Meanwhile, the world is still burning from climate change.
Our attention is focused on Ukraine, but the disaster that threatens to upend civilization continues apace.
Since February 24 the attention of much of the world has been focused on Vladimir Putin’s outrageous and criminal invasion of Ukraine, and it’s entirely appropriate that we treat that crisis with the urgency it deserves. But if you’ve been hyper-focused on Russian casualty figures or Zerensky’s latest speech, you might have missed the bigger news that broke last week, which was so routine it barely made a ripple in the world press: the IPCC’s latest report on global warming, which (predictably) warns that the window for urgent and immediate action to prevent the worst effects of climate change is closing.
These subjects are not unrelated. Just before the invasion I wrote an article, my most-read to date, that explains the linkage between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the global warming disaster. In case you haven’t read it, it goes like this: fossil fuels are the entire basis of Russia’s economic power, and the only sure way to defeat Russia is to destroy that economic power by destroying the fossil fuel industry. Even without Russia’s expansionism it’s clear that expunging the fossil fuel industry from the face of planet Earth, quickly and completely, is the required and inevitable fix for global warming. That’s it. End fossil fuels once and for all. I keep shouting this from the rooftops, but no one’s listening. END FOSSIL FUELS. RIGHT NOW. Not in 2030. Not in 2050. Now.
So, louder, for those in the back who might not have heard me. I’m no longer interested in Sustainable Development Goals. I’m not interested in net zero pledges. I’m not interested in an internal price on carbon. I’m not interested in how your company is investing $1.98 into renewable energy R&D. I’m not interested in recyclable packaging. I’m not interested in toilet paper climate treaties. I’m not interested in elaborate and baroque intellectual schemes to replace money with magic beans that count CO2 emissions. I’m interested in how many oil refineries are going to be taken offline, how many oil and gas pipelines will be shut down or destroyed, and how many billions in fossil fuel assets will be expropriated to ameliorate the human and economic disasters of climate change and its inevitable remedy. This is what we need to be working on, and we need to be doing it posthaste, with urgency.
But instead, we’re focused on war. Putin made a tragic choice by plunging Europe into a conflict that may result in even more widespread bloodshed and global unrest, as it triggers other nascent conflicts around the globe over resources, borders or hegemony. I agree completely that Putin’s aggression must be halted in its tracks and he must be removed from power, but whatever we do about Putin must also be done within the context of permanently and rapidly terminating his—and everybody else’s—fossil fuel based economy.
It’s clear to me, though, that we’re not going to make that choice. Instead we are voluntarily choosing the path of disaster: sea level rise, superstorms, colossal displacement of vulnerable populations, killer heat waves, ruinous forest fires, and all the continued war, revolution and instability that those events will inevitably bring. I wonder how SDGs and magic beans schemes will do against a tide of global revolution.
Most of us are in denial about the world we live in, its violence, its instability and its unpredictability. The war in Ukraine has made inroads into breaking our complacency, but it’s only the beginning. I’m doing my best to deal with the shock and fear of this new reality, because only through a level-headed assessment of where we’re headed can we make the choices that will minimize the damage and maximize our chances of survival. For me, that process is always continuing.
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