Not debatable: Trillions of $ worth of proven fossil fuel reserves simply can't be allowed to be extracted and burned.
The carbon emissions constraint appears both absolutely necessary and absolutely inaccessible via available social/political affordances.
COP meetings a tug-of-war: nations compete to have least possible impact on their own short term interests. Nobody speaks for Earth.
Everyone on earth is invested in the fossil fuel status quo, most of the powerful very much so, & no sensible alternative is on the table.
Only hope is a global grassroots consensus based on clear shared view of our predicament: what denialsm is funded to prevent at all costs.
Then when I say that people everywhere need to understand a few rudiments of climate science, social scientists mock me for "deficit model".
Was a long shot anyway. So, checkmate? Victory for the cliff, defeat for the lemmings? Any ideas?
Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteFor other readers to ponder:
Never too late to keep it from getting worse. 3 degrees C is better than 4, 4 better than 5, etc. I agree very hard to be optimistic, but all the more important to act, however you can.
I thought Bill McKibben's guardian piece was great. Re. "Everyone on earth is invested in the fossil fuel status quo" - the piece does a good job of saying that's not so. Mostly everyone is invested in there still being a functioning planet for their descendents. Or, at least, there are enough to create a grassroots movement that can really do something (already is).
ReplyDeleteVery very bad choice to start their extra climate coverage with two Naomi Klein extracts (right alonside Freedland saying 'Climate activism is doomed if it remains a left-only issue'...