Stephen Barlow Profile picture
Jun 3, 2022 8 tweets 2 min read Read on X
People often ask what I mean by system change re: the climate and ecological crisis. It is very simple. I mean a full shift to a truly sustainable society/economy. This means changing more or less every convention of our modern society.
Sustainable means what it says. A society and economy in balance with the ecological carrying capacity of the Earth. Essentially that means no unsustainable trends, where our impact on the natural systems of the world is growing.
You see, in ecological terms, if there is a component, where it's impact on natural systems is constantly growing. Eventually it will have catastrophic effects, impacting also on the component driving it i.e. human society.
Lots of natural components have growing impacts. Let's say an exploding population of rodents. But this is eventually counteracted, by a sudden fall in the population of that rodent. Often, it produces a cycle or rise and fall.
Humans appear to have got out of this cycle and effect, by using innovation to get around what would cause that contraction in that growth. For instance, the use of fertilisers and pesticides.
But this is at the cost of destroying other ecosystem components and biodiversity, which in a long loop, will eventually have serious impacts on us, that we can't innovate our way out of.
There is no simple recipe for creating a sustainable society economy. However, if we don't want our population, our civilization, our society and economy to crash, it is essential.
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More from @SteB777

Jul 3
To clarify something. I'm briefly focused on questioning the moral and ethical fitness of the current Keir Starmer Labour regime, over the planned sickness benefit cuts and the justification of the horrific genocide in Gaza. This is not because I've forgotten the climate.
1/🧵
My biggest criticism of Keir Starmer's regime, is his failure to produce any realistic climate policy, his scrapping of nature and environment protection and his focus on economic growth, to the exclusion of all else (it is what is driving the climate and ecological crisis)
2/
This illustrates that Keir Starmer and other senior cabinet members, have seriously malfunctioning moral compasses, where they are wiling to sacrifice the long term survivability of our civilization, for short term economic benefit, for the very rich.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Jul 1
To add to this, I think it is necessary to go back to the drawing board, with the whole messaging as regards the climate, ecological and social justice crisis.

Communication over these matters, evolved out of a situation, which has either ceased to exist, or never existed.
1/🧵
The strategy all along, was to convince politicians to take the necessary action. Indeed, governments have supposedly been committed for 53 years to take action on this polycrisis.

However, they've never even attempted to take the pledged action.

2/un.org/en/conferences…
Governments are so secretive, that we can never be certain about why they failed to take the action they pledged. Whether they never intended to take the action they pledged and were deceiving the public, or if something changed.
3/
Read 44 tweets
Jun 29
'One senior NHS figure said they were seeing “medieval” levels of untreated illness in some of Britain’s poorest communities'

Could this be why there's been a big increase in those claiming sickness and disability benefits?

1/🧵theguardian.com/society/2025/j…
We were told by members of Rishi Sunak's cabinet, and now Keir Starmer's cabinet, that there was no reason why the numbers of those claiming sickness and disability benefits were increasing.

Whilst, actually, there is a crisis of poor health in the UK's poorest communities.
2/
We keep getting told by those taken in by the right wing Tory Press, that this increase in sickness and disability isn't occurring elsewhere in Europe, but here's the evidence of sickness being higher in the UK.

3/theguardian.com/society/2025/j…
Read 12 tweets
Jun 29
I admit to having made a huge error. In my time commenting on the Guardian, I thought I had explained enough about the climate and ecological crisis, to straighten out many of the misconceptions about it. But obviously I hadn't.
1/🧵
I know much of my commenting was well read and influential. It was not a guess. Just before the pandemic, the former editor of the Guardian Environment section, the late John Vidal, invited me to his Nature Festival in Oswestry, because he told me he wanted to meet me.
2/
He told me that he and the current Guardian Environment Editor Damian Carrington were very impressed by my arguments. George Monbiot was very complimentary, and referenced me in some of his articles.
3/ Image
Read 43 tweets
Jun 26
There's a necessity to understand big picture thinking, joined up thinking, the overview.

All the things I've been commenting about, the climate and ecological crisis, politics, the genocide in Gaza, the pursuit of economic growth, neoliberalism, are all highly interlinked.
1/🧵
The interlinking theme, is humanity and social justice. As @GretaThunberg has explained, she is a climate activist, because of the threat to humanity. It is entirely mistaken to see climate activism, as somehow apart from other social justice issues.

2/threadreaderapp.com/thread/1936789…
If we do not urgently address the climate and ecological crisis, it will cause massive impacts, starvation, and the likely collapse of our civilization. This, and other social justice issues, all have one major cause.

3/theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Read 19 tweets
Jun 26
"Alexander brushes off criticism of Morgan McSweeney over welfare bill, saying he helped deliver 'historic' election victory"

Let's kill off this myth of the "historic election Victory" which was actually crafted by Rishi Sunak.

1/🧵theguardian.com/politics/live/…
This election victory was by default. The Tories had made themselves very disliked. Polling just before the general election showed no great enthusiasm for Keir Starmer. He just wasn't a Tory, or so people mistakenly thought at the time.
2/
The election wasn't a resounding success for either Keir Starmer or Morgan McSweeney. People wanted the Tories gone, and who else could they vote for?

Any other interpretation is bizarre.
3/
Read 19 tweets

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