As floods & fires rise, oceans boil & ice melts, and "safe" temperatures are breached, something momentous just happened in the heart of the EU. No one has heard about it: journalists were present, but their editors refused to publish 🤯.
🧵, please RT. #BeyondGrowth2023 1/
For 3 full days the EU parliament hosted thousands of scientists, activists and policy-makers charting a future beyond growth. The talks & discussions were recorded and are now available to all. Thousands attended, thousands more followed online. 2/ beyond-growth-2023.eu/programme/
Topics covered planetary boundaries, trade, finance, fiscal policy, global South, decolonisation, gender, justice, well-being, social policies. Every panel included major advances in understanding. Together, the conference represents a monumental coming of age of post-growth. 3/
Being part of this event was a privilege and an honour. I wish I could share with you what being in such a space opens up in terms of determination to collaborate for a liveable world. The sheer electric energy of being in a room with so many young, critical, dedicated humans. 4/
I was a hobbit. Possibly Pippin?
But my main point is please, for the love of god, choose a talk from this amazing list, watch it and share some insights using the #BeyondGrowth2023 hashtag. Because despite its magnitude, NO media covered the event. beyond-growth-2023.eu/programme/
6/
Because here is the thing. Every. Single. Journalist. who was there (and there were many, from major outlets all over Europe and the world) that I spoke to, said "my editor refuses to print any story critical of economic growth."
This is insane verging on criminal and shows the dangerous ideology of economic growth as our secular religion, completely blinding us to the possible economic alternatives that could preserve a liveable planet. But it is the current reality.
So please. I am not good at this.
8/
But some of you are. Some of you are very, very good at making noise and news. Please RT and amplify #BeyondGrowth2023 content, the speakers, the audience, the topics, the debates. Be part of cracking the foundations of our secular religion of growth, our modern Moloch.
🙏🙏
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While I was writing this thread, @TheEconomist was writing a straight out disinformation hit piece mocking the event and the desire of younger generations to have a liveable planet. Although better to have some coverage than none, so ... kudos to them? 🤷♀️
The author of @TheEconomist disinformation piece finds degrowth ideas "whacky". Not half as much as your straight out science denial, mate. Beyond parody.
Too slowly getting out of a depression of the soul, hopefully to be more active, effective and outspoken in 2025. No huge wisdom here. The only way I can reconcile my beliefs and existence in reality is to have a MUCH more grim understanding of humanity - and a MUCH more sublime.
I am still working on my "what I read in 2024" blog post (timeliness, eh), but by far the most sobering was learning that genocide is a 'normal' part of human nature, from evidence presented in Christopher Boehm's great "Hierarchy in the Forest." Genocide here is warfare ...
between human groups where all are slaughtered, women, children, elderly. There is evidence of genocidal warfare before industrialisation, colonisation, or even agriculture. This is something humans, under certain forms of culture and environment, can and will do, "naturally."
Re ADHD, I just tried one low-dose Concerta pill, given by a friend, and is this how the rest of you feel normally? If this was a normal day for me, I'd have already taken over the world on behalf ecosocialism Napoleon-style. What is your excuse????
Equal parts amazed and upset.
Also, drugs are bad, don't take stuff without dr or pharmacist advice, etc etc, disclaimer.
A few on thoughts on Trump II. 1. Trump was ineffective in his first term, because he and his posse knew nothing of govt, and were hampered by their lack of preparation. That's what Project 2025 is about: hitting the ground running with appointees and agenda. It will be worse.
2. People are counting on the courts to reign in illegality in Trump govt operation, but not only does he have the Supreme Court, thanks to some actually organised ppl during his first term, he has filled LOTS of judge positions with his batshit conservative ilk. Don't count ...
on the courts, basically. It's going to be an illegal shitshow with no accountability. 3. For science, it's a clear disaster. Project 2025 spells that out. Fascists like reality-free zones to operate, and that means climate, environmental, health, economic etc data are targets.
Jesus christ. I think I need to turn to alcohol or drugs or therapy or SOMETHING. I had seen the AMOC overturning warnings, but I had not seen this graph. I though somehow mostly the North Atlantic and Europe would be affected, but no, it's global boiling. en.vedur.is/media/ads_in_h…
This is to be ADDED to global warming. I mean, yes, we're talking about Scandinavia, Ireland and the UK freezing. But look at Astralia and South Africa. And India. And West Africa. And Brazil-Argentina. And the US Canada. I mean this is...cataclysmic is a cute word at this point.
I have nothing. The fossil fuel and meat industries are winning, and everyone else is going to lose.
They are jailing climate activists and destroying all chance of stable human life on earth.
Just absolute pits of despair. It's not just the crimes our governments are committing, it's that even "good" media like the @guardian are presenting civilian victims as incidental. No, this is and has been deliberate genocide, with "defence" as a flimsy fig leaf.
It's well past time to start from a baseline of assuming Israel knows and wants to inflict the damage it does, rather than assuming some kind of innocent blundering. This is all deliberate, planned, calculated, done very much on purpose. The murder of children, rape of prisoners,
destruction of all civilian infrastructure, schools, universities, mosques, churches, parcs, ancient sites, agriculture, ecosystems, all of it. It's all deliberate, planned, funded and armed and materially-strategically supported by the US, UK and German governments.
A couple of things. 1. Being able to ratio Ursula Von der Leyen when she commiserates with racist football hooligans, rather than murdered Palestinian children, and expose media misinformation in real time, is a core reason to stay on twitter. This stuff doesn't happen elsewhere.
I am not ready to cede this space to the fascists. 2. regarding the misinformation, there is something deeply disquieting about how and why our media is generally failing us, not just on the events of Amsterdam, but in Palestine/Lebanon generally, and climate & ecological crises.
I am seeing lots of parallels and it's not so easy to explain. Something about the coverage being commentary rather than caring deeply about facts and reasons on the ground. Media coverage viewing everything through the lens of elites and their views, rather than facts & systems