Thread by @fraserjfstewart

Something I find infuriating in certain corners of UK discourse is the idea that addressing climate is a threat to working classes. It’s not. It’s a massive opportunity to make things better *if we get it right*. The biggest threat to all of us is the status quo.

The earth is warming, devastating people and places around the world, driven by governments and fossil fuel shareholders who are making more money than ever before while people spiral into destitution because of soaring energy bills.

Workers have to fight tooth and nail for a basic liveable wage while shareholders rake it in and plough their money into oil and gas investments. Lowest living standards on record. Climate in breakdown. People and ecosystems disappearing.

This is the reality of things *right now*. Have a look at the queue outside your local food bank or the devastation being caused around the world and tell me if you think it’s going well.

We have such a bad habit of hiding behind hypothetical injustices when talking about addressing the climate crisis, completely ignorant/dishonest about the fact that the way we do things today is massively unjust and lethal

(It’s also ignorant/dishonest about the devastating impacts that the climate crisis is already having, and how our obsession with profit maximisation and extraction has caused that)

Sometimes it comes from a place of genuine concern, which I appreciate. Sometimes it’s an oversight. Often it’s just denialism in a different jacket. Whatever the reason, it’s a narrative that we need to challenge.

Of course, we *need* to have real fairness and justice at heart of everything we do to combat the climate emergency. It won’t be fair, unlock the massive opportunities on offer or get done at all unless we make it so. That’s another conversation.

But the idea that doing anything is somehow a bigger risk than the way things are today/future climate breakdown, has to change.

As #IPCC highlights, if we keep going without change, things will get immeasurably worse for everyone. We can’t afford not tackle the climate emergency and we’ve already wasted too much time.

The upshot of this is that we absolutely can get this done. We have most of the solutions, agency in all of this, and know what needs to change. What we need now is to get on with it, with fairness and justice firmly at the centre of our thinking.