I fell for the "Sustainability" marketing campaign many decades ago, I built my first solar power home 23 years ago, but there's no excuse for parroting it, in this day and age of abrupt climate change and the internet, where everything can be scruitinised.
One of the most tragic details today is that the Green Party and the big NGO's repeat the tripe.
How do we expect the avowedly capitalist parties to take the extinction crisis seriously when the liberals won't face it!
Good thinking/writing. I am reminded that the Guardian, last year, ran a voluntary survey of recognised climate scientists asking them what was the best action us ordinary peasants can take to respond to the climate crisis. Seventy percent plus said "Support a political party that has as its central policy the addressing of the climate crisis". On our own we are near powerless but in this way collectively real action can occur.
Thanks Andy. A nonviolent revolution is the way to break out of the cycle of violence which has echoed down the centuries when ‘the peasants’ have risen up to overthrow ‘the greedy rich’. I will certainly follow up your note.
Right? That little phrase is brill! 🤩 I think it needs to be on a T-shirt. (Handcrafted from a thrifted shirt, of course. Not mass-produced fast fashion.)
Excellent and correct. The only sustainable path goes from copious exogenous energy system to one that nature can readily replenish… perhaps 3 billion humans familiar with mud and turnips. The interesting and scary part is that we can choose to get there or it will be decided for us by the energetics of consumption.
The biggest act of human subversion has been the last few hundred yrs of our theft. Especially the last 50. East India Trading company, Enron, Goldman Sachs, the whole kit and caboodle of financialisation of Mother Nature and concept of personal ownership. We’ve poured on plenty of upbeat narrative to applaud and justify. Time to move fast and break things with your lens Andy, not that of winner take all oligarchy
Rationing. If we don’t all want to HAVE to live a “mud and turnips” lifestyle, then we need rationing - and fairly strict rationing - right now. Of what? Gas consumption. Car ownership. Water use. Fast fashion. Beef. Dairy. High carbon footprint imported goods. You name it.
No one will like this. Everyone will fight back. So it’s not going to happen. BUT IT SHOULD.
I would add that the rationing should start at the top, with taxing the super-wealthy (say,, those with assets above $20 million) so they're pulled back into the social sphere and not heading for oligarchy. Then collectively, probably through something like People's Assemblies, installing sensible guardrails across our political and economic lives to try to hold us within ecological limits, or at least to operate in more resilient and equitable ways. As you say, it's probably not going to happen, at least not everywhere, and probably not soon, but it's probably our best shot. Otherwise, and what is more likely, as you say, Momma Nature gonna impose the rationing, the rich will continue to try and opt out for as long as possible. I just read, for example, how the British Royal family were allowed to eat from their own farms during World War 2, so showed their solidarity for the nation while tucking into grouse at the dinner table...
Yes!🙌🏼 Excellent point. Start at the top - tax the super rich! Begin there. I love your idea of People’s Assemblies. I have been making memes for a decade centered on the concept of the People’s Climate. 😊
I agree, no matter how you approach it, in the end we have to live more simply. And there isn't really anything in the system of consumption - including EVs and Fair Trade coffee - pushing us that way. I guess as soon as you start producing things you are in the consumption game. Having said that, if progress is compromise maybe some products are better than others and we 'should' support them?
I would say that the key message is that supporting products is not the road to genuine progress. I think, at the moment, it might be somewhere in the "pushing us that way bit". Current interests include how we might leverage evolutionary psychology and neurology on that score, as in "what is making us apes behave the way we do in context? More on that soon (hopefully)!
Nothing wrong with growing food or surfing, but neither is rebellious: The Cambridge Dictionary has, for example: "having strong feelings of disagreement with people in authority, an organization, or a government, esp. showing such feelings through force." See also: https://sustainabile.substack.com/p/gardening-wont-save-the-world and https://www.r21c.net/
In a world of people which stare at screens 14 hours a day,
Work for other people 6 days a week,
Wait to retire at 67 and be "free",
Eating things that are made of grinded leftovers, never saw a fresh mango or an orange from a tree in their life,
Got 4 jabs and waiting for someone to save them,
Eating fresh from your own land garden with zero mediators, and surfing whenever there are waves, no matter what's on the to do list, is not the mainstream:)
I moved out of "the system",
I don't need to rebel and save the sleepers anymore:)
That's lovely for you "I Am". Of course, what you describe is not the whole world. You might not feel the "need" to "save" the people who you write off as "sleepers", including the many, many people who can't escape (however temporarily) in the way you describe, but personally a key part of my well-being is the knowledge that I am at least making some attempt to help those less fortunate than me, or those I have obligations to (because yes, otherwise I too could just do my hobbies). At this time in history, that includes rebelling to some meaningful extent, and working and learning with those around me, who I assume are just as "awake" as I am.
The best answer I have at the moment is to refer you to this https://www.r21c.net/ which is a project I am lucky enough to be working on in support of Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion.
In my county we just had a vote on a 1% optional sales tax I faught to stop. Only 7,000 voted out of 110,000. 83% voted yes for more airport buildings and a new coliseum. Sad isn't it?
Very good Andy. I still have no idea how you understand and write this stuff so clearly and commute to your day job. The SBN has been so co-opted by the system to be almost meaningless now in that they are just doing exactly what you write about - promoting / facilitating adding more unsustainability to the world. Take away the tree planting (the only initiative I'd keep) and t's literally greenwashing now. I think reputations and social status are so attached to it's continuing to be seen to be making a difference that cognitive bias / denial of reality have set in. Facing the implications of admitting failure appear beyond people. They clearly have a great fear of mud and turnips.
Onwards at ever increasing speed towards the cliff edge with no parachute in sight. But at least we had some lovely talk fests with yummy organic snacks 🙏
But what we do know is EVs don’t grow naturally near you and return to compost.
🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭
I fell for the "Sustainability" marketing campaign many decades ago, I built my first solar power home 23 years ago, but there's no excuse for parroting it, in this day and age of abrupt climate change and the internet, where everything can be scruitinised.
One of the most tragic details today is that the Green Party and the big NGO's repeat the tripe.
How do we expect the avowedly capitalist parties to take the extinction crisis seriously when the liberals won't face it!
https://kevinhester.live/2016/05/14/sustainabilitys-place-in-killing-the-living-planet/
Good thinking/writing. I am reminded that the Guardian, last year, ran a voluntary survey of recognised climate scientists asking them what was the best action us ordinary peasants can take to respond to the climate crisis. Seventy percent plus said "Support a political party that has as its central policy the addressing of the climate crisis". On our own we are near powerless but in this way collectively real action can occur.
We could also try https://www.r21c.net/ (which I also work on...)
Thanks Andy. A nonviolent revolution is the way to break out of the cycle of violence which has echoed down the centuries when ‘the peasants’ have risen up to overthrow ‘the greedy rich’. I will certainly follow up your note.
"Mud and Turnips"
Right? That little phrase is brill! 🤩 I think it needs to be on a T-shirt. (Handcrafted from a thrifted shirt, of course. Not mass-produced fast fashion.)
Excellent and correct. The only sustainable path goes from copious exogenous energy system to one that nature can readily replenish… perhaps 3 billion humans familiar with mud and turnips. The interesting and scary part is that we can choose to get there or it will be decided for us by the energetics of consumption.
The biggest act of human subversion has been the last few hundred yrs of our theft. Especially the last 50. East India Trading company, Enron, Goldman Sachs, the whole kit and caboodle of financialisation of Mother Nature and concept of personal ownership. We’ve poured on plenty of upbeat narrative to applaud and justify. Time to move fast and break things with your lens Andy, not that of winner take all oligarchy
Rationing. If we don’t all want to HAVE to live a “mud and turnips” lifestyle, then we need rationing - and fairly strict rationing - right now. Of what? Gas consumption. Car ownership. Water use. Fast fashion. Beef. Dairy. High carbon footprint imported goods. You name it.
No one will like this. Everyone will fight back. So it’s not going to happen. BUT IT SHOULD.
I would add that the rationing should start at the top, with taxing the super-wealthy (say,, those with assets above $20 million) so they're pulled back into the social sphere and not heading for oligarchy. Then collectively, probably through something like People's Assemblies, installing sensible guardrails across our political and economic lives to try to hold us within ecological limits, or at least to operate in more resilient and equitable ways. As you say, it's probably not going to happen, at least not everywhere, and probably not soon, but it's probably our best shot. Otherwise, and what is more likely, as you say, Momma Nature gonna impose the rationing, the rich will continue to try and opt out for as long as possible. I just read, for example, how the British Royal family were allowed to eat from their own farms during World War 2, so showed their solidarity for the nation while tucking into grouse at the dinner table...
Spot on thoughts Andy
Yes!🙌🏼 Excellent point. Start at the top - tax the super rich! Begin there. I love your idea of People’s Assemblies. I have been making memes for a decade centered on the concept of the People’s Climate. 😊
Did not know that about the royals in WWII. Wow.
Important information, and very well written. Thanks for sharing!
I agree, no matter how you approach it, in the end we have to live more simply. And there isn't really anything in the system of consumption - including EVs and Fair Trade coffee - pushing us that way. I guess as soon as you start producing things you are in the consumption game. Having said that, if progress is compromise maybe some products are better than others and we 'should' support them?
I would say that the key message is that supporting products is not the road to genuine progress. I think, at the moment, it might be somewhere in the "pushing us that way bit". Current interests include how we might leverage evolutionary psychology and neurology on that score, as in "what is making us apes behave the way we do in context? More on that soon (hopefully)!
Lucky I am so fond of mud and turnips
But see also: https://sustainabile.substack.com/p/gardening-wont-save-the-world
Grow food.
Surf waves.
This is the quiet rebellious act.
Nothing wrong with growing food or surfing, but neither is rebellious: The Cambridge Dictionary has, for example: "having strong feelings of disagreement with people in authority, an organization, or a government, esp. showing such feelings through force." See also: https://sustainabile.substack.com/p/gardening-wont-save-the-world and https://www.r21c.net/
Well,
In a world of people which stare at screens 14 hours a day,
Work for other people 6 days a week,
Wait to retire at 67 and be "free",
Eating things that are made of grinded leftovers, never saw a fresh mango or an orange from a tree in their life,
Got 4 jabs and waiting for someone to save them,
Eating fresh from your own land garden with zero mediators, and surfing whenever there are waves, no matter what's on the to do list, is not the mainstream:)
I moved out of "the system",
I don't need to rebel and save the sleepers anymore:)
That's lovely for you "I Am". Of course, what you describe is not the whole world. You might not feel the "need" to "save" the people who you write off as "sleepers", including the many, many people who can't escape (however temporarily) in the way you describe, but personally a key part of my well-being is the knowledge that I am at least making some attempt to help those less fortunate than me, or those I have obligations to (because yes, otherwise I too could just do my hobbies). At this time in history, that includes rebelling to some meaningful extent, and working and learning with those around me, who I assume are just as "awake" as I am.
What do you call rebelling ?
The best answer I have at the moment is to refer you to this https://www.r21c.net/ which is a project I am lucky enough to be working on in support of Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion.
In my county we just had a vote on a 1% optional sales tax I faught to stop. Only 7,000 voted out of 110,000. 83% voted yes for more airport buildings and a new coliseum. Sad isn't it?
Indeed it is. It seems more and more often the turkeys are voting for Christmas.
Very good Andy. I still have no idea how you understand and write this stuff so clearly and commute to your day job. The SBN has been so co-opted by the system to be almost meaningless now in that they are just doing exactly what you write about - promoting / facilitating adding more unsustainability to the world. Take away the tree planting (the only initiative I'd keep) and t's literally greenwashing now. I think reputations and social status are so attached to it's continuing to be seen to be making a difference that cognitive bias / denial of reality have set in. Facing the implications of admitting failure appear beyond people. They clearly have a great fear of mud and turnips.
Onwards at ever increasing speed towards the cliff edge with no parachute in sight. But at least we had some lovely talk fests with yummy organic snacks 🙏