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jackofalltrades

@jackofalltrades@mas.to

I'm here to learn about the world.

I post about politics, climate change, economics, philosophy, being a father, programming, games, and more.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

urlyman , to random
@urlyman@mastodon.social avatar

#climateDiary
#decroissance

This is a fascinating and sobering discussion
https://overcast.fm/+nh1AEbE7s

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

@urlyman

This reminds me of Greer's catabolic collapse:

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2006-05-31/catabolic-collapse/

As society gets more complex the cost of maintenance gets higher and higher. With material abundance you can pay higher baseline costs and grow at the same time, but there will be a time when that's no longer possible. Collapse / simplification follows.

dlakelan , to economics-that-works group
@dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org avatar

In my continued effort to emphasize that everything important is expressed in dimensionless ratios, here is median household income * avg human lifetime / s&p 500 index price. This ratio tells you in essence "how much power over corporations can you buy with your income". Unsurprisingly it's going down.

It's not quite dimensionless because there's a dimensional constant, but the shape is the same as the desired ratio.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1ob1F

#economics @economics-that-works

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

@dlakelan @economics-that-works

For an even steeper line try disposable income per capita instead of total household income.

Not sure how easy it will be to account for inflation on all variables using FRED's graphing tool though.

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

@dlakelan @economics-that-works

This is a bit of a tangent, but...

The value of most top American companies comes not only from their domestic dominance, but also from their global reach. Both their revenue and investment comes not only from within the US but also from outside of it.

So dividing the purchasing power of American citizens by the value of global corporations may simply show you that changing domestic - global relationship over time.

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

@dlakelan @economics-that-works

This also highlights the limits of national democracies. Arguably what the US government does affects me a great deal, yet I don't get a vote.

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

@dlakelan @economics-that-works

Not if one measure is corrected for inflation and the other isn't. Then you have inflation messing with your results.

jackofalltrades , to random
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

"""
Early on pro-Palestinian accounts dominated the social media space. Soon, they noticed, pro-Israeli comments increased vastly.

According to Baydoun, the pro-Israeli bots they found mainly aim to sow doubt and confusion about a pro-Palestinian narrative rather than to make social media users trust them instead.
"""

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/5/22/are-you-chatting-with-an-ai-powered-superbot

Frau_Mensch , to random German
@Frau_Mensch@troet.cafe avatar

Dieses Interview mit der Holocaust-Überlebenden Irene Weiss sollten sich Merz, CDUCSU & Co. mal anhören/durchlesen:

"Man can turn into an animal in no time. All he needs is permission. As soon as permission is given from higher-ups, from the government, it accelerates. Even a hint of permission that it's okay to attack this group or exclude this group or shame that group. It's-- it's happening. I-- it's never stopped."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nazis-photo-album-shows-auschwitz-officers-singing-socializing-as-gas-chambers-operate-60-minutes-transcript/

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

"How do you lead your daily life and at the same time participate in one of the largest killing machines in the history of mankind?"

Arguably, this is what all of us are doing right now, only the killing is predominantly on the other side of the world and delayed into the future.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/28/1082564304/billions-of-people-are-in-danger-from-climate-change-u-n-report-warns

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #collapse #holocaust

FantasticalEconomics , to random
@FantasticalEconomics@geekdom.social avatar

Ah, #capitalism. Neoclasical (mainstream) economic theory tells us it ensures resources will be put to the best, most efficient use. However, ignores the obvious: wealth equals power, so that what is "best" for society is what the richest value.

Like chasing everlasting youth by getting weekly blood transfusions from your teenage son and $40,000 gym membership add-ons.

Imagine if these resources were devoted to fighting #ClimateChange or #poverty instead.

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/19/wellness-longevity-industry-equinox-membership

#economics

jackofalltrades ,
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

@AlexanderKingsbury @FantasticalEconomics

"I do think that history makes it pretty clear that free markets and capitalism*, on average, lead to much better outcomes** for humanity than anything else we've tried."

Now to only define these starred terms, hmmm.

jackofalltrades , to random
@jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

James Hansen as always with the good news.

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2024/MayEmail.2024.05.16.pdf

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #JamesHansen #ClimateDiary

Global temperature (12-month mean) is still rising at 1.56°C relative to 1880-1920 in the GISS analysis through April (Fig. 1). [Robert Rohde reports that it is 1.65°C relative to 1850- 1900 in the BerkeleyEarth analysis.3] Global temperature is likely to continue to rise a bit for at least a month, peak this summer, and then decline as the El Nino fades toward La Nina. Acceleration of global warming is now hard to deny. The GISS 12-month temperature is now 0.36°C above the 0.18°C/decade trend line, which is 3.6 times the standard deviation (0.1°C). Confidence in global warming acceleration thus exceeds 99%, but we need to see how far temperature falls with the next La Nina before evaluating the post-2010 global warming rate. Present extreme planetary energy imbalance will limit La Nina-driven temperature decline. Thus, El Nino/La Nina average global temperature likely is about 1.5°C, suggesting that, for all practical purposes, global temperature has already reached that milestone.
ALT
  • Reply
    • + breadandcircuses
    jackofalltrades , to random
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Great, another source of emissions that has been underestimated.

    The US obviously tops the charts, but other notable mentions are China, Australia and Norway.

    https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2024/04/big-data-reveals-true-climate-impact-of-worldwide-air-travel/

    Direct link to study: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad3a7d

    #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateDiary #climate #aviation #USA #China #Australia #Norway

    jackofalltrades , to random
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    """
    The destruction of the planet isn't a mistake, isn't a misunderstanding, isn't an accident. It's largely a deliberate process driven by economics and the material reality of the society we live in. Everything that we produce and consume in an industrial civilization is dependent upon the destruction of the planet.
    """
    -- Max Wilbert

    #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #environmentalism #collapse #ClimateDiary

    WBOrcutt , to random
    @WBOrcutt@climatejustice.social avatar

    @RustyBertrand

    Thank you for following me. I try to post about climate solutions that can be preemptively implemented by ordinary citizens and how much they can reduce global warming without waiting for their governments to act. For example:

    If we, the people, reduced our consumption of animal-based foods by 75% we would reduce worldwide GHG emissions by 15%. That is 34% more than all the greenhouse gas emissions from the United States (11.2%) in 2022. And we can do that now, without asking anyone!

    Please boost so more people can find out just how important citizen participation can is.

    Take beef for example (see attached image): So, think about all those emissions that would be eliminated if we reduced our consumption of beef by 75%! And that doesn’t include the 26% reduction in water consumption, the 19% of land made available for other uses, and that instead of 95% cattle growth there would be a 75% reduction in the world’s cattle.

    But even more than that, we would be eliminating greenhouse gases that are far worse than carbon dioxide. The below figure shows that methane (CH4 - 130 times more potent than CO2) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O - 300 times more potent than CO2) are highly concentrated in animal agriculture.

    Don’t believe people can stop global warming? Then you should read my e-book https://www.amazon.com/PLANET-TOO-HOT-eco-conscious-mitigating-ebook/dp/B0CW1FNVJQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2MEOMQ769O9SW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.-2TsW47gxmhdkZleii4jVL6wtLRJxTx7eq4ZK-PXxfiniTAqJ8IGawdElgMdndGRWYmyH7eKqlyPMf_AnSe9tQSmq9GhI30xqDfBhuyv1rylji83vi-mEBIe_fgKLGe_5sBwUbEBTWGEoQqATzBt2cv74S8-SVqWvm1eAZqdZkX9boQxwODlbkjPBtT4I33gfQspmAtGS6wNdij0EfS4upgHWSW48ZOOAs2c03DqLLw.S32_IljU-izAqRRwA2fRWJgwev1NQPe2EXS64370gdY&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+planet+is+too&qid=1710699062&s=digital-text&sprefix=%2Cdigital-text%2C166&sr=1-1 , find out for yourself how eco-conscious citizens can cool the planet by themselves and see my calculations below.

    According to research published in Nature Food, 35% of all global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to food production, "of which 57% corresponds to the production of animal-based food," including livestock feed… https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00358-x.epdf

    UN Emissions Gap Report says “Global GHG emissions increased by 1.2 per cent from 2021 to 2022 to reach a new record of 57.4 gigatons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e)…” https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/43923/EGR2023_ESEN.pdf?sequence=10 …

    So, if 35% of 57.4 gtons = 20.9gtons, & 57% of 20.9 = 11.45 gtons, then animal-based foods are, 11.45gtons ÷ 57.4 gtons = 20% of all GHG emissions.

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    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    It is a common misconception.

    91% of CO2 emissions in China are due to domestic consumption and only 9% are embedded in exported products.

    In terms of cumulative emissions China is already second place, with 15% of the total CO2 emitted in history.

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co2-emissions-region?stackMode=absolute

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    No problem, I'll explain in detail.

    Take a look at this chart:

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/production-vs-consumption-co2-emissions?country=~CHN

    If you compare territorial vs consumption emissions for the latest data point (2021) you'll get 91%.

    When it comes to the cumulative emissions chart, if you switch to relative values, like this:

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co2-emissions-region

    you'll see China stands at 15.07% in 2022.

    If you switch to the table view and sort you'll see China in second place, between the US and Russia.

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    Yes, I agree with most of the points from your original post.

    The common misconception is that "China's emissions are in large part associated with production for western markets, rather than over-consumption", which I hope I showed is not the case.

    The point that China "has been producing them for far less of its history" is moot as well, because half of all world emissions have been emitted in the last 30 years, coinciding with China's development.

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    Yes, in a general sense. Economic growth has three components: consumption, investment and exports. In China all three have been growing in the past decades.

    It is important to understand the relative scale of these things though. It is incorrect to say that emissions are in large part associated with exports in China. As I've shown, just 9% of China's emissions could be discounted due to exports.

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    This leads to an uncomfortable realization that it's not just overconsumption of western countries that's responsible for the climate crisis, but it's the whole industrial development model that's at fault. First China, now India and the rest of the developing world is lining up to increase their standards of living, and with it their carbon footprint.

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    The elephant in the room is that nobody has a viable development plant for poor countries that doesn't involve using fossil fuels and growing their emissions.

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @bouriquet

    It may be. If you have concrete examples, I'd love to hear them.

    I did an analysis of nations with the highest share of solar in their grid a while back: https://mas.to/@jackofalltrades/110940642103638480 The results were not very encouraging.

    Wealth and fossil fuels are very strongly connected. At this time "developing" a nation means using more fossil fuels.

    @breadandcircuses @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    To visualize this better, here's a little thought experiment. Take a climate change darling like Denmark, a rich country doing the best they can for the climate. Now imagine all people on Earth lived like the Danish. What would happen to total CO2 emissions?

    Turns out, they would rise by 70%.

    If we took Sweden or France as the goal stick? Emissions would rise by 38%.

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/consumption-co2-per-capita?tab=chart&country=DNKSWEFRA~OWID_WRL

    @bouriquet @breadandcircuses @GeofCox @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "This is the problem with drawing conclusions from a 2021 data snapshot"

    I'm not drawing conclusions just from a 2021 data point. I've linked you to a historical chart:

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co2-emissions-region

    The two lines are never that far apart. The number was 91% in 2021, but you can check other years. In 2014 it was 88% and in 2018 it was 93%. That's how big a share China's territorial emissions are due to their own consumption.

    1/4

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "China (...) succeeded in virtually ending extreme poverty while its exports were still less than 5% of its GDP."

    What do you mean? Extreme poverty was still very high when China opened up.

    Or did you mean a different metric?

    Charts from:

    https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/poverty-explorer?tab=chart&facet=none&country=~CHN&Indicator=Share+in+poverty&Poverty+line=%242.15+per+day%3A+International+Poverty+Line&Household+survey+data+type=Show+data+from+both+income+and+consumption+surveys&Show+breaks+between+less+comparable+surveys=false

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/merchandise-exports-gdp-cepii?time=1968..latest&country=~CHN

    2/4

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    Share of population living in extreme poverty, 1981 to 2020 Goes from 91% in 1981 to 0% in 2020

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "western Europe in the 1960s"

    Perhaps that's true when it comes to resource consumption (idk, haven't looked at these numbers), but is definitely not the case from the pov of CO2 emissions. 1960s in western Europe is when emissions per capita were twice as high as today.

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita?tab=chart&country=FRADEUGBR

    These numbers are well above the current world average, so it would be a disaster if everyone wanted to live like that.

    3/4

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Development is exactly the things you mention: roads, bridges, railroads, water and sewage systems, electricity grids, factories, hospitals, etc. and that requires cement and steel and artificial fertilizer and a lot of energy provided by fossil fuels.

    Gadgets and fancy cars are a luxury layer on top, but the very base of society depends on fossil fuels.

    4/4

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "Adjust for population and you see all the biggest CO2 polluters are in fact the old 'western' countries."

    That would simply be a consequence of the western countries being industrialized for longer.

    Today there is no fundamental difference between how the US economy operates vs how the Chinese economy operates vs how every developing nation strives to operate.

    1/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Today China's per capita emissions are on par with those of the UK or France, even when accounting for trade, and well above the world's average.

    Give it one or two more decades and cumulative emissions of China will surpass that of western Europe, even on a per capita basis.

    2/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    China under Mao underwent rapid industrialization following the Soviet model and with technical and financial support from the USSR. While the means of this Soviet model were different (five year plans and centralization), the goal was the same as western countries: to match and even surpass their economic output.

    3/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    In 1970 life expectancy in China was 56.6 years, 80% were employed in agriculture, only 17% lived in cities, and on avg people got 4.2 years of education.

    UK in 1970 had a life expectancy of 71.9 years, 3% of workforce was employed in agriculture, 70% were urbanites and average years of schooling was 8.1.

    China achieved the UK's life expectancy levels in 2000, education levels in 2005 while urbanization is <70% to this day.

    4/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Point being, Mao's China is hardly a model to be simulated. Neither their results were particularly impressive when compared with countries that adopted a more "western" development model (e.g. South Korea or Taiwan) nor was it "low carbon" in any shape or form. Ecological destruction that always follows industrialization was an inseparable part of the process.

    5/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    This way of development is not entirely imposed from above (by the CCP) either. People know a better life awaits them in cities, that's why they violate the restrictive hukou system and flock to the cities, even if it means they will get zero support from the state in terms of healthcare or education for their kids, e.g. see https://thediplomat.com/2015/03/chinas-hidden-children/ or https://apnews.com/article/china-migrant-worker-economy-f9dc355c514ffcedf3b79d9d3a840ee6

    6/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "This assumes a western-defined idea of what 'development' must be (...)"

    This is precisely my point. There is no nation on Earth that follows a different development path. China is definitely not, neither are India or other developing nations. You'd be hard-pressed to find an example of an alternative model. To this day, development = getting richer = using more fossil fuels. I sincerely wish there was a counterexample!

    7/7

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "I'm struggling to find any consistency in your posting"

    China under Mao developed using the Soviet model, and after his death opened up to international trade, incorporating more "western" approach.

    In both cases industrialization via fossil fuels was involved, so from the pov of climate - not much of a difference.

    It is important to point out that as urbanization and standards of living accelerated, so did fossil fuel use.

    1/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "So what? They were the energy sources available. But things change - just as in the past they changed from wood-burning, etc, to fossil fuels."

    Don't trivialize this change. Fossil fuels changed everything. Whatever charts you pull up on the history of humanity they start going exponential the moment we figured out how to tap into the energy contained within.

    2/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    You may also find interesting that humanity is burning more wood that ever in history.

    In general, new energy sources don't replace the old ones, but rather add on to the metabolism of our civlization. As can clearly be seen in the case of renewables.

    3/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "Are you indeed making the doomster argument that the only possible future..."

    I'm not making any arguments about the future.

    Remember that this conversation started when I pointed out that it is not true that "China's emissions are in large part associated with production for western markets, rather than over-consumption". This is a statement about the past and the present, not about the future.

    4/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "all development is inevitably destructive"

    No, only the type of development that is currently imagined by pretty much every politician and policy advisor.

    5/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    What I'm saying is that I wish there was a real world example of a model of development that did not involve burning fossil fuels. A positive vision of the future that some society somewhere decided "yes, that's what we want, so that's what we're doing".

    What I see instead are all countries, poor and rich alike, caught up in the fossil fuel death trap.

    6/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    "On peut regarder la politique de la Chine comme un pari sur ce que va être l’économie du XXIe siècle. (...)"

    That's an interesting quote, but I really can't see how China is a model for a "green" future. It is very clear to me that the CCP values economic growth over environmental considerations, and will do anything to keep their grip on society.

    7/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Xi's continued fixation on Taiwan, skirmishes on the Indian border and on the South China Sea, the military buildup, support of Russian invasion, etc. all tell me that they operate just like any other state, with the same set of values. Sorry to say, these aren't the green saviors you're looking for.

    8/8

    @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    I really wish this was true...

    But in reality:

    Norway:

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/leave-no-stone-unturned-gas-exploration-norway-tells-industry-2023-12-06/

    https://mas.to/@jackofalltrades/111114755291488089

    China:

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-2023-coal-output-hits-record-high-2024-01-17/

    https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/china-climate-envoy-says-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-unrealistic-2023-09-22/

    @KarunaX @GeofCox @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    It's not about whether or not to discard the good in search of the perfect.

    It's about whether to do what is necessary to solve the climate crisis (which is to stop extraction and burning of fossil fuels) or to get distracted by the sweet promises of politicians and technocrats.

    They are the ones telling us "look how much green tech we're building" while the emissions continue to climb year after year.

    @GeofCox @Runyan50 @KarunaX @breadandcircuses @WBOrcutt @RustyBertrand @bouriquet

    jackofalltrades , to random
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Amazing that this exists:

    https://archive.org/details/MagicTheGathering2010Edition

    Abandonware made functional on modern systems by hobbyists and freely available on archive.org.

    I remember playing this game a lot in my teens. Installed it a few days ago and I'm hooked again.

    breadandcircuses , (edited ) to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    Imagine if we could spend two and a half TRILLION dollars to slow climate change, protect endangered species, re-wild the planet, and bring billions of people out of poverty while promoting equality and social justice.

    But where could we possibly find that kind of money? 💵 💵 💵

    Oh, wait…

    ➡️ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/global-defence-budget-jumps-to-record-high-of-2440bn

    #Politics #War #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateJustice

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses

    That's all our problems distilled, right there: collectively humanity has a really hard time agreeing on things. If we could figure this out we wouldn't need to build a single weapon ever. Alas, we are building more than ever. The doomsday clock is ticking.

    jackofalltrades , to random
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Recently I've been thinking about what causes and perpetuates the climate crisis. How it's not just pressures and circumstances imposed from above (by capital and governments), but also how our day-to-day practices reinforce this state of affairs.

    This was prompted by some recent (and not so recent) posts by @pvonhellermannn and @urlyman as well as me re-reading Pauline's paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1237076/full and exploring philosophy of Michel Foucault.

    1/8

    breadandcircuses , to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    Sarah Miller (@sarahmiller_22747) asks: Why is humanity running heedlessly toward a cliff that everyone knows is very close and that has no identified bottom? Why is Business As Usual allowed to carry on, week after week, year after year?

    Anxiety lurks below the surface calm. But why isn’t there open panic at the evident fact that the climate is going berserk while the energy transition slows in the carbon-heavy West? How to explain such willful inaction on a global disaster visibly lapping at our ankles?

    Are we caught in the headlights like the proverbial deer? Climate stability unraveled so quickly. What we were told would take decades happened in a few brief years. We might still come to our senses and act to prevent climate change from turning into Climate Catastrophe.

    Perhaps people aren’t responding because corporate, financial, and media interests are dedicated to keeping the old system going — and remain so effective at imposing a false narrative of the potential for a return to normalcy on an anxiety-ridden public.

    In fact, many of us are quite capable of imagining alternatives to globalized capitalism. Some of the alternatives, stretching back to Soviet-style Communism, adopted a model from capitalism that is equally contingent on economic growth, resource exploitation, and ignorance of planetary limits. But not all the imagined alternatives retain capitalism’s devotion to growth and exploitation.

    People have developed stories of happier worlds where humans work less, consume less, and listen more to nature and to each other. I have done so myself. They aren’t dystopian. The dystopian images picture what it’s like to fall off that cliff, not what it’s like to avoid it. Degrowth is slowly gaining a following, but to most people it remains merely a word without a compelling belief structure behind it. And the expansive exploitation goes on.

    Mainstream political parties, from Democrats in the US to center-right and center-left in Europe, have opted to avoid foundational change at all costs, up to and including Climate Catastrophe. And they feed fear of change with talk of an impending “end to democracy” and other terrors to be perpetrated by populists. They feed the propensity to stick with “the devil you know” rather than try the unknown, regardless of how bad the “known” may be.

    You don’t like Joe Biden or whatever candidate the tired and frightened political system may turn up in your country? Think about Donald Trump, or the boogeyman in your particular place, who would certainly be worse, they say. They are probably correct at one level. Right-wing populists generally are worse in the moment than the same ole, same ole centrists. But in the meantime, people’s willingness to opt for a low-carbon, degrowth future is undermined.

    READ THE FULL ESSAY -- https://medium.com/@sarahmiller_22747/interregnum-part-2-inaction-cf892658b896

    jackofalltrades ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses @sarahmiller_22747

    The way I like to visualize American politics is by using something Biden said in 2020. He said the police should be trained to “shoot ‘em in the leg instead of the heart". That's how I see your elections. Do you prefer to be shot in the heart or in the leg?

    jackofalltrades , to random
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    """
    The $95bn in total funding includes roughly $61bn for Ukraine with some of the funding going towards replenishing American munitions; $26bn for Israel; $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan; and $9bn in humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones, such as Haiti, Sudan and Gaza.
    """

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/21/house-approves-61bn-aid-for-ukraine-what-we-know-so-far-and-what-happens-next

    #USA #war #Ukraine #Israel #Taiwan

    jackofalltrades , to random
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    I learned a fascinating fact the other day.

    It is estimated that during the Roman Empire 20% to 30% of Italy's population were slaves. For the empire as a whole that share was between 10% and 15%.

    In these times, even modest Roman households might expect to own two or three slaves.

    1/13

    jackofalltrades OP ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    We take these energy slaves for granted in our daily lives. They carry us around, heat our meals, pump water to our homes, clothe us, do the cleaning and washing, delivering our messages (including this one), and so on.

    6/13

    jackofalltrades OP ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Humans always used exogenous energy, i.e. energy from outside of their body. Warming near a campfire or using oxen to pull a plow are all examples of that.

    What's different today is that we tapped into ancient sunlight energy in the form of coal, oil and gas.

    This energy was captured and condensed over millions of years, and we're burning through it in a span of just a few hundred years.

    7/13

    jackofalltrades OP ,
    @jackofalltrades@mas.to avatar

    Tom Murphy calls our industrial civilization "a fireworks show, or a giant party", while fossil fuels and minerals are a "one-time inheritance".

    Our energy use is unprecedented in human history. Nothing drives this point home better than this little chart, showing the "carbon pulse".

    8/13

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