Hands Off Day
Americans come together to protest tyranny
Welcome new readers! So happy to have you (and of course my longtime readers as well)! We are living through the most trying times of our lives as the specter of fascism attempts to grip America. When I started this work nearly four years ago, it was to educate myself on climate change after becoming familiar with the top climate scientists in the world on Twitter. I wanted to become expert enough to translate the arcane language of science and make that information accessible and visceral. Why? The media and political system have completely failed to communicate, let alone act sufficiently, on the most critical issue of all, the health of our planet. Hands Off was a huge day, and it was heartening to see this unified response as our civil rights and critical social programs are attacked. The battle is far from over and the interests diverse. As we fight for our future, the question becomes what will our demands be, and can we frame them in a new vision that accounts for the limits of a finite planet?
Legend has it that Nero fiddled while Rome burned in 64 A.D. The fiddle hadn’t been invented yet (he probably played a cithara). While this legend is disputed, comparison to Trump playing golf as the planet burns and floods is apt. If only Trump was at least intelligent enough to play a musical instrument at all (perhaps a kazoo)? But of course this is a shambles who once suggested disinfectants and light could be medicinal in fighting Covid-19.
Early Roman Empire author, military and naval commander Pliny the Elder described Nero as an “actor emperor,” and Roman historian Suetonius wrote, that Nero was, above all “carried away by a craze for popularity” and “jealous of all who in any way stirred the feeling of the mob.”
Sound familiar?
Nero was a bloody and cruel figure in the history of Rome, paranoid about plots and a murderer of anyone he suspected to be a threat. His death ushered in a long period of instability. Nero is regarded as having been either a mad or outright evil Emperor, just as Trump will be if we survive him.
It is April 6 as I write, and participation in Hands Off! saw more than 1000 protests (1100 to 1300 by various estimates) and appears to have far surpassed the pre-protest estimated 500,000 participants. Even corporate ABC News acknowledged likely over 100,000 gathered in the National Mall in D.C. and New York City drew a similar number. Equally corporate, CBS estimated Boston drew nearly 100,000, and in my small working class city of Buffalo, NY 3,000 showed up downtown in Niagara Square to fight for their rights.
Across the country, people rose in common recognition that their protections under the Constitution, so hard-earned with the blood, sweat, and tears of those who preceded us, are falling to oligarchs if we don’t put our bodies on the line. In less than three months, the Trump-Musk-Christian fascist regime has fired thousands of federal workers critical to our health and well-being, and attempted to strike the words “climate change” from every federal website. His tariffs threaten to plunge the world economy into depression, and heighten the risk of war. If you speak out against the genocide in Gaza, you could be being taken away and held indefinitely without charges. They wish to drill for oil, even though it’s approaching the end of EROI and creating catastrophic climate change. This is not insanity or ignorance. It’s a calculated plot to exterminate hundreds of millions, potentially billions of people, both immediately and over time. It’s a new approach to enslavement and genocide that encompasses the planet, not just the ghastly gas chambers of Nazi Germany. While Trump may be too stupid to understand science and too damaged to have a human heart (ditto for Musk on the heart part), his Project 2025 minions, protégé of the Heritage Foundation, damn well know what they are doing. This is a life and death fight that goes far beyond our fear of a crashing economy, and loss of the social safety net built by FDR after previous oligarchs created the Great Depression. These policies, or rather illegal executive orders, are the actions of a moronic puppet controlled by others who are far more deadly in their evil cleverness.
Blame goes around for our dire situation, and extends well back in time. We have two major problems, overpopulation and overconsumption. Some would argue our dilemma began 10,000 years ago in transitioning from hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies. On a fundamental level, an increase in available calories enables a larger population. Others would argue our dilemma began with the advent of the industrial revolution, first coal, then oil, which gave rise to exponentially larger populations. In 1961, the year I was born, the world stood at a little over three billion people. Today, just 64 years later, it has over doubled, in excess of eight billion people. In 1760 at the start of the industrial revolution, the population stood at well under one billion, just 770 million of us. We can easily see the exponential growth that fossil fuels brought us in my words and this table.
As we are stirred to fight for our immediate survival, a greater opportunity is presented, one to mitigate the fatal destruction of our planet that will persist after we prevail over Trump. This fraught moment brings an opportunity to reshape our world. Overconsumption which steals our time, eats our souls, and enslaves the people of the Global South must and will end one way or another. Our smartphones contain cobalt mined by children in the Congo who die in corporate enslavement. Our future is determined by the physical limitations and unleashed fury of the planet, not our political leadership. We can either demand a path of degrowth or pretend we can overconsume forever. Those days are gone. Defeating this evil administration will not change the physical limitations of the planet we have far exceeded. That’s called overshoot. Degrowth offers a path forward for a better world, while staying on this one leads to a smoldering wreck with the oligarchs dancing on our graves. We can feel this in our bodies made ill by every morsel of pesticide laden food, profit centers for Big Pharma. We can see it in the bodies of our unborn children, filled with chemicals passed by their mother’s placenta before they ever feel the sun on their faces. We can despair of it in the mindless rage of mass shootings, people driven crazy by the world we have created. Surely, we can do better?
A basic understanding of overshoot can be found here. It’s important. A basic understanding of degrowth can be found here, equally important. These are facts and concepts the mainstream media doesn’t bring to you, so I and some other so-called other “doomers” do. We are not doomers. Those who fail to acknowledge the issues we face, and benefit from the status quo, are.
At this moment of outrage, you and I must paint a far bigger picture of the threats we’re presented with. Defeating this administration must also lead to a fundamental change of how we live on Earth, or it’s pointless. Read my extra links on overshoot and degrowth. Take this information and carry it forward. My words and those of other sentinels are only as good as how far you carry them, dear reader. We writers depend on you. We must fight together.
Do you think Trump's tariffs will usher in an age of degrowth and decreased consumption? I haven't seen this angle covered in mainstream economic commentary, but maybe this can be an opening for us to write about (and encourage in our circles) these in our own ways.
Geoffrey writes: "Take this information and carry it forward. My words and those of other sentinels are only as good as how far you carry them, dear reader. We writers depend on you. We must fight together."
Overshoot (in population, consumption and waste) is close to a root problem. Even further down is that we see ourselves separate from Earth, separate from each other, and even separate from ourselves (distraction from our own reality inside creates this). Yes, take Geoffrey's info in, deeply. Understand what this means--existential threats. We are all in this together. Others more powerful and wealthy are in charge now. And, we have the numbers--but only if we "carry it forward." Together with a North Star like "Creating a compassionate, just and ecologically sustainable world," or "a world that works for all" or "a life-affirming culture."
Stable Planet is close to being complete with training (nominal fee--for skin in the game) that lays out the need for educated and wise public engagement to support new leaders and legislators who will fulfill the will of the people--to kindly survive the cruel harm to Earth and human ecosystems and create Earth and humanity flourishing.