I’ve been patiently sitting by my AM radio listening for information regarding what I should do about the emergency. The voices between the crackles and pops are saying things about the national emergency of Trump and Clinton, but politicians come in, politicians go out. The truth is politicians are always changing. I can say with the utmost confidence this is the innate ecology of democracy letting the submerged asphyxiated gurgles of freedom bubble to the surface as to achieve maximum greatness.
However, the emergency I’m most worried about is the state of our natural ecological systems where things like climate change, species extinction, and generally our ability to function on this planet are in jeopardy, and it’s happening primarily because of us. But I’ve always been a bit of a drama queen, as I’ve been known to mindlessly run in circles flapping my arms wildly mumbling how the sky is falling and often referencing my prophetic moon crystals which foretell the end is nigh…Ok maybe a few scientists are worried too. After all the oceans are dying, glacial melt is accelerating, antibiotics are becoming less effective, and our economic system is an amoral planet destroying machine which operates like a ponzi scheme. There is little that is sustainable about how we live now, and most of it is unnecessary destruction only to keep the wheels of capitalism spinning.
So we should probably be alarmed, right? Well, hold off on that mild flavor of alarmism, and let’s whip up the caterwauling because it’s almost certainly worse than I’m making it out to be. In a 2014 lecture marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson said what is common knowledge among those that follow climate data:
The IPCC, which is an international group makes projections every few years… and there is one thing you can say about them, they are consistently conservative. These people have been screamed at for being radicals, they’re conservative, always too conservative.
But it’s not just the IPCC that’s underplaying the seriousness of our predicament. There’s a muzzle on many scientists, and they are collectively frightened of being called alarmists and losing jobs. What happens when you are called an alarmist? Look at biologist Guy McPherson. This man is often hated for his predictions and ostracized for his ostensibly wild ideas. And what’s so controversial about his predictions? Not all that much. He’s looking at the data and adding feedback loops together, something rarely done in climate models, and he comes to a rather scary “oh shit!” realization that near term extinction for most life on this planet isn’t so unthinkable. According to his writing and lectures he seems to think the game is already over. If so, we may vent and reach a state of brambly denial over our fate, but he argues near term extinction is a done deal. While other more widely accepted scientists like James Hansen take a far softer stance, yet even his predictions would mean a great culling before the end of the century.
God! Like, why am I so negative? There must be some solutions before us. Let’s see, Trump’s plan for anything is not worth mentioning, so moving on to Clinton, maybe we should just stick to her climate plan for 4-8 years and do the hold your vomit bucket with one hand and scratch down your X with the other. So what does HRC propose? The salient piece in regards to climate change is to create enough energy via renewables to power all US households by 2027. An arbitrary goal which assumes climate change is going to wait around for her schedule and find her plan adequate to assuage nature’s fury. Inexplicably, also in her plan she wants to “revitalize coal communities” as a driver of economic growth, code for once again choosing money over reason. It would seem others don’t seem too thrilled about her plan either. There is no attempt to use less energy but only to ramp up industrial capitalism with aid of renewables, not even a carbon tax on the table to curb use, and I have my qualms with that as well.
It’s quite the pickle. All these systems natural and man-made alike seem to be sharing exponentiating curves leading to down the road to collapse, possibly of a Cormac McCarthy variety. The hard truth is we can no longer live in this manner. We must accept that changes to our lifestyles will happen and work to make conditions livable in the process to becoming sustainable and scaling down industrial capitalism.
First Alarms First
There’s talk of a World War II mobilization effort needed to combat climate change, but nothing changes with our ruling power structures still at play. They are not acquiescing.
So it stands to reason we cannot manage these problems until we come to the root of the problem. We must transcend this system that has created these problems or we will meet our end much sooner than we imagined and in far more brutal ways. The number one impediment to altering our path is our systems of control, namely corporations, banks, and government, with government being the lynchpin providing the muscle for the other two mafiosos. They constitute the obstructive clog standing in the way of all social evolution. This is not a new problem. It’s the same one we’ve had for a few thousand years.
It’s the same ole alpha competitive predatory system which preys on the weakest to feed the strongest. Social hierarchies and people pretending to be more exceptional than others is a busted stupid system. After all our claims of sophistication and technological progress we are living under the most asinine social system imaginable. The central philosophy is quite simple: Might makes right.
And it is that simple, but all gussied up in trade agreements, sanctions, economic systems, climate conferences, constitutions, and the heap of other complex and very serious sounding bullshit the people have been sold under the pretenses of security and health.
For the controlling powers leverage is king, and leverage playing out over time through each cascading decision all aimed at acquiring power and wealth looks almost like a powerful long running conspiracy, but fear not Donny, these are just assholes. Elites can shift a system to sway in their direction by utilizing leverage manifested in the form of capital, coercion, or outright violence.
To balance this leverage we must understand the methodology of how we come to our decisions, how we form our arguments, and what constitutes accepted logic molds our society. This is why the integrity of decision making carries so much weight. Decisions with truthful conclusions must be properly argued towards a clear understood objective. Without this kind of process then fascism creep becomes ever more probable. Words put down must be made clear as to their meanings, so words like liberty and equality can no longer be so heinously twisted; i.e., to foster reason language must have a concrete lucid structure that allows us to bridge the cartesian gap between ideas and implementations.
And there’s good news for non-believers who think we can never radically reform this system for the better. We don’t need a large percentage of people to affect change, as it’s estimated under 10% of the population is required. An informed left can organize, peacefully come together, and push back. And it must be peaceful, as violence is less effective and more time consuming, not to mention messy, and we can’t afford to be messy. Now is time for precision, direction, and action, but we must move.
I’m not promising anything we do will save us from climate disasters ahead. But becoming more authentic, sustainable, correcting the process of decision making, flattening the power structures, moving from corporations to worker owned cooperatives, and ending this multi-millennia rule by elites who live by might makes right is worth doing at any stage. If we don’t stand soon not only is the climate a done deal but as we slide into the gravity of collapse as a disparate group at each other’s throats we’ll become ever more barbarous if we don’t fight to end this culture of ego now.
Candidly, this writing was intended to persuade you into believing our climate problems are dire and we must act to unseat the status quo which is the only option for humanity to move forward. Am I presenting you with a false dilemma? Maybe. If so, it’s being done in earnest. I believe my words to be the truth I’ve gleaned through experience, history, thought, and analysis of data stemming from sources I trust, namely those which I cannot see holes in their data or logical methodology. But I too can be fooled, so if you don’t agree, then argue your points, see if the warrants hold water and if I’m incorrect, I can adjust. My ego may bruise but the truth is what I seek.
Conversely, those in power have no clear stated intent while being presented with many viable options that are far better than our chosen course and yet after ample evidence is given and well supported arguments offered they refuse to admit any wrongdoing or set any real course of change. The powers that be have run out of plausible deniability they are acting with intellectual honesty or in the interests of the people. And due to ecological concerns we have run out of time to rely on incrementally changing something which has proven itself corrupt, intractable, and willing only to offer conciliatory gestures with an aim to appease and not fix. What is required are well thought out plans put into action with great rapidity, not promises of something to happen months or years into the future which has no chance of working.
Thus it has become my adopted position that in order to limit suffering of all sentient life we must form a cogent movement and unseat the controlling entities and their falsehoods we have lived by for too long – and finally treat our illness instead of its symptoms.