The wildfires in California replicate the massive fire storms in the boreal forest in Canada and Siberia, the lungs of the earth. Our addiction to fossil fuel has ignited an age of fire.
I beg to differ. We are not addicted to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are extracted, refined and sold by a very small number of people. Fossil fuels are controlled by monopolistic behavior, conglomerations and sociopathic greed, that will not allow us to transfer to green energy as quickly as we need to. The fossil fuel businesses have the money and influence and network, and are now their own global authority. They do as they please, and are detrimental to life on earth. As Hansen says, we need to immediately stop them and charge them for their global crimes.
We are all goners, now. The Trump/MAGA stupidity is pretty much irrelevant at this point. Pick yer poison. "Free market capitalism" has won the day and doomed all of us in the same moment.
The USA has pretty well always been predatory - starting with killing the indigenous peoples of the lands now under USA - believing they had a God-given right/responsibility - to do it. However - the degree to which it did it has been different.
What I appreciate about the Trump/Musk co-presidency and their cabal of billionaires - is that there is no pretending they are promoting 'democracy'; 'freedom'; 'saving souls', 'spreading civilization' or 'generating wealth which will benefit all in soviety through 'trickle down economics .They are abashedly about domination and greed for themselves. Not quite the agenda on which they ran
Thank you, Chris, for jolting us (me) out of our sleepwalking dream. Climate catastrophe is a nightmare already unfolding while accelerating. Mammon (lust for money and its power) is a driving force, along with our addictions to comfort, electric power, transportation, and agribusiness cheap food.
On the other hand, increasing global tensions might unleash the opposite of global warming, which is nuclear winter. The detonation of just a small fraction of the nuclear weaponry in the world would rapidly cool the earth. Crops would not grow. Starvation on mass scale.
Can a spiritual awakening happen in which large swaths of the population commits to living lightly on this planet, and influence policymakers?
I am deeply committed to environmental conservation, to the extent that I adopted a vegetarian lifestyle approximately eight years ago. While I align with George Galloway on political matters, I find myself differing with him on environmental issues. That said, Chris, the recent wildfire in California occurred in the middle of winter, despite morning temperatures nearing freezing and daytime highs only reaching the mid-50s.
Living here in northern NM, I am likely to see our mountains on (very big) fire sooner than later. After a rather dry winter, it's only a matter of time. Global warming and human folly have delivered -- paradise lost / destroyed -- for assorted bling.
Sobering. Scary. Brilliant in what is brought together here.
We may not pull it off.
However - if we dont try - we will never know.
To me -we need to be building a multi-faceted resistance while also articulating a variety of sustainable social systems from which life with dignity for all flows.
Both actions of individuals (like refusing to buy anything American if living outside the continental USA) and collective actions (by unions, professional associations, as well as regions and nation-states) required.
Chris never minces words, all straight talk, no beating around the bush.
“Our house is on fire” GT
I beg to differ. We are not addicted to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are extracted, refined and sold by a very small number of people. Fossil fuels are controlled by monopolistic behavior, conglomerations and sociopathic greed, that will not allow us to transfer to green energy as quickly as we need to. The fossil fuel businesses have the money and influence and network, and are now their own global authority. They do as they please, and are detrimental to life on earth. As Hansen says, we need to immediately stop them and charge them for their global crimes.
We are all goners, now. The Trump/MAGA stupidity is pretty much irrelevant at this point. Pick yer poison. "Free market capitalism" has won the day and doomed all of us in the same moment.
Was it any diffferent under the previous presidents?
The USA has pretty well always been predatory - starting with killing the indigenous peoples of the lands now under USA - believing they had a God-given right/responsibility - to do it. However - the degree to which it did it has been different.
What I appreciate about the Trump/Musk co-presidency and their cabal of billionaires - is that there is no pretending they are promoting 'democracy'; 'freedom'; 'saving souls', 'spreading civilization' or 'generating wealth which will benefit all in soviety through 'trickle down economics .They are abashedly about domination and greed for themselves. Not quite the agenda on which they ran
Thank you for this beautiful teamwork.
Thank you as God blesses you doing all this endless WORK for us all!
I LOVE you both!
Love/peace (as Lynne Srewart always wrote!)
Elizabeth
Malone, NY
Thank you, Chris, for jolting us (me) out of our sleepwalking dream. Climate catastrophe is a nightmare already unfolding while accelerating. Mammon (lust for money and its power) is a driving force, along with our addictions to comfort, electric power, transportation, and agribusiness cheap food.
On the other hand, increasing global tensions might unleash the opposite of global warming, which is nuclear winter. The detonation of just a small fraction of the nuclear weaponry in the world would rapidly cool the earth. Crops would not grow. Starvation on mass scale.
Can a spiritual awakening happen in which large swaths of the population commits to living lightly on this planet, and influence policymakers?
To answer your question, No. Large swaths of people won't awaken and even if they did our policy makers wouldn't notice or care - we're burnt toast.
I am deeply committed to environmental conservation, to the extent that I adopted a vegetarian lifestyle approximately eight years ago. While I align with George Galloway on political matters, I find myself differing with him on environmental issues. That said, Chris, the recent wildfire in California occurred in the middle of winter, despite morning temperatures nearing freezing and daytime highs only reaching the mid-50s.
Living here in northern NM, I am likely to see our mountains on (very big) fire sooner than later. After a rather dry winter, it's only a matter of time. Global warming and human folly have delivered -- paradise lost / destroyed -- for assorted bling.
got it.
sooooo
what now
as more people get it
than
maybe we can turn this around
til them
we wait
untill it's
too late
Some very important stats! That Mysk is worth more than the fedrral payroll - shocked me!
Sobering. Scary. Brilliant in what is brought together here.
We may not pull it off.
However - if we dont try - we will never know.
To me -we need to be building a multi-faceted resistance while also articulating a variety of sustainable social systems from which life with dignity for all flows.
Both actions of individuals (like refusing to buy anything American if living outside the continental USA) and collective actions (by unions, professional associations, as well as regions and nation-states) required.