Thread by @homemadeguitars

Say we actually wanted to curb climate change. Not stop it, but slow the rate of increase. Say that was the objective of COPXXVI (we name them like Stupor Bowls, right?)
Addressing climate change is expressly not the objective of COP. The objective is maintaining economic growth.

2. But say, instead, we wanted to curb it.
What causes climate change? We do things which are powered by fossil fuels and at least one direct outcome of that is climate change. The fuels leave molecules in the atmosphere.

3. OK, so, if you want to refuse climate change, you look at your life and you say, what things can I not do that are powered by fuel? What can I leave out?
We live in a world which expends energy to manufacture leaf blowers.
They are powered by fuel. Yes, the electric ones too.

4. 4. We live in a world in which people fly from continent to continent for fun. Lots of people.
And we fly our stuff around too. The reason we do this is because a few people make money on it.
Only a few.
Probably not you.

https://twitter.com/NYinLA2121/status/1430986660280291330?t=I-Qtx9W278NeARyGBGhEig&s=19

5. Countries ship identical products and commodities back and forth - we buy and sell the same grains from the same countries, send them soybeans and buy soybeans from them, the same with oil.
This really only took off in the Clinton Administration, to the current extent.

6. Free trade.
There is a case to be made that free trade as we now practice it economically harms more people worldwide than it benefits. But it's a *giant* source of climate change.
For sure, inequality and economic separation has increased wildly along with free trade.

7. You got all these guys from Democratic Administrations tweeting about inequality, but not following it back. Climate change and economic inequality are caused by the same processes.
We are pursuing this in a silver bullet chase, the Holy Grail of carbon free energy, and

8. Huge amounts of our energy are wasted for the sole purpose of generating economic activity. GDP is basically a measure of how much money changes hands every year. It has no relevance to people's lives. We have blasted into this high speed global thing, and Amazon tells you

9. Tells me tells us, what a person is worth a day.
Most Americans live like shit, and compared to the rest of the world we're kings.

10. The nations of the world could be agreeing on speed limits.
I'm tired of "people won't." If the fucking governments of the world said, "You will drive slower or we will take away your money and eventually your privilege to drive at all," their citizens would slow down.

11. Everything discussed at COP will take place in the far-off future and right now today it will be a giant market for ever more fossil fuels faster Amen and Amen.

12. The Supply Chain Crisis is because WE'RE SHIPPING MORE CRAP THAN WE CAN UNLOAD AND HAUL AWAY for crying out loud, and we're going to fly to Scotland to wring our hands about it.
If I wanted to curb climate change I damn sure wouldn't build 1.3 trillion dollars worth of

13. Highways, bridges, airports, seaports, and high speed rail.
Speaking of "things we do which require fuel."
That's the question. "What things that we do, that require fuel, can we halt or do less of more slowly?"
There is no other way, under the laws of physics, to use less ⛽

14. All of this would cause a direct reduction in GDP, which is supposed to be a bad thing.
I guess we'd get to see if we're smart enough to figure it out and do that ol' thing about when life hands you lemons, coz...
They're not going to talk about any of this.

15. They are going to talk about pie in the sky bye and bye, and make pledges, and 99.975% of all the Right Thinking People in the developed world will believe that some tax provision is Meaningful Climate Action... And our fossil fuel use will climb on. theguardian.com/environment/20…

16. We, down here at the bottom, we can't cause this by looking at our lives, although we can apply pressure in some ways. Driving slower than the speed limit applies downward pressure on system-wide fuel use.

17. Each thing that uses fuel. Car racing. Why? Air shows. Why? Billionaires to the edge of space. Why? Leaf blowers. Why?
How many things can we figure out how to use less fuel doing? Rethink lawns. Where can we grow something? All these things would actually move matter for us.

18. Our leaders meet and their sole objective is to maximize GDP growth while frequently saying the word "climate." GDP growth is powered by fossil fuels.
We've got to break the whole machine, and figure out how to live small and slow, to reach real world zero.

19. And zero is nowhere near good enough. We've got to get Earth to uptake and hold ever increasing amounts of carbon on every square meter if we want to have a chance.
Life.
They won't be discussing this at COP either. Manufacturing machinery. Bulldozing and paving. GDP growth.