Re: <nettime> The Californian Reality (from: New Geography)

[KMV <cuuixsilver@gmail.com>]

I have certainly seen these changes during the past eight years that I
have lived in California, near Sacramento.  However, the green
initiatives cannot be simply written off that way considering our
miserable air quality, the water rationing that has just started, the
loss of pollinating insects, and our struggles to resist large-scale
fracking. All of these are important not just for quality of human
life, but for agriculture.

The agricultural economy of California is as important as the tech,
not only for the state, but for the US food supply, and it has been
carried out in an unsustainable way for far too long. The ignorance of
techno-oligarchs about how the rest of the state lives doesn't help
either, because LA, SF and those other coastal areas ask for ever more
water each year.

I'm not sure yet where the growing frustration with inequality in
California will take us, but my impression is that more and more
people around me are reaching a limit.  That could lead to a stronger
grassroots movement, or it could lead to people just leaving the
state.  If the drought continues into late 2014, some areas of the
state may become simply unlivable, either because they have no water,
or because water and food have become too expensive.  So migration
rather than revolution may be the most likely future.  I suppose an
exodus might simply reinforce the growing inequality in California, as
those in the "99%" who can afford to, leave, and those who can't,
starve.

The above article makes valuable points, but leaves out some very
important environmental issues. Further it demonizes the environmental
movement and ignores the very real problems that movement tries to
address.


On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl> wrote:

> (I got this from Thorsten Schilling, it reminded me of the recent
> attacks on the Google busses in SF /geert)
>
> California's New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the 
> Multitude
>
> by Joel Kotkin 10/05/2013
 <...>

--

Kim De Vries

http://kdevries.net/blog/


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