How ethically bankrupt politicians are paving the way towards ecocide
It’s hard to imagine a world where someone didn’t think to pair Ernie with Bert, Simon with Garfunkel, or macaroni with cheese. Some things are just meant to go together and if they’re kept apart, we’re all worse for it. Climate science and climate policy are a perfect example.
In a recent conversation with my colleague Magnus L.H. Haslebo the Co-Founder of the Resistance Group Guerilla and the former Head of Communications for the Danish political party, The Alternative, it became clear that while sociopathic corporations’ greed is destroying the planet, it’s the corrupt politicians who are paving the way.
Fairy Tales
If you want to believe in fairy tales, go ahead. If you want to believe that a guy named Jack climbed a magic beanstalk to a land high in the sky — be my guest. …
If you incentivize a system to cause harm... then don’t be surprised when it causes harm.
PART I
Responsibility
In a recent conversation with a fellow sustainability strategist it was suggested that the efforts of sustainability and CSR professionals, while not perfect, are based on good intentions. That got me thinking. Are good intentions enough? What if those intentions are constrained from within a corporate culture that uses a self-serving interpretation of climate science to protect a lucrative but ecologically destructive business model? From within that type of culture how can the good intentions of a dedicated sustainability professional possibly emerge?
What are they to do?
What’s the responsibility of a sustainability professional who knows that their employer (or client) is using their wealth and corporate influence to mislead the public with an alternate environmental reality — one that downplays the urgency to act and where half measures and inconsequential efforts are spun as meaningful? …
Why Giving Up Capitalism’s “Conveniences” is the only chance for a stable climate.
I used to be certain that government was failing us in our fight for a stable climate, and for the most part I still do, BUT thanks to COVID-19 I’ve gained new insight into the underlying roadblock that’s standing in our way.
Polls
There have been several polls lately about how people don’t want to go back to “normal” — how they’ve come to appreciate cleaner air, quieter roads and working from home. Sure…why not, it’s a poll — it’s not like you’re being asked to give something up or pay extra for your dream of a better future. …
A Climate Change analogy to ponder over pancakes…and syrup
Based on our track record, humans seem unwilling or unable to address climate change in a meaningful way. Previously I explored how both business and government have sabotaged progress but now it’s time to take a look in the mirror and ask: Does the problem lie with us?
Why do we essentially sit back and watch the climate slowly lose its ability to provide for us? Are we a flawed species or are we just doing what nature prepared us to do?
Human evolution has conveniently provided us with a system for self preservation. A system that has been hardwired deep into our brains to protect us from immediate danger, and despite some close calls, it’s what has kept our species alive since before we came down from the trees — 4–6 million years ago. So I think it’s fair to say that we’re on a pretty good run. But much of our threat response is beyond our control. Our central nervous system operates on an unconscious level and when a threat is detected our brains release a massive amount of adrenaline and cortisol to trigger action. …
We have a once in a century chance to get this right.
Have you ever had to make a really tough decision…under extreme pressure…with everyone watching? Now imagine that you’re the leader of your country deciding how to protect your population from a rapidly approaching and highly contagious virus that we know little about except that it’s deadly and that humanity has no defence for it. What would you do? Would you sit back and let thousands of people die as the entire health care system is overwhelmed or would you curtail people’s ability to move around (and earn a living) so that hopefully more lives can be saved?
Adding to the pressure are that the effects of this decision will play out in real time. Literally the number of deaths will accumulate right before your eyes. The stakes are definitely higher than climate policy decisions that will likely be far more destructive but that won’t be felt for decades to come — on someone else’s watch. …
Capitalism’s shield has been breached — we can now see its soul.
Texas Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick recently said, and I paraphrase, it’s not only OK, it’s good for America to throw granny under the bus to save the economy. Just let that sink in for a moment. What kind of culture would tolerate that kind of thinking. And when I say tolerate I don’t mean tolerate from a legal perspective — I’m referring to the perspective of social norms. The norms that would shame a public figure for uttering such a callous and thoughtless statement.
If that isn’t disturbing enough, I recently saw a picture that was so outrageous that I had to check to see if it was actually true — sadly it was. …
When their generation’s health is at risk and they get a little dose of fear…they spring into action.
How do you get young people to take social isolation seriously? In a recent announcement by Washington Governor, Jay Inslee, he said, “Someone asked me the other day, ‘what’s the penalty for a young person going out to a restaurant, or hanging out in a social gathering?’ The penalty is that you might kill your grandparent”.
Harsh but true.
One might think that this is enough to get millenials to slow down and take the messaging from their government seriously — but apparently it’s not. …
We always knew that climate change was going to be painful…
Something changed recently when I saw a map comparing the air over China before and after the country went into lockdown in an attempt to contain the COVID-19 Coronavirus. Slowly over the course of a week, I began to see the issue of climate change in a whole new light.
This might sound radical but please hear me out.
The path towards a stable climate will need to run through some kind of economic collapse. It will have nothing to do with a more sustainable business model or more progressive government action — both of those approaches have failed. …
Is Democracy a lost cause when trying to solve the climate crisis?
Democracy is Struggling
Liberal Democracy doesn’t appear to be able to address climate change or the underlying economic system that’s causing it. Yes, when things are good Democracy works just fine and there’s plenty of time to explore different options but during an emergency, when time is short, and countries need to make hard decisions quickly, the system falters.
Like an army during wartime, the window for discussion has closed. The time has come to execute the plan that will give us the best chance of keeping us within our carbon budget. Compromise which may work in normal times is a luxury that we can no longer afford. …
We’re living in a real life experiment of ‘wealth gone wild’ and it’s destroying our planet.
As the Davos conference came to an end, the jet flying plutocrats seemed to unite around a new climate message. They are now warning us that dealing too quickly with climate change could lead to financial ruin. It’s an interesting shift that’s worth exploring.
Policy
Post Davos, most corporate elites seem to accept that climate change is occurring — a welcome change from the era of denial. This might seem like a big win, but let’s not start celebrating just yet. Climate change isn’t like a virus and once there’s agreement on the cause, we can simply move forward with the cure — there are a lot of moving parts. The key point is not that there’s agreement that climate change is occurring, but rather, is there agreement on the scientific urgency to deal with it. …
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