Thank you Alternet (Nick Buxton & Ben Hayes) for this amazing, and yet not surprising, piece on how defense and security companies are planning to cash in on climate change and environmental collapse. Astounding and disturbing, to say the least.
And I quote:
"Confronted with one of the greatest challenges our planet and its peoples have faced, our political leaders have clearly failed us. In stark contrast to the radical coordinated action to bail out banks and prop-up the financial system, governments have instead chosen to step aside, giving a free hand to the markets and the fossil fuel giants, rather than daring a carefully planned conversion of our carbon-based economies. Their choice is not one of inaction, as is often suggested, but one of actively ensuring dangerous climate change. For every coal plant built in China, oil field mined in the Arctic, or shale gas field fracked in the US locks in carbon into the atmosphere for up to 1000 years and means that even radical steps to decarbonise in future years may not be sufficient to prevent runaway global warming."
It's a three year old piece, but definitely worth a read: http://www.alternet.org/...
Paris 2015 is coming up this fall, and I don't think I am the only one who isn't holding out much hope for a robust, sweeping, revolutionary accord coming out of those talks. I'll be thrilled to bits if an agreement with any teeth at all is reached - but remain skeptical.
In the meantime, I tweet and blog about the need to "fight climate change," all the time thinking, well, what do I really mean by that? What do any of us mean by that?
Type "how can I help fight climate change" into a browser window, and lots of helpful websites pop up. Here are the first five results from my search just now:
http://www.nature.org/...
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/...
http://www.epa.gov/...
http://i100.independent.co.uk/...
http://whatsyourimpact.org/...
The advice ranges from "donate to our offset program" to "green your commute" and "fly less." You can also choose to "make meat a treat" and not "over boil the kettle." None of those things are wrong or stupid. It's accurate to say that we can reduce emissions by driving less and flying less. But there's a troubling focus on how "easy" these actions are - how we can all just remember to unplug the TV at night and cut down on steak and poof! all will be well.
But even if everyone who is strongly motivated to do all of those things were to do them - and do them consistently, starting right now - would it be enough? Would it offset the actions of everyone who is NOT motivated to do those things at all? And would it do anything to roll back predatory exploitation of the environment - drilling in the Arctic - fracking - continued coal mining - slow uptake of green technologies?
No, it would not. So when we say "fight climate change" we must mean more than just taking the bus and telling your neighbors to check out this cool carbon footprint calculator you found on line. It means taking on the powers that be, and forcing our government to help us help ourselves.
The more I think about it the more I think that the call for a new "greatest generation" is apt - because that generation was coerced by their government to make the requisite sacrifices that helped win the war.
Their war, of course, was against a terrifying aggressor with tanks and guns and U-boats. Our war is against a colorless gas, and a monolithic culture of capitalism. Both are harder for the average person to get riled up about - or even recognize as an enemy.
So we have our work cut out for us when nothing is achieved in Paris. More on that later.