American Idyll

yes, the river knows

Monday, May 08, 2017

You're Invisible When You Close Your Eyes


Marvin Gaye: Mercy Mercy Me


Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war.
Or, more accurately, our economy is at war with many forms
of life on earth, including human life. What the climate needs
to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources;
what our economic model demands to avoid collapse
is unfettered expansion.
Only one of these sets of rules can be changed,
and it’s not the laws of nature.


So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate. But we need to be very clear: because of our decades of collective denial, no gradual, incremental options are now available to us.



I think
the answer
is far
more simple
than many have
led us
to believe:
we have
not done
the things
that are
necessary
to lower
emissions
because
those things
fundamentally
conflict with
deregulated capitalism,
the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find
a way out of this crisis. We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe---and would benefit the vast majority---are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has
a stranglehold over our economy, our political process,
and most of our major media outlets.

--Naomi Klein
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate




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