In a perceptive and convincing analysis linked below, Steve Genco (@sjgenco) examines three different choices the world could make in an effort to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
We could flip the switch on fossil fuels today.
We could continue burning fossil fuels temporarily to keep industrial civilization going long enough to construct an alternative energy exit path.
We could choose to not choose.
I want you to read the whole article because it's truly excellent, but I will tell you in advance that none of those three choices is likely to provide a positive outcome. Basically we're screwed no matter what we do.
There is some good news, however, although it's what you might call a Pyrrhic victory.
The thing is, you and I both badly want to end capitalism. We can see the damage it is doing to us, to our environment, and to our children's future.
But do we have the ability to end capitalism? Is it actually possible at this point to get widespread agreement for taking bold, decisive action? And even if we all banded together, would that be enough? Or is capitalism simply too strong and too powerful to be stopped?
The good news is that there is something that can stop capitalism. The bad news is that we will all pay a very heavy price before that happens.
Capitalism cannot stop climate change, but climate change can stop capitalism — by causing the collapse of civilization.
@breadandcircuses@sjgenco Once upon a time, everyone assumed there’d never be a force powerful enough to unseat entrenched feudal aristocracies. And if I were alive then, I’d have likely agreed. Yet something did.
Feudal aristocracies are desperately trying to return to castles and moats and serfdom right now. Sure, they look different, but monopoly capitalism is nothing more than bloodline wealth.
I'm struggling to care about AI. I feel alienated and depressed. I'm watching the priorities I've defined & developed solutions for ignored, while what I've warned & been most concerned about--and offered solutions for--play out in real time. Leaders have been hostile, demeaning.
@mmitchell_ai I can give a witness. On all counts. Years ago, at RPI, I remember thinking about new minted environmental engineers. How so many of them dropped out of field years later. Once they realized they only existed to give cover for corps with another agenda entirely. Now I feel the same.
Someone just asked me an especially interesting question!
If one of the informal words we have for "you" (e.g., "youse," "yinz," "y'all," "you guys") were to beat out the others over time and become an actual formal, accepted word for the plural "you," which one do you think it would be (and why)?
[It won't let me make a 5th "other" poll answer, so if your answer is "other," please comment!]