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Tuesday, August 7th, 2018

Capitalism Killed Our Climate Momentum, Not “Human Nature”

Author:     Naomi Klein
Source:     The Intercept
Publication Date:     August 3 2018, 8:34 a.m.
 Link: Capitalism Killed Our Climate Momentum, Not “Human Nature”
Stephan:   In the last week, during which time I was at the Parapsychological Association annual meetings presenting two research papers, as I scanned publications for SR I was struck by how many commentators are beginning to talk about panicking over climate change. Slowly it is beginning to seep into mass consciousness that matters are getting serious. Trump world, of course, says it is all fake news.

This Sunday the entire New York Times Magazine will be composed of just one article on a single subject: the failure to confront the global climate crisis in the 1980s, a time when the science was settled and the politics seemed to align. Written by Nathaniel Rich, this work of history is filled with insider revelations about roads not taken that, on several occasions, made me swear out loud. And lest there be any doubt that the implications of these decisions will be etched in geologic time, Rich’s words are punctuated with full-page aerial photographs by George Steinmetz that wrenchingly document the rapid unraveling of planetary systems, from the rushing water where Greenland ice used to be to massive algae blooms in China’s third largest lake.The novella-length piece represents the kind of media commitment that the climate crisis has long deserved but almost never received. We have all heard the various excuses for why the small matter of despoiling our only home just doesn’t cut it as an urgent news story: “Climate change is too far off in the future”; “It’s inappropriate […]

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1 Comment

  1. will on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 5:23 am

    Just finished reading the NYT magazine story. Hard to get through as I remember some of the Reagan administration activities and how much I hated that crowd, profit before life itself.

    Then comes the epilogue which I thought was rather mild in its conclusions. It really failed to strongly convey that climate change has now and will continue to wreak havoc on human civilization. Most particularly first on coastal cities i.e. New York City and there is nothing, nothing anyone can do to stop it. The carbon is in the atmosphere and is being added to daily and will not simply disappear in a few human lifetimes.

    If we had mature, wise governance that responded to scientific data then we could work through the UN to begin advanced planning to protect as many people as possible, deal with refugees and economic collapse with accompanying food shortages driven by chaotic weather patterns. As was stated in the story we humans will likely to have suffer much more pain before meaningful change. Of course many are experiencing this just not the “right” ones.