Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Why science is telling all of us to revolt and change our lives before we destroy the planet

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Why science is telling all of us to revolt and change our lives before we destroy the planet

Click here to access article by Naomi Klein from AlterNet via Climate Connections (much more readable).

Scientists are increasingly becoming alarmed by the evidence which they are discovering that indicates we are heading for climate catastrophes.

...the bottom line [referring to the evidence] was clear enough: global capitalism has made the depletion of resources so rapid, convenient and barrier-free that “earth-human systems” are becoming dangerously unstable in response. When pressed by a journalist for a clear answer on the “are we f**ked” question, Werner set the jargon aside and replied, “More or less.”

There was one dynamic in the model, however, that offered some hope.

Read the article to find out what this hope is.

However as the article makes clear, the scientists are also meeting counter resistance from the directors of the One Percent who are addicted to the system of capitalism which provides the latter with so much power and wealth. Like any addict, they are promising to reduce tomorrow their use of fossil fuels which the system requires, doing their best to hide their present use of fossil fuels, and some still engaging in denial about catastrophic climate change. Have you noticed that some of them are coming up with geo-engineering fantasies about cooling the Earth?