Thread by @SteB777

1) What if, and I propose this in all seriousness, our so called leaders cannot take adequate action to address the climate and ecological emergency - because they are not in charge of our system in the way we are led to believe?🧵

https://twitter.com/SteB777/status/1450558564800532482

2) Please bear with me.

It is assumed that Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin et al, could if they wanted order adequate action to address the climate and ecological emergency.

What if they don't actually have this ability?

3) What I'm getting at is they might just be figureheads, the public face of a system, really controlled by many vested interests, with no one individual really being in control. Just a cabal of vested interests making huge wealth by destroying the Earth's life support systems.

4) Let me make it clear, I am not alleging some movie type conspiracy where a bunch of powerful figures meet around a table to discuss their plans. Yes, it is possible, but not necessary, with a conspiracy of common purpose.

5) What I mean by a conspiracy of common purpose is simply that all the powerful players have a common interest in maintaining business as usual. They will then all work together towards this aim, without any formal co-ordination.

6) This common motive is pretty clear and self-evident. They all have incredible status and wealth in our societies, and lead luxurious and high status lives, well beyond that which even well paid professionals can even dream off.

7) These lifestyles, this status, this privilege, and this power has all been gained by relentlessly over-exploiting the Earth's natural resources, our life-support systems, in a mindless and reckless way.

8) If we were to stop and think about this, to create a vision of what a truly sustainable (in an ecological sense) society looks like, there would be no space for this type of over-indulgence and destructive extravagance.

9) In other words, a shift to a sustainable society, an end to business as usual, threatens everything they have gained over the last 250 years of mindlessly over-exploiting the Earth's natural resources, our life-support systems.

10) Let me propose how I think this system operates, because we need to cut through the smokescreen of false ideas and misdirection of how this system operates, which leads us down blind alleys of thinking.

11) This powerful cabal of vested interests does not dictate how the public figureheads of power operate in a day to day way, the political leaders of our countries have some leeway to do their own thing. This is because this cabal itself has different opinions on this.

12) Rather this cabal of vested interests just sets certain parameters, which it dictates cannot be changed. The rigidity of these controlling parameters, depends on how much common interest this is with this cabal of vested interests.

13) As I say, this cabal of vested interests and powerful figures in it, do not have the same ideas and outlooks on many things. So you end up with competing and conflicting pressure.

14) However, on some things, this controlling cabal of vested interest, all have the same common shared interest. These are things like maintain business as usual, and resisting any reform of the system. Freedom from punitive taxes on vast wealth and income.

15) I'm not claiming to know the exact hierarchy of vested and self-interest they have. Only to know that maintaining business as usual, and resisting any change to a sustainable system, will undoubtedly be something they all have in common.

16) Again, there is no need for an organized conspiracy, as they will simply act in coordination, depending purely on the commonality of their interests, and when they feel these interests are threatened.

17) They don't have to micromanage the everyday policy making of governments. They just have to signal in a coordinated way, what the limits of change they accept.

18) What I propose may sound far fetched, but then you have to ask yourself why our system has been operating along lines entirely consistent with what I suggest. When there is no obvious reason things should be like this.

19) In the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, it was firmly established that human society has taken a wrong turning and we were systematically destroying the natural systems we need to stay alive and needed to change direction.
un.org/en/conferences…

20) Because no meaningful action was taken on the action plan decided, in 1983 the UN set up the Brundtland Commission whose 1987 report, Our Common Future, linked to below, formed the basis of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/docume…

21) The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was the biggest international summit there has ever been, not just the biggest environment summit. Our supposed world leaders pledged to take urgent action. Well here we are 30 years later, and no action was taken.
un.org/en/conferences…

22) Don't take my word for any of that. Read the reports and agreements in the above links yourself. Then try and explain why this action was not taken, despite the pledges of our so called world leaders.

23) The wealth and number of billionaires has rapidly expanded during the same period. It's not just during the COVID pandemic, because they made similar killings in crises previous to this.
theguardian.com/business/2020/…

24) The amount these super rich people pay in tax, decreases over time. They used to pay far more in tax in the past.

25) The public is very concerned about the climate and ecological emergency.

https://twitter.com/UniofOxford/status/1452623544194682888

26) This public concern about the climate crisis has been very high for the last 35 years. In fact, public concern might have been higher in the late 1980s than now. Again, don't take my word for it.
wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.100…

27) What I am getting at is how and why have things the public are very concerned about being allowed to carry on getting worse and worse, despite the very clear on the record pledges of our so called leaders to address this?

28) Is it pure coincidence that these things which have got worse and worse, which our so called leaders pledged to address, just so happen to be things in the interest of the wealthiest people and corporations in the world?

29) In other words, the pattern of events over the last 50 years is entirely consistent with my proposition at the beginning of this thread i.e. our leaders are not in charge of our system as they claim, but what they can do is controlled by a powerful cabal of vested interests.

30) The reason I'm raising this, is that we are putting all our eggs in the basket of our leaders taking action to address the climate and ecological emergency. But what if they can't, and their hands are tied by powerful vested interests, who determine what action they can take?

31) The implications of this are that our governments, democracies and our leadership is something of a mirage. That they are not really our leaders, but are in hoc and held hostage by powerful vested interests who actually determine what action they are allowed to do.

32) It would be very easy for them to prove that they are really our leaders, and not dummy leaders, the public face of powerful vested interests, and that would be to take firm action to prevent an entirely avoidable catastrophe.

33) After all, our world leaders have been pledging to take action to address this crisis for the best part of 50 years. It's just that action never materialises. People vote for leaders and governments who pledge action. They just never do what they pledge.

34) If no major action emerges from COP26, the 26th COP talks, it just pretty much confirms what I say, and that is that our leaders have not got the power and ability to take this action, even if they wanted to. Meaning they are only pretend leaders.

35) What to do about it? Good question. Certainly, people have to start demanding this action very openly, and to stop just relying on our so called leaders to do the right thing.

@GeorgeMonbiot @ClimateHuman @JKSteinberger @GretaThunberg

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