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

Dec 31, 2025
"Zack Polanski offering voters fantasy solutions, says head of Fabian Society"

I'm fed up with these mindless attacks on @ZackPolanski, on the grounds he's unrealistic. It's those from the mainstream economic background who are peddling fantasy.

1/🧵theguardian.com/politics/2025/…
We're in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency. It is an emergency, because mainstream politicians have taken no realistic decisions, which will avert catastrophe, and now only the most radical change to our system, will save us.
2/
“There are now no non-radical futures. The choice is between immediate and profound social change or waiting a little longer for chaotic and violent social change. In 2023 the window for this choice is rapidly closing.” Climate Scientist @KevinClimate

3/bellacaledonia.org.uk/2023/04/18/no-…
Read 18 tweets
Dec 30, 2025
This is a massive hidden scandal, because this same clique of super billionaire/oligarchs, now control most of the media, legacy and social. They plan to replace a vast amount of human workers with AI and robots. Hence the concocted immigrant panic, as a distraction.
1/
These oligarch/billionaires are fundamentally incompetent, and are corrupted by their wealth, with fundamentally false vision of the future.
2/
They dream of AI creating unprecedented wealth for them hence this massively hyped AI bubble.

This false future vision is due to their tunnel vision, wealth accumulation obsession, where they lack joined up thinking.
3/
Read 9 tweets
Dec 21, 2025
"‘You’re barred!’: Labour’s battle with pubs promises a new year headache"

Either Keir Starmer is the most politically inept person to become PM, or he's a mole, placed in the Labour Party, to destroy it, and is pursuing some sort of hidden agenda.

1/🧵theguardian.com/news/ng-intera…
It is mind-boggling how much policy, and decisions Keir Starmer has made, which play right into the hands of Reform and the Tories, and make Labour unpopular. This is plain political stupidity. There's no rhyme or reason to his decisions.
2/
Every time I point this out, I'm told it's Morgan McSweeney, and he's behind all this. I'm not bothered if McSweeney writes out a script every day for Starmer to follow, because the buck stops with Starmer.
3/
Read 5 tweets
Dec 21, 2025
I made this post, in response to a mindless post by Elon Musk, claiming that 80% of under 18 year olds in Belgium, were foreigners, to aid his far right, racist agenda. I was attacked by his sycophants, all misrepresenting what I said and why.
1/🧵
My point was very simple. The right wing populists, white supremacists, centred in the US, are spreading their white replacement conspiracy theories and whipping up hatred of "foreigners", with no irony, that they are all descended from immigrants.
2/
Even in the UK, the white English nationalists, totally miss the irony, that their claimed pure ethnicity, is derived from Anglo-Saxon boat people immigrants, that swamped the Celts inhabiting Britain.

This pure ethnicity stuff is nonsense.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Dec 18, 2025
This is a very good summary, of the threat to our food security, posed by the climate crisis, with a few ecological caveats I need to explain. However, it supports all my threads about this.

1/🧵theguardian.com/environment/ng…
The big caveat from an ecological perspective is this. Most of these projections, are based on average yields, which is a standard academic approach. However, we need to acquaint ourselves with the law of the ecological minimum, or the limiting factor.
2/
Whilst this is often called Leibig's law or the law of the minimum, dating from agricultural science in the 19th Century. However, I don't want to get into the academic history of this concept, but rather I want to explain what it means for us in practice.

3/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebig%27…
Read 17 tweets
Dec 18, 2025
I'm somewhat baffled about the strategy of not only Donald Trump, but the populist right in general, and billionaires. They have taken in people, by making false promises and claims, which will soon be revealed for the lies they are. Climate change denial is a good example.
1/🧵
Climate change is real and happening, the scientific evidence proves it. Yes, if you got a big platform, and a lot of money, you can get away with dishonestly, denying that climate change is happening, because of 2 factors.
2/
These 2 factors are:

1) There is variability in weather from year to year, which can temporarily mask a changing climate.

2) The changes in climate, are quite subtle at the moment, and won't be noticed by those not paying much attention. But soon they will be noticeable.
3/
Read 23 tweets

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