<
https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/episode-24-lets-talk-about-the-doom>
"Back in December, there was an article that made the rounds saying we were
entering a doom loop where geopolitical instability was reinforcing the climate
crisis which was reinforcing instability and, well, it was a loop.
“Geopolitical instability” is nice academic speak for “Oh shit America just
elected the fascists again”. And of course America isn’t the only country
flirting with fascism. Fascist movements are rising, and sometimes falling,
around the world. Germany’s AfD is on the rise, Poland’s Law & Justice fascists
lost their hold on power a year ago, and more recently, South Korea both
elected a misogynistic fascist and managed to head off his attempted coup and
they even impeached the guy. Good for them.
Not so good for America, right now.
The idea that once you head down the road to fascism there’s no turning back is
demonstrably false—however, the idea that degradation of democracy and the
environment go hand-in-hand and reinforce one another is pretty solid. This is
something that’s been predicted for some time, so it can be pretty chilling to
start seeing it happen in the real world, just like the climate crisis itself.
However, calling it a “doom loop” implies the self-reinforcement is some kind
of trap you cannot exit, and I disagree pretty strongly with that, but in the
short-term, it’s undeniable that putting fascists in charge of your government
is very bad news for fighting the climate crisis.
The real problem is that the climate crisis is accelerating. We’ve pumped so
much CO₂ into the air, that the climate is destabilizing faster than expected.
People in general have some serious cognitive dissonance about this, even
people who believe the climate crisis is real, even people who are very much
involved in fighting it. There’s a huge reflex to create psychological
distance, to locate climate impacts somewhere in the future, far away in space
and time, when in fact, climate disasters are very obviously happening with
increasing frequency, right here, right now, today. People will agree with that
statement and then compartmentalize it away from everything in their normal
life, including choices about where to live and work, what kinds of cars they
drive, and what food they eat. I’m not a fan of shaming people for their
personal life choices, especially given we live inside a global capitalistic
imperialistic enterprise increasingly run by fascists and technofeudalists, but
how much do you, personally, factor climate into your everyday decisions? If
you’re listening to this podcast, I can guarantee it’s much more than the
average person, and yet it’s still nowhere near enough, not compared to the
actual risks climate change presents.
Take a look at the housing insurance crisis or what microplastics are doing to
our bodies, and you’ll begin to see what big trouble we’re in. Most people
haven’t even begun to grapple with the risks or don’t accurately know what they
are. Collectively, societally, we really don’t want to know or treat like it’s
really real."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
