The Illusions of Fossil Fuels

Time to Take Back Our Lives and Reality

Illustration by Geoffrey Deihl

“One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.”

— Voltaire

We live in an illusion. This illusion has taken place in the blink of an eye. Everything we think of as reality is a mirage, created by the discovery of fossil fuels.

Our minds do a poor job with the concept of time. Consider that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaled to 46 years, a number we can grasp, human beings have been here for just four hours, and the industrial revolution started one minute ago. In that sliver of time, we have imperiled our survival on this planet.

At this moment, one million species face extinction. Countless others were already consigned to oblivion by our activities. Twenty thousand years ago, humans comprised just one percent of the combined weight of all land vertebrates. Today, we comprise thirty-two percent of that weight and wild animals have been reduced to one percent. The other sixty-seven percent are the domesticated animals we imprison, torture, and eat to sustain our overpopulation. We have outstripped our environment. Any species that does so is destined for collapse.

A plastic island twice the size of Texas floats in the Pacific. It isn’t safe to drink rainwater. Our bodies are filled with toxins from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We walk into public spaces and shoot random strangers, blow away black boys who rang the wrong doorbell, and shoot you dead if you pull into the wrong driveway. We go to jobs we hate, anesthetize ourselves in front of screens, large and small, buy the very junk that destroys our environment and eat addictive fast food, cynically manufactured to reward primal pleasure centers in our brains. These “goods,” a curious word to me, are there to distract from our emptiness, and the pharmaceutical companies are ever ready to profit from our depression and sick bodies. Ironically, we enable this system with our own choices.

If I punched you in the face over and over again, would you say, “More of that, please?”

Getting mad is uncomfortable. It means looking at things directly. It means feeling sad. It may mean feeling overwhelmed, or helpless. It means having difficult conversations. It means educating and persuading. It means making changes in your life. It means losing addictions. It may even mean losing some friends.

But it also means making new ones. It means becoming a leader. It means becoming empowered. It means growing. It means embracing reality. It means becoming healthy in mind and body. It means shedding the matrix and breathing again, maybe even air that isn’t filled with chemicals, from the latest train derailment. Once you act, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

We can’t be passive, we can’t be tired. We have to bloody some noses. Nobody is coming to save us. We have to demand a better world, even at the risk of personal cost. The #ClimateCrisis knows no boundaries. We can pay now, while there’s time to save ourselves, or pay later, with complete environmental, agricultural, and social collapse. All those fascists running around these days? They’re salivating over the opportunity.

As I write, another record heat wave is sweeping Asia and the Mediterranean as well. Wildfires are out of control in western Canada, again. People around the equator are fleeing north, as their countries become uninhabitable. The politicized crisis at the Mexican border has worsened because the poor are struggling to farm in Central America. Climate change is destroying their livelihoods. It’s coming for us, too. We’ve already experienced it, with record drought and fires, more powerful hurricanes and biblical flooding washing lives away.

It’s too late to escape all the consequences, but it’s not too late to spare ourselves some of the worst pain. The time is now, before tipping points guarantee self-sustaining feedback loops.

Our Demands

We must demand a world where the colors are green and blue, a thriving natural world. A world where new pavement is banned. A world where your job has meaning. A world where your work helps others. A world where you look forward to the day, rather than endure it. A world where you don’t have to wait until you’re near dead to live. A world where you spend time outdoors, connected to the Earth. Industry and mass consumption have isolated us from her so much, we have forgotten she is our mental and physical sustenance. We are poisoning our mother.

Our humanity has been stolen. If we’re lucky, or ruthless, we live in gilded cages. If we’re not, we’re swept out of homeless encampments by the police, disappeared. The illusion must go on.

How did we get here? We got here from a small cabal, past and present, turning our nature against us. Our basic needs — food, water, shelter, and clothing — were met hundreds of years ago, hell, thousands, but we went further. Our survival instinct manifested as greed, a drive for wealth and control. Just a handful of sociopaths have pushed us to the point of collapse.

To become a billionaire, you must impoverish billions of others. There’s no other way. The Earth is a closed system and the source of all wealth. Her rocks, her soil, her air. Do not admire billionaires. In their eyes you are inferior, expendable, a unit of profit, or a unit of labor, that is all.

The real heroes are the working poor. During the height of Covid, we realized this, as they kept us alive, the frontline service workers, the immigrants working fields made dangerously hot by #ClimateChange, and those laboring in gruesome meat plants, who had no choice, but to risk their lives for unconscionable wages. The federal minimum wage is $7.50 an hour, a reflection of organized evil. Nurses, our angels, died, because we couldn’t even supply them with enough N95 masks.

As the vast majority, we are powerful. The puppet masters don’t want us to see that. Service of their greed, is death. Averting our eyes is death. For younger readers, it could mean witnessing billions dying. It could be your son, your daughter, your grandchild. The biggest risk you take is in doing nothing. That is a guaranteed outcome. Waiting for someone else to solve our dilemma ensures unthinkable tragedy.

Therefore, we must think about it and must act.

Brainwashing, Forever Effective

Brainwashing has been with us forever. The institutions we put the most faith in are the biggest liars, governments and corporations. EVs and batteries are not going to save us, mere greenwashing for continued corporate profit and political survival. The war isn’t liberal or conservative, that’s divide and conquer strategy, cover for age-old class warfare. The same billionaires who own the political system created the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys by pedaling hate and empowering loathsome creatures like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson. We see they’ve been buying the Supreme Court, thanks to Clarence Thomas. Eroded antitrust laws have given rise to behemoths. Reagan broke the unions, and it’s been game over since Citizen United, which iced the corporate cake. If you’re a planet raping corporation and have a bad quarter, just layoff 15,000 workers, and celebrate with bonuses and stock buybacks. Then accuse those out of work of grafting the system.

You know what Medicaid is? It’s not social welfare. It’s corporate welfare, paid by you and me, so corporations don’t have to cover health care for the half of America’s work force driven into minimum wage jobs and poverty. Every time I see elderly people stocking grocery stores, I want to scream. Ever been to a job fair for sweeping factory floors, in competition with PhD’s? I have. Six-hundred applicants for a handful of positions, in a cancerous silicone plant.

Higher education costs keep going higher, and higher thinking has been reduced to job training to funnel wealth to the top more efficiently. An under educated populace is a controllable populace, and now if we get a degree we won’t buy a house for decades, if at all, because of our crushing debt as speculators simultaneously buy up the rental market, further draining us.

I don’t want to hear about it, get another job.

But don’t worry. You can go home and be entertained. Let’s watch television.

Opiates of the Masses

We’re tired. We worked twelve hours again. We’re exhausted from going paycheck to paycheck. Relief? Social media and television, both of which exist to make you feel worse and encourage you to buy more stuff to feel better.

Facebook’s and Instagram’s content is you, what you provide. Yet, Zuckerberg owns your words and thoughts. He makes billions on them, your pictures, your data, and the platform leads to bullying and suicidal thoughts in teenage kids, particularly girls. I have a niece who was a victim, harassed to tears and beaten up by Facebook users. Twitter is now owned by a psychopath who encourages misinformation, racism, and fascism. LinkedIn? You have over 500 connections? You can vouch for all of them? Yeah right, liar.

No thank you to all of that.

Television, and movies are older evils. Brainwashing in their own right, they’re a delivery system for advertising, the king of brainwashing, a societally normalized crime to atrophy your thinking, conform, and be obedient consumers. I stopped watching TV in the 90s, because I could no longer tolerate the drilling, drilling, drilling. How many times a day do you need to hear the Burger King jingle in your head, or the words, “A diamond is forever,” to know your brain has been poisoned? You know what a diamond is? Black children dying in mines in South Africa. Corporate pollution isn’t just in our bodies. It’s in our skulls, stealing our minds.

Years ago, I took my daughter to see The Hunger Games at her request, a dystopian science fiction film aimed at young people. I hated it. After the movie, Claire asked me what I thought. I said, “It was well done, but I didn’t like it. Why can’t we imagine better futures in science fiction, instead of worse ones? Wouldn’t that be the first step to creating a better world?”

If our bodies are what we eat, then certainly our brains are what they ingest, too.

The billionaires use psychology against us. They fearmonger and twist the intent of freedom of speech. They hide the truth to persuade us we are helpless. They have reduced the majority to survival mode, without time or energy to fight, but we have to. Not everyone can, but fortunately, revolutions start with just a few of courage.

I don’t condone violence, but I do choose to fight. Violence is being done against us. The fight is for no less than a survivable planet, and I can imagine a better world.

How a Better World Looks

If I wrote science fiction, I would look to the past for a better future. In the famous words of philosopher and writer George Santayana, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”

My novel would start with a revised Constitution. The Earth First Constitution would be written with an overriding principle, that if it isn’t good for the Earth, it isn’t good for any of us. “First do no harm,” would apply to the planet. It would be the principle by which we treat all other people, plants, animals and organisms that live here as well.

For something to live, something must die, an immutable law of nature. However, we would embrace sustainability, a light footprint and reverence for all that lives, recognizing that we are part of something greater. We would embrace the wisdom of the Earth and live with humility. As the most powerful animal on the planet, it’s our sacred duty to be benevolent caretakers. In that thought lies our broken spiritual potential and better lives. We would give back what we take and restore what we’ve destroyed. People wronged, people of color, indigenous people, would lead the way, given important roles to teach us about living in harmony with the natural world.

Consumerism would be extinguished. Plastic would be banned. Everyone would earn a living wage, because there would be a maximum wage. Billionaire wealth would be redistributed to fix the damage caused, facilitating an economy based on preservation and restoration. We would learn that time is our most valuable asset, not possessions. Too big to fail would be too big to exist. Small businesses would thrive, restoring creativity and meaning to work, as well as greater economic resiliency.

Economies would become local and regional. Goods would be made by hands, not machines at a human pace. Speed is hastening our demise. Success would be defined by living happy, meaningful lives. We would eat in season and eat far less meat and dairy in recognition of the souls of animals, and the devastating impact of industrialized agriculture. By minimizing consumption, returning to local economies and eliminating industrialized agriculture and fossil fuel fertilizers, we would bring greenhouse gasses under control. Small farms could thrive again.

We would address three fundamental problems. Overpopulation, overconsumption and longer life expectancies. They all require resources from a planet that has reached its limit. Eliminating overconsumption in the global north is a moral imperative and would solve much of the problem. Overpopulation, a complex issue with myriad cultures involved and justified distrust from historical exploitation of the impoverished global south, would be addressed by example, not words. Indigenous people reflecting our new human values would be ideal ambassadors.

Increasing longevity would be resolved by reducing population to a sustainable number over time and by reduced consumption. Population reduction is a profoundly complex problem, but there are only two choices, make a sane plan or stay on the path to sudden collapse.

Conservation would become a central driver of the economy. Products would be designed to last, be updated, repaired, or remanufactured. Planned obsolescence of products would be made obsolete. Existing containers, plastic or glass, would be refilled. Throw away culture would be abolished.

Eliminating urban and rural sprawl would be implemented through intelligent, coordinated planning. Spaces scarred by development would be returned to the wild. Empty skyscrapers would be torn down to build seawalls, protecting us from rising oceans until warming was reversed. Work would be planned around community hubs, or remote, eliminating the need to commute. Walking communities would be the norm, and bicycles would proliferate. Micro EVs and e-bikes would move local goods, and electric rail could bring produce from farm to market, or serve for longer journeys. Cars would become unnecessary.

We would facilitate international cooperation on cleaning up the oceans, another part of the new economy and one which could also foster better international relations. World trade would be widely reconsidered. There’s no good reason to buy apples from Chile when they are available here. Cargo vessels would be refitted with state-of-the-art wind power technology. Hydrogen powered blimps could also be a possibility if we can produce green hydrogen, an open question.

These changes would drive a new, sustainable economy, a cleaner world and vastly improved mental health. Gun violence would plummet. Common diseases would be reduced through clean diets, reduction of chemicals, higher work satisfaction and more time spent outdoors in physically active lives.

Technology would be governed. No more would technology be unleashed by uncontrolled self-interest. Governing would require passing basic competency and mental health tests. We can’t afford fools, racists and sociopaths in positions of power. Similarly, citizens would be required to pass basic civics and history tests to earn the right to vote. Idiots, voting for idiots, is idiotic.

We would recognize freedom of speech, is not freedom to lie. There is no such thing as free speech. All words come with power and consequences. Much of this would be resolved by living for the greater good, in deep connection with our planet. This would remake our core values. We would restore the importance of liberal arts education and critical thinking skills as well. Higher learning is not about job training. Teaching would be a revered profession.

I am old now as I look out on my backyard. It’s all wildflowers and weeds. So is my front yard. I haven’t mowed a lawn in years. This is how my entire neighborhood looks. It’s alive with pollinators, butterflies, bees and birds. Rabbit and fox, are common, too. It raises my spirits to be part of this harmonious world. Later, I will ride my bike to the community gardens and put a few hours in conversing with my neighbors and friends, coming home with fresh, pesticide free produce. My body no longer hurts because it’s clean.

I often reflect early in the morning, when the birds greet the dawn and sun rays glisten on the beaded water of overnight dew. The new day seems like forever, filled with endless potential and promise. I marvel at this new world. We call it The New Dawn. I can scarcely believe we conquered The New Dark Ages, but we did. We woke up, just in time, and demanded better.

We realized our minds and bodies were polluted. We realized 8 billion people were too many. We realized that grotesque wealth inequality drove hatred and racism. We realized that consumerism drove slavery. We realized that our media was propaganda. We realized war machines were enforcing rape of the Earth. We realized the police had become enforcers of an immoral system. We realized justice was twisted by wealth. We boycotted. We organized strikes. We took to the streets and endured tear gas, bullets and incarceration. Some of us died, but we saved far more than we lost and created a future where there was none. I am so proud of us.

We saved our planet, and we’re never letting psychopaths threaten it again.