Zum Inhalt der Seite gehen


We presently face the most radical of challenges to the continuation of a livable biosphere — and indeed to humanity’s existence as a species — and therefore I believe the most radical response is justified and is urgently required.

First: Nationalize and then shut down the fossil fuel industry, the auto industry, the airlines, and the factory farms. The US military budget also must be deeply slashed, as they are the world's biggest single source of institutional emissions.

When I say shut down all those industries, I don't mean literally overnight. I realize of course that we can't stop burning fossil fuels instantly. I'm suggesting, however, a very rapid reduction, something on the order of 20% per year, meaning after five years we are down to zero. TRUE zero, not the phony greenwashed “net-zero.”

Second: Confiscate all previous financial holdings from fossil fuel corporations, their executives and their major investors, and dedicate a portion of those funds to help countries in the Global South raise standards of living without overly expanding the use of fossil fuels. Some of the funds can also be used to ease a transition for employees of the shuttered industries.

Third: Let the dust settle, see where we are with emissions, and maybe then consider deploying some solar geoengineering techniques, but only as a last resort.

Now, you might be concerned that many people would suffer and have to endure hardships if we shut down the fossil fuel industry and the auto industry and the airlines and the factory farms — and you’re right, they would.

However, that’s almost nothing compared to how many people will suffer and how great their hardships will be in the next few decades if we DON’T do all those things now.

Would this plan be easy to accomplish? No, not at all. Would it cause inconvenience and misery? Yes, certainly. Real change comes at a real cost.

Sorry to say it, but the choice we face is between a very bad outcome and a very VERY bad outcome.

#Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (6 Tage her)
Agreed.

And, given that incumbent powers will literally kill anyone who looks like they might achieve those goals, do you have suggestions for strategies?

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCollapse #Resistance
If someone's trying to kill you and is able to track you, that's kill or be killed. This means the majority of the world will probably have to fight a war against the rich.

It starts with economic blockade and air/sea denial strategies but the rich countries will respond with escalation. They won't like having corporate execs in global majority nations arrested, their mines and plantations expropriated, their ships captured or sunk, and their planes forced down. Like any other war will ultimately come down to "get them before they get you."
Not really. I can make suggestions of what I hope might be achieved, but as for *how* to get all those things done, it will take someone smarter than me to figure it out.
I've been reading "Full Spectrum Resistance", and it's extremely good. Lots of vital history of struggle that people should know. Very practical.

I'll post some snippets from the first few chapters below.

Anna's Archive link to download if you can't buy ethically:
https://annas-archive.org/search?index=&page=1&q=full+spectrum+resistance+aric+mcbay&display=&sort=

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCollapse #Resistance #Books
"I wrote this book because we are losing. The global exploitation of the poor is accelerating even as the richer grow wealthier than at any point in history. The fertile planet that keeps us all alive is being poisoned, baked, and stripped bare. Remaining Indigenous and traditional people continue to be attacked and pushed off their lands so that the rich can exploit resources that will be exhausted in a few decades anyway. We are losing and we need to learn how to win, fast."
"This book is about what makes for effective action. It is about how to organize effective resistance movements. If we want to make social change and defend a habitable biosphere, we must unflinchingly examine those tendencies (especially those on the left) that have made us ineffective.

Some of these barriers to action are misconceptions about how power works in society. The left in general has been naïve about the effectiveness of “moral suasion.” Too many people have clung to the faith in government that “good citizens” are supposed to have. We often work under the assumption that those in power will be convinced to stop their atrocities if we offer them a good example or a well-reasoned argument.

Historically, this is nearly unheard of."
This is why I don't waste my time on "truth to power" and instead focus on "speaking power to oppression."

When I was defending the Gay woods in DC, the fact that I had the power to make the condo owners have to pay higher property taxes if us "criminals" were pushed out of sight let me take a lot of wind out of their sails. So did the threat to identify any cop arresting anyone for cruising the woods from court documents so their home address could be found and published.

I operated on the principle that our enemies were exactly that, and were "bad citizens" that would happily see us dead to get another $20,000 added to the value of their condos. I assumed that no pursuasion not backed up by raw power was worth a hill of beans in this fight. Yes, we won: we held off the US Park Police for an entire decade before they had to nearly withdraw after 9-11 to guard the monuments downtown instead.