Gore's Technological Determinism

From Joel Kovel's critique of Al Gore's thesis:

....An Inconvenient Truth fails to mention the word, capitalism, that it oozes with technological determinism, does not take into sufficient account the global South, never questions the industrial model, promises that his approach will generate a lot of wealth, and offers no real way out beyond voting the proper people, ie, people like himself, into office. Thus neither capital, nor the capitalist state, is at all questioned, nor is any authentic democratisation offered. Salvation for the troubled bourgeois masses will come through choosing the best representatives among liberal politicians and technocrats, then letting them guide the people to the ecological Promised Land.

Gore has never ceased

For throughout this whole process of awakening and evangelism Gore has never ceased carrying water for global capital. As valuable as his advocacy of serious change to combat global warming undoubtedly is, by setting the logic of that change within the dominant system Gore commits an error of literally fatal proportions.

Volunteerism vs Radical Change

Ken Krayeske commented:
My affinity for veggies and velos are “voluntarism,” according to Joel Kovel, in his 2002 book “The Enemy of Nature.” These actions, “arise from good intention,” he says, and are “taken primarily on moral or aesthetic grounds.” But, “Such actions, lists of which can be found in mass-marketed literature of the ‘xx things you can do to save the planet’ type, stand as much chance of overcoming the ecological crisis as handing out spare change on the subway does of overcoming poverty.”

What ecological crisis? The one spurred by capitalism’s never satiated desire for growth. Hartford’s brownfields, high asthma rate and landfills play minor roles in capital’s global tragedy.

Kovel argues not only the standard Marxist grounds that capital separates us from our labor, as we see in Hartford’s miserable poverty. But capitalism is the efficient cause of global warming and the destruction of the world.

Bluntly, it’s either capitalism or us, Kovel says

What Gore Leaves Out

Gore is Disappointed

Snow on Mount Tremper, Willow, NY

This is a comment made by a student about a new film, A REALLY Inconvenient Truth, which looks at Global Warming as a problem of capitalist production.

I enjoyed " A Really Inconvenient Truth" very much. It manages to give a critical evaluation of another critical evaluation. It reminds us that we should take every opinion with a grain of salt because even an opinion that seems to be somewhat revolutionary can be driven by Capitalist motives.
My one critique of the views presented on the movie is that Al Gore is not anti-Capitalism and i don't think he ever claims to be. He instead seems to be simply disappointed with the Capitalist decision to value money OVER the well being of our planet.
Still, I agree with the fact that if he wanted to make a real difference he would have done more about the issue during his term in office

Joel Kovel on Eco-Socialism

Strapped Financial Situation

It is commendable that (Gore) is doing something now but he is not giving answers, he is just giving a platform from which capitalism can grow and flourish. I am excited to get to watch the end of this film and see what happens. I really enjoyed A Really Inconvenient Truth and thought that it was done much better than An Inconvenient Truth, especially with what im sure was a much more strapped financial situation. great job with the movie and i hope to see more movies like this in the future.

Gore Did NOTHING When He Had Power

Photo of Joel Kovel, whose critique of Gore is the basis for A Really Inconvenient Truth.

Comment from student:
I thought for the most part that the film was actually very good. I enjoyed the in depth analysis of Al Gore's movie and the way that Joel Kovel explained his many ideas. It was excellent the way that he bashed Gore tastefully. Although Kovel was agreeing with Gore to some extent it was great to see how he showed the increase in CO2 emissions and how it directly correlated to the years that Gore was in office. I could not believe that Al Gore was the head of environmental regulations and he did nothing when he had power.

The World Has Cancer

Comment from student after viewing Joel Kovel in the video A Really Inconvenient Truth:
I remember the speaker was talking about how the world in a sense has a cancer and that we need to get rid of it in some way and not just go home and do little things. But i wonder if really, in a sense, humans Are the cancer, and if we are indeed getting rid of cancer, are we not really getting rid of ourselves? He explains that the growth of capital is the death of nature but nature lives and dies and eventually all things have to die, humans are just advancing it and capital is probably not the only reason for nature dying.