The Unspoken Lie
Change is coming, one way or another
As the effects of the climate crisis unfold day by day, what is said is less important than what is left unsaid. We Americans, beneficiaries of the most powerful empire in the history of the Earth, attempt to go about life as if it’s unchanged, clinging to a fragile veneer. However, the truth is, if we cross a climate tipping point (and five of nine are currently threatened), the effects of climate change we are experiencing today will be benign by comparison.
Just this morning I read one such point, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is closer to tipping than previously thought. The Greenland and Arctic ice sheets are melting far more rapidly than anticipated, threatening this huge, critical convecting ocean system. Sea level could rise by a stunning three meters by 2100, nearly ten feet, submerging cities like New York and Miami. The scientific study is here, and an easier to digest article here.
The weakening Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)
Wanton consumption of the planet has never been a sustainable model, whether based on Franklin Roosevelt’s Keynesian economics or by the supercharged rape of her and the world’s citizens promulgated by Ronald Reagan’s embrace of Milton Friedman’s Chicago School economics. This evil theory demands markets be unencumbered by regulation. It’s a system of privatization and union breaking world over that has created the one percent who drive the destruction of our planet, and undermine our human rights. From the Southern Cone of South America where tens of thousands were tortured, murdered, and disappeared (Nixon and Kissinger fingerprints here), to the economic kneecapping of Solidarity in Poland, and the continued repression of the black majority in South Africa despite the fall of Apartheid, abusive wealth are global and sanctified by spurious law.
While there have been variations from country to country, the model has basically been to exploit vulnerable nations saddled with debt and “relieve” them of that debt by forcing the sale of their natural assets and industries to multinational corporations. The ideal is to keep them engulfed in debt anyhow, accrued by the previous failed government as a tool of control. Give them the facade of self-governance, but control them through economic chokeholds.
From Naomi Klein’s brilliant exposé of Chicago School economics, The Shock Doctrine, South African Apartheid activist Rassool Snyman accurately said:
“They never freed us. They only took the chain from around our neck and put it on our ankles.”
When I started writing about the climate emergency two and one half years ago, I didn’t picture writing about economics and human oppression, but these issues are inexorably linked.
Administrations since Reagan have continued on this plunderous course of neoliberal economics. Many of us benefited for a while. During Clinton’s terms in office, I made a good living. Eventually, though, the model of globalization, acquisition, merger and selling off pieces of companies for profit without actually creating wealth caught up. The last company I worked for as a graphic designer, a decades old family business, was bought and within a year reduced to 50 employees from 300.
A few have unimaginable wealth. That one percent drive the destruction of our planet and our security. Neoliberal economics have destroyed America as well. This is why Democracy is teetering. Most of us live a few paychecks away from disaster. Our young people see no future. This is not coincidence. It’s law and policy. The looters have eviscerated the world, and have been working decades to come for us. They’ve privatized our healthcare for profit, fight sensible environmental regulations tooth and claw, and openly talk of taking our social security.
I’m not complaining for myself. Others are consigned to a life of disaster from birth. Being white and male is an automatic head start in a racist, misogynistic society. These forces forever with us have been harnessed for economic gain. Rather than unite the nation, Covid and January 6 became opportunities for disaster capitalism, profit made on confusion and suffering, Alex Jones being the vile poster child for this phenomenon.
The reemergence of Nazis and rise Christian fundamentalists who wish to ram their views down our throats at the end of an AK-15 are a result of this synergy as well.
Such are the fruits of embedded racism, always lying in wait, inflamed by economic injustice. Certainly we saw it with the economic meltdown of 2008. I loved Obama’s intelligence, but had misgivings from day one. He appointed the very people who caused the crisis to his cabinet. As average Americans lost their homes and we taxpayers bailed out their greed, the banks were not nationalized, and no bankers went to jail. This was disaster capitalism, not perpetrated in Chile or South Africa, but here by our own government against the citizens it’s supposed to protect. Today the banks are bigger than ever and continue to fund the Chevrons and ExxonMobils of our world that have destroyed our most basic right, that of an inhabitable planet. Pull your money out of fossil fuel banks. Here’s a list.
We live in complete disconnection to reality. All wealth, all security, is derived from the physical resources of our Earth. The oil age is ending. It was a bubble that created overpopulation and overconsumption. It isolated us from each other. It made us ill. It’s driving the 6th Extinction. Every lungful of bad air and swallow of water laced with chemicals and plastic is evidence of failure. Needless possessions are the results of the pimps of culture, advertisers creating involuntary, divisive enslavement. Mass shootings are nearly daily. Cops shoot young black men in the back and walk free. Our children shoot each other in school. This is not a healthy society.
We’re led to believe driving EVs, massive solar installations and wind turbine farms will enable us to continue as we have. They won’t, the energy density isn’t there and mining to create this infrastructure is its own destructive business, often in areas of historic drought. Processing one ton of lithium ore requires 500,000 gallons of water in direct competition with drinking water and agriculture. Why would we want to continue to live this way anyhow? We can live better and happier by living with less. So-called green energy, nuclear, whatever gets us through, if we get through, should be looked at as a bridge, not a solution to what ails us.
The unspoken lie is this, that we can change everything without changing anything. Throwaway, mindless consumption culture must end. We must become efficient and make wise choices. We must demand meaning in our lives and recognize time, family and friends are our most valuable assets, not possessions. We can work less and have more. We’re not being told the truth or being offered a vision for a better future. Patchwork technology does not address the fundamentals. Degrowth addresses all of these issues. We need to demand it become part of the conversation. Change is scary. Change is here. Humans have a tendency to hang onto what they know, even if it’s bad. We must subsume that tendency, or continue to be victims.
Will it be easy? No. Will it require sacrifice? Yes. Will people die? Yes. But the world defeated Hitler. That’s what we can do when we all recognize the enemy and fight for our future.
Those are all excellent questions, Lillian, and ones with unsatisfying answers. The blinking lights are indeed everywhere, and there are a range of reasons people aren't reacting with alarm and action. Many are simply uneducated, many rely on poor sources of information, many reject the facts from fear of them. Many simply feel the problem is so big they can't make a difference anyhow. Some have worked for the devil so long, they can't see the truth. Sometimes when I try to impart a little bit of my knowledge in daily life, I am stunned by the lack of awareness of climate change. People struggle to survive, so there is little time for growth, and that little time is in competition with our atrocious entertainment culture. Those at the top of the food chain may be so buffered they don't see the problem. Except for the ones building bunkers. They sure as hell know.
I try to remind myself that change, good or bad, comes down to a minority of people and their actions. Whose voice might make a difference? When America finally entered WWII, that made a difference. So did the Russians on the second front, we couldn't have won without their brutal sacrifices and the resolve of countries in Europe against absolute madness. When people unite, they get things done. This is a different type of madness, an invisible enemy. It's harder to make a visceral connection.
However, there are people out there on the front lines, toe-to toe with the police, risking their safety and freedom, so I try to think about them when this work is hard. If I was younger, I might be on those front lines, too. I can't now with some annoying and unwelcome physical deterioration, but I can write and inform as you do. I sleep better trying. Wish I had a magical answer.
I agree. We have all been participants. Even trying to live small and conscientiously, we are participants. I often feel the irony of speaking out about the system on my computer, dependent on the internet and ultimately fossil fuels, the enemy that has landed us here.