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.
I have been asking for people to step back with me. People like me. People with children so sensitive they must have clean air and clean food to exist. They're all too afraid. They're uncertain and waiting for some devastating sign that it is now or never. It seems to me there are devastating, large, neon, blinking signs everywhere. How can we be on the same planet and see it so differently?
Most seem blind to the fact that nothing will get better, everything will only get worse. Even my spouse seems more like them than me. I am so confused by this. Why is it not as clear to others. Why can't they see the data shows there is no rebound. There is only sinking, that will just increase in speed. I have been called a pessimist my entire life. Yet I have also been accurate in everything bad thing I saw coming. Can't they see the lies from the truths?
How do we undo their resistance to seeing what is right in front of them? I have spent my life trying to show with fact, all the conditioning we have received so that we no longer can trust ourselves. That we must now reject that conditioning and learn to trust ourselves. I am not getting through. It is so frustrating.
Cycle indeed. I’ve learned to accept it as part of the nature of things for the time being. I dream of a different day with a different dynamic. Good to connect with a like-minded soul.
Thanks, Geoffrey, great post! Yes, the “unspoken lie,” and on top of that, no consideration AT ALL of the massive amount of (fossil) energy required to perform the so-called transition to “renewables.” Yes, de-growth is needed, a great reduction in GDP, but remember that the Great Depression was only about 10% drop in GDP (although it was also a “bear-raid” in which the fat cats pulled their chips off the table and went home). We need to live a more simple life! See https://kathleenmccroskey.substack.com/p/limits-to-progress
Yes, the build out of renewables requires massive fossil fuels. Turbines require massive concrete pads, concrete its own issue. On mountain top installations the land is blasted to level it, and roads have to be widened — the radius of curves enlarged — to get the blades to the top. Blades abrade, and life expectancy is about 25 years for these machines. Mining of course is incredibly destructive. Solar farms require massive acreage. Some are advocating for nuclear as part of the mix. If we somehow thread the needle, we can't use that as an excuse to continue life as usual. We must reduce consumption. One percent cause an outsized the problem, not just with their carbon footprints, but with their investments. Eight billion people and counting as climate change and groundwater depletion begin to impact agriculture. Something has to give. Someone has to be honest about the changes we need to make. We need a visionary communicator and national and world galvanization. Thanks for sharing your article. I'll check it out after the coffee kicks in.
You and I can see that clearly. Unfortunately, those who have made fortunes from this unsustainable model can't or won't. Degrowth is going to happen one way or another. A planned path would be difficult, but an unplanned one exponentially worse.
Like eating shellfish, I’m not going to sign a waiver to fly commercial. Aside from Boeing, it’s the safest form of transportation on earth. Even more so than walking.
Hi Keith, to me the question isn't what to do, it's a question of can, or will we do it? One of the tragedies of our dilemma is that many have seen this situation coming for decades. Exxon sponsored its own scientists to do studies that predicted global warming with remarkable precision in the mid to late 1970s, then proceeded to cover it up. I found a declassified Navy document that proves they knew in the early 1990s. Boycotting the Kyoto Protocol was a critical error. The biggest problem now is the need for rapid, profound action, not just technology, but deep social change. I don't believe technology alone can save us, just bridge the gap for deeper change.
I make suggestions in many of my articles about what we can do. Pulling our money from fossil fuel sponsoring banks, boycotting and strikes among them. The people running the planet into the ground understand only one thing, money. We need people in the streets. Protests against fossil fuels have been fairly common in Europe, we need that here. The huge protests over Gaza give me hope that people can be mobilized if they're aware. I also hope a percentage of my readers and others doing similar have audiences that spread what they learn. We need to educate people extremely rapidly at this point and encourage action at the local level that leads to a national movement.
The only idea I have studied that I think can save us is degrowth. It's a concept that covers multiple critical, interrelated issues. I believe there is a near complete lack of awareness of the concept. I wrote an article on it, and I am thinking of breaking it down further into pamphlets and talking points people could download, print and share with others. As many as possible need to become ambassadors for change. Educate, organize, take action. There are no new miracle ideas to creating change, just guts and sacrifice as usual.
The biggest enemy may be time now. Degrowth article here, if you're interested.
Understanding the metacrisis (I hate that word) as you do, tells me that you indeed know what to do.
A better question is how to raise a few million people to our level of understanding with a determination to grow as a movement and to make the needed change.
Fundamental restructuring of our social structures is demanded by the circumstances. How are we going to do that? Here I go with another rhetorical question. You are telling me in your response about pamphlets. Great idea.
I will post 'Degrowth: The Vision We Must Demand' later today in the Doomstead Diner which is at: https://chasingthesquirrel.com/ <-- My website. Adding all the links and pics takes a while so I will post it after I am off work.
Asking how we're going to raise the level of a few million human beings feels overwhelming. I break it down by what I can do every day, or I might become defeated. And if we can affect change by raising awareness of just a few million people, that would be good news, and it may be true. History shows just a handful of people have steered humanity for better or worse, but we need many supporters. Thank you for sharing my article. It's the best vision I'm aware of (not mine, I'm merely a proponent) for surviving this mess we have created.
If I may, like any and every other social issue that needs fixing this sovereign or any representative democracy for that matter, there is only one way to make a statistically significant change. Given they are reactionary and rarely proactive.
100 million people in the street can have a no compromise list of demands met in 10 days. The numbers are inversely correlated and only inclusively cell to the time needed or possibility of change. The donor class needs labor and consumer capital. We wouldn’t have to lift a finger. They would force them out.
That’s how women got the right to vote, prohibition came to be, how prohibition ended. How civil rights were legislatively Mandy how the Vietnam war was ended.
“With the people” are oblivious. Unknowing of our most effective tool.
Everything you say is true. The justice fights are all intertwined - environmental, economic, racial, healthcare, immigration - and share dependencies.
Our own 2 party political system is not made up of opposing teams…as someone else noted recently (I cannot remember who), they’re on the same team passing the ball down the field. Those who control the purse strings are the ones with the power. When combined with their nihilistic mindset (poster child Elon Musk) they are treacherous.
The trillion dollar question is how do we reverse course?
In a literal sense, I believe it's still possible to reverse course. With visionary leadership and world coordination, we could stabilize what's baked in, CO2 that will linger in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Tragically, the political leadership isn't there, and the public is not being properly informed and educated. Biden reportedly admires FDR. Where have the "fireside chats" been? Will his "pause" on LNG terminals hold? I'm skeptical.
Although it's well established, one percent cause a wildly disproportionate impact, we give them much of our money voluntarily. I keep advocating for boycotting, and moving money from the worst banks. We also need to be in the streets regularly. It appears to me Europeans are more aware, more actively protesting, but the Gaza tragedy shows Americans will protest, too, when they recognize a problem. Of course, climate change is a far more insidious enemy, and the deniers in leadership are a fundamental problem. My hope is that my writing and others writing about these issues can educate and inspire readers to have conversations, and raise awareness. As many as possible need to raise their voices. We can create pressure through our numbers, and politicians who don't recognize the existential threat of climate change must be voted out.
Michael, welcome. Degrowth addresses everything. It lifts developing nations which is critical to transition them off of fossil fuels, and corrects historic injustice. It means working less, not more. The benefits would be myriad. It's a plan that needs to be explained to people, but hasn't even been introduced. Those with wealth and power will fight the concept if we manage to make it part of the conversation, but it's a solid, sane plan that could improve our lives, not diminish them. Here it is, my attempt to boil it down to an article size explanation. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/degrowth-the-vision-we-must-demand
Thank you, Tyler. I'm on board with you about degrowth, the only logical way forward that would correct historic injustice, and reduce our way of living to a sustainable model. I like your optimism that, "That most have some sense that there is something fundamentally wrong with how we do things, even if they may not be able to articulate it, or even experience it beyond just a gut feeling." That would make the sell much easier. As a person who was formerly in graphic design, I know quite a bit about marketing. I do think it's a hard sell for many, and would be an incredibly complex, but not impossible project. It's not part of the conversation among our mixed bag of leaders. That's where we need to focus, spreading the concept among our friends, explaining the necessity and benefits. We need to create a grass root demand. Getting the word degrowth into the mouths of even the most progressive politicians requires this.
It's a tough task, because it demands systemic change that requires reasonably equitable wealth distribution, an anathema to the "American Dream," and certainly not a concept far right climate change deniers will embrace, particularly wealthy ones. It's a bottom to top battle, and we're seeing some of what it takes in the protests on behalf of Palestinians trapped in Gaza.
Yes, the failures of the system are becoming more intolerant every day. Many of the beefs of the people that stormed the capital on January 6 cross political ideologies. Not everyone is persuadable, but common ground can be found there. The people who aren't that radical, perhaps confused, under informed, or dropped out in disgust, need your perspective, and can become difference makers. As the crisis worsens, will cool heads and logic prevail, Green New Deal people who don't recognize deeper change is necessary than techno fixes, or those who are unwittingly embracing fascist leadership?
Here's an article on degrowth I wrote, trying to boil down books to something approachable. Too much information can be overwhelming, and people don't necessarily have time as staying afloat becomes ever more challenging. Hope it's helpful. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/degrowth-the-vision-we-must-demand
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.
I have been asking for people to step back with me. People like me. People with children so sensitive they must have clean air and clean food to exist. They're all too afraid. They're uncertain and waiting for some devastating sign that it is now or never. It seems to me there are devastating, large, neon, blinking signs everywhere. How can we be on the same planet and see it so differently?
Most seem blind to the fact that nothing will get better, everything will only get worse. Even my spouse seems more like them than me. I am so confused by this. Why is it not as clear to others. Why can't they see the data shows there is no rebound. There is only sinking, that will just increase in speed. I have been called a pessimist my entire life. Yet I have also been accurate in everything bad thing I saw coming. Can't they see the lies from the truths?
How do we undo their resistance to seeing what is right in front of them? I have spent my life trying to show with fact, all the conditioning we have received so that we no longer can trust ourselves. That we must now reject that conditioning and learn to trust ourselves. I am not getting through. It is so frustrating.
Such a big lie, all of it. Great post.
Who would have thought such a big lie could be possible when information is so available? Thanks, Justin.
Turns out most of the institutions we were raised to trust are ideological apparatuses of the ruling class.
Part of the cycle, right? The gilded age and robber barons are just a few generations removed. The stakes are way higher this time, though.
Cycle indeed. I’ve learned to accept it as part of the nature of things for the time being. I dream of a different day with a different dynamic. Good to connect with a like-minded soul.
The entire debacle is on us. “We the people“
Life, like a representative democracy is a participation gig . Voting and bitching about it on the radio Twitter machine isn’t participating.
Thanks, Geoffrey, great post! Yes, the “unspoken lie,” and on top of that, no consideration AT ALL of the massive amount of (fossil) energy required to perform the so-called transition to “renewables.” Yes, de-growth is needed, a great reduction in GDP, but remember that the Great Depression was only about 10% drop in GDP (although it was also a “bear-raid” in which the fat cats pulled their chips off the table and went home). We need to live a more simple life! See https://kathleenmccroskey.substack.com/p/limits-to-progress
Yes, the build out of renewables requires massive fossil fuels. Turbines require massive concrete pads, concrete its own issue. On mountain top installations the land is blasted to level it, and roads have to be widened — the radius of curves enlarged — to get the blades to the top. Blades abrade, and life expectancy is about 25 years for these machines. Mining of course is incredibly destructive. Solar farms require massive acreage. Some are advocating for nuclear as part of the mix. If we somehow thread the needle, we can't use that as an excuse to continue life as usual. We must reduce consumption. One percent cause an outsized the problem, not just with their carbon footprints, but with their investments. Eight billion people and counting as climate change and groundwater depletion begin to impact agriculture. Something has to give. Someone has to be honest about the changes we need to make. We need a visionary communicator and national and world galvanization. Thanks for sharing your article. I'll check it out after the coffee kicks in.
Growth is NOT progress. Progress is NOT growth.
You and I can see that clearly. Unfortunately, those who have made fortunes from this unsustainable model can't or won't. Degrowth is going to happen one way or another. A planned path would be difficult, but an unplanned one exponentially worse.
I’d rather be in an airplane when we run out of metaphoric “gas“. Currently, we’re in a helicopter….
Glide ratio is a thing . 😉
When the shit really hits the fan, a helicopter might look pretty good, a quick exit!
Like eating shellfish, I’m not going to sign a waiver to fly commercial. Aside from Boeing, it’s the safest form of transportation on earth. Even more so than walking.
🤣😂🤣😉
Or we could fly Boeing …..
Yup. Boeing works for me!
We just gotta make sure and get seats by the emergency exit. LOL
Looks like every panel is a potential emergency exit!
Well said!!
You understand what is going on. Now the question is what to do.
Hi Keith, to me the question isn't what to do, it's a question of can, or will we do it? One of the tragedies of our dilemma is that many have seen this situation coming for decades. Exxon sponsored its own scientists to do studies that predicted global warming with remarkable precision in the mid to late 1970s, then proceeded to cover it up. I found a declassified Navy document that proves they knew in the early 1990s. Boycotting the Kyoto Protocol was a critical error. The biggest problem now is the need for rapid, profound action, not just technology, but deep social change. I don't believe technology alone can save us, just bridge the gap for deeper change.
I make suggestions in many of my articles about what we can do. Pulling our money from fossil fuel sponsoring banks, boycotting and strikes among them. The people running the planet into the ground understand only one thing, money. We need people in the streets. Protests against fossil fuels have been fairly common in Europe, we need that here. The huge protests over Gaza give me hope that people can be mobilized if they're aware. I also hope a percentage of my readers and others doing similar have audiences that spread what they learn. We need to educate people extremely rapidly at this point and encourage action at the local level that leads to a national movement.
The only idea I have studied that I think can save us is degrowth. It's a concept that covers multiple critical, interrelated issues. I believe there is a near complete lack of awareness of the concept. I wrote an article on it, and I am thinking of breaking it down further into pamphlets and talking points people could download, print and share with others. As many as possible need to become ambassadors for change. Educate, organize, take action. There are no new miracle ideas to creating change, just guts and sacrifice as usual.
The biggest enemy may be time now. Degrowth article here, if you're interested.
https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/degrowth-the-vision-we-must-demand
Understanding the metacrisis (I hate that word) as you do, tells me that you indeed know what to do.
A better question is how to raise a few million people to our level of understanding with a determination to grow as a movement and to make the needed change.
Fundamental restructuring of our social structures is demanded by the circumstances. How are we going to do that? Here I go with another rhetorical question. You are telling me in your response about pamphlets. Great idea.
I will post 'Degrowth: The Vision We Must Demand' later today in the Doomstead Diner which is at: https://chasingthesquirrel.com/ <-- My website. Adding all the links and pics takes a while so I will post it after I am off work.
Asking how we're going to raise the level of a few million human beings feels overwhelming. I break it down by what I can do every day, or I might become defeated. And if we can affect change by raising awareness of just a few million people, that would be good news, and it may be true. History shows just a handful of people have steered humanity for better or worse, but we need many supporters. Thank you for sharing my article. It's the best vision I'm aware of (not mine, I'm merely a proponent) for surviving this mess we have created.
If I may, like any and every other social issue that needs fixing this sovereign or any representative democracy for that matter, there is only one way to make a statistically significant change. Given they are reactionary and rarely proactive.
#MassPeacefukCivilDisobedience. #GeneralStrike #OccupyEverything. #NoWorkNoPurchases
100 million people in the street can have a no compromise list of demands met in 10 days. The numbers are inversely correlated and only inclusively cell to the time needed or possibility of change. The donor class needs labor and consumer capital. We wouldn’t have to lift a finger. They would force them out.
That’s how women got the right to vote, prohibition came to be, how prohibition ended. How civil rights were legislatively Mandy how the Vietnam war was ended.
“With the people” are oblivious. Unknowing of our most effective tool.
Everything you say is true. The justice fights are all intertwined - environmental, economic, racial, healthcare, immigration - and share dependencies.
Our own 2 party political system is not made up of opposing teams…as someone else noted recently (I cannot remember who), they’re on the same team passing the ball down the field. Those who control the purse strings are the ones with the power. When combined with their nihilistic mindset (poster child Elon Musk) they are treacherous.
The trillion dollar question is how do we reverse course?
In a literal sense, I believe it's still possible to reverse course. With visionary leadership and world coordination, we could stabilize what's baked in, CO2 that will linger in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Tragically, the political leadership isn't there, and the public is not being properly informed and educated. Biden reportedly admires FDR. Where have the "fireside chats" been? Will his "pause" on LNG terminals hold? I'm skeptical.
Although it's well established, one percent cause a wildly disproportionate impact, we give them much of our money voluntarily. I keep advocating for boycotting, and moving money from the worst banks. We also need to be in the streets regularly. It appears to me Europeans are more aware, more actively protesting, but the Gaza tragedy shows Americans will protest, too, when they recognize a problem. Of course, climate change is a far more insidious enemy, and the deniers in leadership are a fundamental problem. My hope is that my writing and others writing about these issues can educate and inspire readers to have conversations, and raise awareness. As many as possible need to raise their voices. We can create pressure through our numbers, and politicians who don't recognize the existential threat of climate change must be voted out.
New subscriber here! Much to like. I will add "Degrowrh" to my banner. So:
"Depopulate, Degrowrh, Rewild."
Michael, welcome. Degrowth addresses everything. It lifts developing nations which is critical to transition them off of fossil fuels, and corrects historic injustice. It means working less, not more. The benefits would be myriad. It's a plan that needs to be explained to people, but hasn't even been introduced. Those with wealth and power will fight the concept if we manage to make it part of the conversation, but it's a solid, sane plan that could improve our lives, not diminish them. Here it is, my attempt to boil it down to an article size explanation. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/degrowth-the-vision-we-must-demand
Sustainable growth has been an impossibility since 1970, give or take. Sustainable retreat is now the only option.
Well said !
Thank you, Tyler. I'm on board with you about degrowth, the only logical way forward that would correct historic injustice, and reduce our way of living to a sustainable model. I like your optimism that, "That most have some sense that there is something fundamentally wrong with how we do things, even if they may not be able to articulate it, or even experience it beyond just a gut feeling." That would make the sell much easier. As a person who was formerly in graphic design, I know quite a bit about marketing. I do think it's a hard sell for many, and would be an incredibly complex, but not impossible project. It's not part of the conversation among our mixed bag of leaders. That's where we need to focus, spreading the concept among our friends, explaining the necessity and benefits. We need to create a grass root demand. Getting the word degrowth into the mouths of even the most progressive politicians requires this.
It's a tough task, because it demands systemic change that requires reasonably equitable wealth distribution, an anathema to the "American Dream," and certainly not a concept far right climate change deniers will embrace, particularly wealthy ones. It's a bottom to top battle, and we're seeing some of what it takes in the protests on behalf of Palestinians trapped in Gaza.
Yes, the failures of the system are becoming more intolerant every day. Many of the beefs of the people that stormed the capital on January 6 cross political ideologies. Not everyone is persuadable, but common ground can be found there. The people who aren't that radical, perhaps confused, under informed, or dropped out in disgust, need your perspective, and can become difference makers. As the crisis worsens, will cool heads and logic prevail, Green New Deal people who don't recognize deeper change is necessary than techno fixes, or those who are unwittingly embracing fascist leadership?
Here's an article on degrowth I wrote, trying to boil down books to something approachable. Too much information can be overwhelming, and people don't necessarily have time as staying afloat becomes ever more challenging. Hope it's helpful. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/degrowth-the-vision-we-must-demand