"We face the greatest predicament humankind has confronted: the erosion and possible collapse of our life-support systems. Its speed and scale have taken even scientists by surprise. The potential impacts are greater than any recent pandemic, or any war we have suffered. Yet the effort to persuade people of the need for action has been left almost entirely to either the private or voluntary sectors. And it simply does not work"
George Monbiot
#ClimateEmergency
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/28/dear-ministers-i-am-a-climate-crisis-campaigner-nationalise-me-right-now
@junesim63 To persuade people... If they're not already persuaded by all the horrible things happening around them and to them directly... Well, it's already a lost cause.
@junesim63
pretty example how #state #fetishism can lead to idiocy. This guy seriously wants the government finance the campaigning against its own climate policy (which of course is a prevention policy in the interest of the ruling class). It's baffling that even intelligent people still see the state as kind of a neutral actor representing the interests of the people.
Wake up: The state is already in charge and could enforce effective measures. Guess why it isn't doing so?
George has been putting some great stuff out here recently. Completely on point, though I personally don't think he's adequately publicly acknowledging how much trouble we're in
I think you've missed Monbiot's point there. It's not that he expects the government alone to do anything for us, it's that without government playing a role the odds are stacked against us; it's that in many respects there is no serious alternative to government intervention.
Unless you can suggest one ?
If the only serious alternative to agitating for change - which has been shown to work many times in the past - and which has generally included writing articles to try to win hearts and minds - is to sit back, do nothing, and accept a 'collapse' in which millions of the most vulnerable people would probably suffer and die, then I'm still going along with George. Aren't you, really ?
The thing is, there are lots of ways of working for social change, and they tend not to be mutually exclusive - indeed, if you look at past successes - the Suffragettes, for example, of the 60s black civil rights movement - they have generally combined many complementary approaches - including writing articles.
I don't believe in apocalyptic scenarios or 'all or nothing' prescriptions. I think the truth is simpler: we all do what we can, both in terms of changing our own lifestyles and as political actors, and this contributes to mitigating climate/ecological breakdown, and/or adapting to it.
We won't avoid all extreme weather events or their social consequences - it's already too late for that - but that doesn't mean we don't have time to mitigate future disasters.
@junesim63 Re "persuade people of the need for action" on climate change.
My understanding was that most people are already persuaded of the need for action - see e.g. https://www.undp.org/press-releases/80-percent-people-globally-want-stronger-climate-action-governments-according-un-development-programme-survey
The problem is that the people who aren't persuaded are disproportionately powerful, or that people oppose specific actions that they feel are unfair to them (e.g. increasing taxes on fossil fuels or schemes to reduce the amount of meat we consume).
@semiprime most people *are* persuaded of the need for action! And that's new! And it took a huge lift on the part of activists assisted by massive climate disasters.
The problem is there's still that gap between thinking it's important and thinking it's important TO THEM... such that THEY PERSONALLY need to make change. (And of course the bad actors convincing them they don't)
That will change, slowly, as things get worse. We need to keep working to make it go faster.
@junesim63
@junesim63 as much as I respect Monbiot, this is wide of the mark. Governments will do something when the people demand it. And they won't demand it until it happens directly to them. And some, not even then. Many will proudly burn their children's world.
The good news: more people are waking up every day and working for change. But there are no shortcuts to that, George, sorry.
(And besides, you can't leap to the end: first step is to have government stop subsidizing oil on a massive scale)