Between the pandemic & california mega fires & american dysfunction 2020 has been Mike Davis' cassandraesque year. But every time you think he's hit Peak Bleak, turns out he's still climbing... substack.sashafrerejones.com/p/friday-decem…
thankfully mike davis was completely wrong about the uneven burden of Covid. It hit poor countries of the subcontinent & africa much less than richer europe & americas.
Terrible as covid-19 is, a reminder that it could have been deadlier. Spanish flu killed the young more than the old. 60% of global mortality, some 20 million of 1918-19's toll was in India. Industrial Agriculture & inequality as Mike Davis warns will eventually produce a monster
After WW II we created a UN peacekeeping force. But war isn't top danger of mankind anymore. Dangerous microbes emerging like sparks out of the furnace of industrial agriculture are. As Davis suggests, we need to be better prepared sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/h…
If you read bw historian Mike Davis' apocalyptic lines, policy advice for 2020s:
-Pay ppl to thin weeds, clear millions of dead trees & do prescribed burns
-Move ppl out of fire prone, sprawling zones to denser coasts
- limit human ignition
- Cut CO2 FAST rosaluxnycblog.org/california-fir…
5/ Mike davis on American politics is peerless. Ecology, Empire & Economy all held in a single unified field unlike those who plough their single furrows.
6/ Riot on the Hill: "a big biker gang dressed as circus performers and war-surplus barbarians ... stormed the ultimate country club, squatted on Pence’s throne, chased Senators into the sewers and, above all, shot endless selfies.” ht Mike Davis newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/…
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White House request to Congress for $106 billion in emergency funding for foreign aid.
A budget tells you more than words about actual priorities. Full breakdown in this PDF incl military aid to Ukraine, Israel, intl development (World bank) etc Thread whitehouse.gov/wp-content/upl…
2/ UKRAINE: US so far has sent more than $75 billion to Ukraine. Of new $106B, Biden asks $61B for Ukraine.
~$50B military aid, loans for military gear, DOD stocks of weapons etc (Pg 4-27_
~$11.75B economic (pg 42)
3/Reminder why Biden's request for emergency funding looks the way it does-$106B for ukraine,israel,border, humanitarian. US congressional politics when governed by Dem president+Dem senate+Republican house makes funding requests look like a dogs breakfast
Three guesses:
1 Energy transition is from fossil fuels to metal-based economy
2 Revenues from metals is tiny compared to selling fossils => No current petrostate turns into electrostate.
3 Hi Capital requirments =>Majority of extraction will take place in Global North not South
if 2 is true, then the future has no electrostates. None. Not Indonesia, Australia, certainly not Canada.
Revenues that a state will earn from digging metals & processing it will be too tiny to support an entire population with welfare or dividends. ft.com/content/0d2fba…
sure, very metal specific. cobalt, nickel, copper etc will continue to be in global south countries
to clarify, by majority I meant more than half, not less than half. in most ppls minds, global south is going to do all of it
Ppl forget Australia+Canada+US have capital & metals
The deranged idea—as @GhoshAmitav describes—that we are safe, that things are under control, that bad things only happen to people who are far away, persists.
Amid the climate crises, other records have been smashed too: the most air travel passengers in a single day in the US; the highest-ever profits for European carriers IAG and Air France-KLM; record oil consumption and record coal production. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/globa…
Former US National Security advisor Fiona Hill acknowledged that the “Rest” were rebelling against the West. She cited an Indian interlocutor asking, “Where are you when things go wrong for us?”
Climate needs investments. But there is global Austerity. Countries make terrible choices between debt payments & food, energy, social services. And they almost always choose to make debt payments to not risk further downgrades. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/globa…
"Clear waters AND lush mountains are our silver and gold’,” Xi said. “Harmonious coexistence of humans and nature should be a mission embedded in our development plans.”
Translation: China going big into green hydrogen to decarbonize its enormous steel! ft.com/content/596736…
Crazy how few people outside energy circles know this: "China now leads the world in offshore wind, onshore wind, solar installations and solar manufacturing, EV uptake, EV manufacturing, hydro, PHS, nuclear and smart grids" -@TimBuckleyCEF
Thread:
To make vast amounts of green hydrogen for steel, China will need to feed renewable electricity to electrolysers and make much more of both. Chinese companies are already leading both solar & electrolyser manufacturing hydrogeninsight.com/electrolysers/…