Stephen Barlow Profile picture
Nov 10 26 tweets 9 min read
Most plans to address the ecological and climate crisis, involve serious denial. Either the figures are fiddled or there is governmental or corporate denial of responsibility, or they do not look at the full spectrum of the highly interlinked ecological/sustainability crisis.
1/
It's obvious why this is happening. They start off from the point off from the unquestioned position of maintaining business as usual, maintaining the status quo. Then try to find some sort of fantasy solution, consistent with this.
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The core problem to this is quite simple. Some individuals and some countries are vastly wealthier than other individuals and countries, and this inevitably means all other individuals and countries will try catching up with them.
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Whilst at the same time the richest individuals (billionaires) and the richest countries, go all out to create even more wealth, and all this is premised on the unconstrained over-exploitation of the Earth's natural resources. A viciously circular process.
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It is pretty bleeding obvious that such a system is not sustainable as we are already in a situation facing future catastrophe, at the current rate of wealth and over-exploitation of finite natural resources. Let alone from much bigger future demands on finite systems.
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There seems to be gigantic denial about this, not least of all from the top 1% of the richest people in our societies, who run everything from our governments, corporations, media, academic institutes, every major organization in society i.e. really everything.
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Self-evidently, none of the richest 1% have any interest at all in the only obvious solution, equity, because within such a system of equity, they would lose all their power, wealth and status. They control the dialogue, because they control everything.
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The huge obstacle is the superficial similarity between equity in sustainability and climate solutions, and ideologies like Marxism, socialism, communism, which also sought supposed equality. Actually, they have very different roots and premises.
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The ideological right has weaponised opposition to the "left", so they only have to label something "left", or some more extreme left wing label, to have their Pavlovian conditioned supporters frothing at the mouth in utter hatred, at this perceived enemy.
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An even deeper problem is the right, and even centre have pinned their colours of an obsession with growth to their ideological mast, and deem anyone questioning this, as the enemy the #antigrowthcoalition. This is how climate change denial has become a right wing obsession.
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However, this left right thing is something of a red herring, because whilst it does exist, this is really about those who have done very well out of the current system, trying to maintain the status quo, to protect their own self-interest.
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As I've already explained it is totally incompatible with sustainability, to have some individuals and countries vastly wealthier than other countries as by necessity, the rest will try to catch up, threatening far higher levels of consumption and over-exploitation.
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In fact, this competition, the mad scramble to become ever richer, which actually accelerates, the richer someone becomes, is at the very heart of how this wealth was created in the first place. It is inherent to the current system. It's all viciously circular.
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Self-evidently, because of this, extreme wealth inequality is inconsistent with sustainability. First, to be sustained long term, you would need some fixed social immobility, like you had in medieval times. But even that would not work for the reasons below.
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As the medieval period illustrates, there might not have been that much social mobility, with most being peasants, serfs etc stuck in their station in life, but those at the top still engaged in massive competition with each other to get even wealthier i.e. colonization.
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Therefore, any system, that involves major elements within it, trying to get even wealthier, wealth primarily accumulated by the over-exploitation of natural resources and natural systems, is inherently unsustainable.
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Not least of all because those seeking more wealth, need lots of people to create this wealth for them, hence massive population growth, because they have directly encouraged it. All countries pursuing growth panic if their population starts to fall.
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These are all fundamental truths. Okay, my framing of these truths is likely imperfect. I am humble to my limited abilities, but I know for certain, that a better objective framing of the situation, would still involve all these elements. Even if more eloquently explained.
18/
Trying to treat this as just a climate crisis is utterly dishonest and involves mass denial.

"We cannot solve the threats of human-induced climate change and loss of biodiversity in isolation. We either solve both or we solve neither."
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
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My only criticism of Sir Robert Watson (former chair of the @IPCC_CH and @IPBES), is the sustainability crisis is even bigger than just the climate and biodiversity crisis. Although to be fair to him, if you really understand the biodiversity concept, it includes ecology.
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Hence all this fiddling of figures, so those trying to maintain their lifestyles, wealth, status and power, can pretend to be our saviours trying to fix the problem - can appear to have solutions (which are fake solutions - ironically to maintain their wealth and status).
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This is the naked, butt ugly, unvarnished reality. An utterly corrupt system, where our so-called leaders are little more than a corrupt bunch of fraudsters, acting out of pure self-interest, whilst pretending to care about everyone, simply to maintain the status quo.
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I was always told that my view of things was deeply cynical. Firstly, I am not cynical as I believe in people, and push back against those who say all humans are responsible. Secondly, time has proven this view of things correct.
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Well, what are we going to do about it? The ball is in our court, we are many, and those driving this crisis and obstructing change for the better, are few. We are only trapped in a hopeless situation if we continue to believe the bullshit we have been gaslit with.
24/
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More from @SteB777

Nov 9
Susanna Reid's arguments against the @JustStop_Oil spokesperson were incredibly badly informed. She lectured them that this was not the way to win the public over, despite @JustStop_Oil repeatedly explaining this is not what they are trying to do.
1/
Further getting on her high horse she then laughably claims @Lauratobin1 "is one of the most outspoken people on climate change, who has written a book ...". It's good that Laura is speaking up, but to try and claim she is a leading campaigner or expert, is beyond absurd.
2/
If Laura really thinks these small incremental actions she describes in her book are going to do anything to save us from climate catastrophe, then she is kidding herself. All acknowledged experts say actions like this will make no difference.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Nov 7
COP27 is a good occasion to point out that we're not just facing a climate crisis, but a whole interlinked crisis, the ecological or sustainability crisis. Massive biodiversity decline, declining soil and drinking water, all sorts of pollution crises.
1/12
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
I'll quote from the above by the former chair of @IPCC_CH and @IPBES.

"We cannot solve the threats of human-induced climate change and loss of biodiversity in isolation. We either solve both or we solve neither."

There seems to be massive denial about this.
2/12
None of the suggested action to address the climate crisis, the fantasy technology, that hasn't been developed yet, and which probably never will, won't address the rest of the crisis. It will likely make it worse.
3/12
Read 13 tweets
Nov 7
The more I look into this, the more sinister it becomes. This Restore Trust outfit, appears to be another fake grass roots campaign, with hidden funding. They may deny this, but who is funding this organization?
1/🧵
This seems to be remarkably similar to the fake grassroots organization, You Forgot the Birds. When launched, it claimed to be a grass roots organization fed up with RSPB policy, and fronted by Ian Botham.
markavery.info/2016/01/18/you…
2/
However, right from the very beginning, there was great mystery about who funded YFTB, and they couldn't answer basic questions about their membership. It later turned out to be run by a PR outfit funded by some hedge fund multi-millionaire.
3/
Read 9 tweets
Nov 5
This whole idea, that somehow economics is outside the scope of living ecosystems, is profoundly mistaken. It is entirely why the ecological and climate emergency exists i.e. the falsely belief that human activity is outside natural ecosystems.

Let's explore this.
1/🧵
Most definitions of economics goes something like this.

"a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services"
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eco…
2/
What most of these definitions don't say, but which are tacit in them, is that it is the human production distribution of goods and services. Social sciences are about human society.
3/
Read 31 tweets
Nov 5
@GretaThunberg is entirely correct with her analysis. In my huge in depth review about why we're heading towards ecological catastrophe for 50+ years, I've come to the inescapable conclusion that our blindness about what we're doing and where we're heading, is ideological.
1/🧵
That it is not just one ideology, but all ideologies, and it is probably an inherent with ideology itself. Not just particular ideologies. Yes, some ideologies are self-evidently worse than others, but all are incompatible with sustainability.
2/
However, when I try to explain why the problem is inherent to all ideologies, and probably with ideology itself, I usually find myself in a minority of one. Therefore, it is an enormous relief that @GretaThunberg appears to get it, and I am not left as a lone ranter.
3/
Read 50 tweets
Nov 4
"We have to reduce the emissions urgently ... call for a global systems level change based on radically transforming our current fossil fuel based economy, to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable"

King Charles III, COP26

Rishi Sunak - do you support this?
1/
If Rishi Sunak does not support what King Charles was calling for, which is as he explains, was based on the latest IPCC reports, then what is Sunak spouting on about?

"We have to put ourselves on what might be called a war like footing ..."

2/
I see nothing resembling this in any of RishiSunak's policy. Is he just one of those government leaders "who are saying one thing and doing another, simply put, they are lying", as the UN Secretary General said.

3/
Read 4 tweets

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