I want to share a couple thoughts about the vital importance of history in this moment of planetary emergency.
Thread:
Thread:
2. This global ecological crisis we face did not come out of nowhere.
In some ways, its roots stretch back to the dawn of agriculture.
But in a more immediate sense, the crisis we face today is almost entirely the result of decisions made in the last 50 years.
In some ways, its roots stretch back to the dawn of agriculture.
But in a more immediate sense, the crisis we face today is almost entirely the result of decisions made in the last 50 years.
3. Powerful people made choices, seeking to get rich: To subsidize + expand the use of fossil fuels; to build auto-dependent communities; to subsidize agrobusiness + animal agriculture; to embrace cheap plastic + toxic chemistry; to exploit + destroy forests and fisheries.
4. EVEN AT THE TIME, a whole movement of people fought these choices.
Folks advocated for clean energy and high-efficiency; smart growth and bikes; sustainable farming and responsible diets; clean air and water laws; the protection of the natural world—for a sustainable future.
Folks advocated for clean energy and high-efficiency; smart growth and bikes; sustainable farming and responsible diets; clean air and water laws; the protection of the natural world—for a sustainable future.
5. And—even at the time—these advocates had science on their side.
We have known since before most people alive today were even born that ruthless and unsustainable exploitation of the biosphere would have predictable, disastrous consequences.
None of this snuck up on anyone.
We have known since before most people alive today were even born that ruthless and unsustainable exploitation of the biosphere would have predictable, disastrous consequences.
None of this snuck up on anyone.
6. Starting in the 1970s, we saw these concerns starting to lead to real changes in attitudes, policies and plans.
Democracy took seriously the warnings of Science.
Ecological ideas began thriving in our culture.
Democracy took seriously the warnings of Science.
Ecological ideas began thriving in our culture.
7. It is easy to imagine an alternate history in which society continued to embrace that thinking, and headed off the worst of climate change before it even happened.
alexsteffen.com/retro_futurecr…
alexsteffen.com/retro_futurecr…
8. Of course, something very different happened:
Rather than risk losing any profits in a transition to a sustainable world, wealthy men and big business colluded on a set of efforts to roll back regulation, spread disinformation and even subvert democracy.
This is all history.
Rather than risk losing any profits in a transition to a sustainable world, wealthy men and big business colluded on a set of efforts to roll back regulation, spread disinformation and even subvert democracy.
This is all history.
9. Here in the US, reactionary anti-sustainability IS politics—from Iran-Contra to Putin; #ExxonKnew to attacks on envirnmental journalism; "Owls vs Loggers" to "clean coal"; the corruption of the Reagan + Bush years to Trump putting lobbyists at the top of the EPA + Interior...
10. It is impossible to have an intelligent, facts-based understanding of American politics over the last 40 years that does not put the planetary crisis—and the predatory delay undertaken to keep profits flowing—right at the center of the labyrinth.
11. It's also impossible to do any serious thinking about the future of this country that does not put at the core the massive impacts of ecological collapse, the jolting changes coming to our economy and the legacy of precarity, corruption injustice created by this history.
12. The planetary crisis is happening because we have a history of wealthy people and high-carbon interests delaying needed and practical changes for decades, to benefit themselves.
In a deep sense, the delay and the crisis are the same phenomenon.
In a deep sense, the delay and the crisis are the same phenomenon.
13. Now, however, there is a new shift.
Now that real action—however disastrously delayed—is inevitable, there's an attempt to rewrite that history.
Now that real action—however disastrously delayed—is inevitable, there's an attempt to rewrite that history.
14. Now, we see these same interests spending real effort to pass our history off as essentially one big misunderstanding—something "we all had a part in."
If you wonder why so many people reacted so badly to that @NYTmag piece this summer, this is why
If you wonder why so many people reacted so badly to that @NYTmag piece this summer, this is why
15. That's because erasing both their own culpability and our decades of struggle is essential to their hopes of being able to steer the fast-changing climate conversation towards "compromise solutions" that let them play out their new predatory delay, which is slow compliance.
16. The kinds of action needed now are systemic and disruptive.
The curves we've been forced onto are so steep, that nothing short of quick, bold action will work.
The curves we've been forced onto are so steep, that nothing short of quick, bold action will work.
17. Quick, bold action is also a moral necessity now, precisely because of the decades of delay we've gone through.
18. Hiding that history helps them insist that their new willingness to talk about action should be taken at face value, and that they deserve "reasonable" compromises that allow them to comply... slowly.
19. It's possible these efforts will muddy the debate enuf to enable further delay, since American journalists, academics and pundits have still not reckoned with the scale of the deception they enabled thru their previous acceptance of false balance.
20. All dirty industries need right now it time. Some modest concessions to buy themselves the chance to play out the clock before emergency climate action takes hold are well worth the cost to them.
We, on the other hand, only truly win if we win fast.
We, on the other hand, only truly win if we win fast.
21. In this next phase of the process, calls for bold action and justice must build on the moral clarity of knowing when we are and how we got here, and directly oppose every effort to cloud that clarity.
As Wendell Berry wrote, "All good work remembers its history."
As Wendell Berry wrote, "All good work remembers its history."
Oops, here's the right link for #19...
