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

May 7
Once again, I need to clarify what the climate crisis is, and what this term means (please take it to include the whole ecological crisis).

It's a crisis, because 33 years ago, world leaders promised to address this crisis, and misled the public.

1/🧵
It is a crisis, not because a thing called anthropogenic climate change just happened, and no one knows what to do about it, because we knew what the solutions were over 40 years ago. It is a crisis, because our politicians, have refused to implement those solutions.
2/
The solution was always to drastically reduce our burning of fossil fuels. Not to try and come up with clever ways to try and have our cake and eat it, like carbon capture and storage.
3/
Read 33 tweets
Apr 30
This article in the Guardian, in response to Tony Blair's oil industry lobbying nonsense, has made me realize just what a dire situation we're in. There's quite literally no evidence based consensus on what we need to do, to avert climate catastrophe.

1/🧵theguardian.com/environment/20…
At one point in time, early after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, there was some sort of consensus about what needed to happen, to greatly reduce emissions and phase out fossil fuels. Yes, politicians were kicking the can down the road at when this would happen.
2/
Those sending out a riposte to Blair, come from a whole variety of approaches, from Net Zero policy, will work, and there is no consensus on the danger, and what we're trying to avert.
3/
Read 22 tweets
Apr 29
"Climate plan based on phasing out fossil fuels doomed to fail, says Tony Blair"

I've used Blair as evidence, for how the original political pledge to address the climate crisis, made by politicians after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, was a lie.

1/🧵theguardian.com/environment/20…
Specifically, I have repeatedly said, that you hardly hear Tony Blair ever mention climate change, after his grandstanding speeches when he was PM.

From 2004:

"Tony Blair has said time is running out for tackling climate change."

2/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi…
I've said that politicians in the 1990s and early 2000s, knowingly misled the public, when they claimed to want to address the climate crisis, and that they never actually intended to phase out fossil fuels. @antonioguterres has called them liars.

3/
Read 13 tweets
Apr 26
It's very likely, the modern society, people in the rich countries are used to, will no longer exist in 25 years time. It will be a miracle, if it still exists, and may have ceased to exist some time in 25 years. If by some miracle it still existed, it wouldn't be for long.
1/🧵
This will be due to the climate and ecological crisis. This is what change is coming, whether you like it or not @GretaThunberg, means

Or "There are now no non-radical futures" - means @KevinClimate

2/bellacaledonia.org.uk/2023/04/18/no-…
This is the most important thing that everyone needs to understand.

This absurdity of trying to preserve the present, capitalist, economic growth system, is that it can't last much longer.
3/
Read 9 tweets
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

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