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Peter Kalmus Profile picture
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1 May, 6 tweets, 2 min read
Normalize ridiculing carbon offsets and "net-zero"
There are very good reasons why carbon offsets are, indeed, bullshit.
1. Permanence. the carbon offset would need to sequester the carbon forever.
2. Additionality. you'd need to know it wouldn't have otherwise been done.
features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-…
3. Verifiability. you'd need to know for sure it really happened.
4. Quantifiability. you'd need to know the same amount of carbon was really sequestered.
features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-…
5. Temporal congruence. the carbon would have to be sequestered right now, not sometime in the future.
6. Excuse psychology. carbon offsets reduce individual and collective sense of urgency.
features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-…
7. Climate colonialism. rich person/org emits expecting that people/nations to clean up mess.
8. Scam psychology. people who want to make a buck + people/orgs that feel guilty + some nice technical jargon = awesome white-collar scam opportunity.
features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-…
It's too late to make excuses. Time to address the problem directly, and honestly, and ramp down emissions systematically and on a fixed time schedule.

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More from @ClimateHuman

Peter Kalmus Profile picture
14 Feb
I would like to give some context for this article and to correct the record.
propublica.org/article/the-cl…
To start. One of the great paradoxes of living on an overheating planet: I'm terrified, angry, and frustrated by climate inaction, but I still enjoy life and smile and laugh a lot. I'm not depressed at all. The photographers told us not to smile. We smiled in many of the pictures
Climate emotions are complex and personal. I know climate depression is real but I don't think we "should" or "shouldn't" be depressed over climate. It's just a fact that I am not. I was depressed while in college and I am vigilant not to slip back into that. It paralyzed me.
Read 35 tweets
Peter Kalmus Profile picture
5 Feb
I just read the ProPublica article (I got back yesterday after 10 days of being disconnected). Overall, I think it's good but one-sided. I'm not remotely depressed, there's a lot of joy in our household, and we don't really look this emo!
propublica.org/article/the-cl…
I think climate emotions run the gamut. In my case, as opposed to being depressed, I'm afraid, frustrated, and furious - with brief intense spikes of grief thrown in every month or so for good measure.
Also, yeah, low-energy living comes with tough lessons, but it's also fun. I LOVE gardening and growing fruit trees! And you do need lots of compost to do that well... I was actually a decent chicken-keeper, back when I did it. And dumpster diving is better than you think
Read 6 tweets
Peter Kalmus Profile picture
1 Jan
OK here's some great news to end 2020!

It turns out that 68% of humans, if given the choice, would choose to only extract from nature what can be regenerated, leaving plenty for future generations. So we're not all greedy bastards.
The problem, of course, is that 32% of us would choose to extract everything immediately and convert it to profit for themselves. They end up extremely rich and can easily capture the media, the financial system, and our politics.

Sound familiar?
This guarantees ecological crisis and overshoot after a few generations.

These results are from a 2014 study by researchers at Harvard and Yale:
nature.com/articles/natur…
Read 6 tweets
Peter Kalmus Profile picture
30 Dec 20
Our current system prioritizes corporate profits and the accumulation of vast wealth and power in the hands of a few, whereas I imagine a system that prioritizes people and the planet and which is far more equitable. My imperfect label for the former system is "capitalism."
I think the next big thing in the climate movement will be mainstreaming the idea that we can't come out of climate and ecological breakdown without shifting the goal away from profit & accumulation and toward people & planet. That is, to end "capitalism"
The Green New Deal is an important stepping stone but I think we need to go further - we need to actually change the goal of the entire system. The goal can no longer be profit & massive accumulation & desperate consumption, it needs to be happy humans on a healthy planet.
Read 8 tweets
Peter Kalmus Profile picture
22 Dec 20
Here are a few of the most impactful climate books I've read. First up: "Less is More" by @jasonhickel. Yes, we CAN organize society around human thriving instead of further enriching billionaires. Yes, we DO need to deal w growthism to stop climate and ecological breakdown.
Next, "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Such a tour de force melding of science, indigenous wisdom, and poetry. I dare you to read it without crying. Especially the elders as last living remnants of their mother tongues, and how language is so much more than language.
"Merchants of Doubt" by @NaomiOreskes and @ErikMConway (who happens to be a colleague of mine at the space lab). The classic exposé of the evil scholars who create confusion and delay in support of deadly corporate malfeasance with their lies. Yes, evil.
Read 7 tweets
Peter Kalmus Profile picture
7 Dec 20
Why is hunger skyrocketing, when almost half of food produced is thrown into landfills and the stock market is soaring?
Why is it so hard to get healthcare for all, even during a pandemic, even when the policy is so popular? Why is healthcare still tied to employment? Certainly, industry profits and money in politics. But it's even deeper.
Those who control the capital seek to create scarcity - or rather, the illusion of scarcity, by artificially preventing access - so as to force the workers into what amounts to wage slavery and drive exponential growth, which is also destroying the Earth's living systems.
Read 7 tweets

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