Yesterday, on 15 August, India’s independence day, I remembered a comment made by a white Dutch ex-colleague, a professor, last year. She had remarked that she wished a Gandhi would emerge from among the Palestinian people to chart a non-violent path to their liberation.

1/ I thought, how can you have that hope while you yourself do nothing, not even speak up about their genocide in which your nation and your institution (TU Delft) are actively complicit?

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You often see renewable energy researchers and analysts claim that an energy transition to “green” renewable energy will massively reduce the need for material extraction compared with fossil fuels.

If you think this is too good to be true, it’s because it is. It’s a lie.

1/ Their claim is that “greening” our energy infrastructure would require increasing critical minerals and metals (e.g. Cu, Li, Co, Ni) extraction from 7 million tons a year today to 28 million by 2040. But this rise would be compensated for by much reduced fossil fuel demand.

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I call upon Global South scholars and researchers to reconsider our presence in Western academia.

By now it is abundantly clear that Western institutions including universities are fully committed to maintaining the West's imperialist domination over the world at any cost.

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In this light, I increasingly wonder whether we Global South scholars are helping legitimize Western institutions and their “superiority” (consider the impression that world university rankings give, for example) by participating in them.

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“I wish a Gandhi would emerge from the Palestinian people & inspire a peaceful liberation movement.”

I’ve heard such a statement from Western colleagues a couple of times. Each time, I’ve asked, “Why is the burden to produce such a figure always on the colonized?”

1/ The people who made such statements are from a European nation that got rich off imperial violence & plunder & which supports Israel’s genocide of Palestinians today. What worldview leads them to fantasize about the colonized producing messiahs of peace to save themselves?

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I urge degrowth & other climate action researchers to keep in mind that all extraction adds damages to people & ecosystems somewhere, & challenge them to rise above techno-modernist ideology to envision radical alternative ways of organizing our lives & societies.

1/ Before advocating for each household to have appliances & gadgets that have only proliferated in recent decades, please think of how we could greatly reduce our dependence on such technologies.

Here are two low-tech alternatives for the basic tasks of washing & cooking.

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When I criticize modernity I think in terms of the material and energy flows and the distribution of the harms and risks involved in sustaining it, especially when it comes to technologies and systems whose proliferation has coincided with...

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... the acceleration of extraction and ecocide in recent decades.

With 8 billion people, sustaining our techno-modernity even at a smaller scale still keeps adding extractive damages to ecosystems and people.

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Yesterday I came across a piece that inadvertently exposes the claim that the “green” energy transition will entail less material extraction than fossil fuels as a blatant lie.

It’s by none other than the capitalist techno-solutionist @_HannahRitchie from @OurWorldInData.

1/ As we’d expect, she is trying to reassure her readers that the large-scale renewable energy transition she advocates for will need less mining than fossil fuels, even after adjusting for the amount of rock that needs to be processed to obtain metals & minerals.

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A barrage of dire news & research findings that came out just this past week shows we’re on the verge of catastrophic climate & ecological breakdown.

Massive social upheavals are imminent, & we must realign our priorities & plans with what is realistically possible.

1/ Yet most climate action folks cling to actions & approaches based on modern techno-industrial systems, whose existence depends on stable climate, ecological & social-political conditions that will soon no longer exist in the first place.

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A torrent of dire news & research findings that came out just this past week shows we’re on the verge of catastrophic climate & ecological breakdown.

Massive social upheavals are imminent, & we must realign our priorities & plans with what is realistically possible.

1/ Yet most scholars & others with influence cling to actions & approaches based on modern techno-industrial systems, whose existence depends on stable climate, ecological & social-political conditions that will soon no longer exist in the first place.

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A new paper by degrowth scholars @jasonhickel & Dylan Sullivan suggests we can ensure public luxury & techno-scientific advancement for all with the right policies.

But it ignores the already visible & accelerating impacts of climate & ecological breakdown on such ambitions.

1/ The authors want to inform a reduction of our materials & energy consumption while meeting people’s needs globally.

Unfortunately their analysis isn’t grounded in biophysical reality as it doesn’t account for the unprecedented social upheavals that are imminent & inevitable.

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The world is an extremely complex system that often behaves in unexpected ways.

For example, did you know that the Greenland ice sheet melting will actually lower the sea level in its vicinity, around northern Europe & Canada, & only cause sea level to rise far away?

1/ The effect is due to the gravitational pull of the ice sheet on the surrounding water. As ice sheets melt they lose mass while the ocean gains it. The gravitational attraction of the ice sheets on the ocean diminishes & the water retreats, lowering sea level in the vicinity.

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I call upon Global South scholars & researchers to reconsider our presence in Western academia.

By now it is abundantly clear that Western nations & institutions incl. universities are fully committed to maintaining their colonialist domination over the world, at any cost.

1/ In this light, I increasingly wonder whether we Global South scholars are helping legitimize Western institutions & their “superiority” (consider the impression that world university rankings give, for example) by participating in them.

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It appears to me that the US-led West has escalated their policy of perpetual war to that of perpetual genocide.

Their political, military & propaganda apparatus is fully behind Israel’s relentless slaughter of Palestinians, & perhaps they don't intend to end it at all.

1/ I think Western nations are trying to get their people used to genocides because genocide is how they intend to control resources around the world to maintain their wealth & power in a world facing rising scarcities & climate & ecological breakdown.

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The education system & media have together rendered the public woefully unaware of the scale & severity of the climate & ecological polycrisis & its rapidly intensifying consequences on ecosystems & societies.



1/ latitude.plos.org/2024/06/facing…
At the same time we have lost our political agency under the neoliberal capitalist system, including in electoral democracies.

We’ve been conditioned to think that credentialed experts & technocrats of the system will find solutions, largely technological ones, ...

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The speed at which the impacts of climate and ecological breakdown are playing out far exceeds what scientists had anticipated.

The public, however, is still woefully unaware of how quickly and irreversibly the biophysical basis of our lives and societies is unraveling.

1/ How much of the public understands that the root cause of ecological overshoot is the modern industrial capitalist organization of our societies which regards economic growth as prosperity?

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Three recent pieces of research show that climate change has gone beyond any hope for control. Ecosystems are facing utter ruin & with them, our societies & civilization. We need to be aware to prepare ourselves, at least psychologically, at least to some extent.

A short 🧵:

1/ First, global heating is driving an exponential rise in the incidence of extreme wildfires. “The rise in the huge fires [threatens] to create a ‘scary’ feedback loop, in which the vast carbon emissions released by the fires cause more global heating, which causes more fires.”

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The rhetoric of rich Western nations on climate action, human rights, rules-based order, etc. at international institutions & conferences is nothing more than distraction & psychological operations as they ramp up the technological basis of their world domination.

1/ In reality they’re investing in & intensifying their violent colonialist apparatus to gain control over the resources they need to maintain their wealth & power in a world facing increasing scarcities & social-ecological upheavals.

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This article asks, “What will it take for political leaders to start taking climate change seriously?”

We’ve got to realize that this is the wrong question to ask.

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theconversation.com/an-intergenera… It keeps us in the trap of thinking that we can convince our leaders when we should really be thinking about how to replace them & the world-destroying industrial capitalist system they helm.

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The ruling class of the West & Global North knows that food & resource scarcities & unlivable conditions leading to mass migrations & geopolitical turmoil are inevitable & imminent. They know full well that there is no way...

1/ ... to address climate & ecological breakdown & live with their consequences in a fair way that doesn’t involve redressing global power imbalances, i.e. without ending their economic & geopolitical hegemony.

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This is a deceptive piece on our climate situation riddled with inaccurate information. It serves to keep the public unaware of the severity & scale of the climate & ecological crises & their root causes, to help maintain the status quo of exploitative, ecocidal capitalism...
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https://twitter.com/dwallacewells/status/1786208592737005772

... underpinned by geopolitical & class power imbalances.

It pays lip service to “climatism”, which means to neglect the broader social & ecological context of climate change action, but goes on to downplay the massive ecological devastation we continue to cause...
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Many people in the climate action realm avoid discussing overpopulation as among the root causes of our environmental devastation. They say that overconsumption, especially by wealthy Global North nations & also wealthy people in poorer nations, is what drives...

1/ ... climate breakdown & not overpopulation per se. That discussing overpopulation could open the doors to racist & eco-fascist policies, including forced sterilizations & genocide.

This is indeed a real danger, but it doesn’t mean overpopulation isn’t a real problem.

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