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

Apr 23
Whilst this survey showed a huge proportion of the global population want climate action, I'm not sure there's any understanding here about why there has been no climate action, in the last 33 years.
1/🧵
Wind the clock back 33-35 years ago, and there was a similar figure wanting climate action, and action to address the ecological crisis, and that resulted in the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. World leaders, made big speeches, promising action.

2/un.org/en/conferences…
Here's the evidence showing that the vast majority of the global public wanted climate action, over 30 years ago.

This huge majority of the public, wanting climate action, has already happened, and politicians promised this action.

3/wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.100…
Read 16 tweets
Apr 22
"A huge 89% majority of the world’s people want stronger action to fight the climate crisis ..."

I will write a far more in depth thread about this, shortly. However, this is my immediate response.

1/🧵theguardian.com/environment/20…
As I have repeatedly explained, it's not the public blocking climate action, but governments, corporate interests, oligarchs, and the wealthiest people, in our societies.

Governments pledged to address the climate crisis 33 years ago, but then did nothing.
2/
This blocking climate action, has been very sophisticated and deceitful. In fact, the powerful blocking climate action, have made a big song and dance about wanting to address the climate crisis, but have chosen bizarre strategies, bound to fail.
3/
Read 20 tweets
Apr 19
The reason for my last 2 threads, wasn't to be pessimistic, or even to apportion blame.

Rather, the approach for the last 50+ years, has been to persuade politicians, governments, to act on the climate and ecological crisis. This has proved absolutely fruitless.
1/🧵
Scientists, conservationists, NGOs and activists - and even the UN, have expended a massive amount of energy, in trying to persuade governments to act on the climate and ecological crisis, for nothing. Governments have done nothing to address these crises.
2/
Governments have talked a lot, announced countless initiatives in a PR way, but none of what they did were anything, but token gestures, that made no difference. Emissions from fossil fuel burning have just kept steadily increasing, and biodiversity carries on declining.
3/
Read 25 tweets
Apr 19
I want to clarify what I mean in this thread, when I say, the official fight against climate change was set up to fail.

Nothing agreed to was ever binding. It'd have been very easy to have had a binding agreement to phase out fossil fuels.

1/🧵threadreaderapp.com/thread/1913154…
It was clear back in 1992, when the UNFCCC was signed, that the only way to prevent the climate crisis, becoming a climate catastrophe, was to phase out the widespread use of fossil fuels. This was tacit in the UNFCCC.

2/unfccc.int/files/essentia…
The wording of the UNFCCC makes it very clear that it was seen as a continuation of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, where it was agreed to phase out CFCs, to protect the ozone layer, protecting us from UV rays. The wording was clearly about mitigation.
3/
Read 12 tweets
Apr 18
I want to propose something very serious, that needs to be considered, and widely known.

Was the official "fight" against climate change, deliberately set up to fail i.e. it was fixed, it was never meant to succeed, and it's primary purpose, was to deceive the public?
1/🧵
This is not something I am just saying now, I first proposed this possibility in September/October 1992, just after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, to a leading scientist, who had written the standard textbook on air pollution and climate change.

2/independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…
Specifically, at a seminar, I asked how could we be certain that our political leaders, were simply not going to renege on the promises and pledges, they made at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, as they had on the Action Plan at the first 1972 UN Environment Conference?
3/
Read 26 tweets
Apr 14
This is horrific. For many years we have been led false narratives, blatant gaslighting, and propaganda, about the successful actions of governments to address climate change. How emissions are plateauing, whilst in reality, atmospheric CO2 levels get steadily higher.
1/🧵
If you look at the Keeling Curve, linked to in @ClimateDad77's excellent post, you will see a continuing climb in atmospheric CO2 levels, which just goes up and up. None of the climate talks, the schemes, the government talk, make one bit of difference.

2/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeling_C…
What this proves is that all supposed action to address the climate crisis during the last 33 years, since the UNFCCC was signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, HAS BEEN TOTALLY FAKE, a charade, with governments and corporations doing nothing at all meaningful to curb emissions.
3/
Read 26 tweets

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