Someone popped into my mentions yesterday and tried to argue that we can and should respond to the climate catastrophe by changing our consumption patterns—reducing, reusing, and recycling; carpooling; buying from artisans rather than big firms; etc.
Undoubtedly, many of us could improve the way we buy and use stuff and thereby nibble away at the margins of the climate problem. But no, we are not going to solve problems like “sequential heat waves that kill at least tens of thousands of people every summer” by recycling our glass bottles.
What I really want to talk about, though, is the idea that our pattern of purchases and use is somehow a neutral and organic expression of our preferences that we can just adjust on a whim. It’s not.
"the World Bank predicts that climate change will compel as many as 216 million people to move elsewhere in their countries by 2050; other reports suggest that more than one billion people will become refugees because of the impacts of a warming planet on developing countries"
We have somehow to find homes for that billion people. How many can your community welcome?
I had no idea Antarctic sea ice has failed to form this year (to the extent that it is expected to form for this time of the year; it's still forming, just MUCH less than expected) despite being in the dead of winter. Seriously people, it's 5 sigma below normal sea ice there! Wtf are we doing?! #climate#ClimateCatastrophe
Those who've decided to remain at Burning man to keep the party going despite their predicament are a perfect analogy of our world today in this #ClimateCatastrophe#burningman
Addendum: tragically, a death has happened at the event. This is no longer funny.
So the main reason Labour ditched its £28bn green strategy is because it's a target for the Tories to attack in the election. Instead of running for the Thatcher dressing up box, perhaps they could put their army of strategists, PR and management consultants to work and come up with an effective counter-argument?
Just an idea.
He's not going to tax profits. He's not going to tax CEOs. But he is going to make sure we all have to pay more on our energy bills by leaving them uninsulated.
I can't even.
When's the alien invasion again? I'm sure they're late. Bastards.
FT: "Earth outside ‘safe operating zone’ for humans in key areas, scientists find
Limits of 6 out of 9 planetary boundaries have been breached, study says"
The absolute fucking STATE of the media in this country.
Sunak's speech (rest of the world): "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Guardian: "Al Gore leads international chorus of disapproval for Sunak’s climate U-turn"
Meanwhile:
Fail: "I'll spare families ruinous costs of net zero, vows Rishi"
Express: Honest Rishi - nation won't and can't pay net zero bill
Telegraph: "Sunak spares public net zero pain" #UKPolitics#Sunak#NetZero #FuckTheTories#ClimateCatastrophe#GTTO
If you have any skills or talents that you can use to try to avert the coming #climatecatastrophe then get off your arse and do something.
Thats not saying "I will fly less and recycle more". Its coming freely together with other people to come up with new ideas and inventions to sort things out. If we can come up with #opensource software like #Linux then we can come up with open source solutions to #software and #hardware problems to help everyone
Its not just #scientists, #engineers and the like. If you are good at say editing #video or #audio you can help make content promoting the other people creating new technology. #Economists, #politicians and more can come up with #equitable and fair means of generating money with the new #technologies. They can also tax the rich motherfuckers until the pips squeak to pay for them too.
Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."
Another hyperbolic, fact-free intervention from a member of the actual government. Esther McVey on the JSO protest yesterday:
"How dare these criminals* storm** our National Gallery & use hammers to smash a painting depicting the Suffragette movement***"
*young people
** there were two of them
*** the Rokeby Venus was painted almost three centuries before the Suffragettes existed. #JustStopOil#ClimateCatastrophe
Saddle up for a u-turn everyone. Why are policies - especially ones as desperately important as this - always evaluated in terms of what they cost, and not how much they benefit (which usually has a financial element to it)?🙄 😡
Remember Phoebe, who was pre-emptively arrested in central London on a trumped up charge of "conspiracy to commit burglary" based on evidence from the Daily Mail?
She's not the only one. This crackdown on protest is getting dark.