you can see similar developments. A globalisation based on land expropriation, migration, an increase in the impoverishment of women, mass prostitution, baby markets etc. As a result of present globalising drives, there has been an explosion of violence against women. Over the last fifteen years there has been a return to witch hunting, in Ghana for instance. The redefinition of the social position of women turns the woman into a kind of compensation for the man’s loss of power. The woman is a new common, seen as the new nature, like water etc, something everyone can go and get.” Silvia Federici, 2006

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