Thread by @homemadeguitars

A reasonable response I got lately to my usual topic.
He is *absolutely* right. No governing body. That means if we want it we got to do it without them.
Which we can.

https://twitter.com/clomimd/status/1409341859520991245

2. Two facts which apply. One, we are never going to get out of this without a total economic collapse worldwide. Either the collapse happens and we quit killing the biosphere, or we quit killing the biosphere and the old economy has to be phased out.

3. It's the economy, Stupid.
Government exists to keep the current economy running, whatever that current economy is. Since the current economy and climate change are synonymous, we'll be evolving to a new one.
No way of telling how many of us. Depends on how we do it.

4. 🔹Even a modest reduction in emissions would be synonymous with a recession. Details available on request.
🔹No government is ever going to cause a recession on purpose.
It's on us. They're not able to participate.

5. This is the reason that the dominant conversation is about new manufactured products which will miraculously solve the damage caused by manufacturing products. Because they are things to buy and sell, and people can be put to work making, selling, and installing them. Economy.

6. I propose that the purpose for an economy is to provide for each human access to a sufficient share of Earth's resources that s/he can be warm, well fed, safe, and reasonably comfortable in an appropriate human shelter and home.
That's enough. Live with it.

7. There is a constant flow of people back and forth between cities and the country. If people move out, immediately try to produce as much of a stable life as they can, look to the Amish, learn to build animal powered communities - don't wait for somebody to push people. Pull.

8. I moved out here when I was in my 30s. I had a vague inkling of the philosophy of energy I have formed over the second half of my life, but I started with draft horses. Too big. What we need to do is address one piece of Earth with absolutely all of our attention, and ask it

9. To provide for us.
We can keep a car, commute to a job, do whatever it takes.
The ideal work animal is the donkey. They're little. They don't take up much space or burn much fuel. But we're not trying to plow the back 40 for market corn, we're asking a small piece of land

10. To provide for us.
Each of us who does this is one data point. Every person who slows down to the speed limit or below reduces the herd average speed and emissions.
If enough people did it, it could actually make a difference.
One little working community anywhere would

11. Be a living proof of concept. It would attract attention. Human interest articles.
And - when there's no gas in the gas stations it's *really* going to seem like a good idea.
You can't start then, though. There's a lot of learned skill.
You can't see Earth from a tractor.

12. I was Googling around the other day, looking to see how much carbon is in a living thing. It's a slippery number.
Carbon is life, we all know that, right? The phrase "organic matter" is synonymous with "carbon." That's why all these horrendous poisons are called "organo-<xxx>

13. Anyway. Bacteria are about 50% carbon. Bacteria aren't very big but there's *lots* of them in healthy Earth - like, tons and tons and tons.
Plants run in the 40s to almost 50%.
People aren't measured the same.

14. We're mostly oxygen, but carbon comes second, at over 18%.
Life is mostly made out of carbon.
Now: I understand that we are spewing untold tons of the carbon that made other life long ago, but we are also killing every square foot we can, and the ones we keep alive, simplify.

15. Everybody is looking for the magic bullet. Trees. Some algae. Grass. Bamboo.
The magic bullet is complexity. Absolutely fill every possible niche on every square centimeter with all the life you possibly can.
It'll take a few hundred years, but we can get this carbon out.

16. But to do that, we have to quit adding.
We're moving the wrong direction, with virtually every factor of our economies and lives, everywhere.
And waiting for the government.
Because economic growth, and energy consumption growth are synonymous.

17. The more we add now, the harder it is going to be to recover afterwards. The infrastructure plan is utter madness and fills me with grief and sorrow. The insistence by, for instance, Pete B., that it's "for" climate change...
Is that man that unaware? He's sposta be smart.

18. Let me explain how manufacturing and emissions work: when Arrhenius was calculating the climate effects of CO2 emissions in 1896, manufacturing was all we had.
No cars, airplanes, or digital currencies. Just manufacturing. At 1896 levels. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Ar…

19. Donald Trump has never, in his entire life, told a bigger lie than the pretense that the infrastructure plan won't be an emissions disaster. And that not him, that's our side.
Highways and bridges are made out of concrete and steel. "Biggest in a hundred years."
STOP🛑STOP🛑

20. The way this works is, sometimes we talk about climate change.
And we say yes it's very important critical really we must all fly somewhere and discuss agreeing to begin to talk about building huge machines and zet Nero 2099 50 30 did you see about the Arctic?

21. And the rest of the time - ALL the rest of the time - we pretend that our everyday decisions shouldn't be colored by climate considerations because we're going to Do Something and that's a Separate Issue and this is about Infrastructure.
Yeah.
I got that.
Earth doesn't.

22. If you live in the western US, If you're uncomfortable, if you're concerned:
The government is not going to do anything about this, not now and not ever, and anything they actually do do will make the real situation worse so hope for gridlock.
We're running out of time.

23. Besides Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs created John Carter of Mars. I read every single one of them.
When they were in some kind of a terrible jam, John Carter would say, "We still live."
We still live. Don't wait for others. Lead.
--Jeff