Free Market neoliberal capitalism has always had an achilles heel.
The environment.
With a pathologically short sighted myopic focus on the profit margins of the next quarter, neoliberalism unquenchable thirst for greed has outgrown the biospheres ability to provide.
Over 50% of the carbon emitted from burning fossil fuel has been released in the last 25 years.
The enormity of the feedback loops we are now unlocking is existential threat level.
Climate Denial is no longer about the science, it’s a culture debate now. Â It stopped being about science when the oil companies realised in the 1990s they were to blame and went about funding quack science to play the same game big tobacco used, pretend there is a question over the science to confuse the public.
Those who benefit from the current inequality and pollution refuse to admit the Green movement they’ve despised are right.
it’s been about ideology and selfish culture for a long time, there should be no surprise that this is just a culture debate now, because climate change caused by human pollution is settled science the way evolution is settled science.
Climate change denial not about the science
Climate change is a direct challenge to the philosophy of neo-liberalism that has made a very small group of people exceedingly rich, writes the University of Auckland’s Dr Neal Curtis. It’s never been about the science – it’s the ideology.
Climate deniers are the flat-earthers at a geology conference. When the next economic storm hits…
When it comes, New Zealand cannot help but import a global storm
As a starting point, low unemployment and Government debt is a positive one. Taking extra steps to support a slowing economy may indeed win much favour from the coalition’s traditional supporters, some of whom have been calling for more public spending for some time.
But simply dealing with the pressures could represent a test of the Government which it has not faced yet.
Other areas of managing a Government have already been made to look like hard work, from coalition relations to flagship policy programmes such as Kiwibuild​.
The coalition is already set to enter potentially fraught political negotiations around tax reform.
Add economic troubles to the existing complications and 2019 could conceivably make 2018 look easy.
…climate change damage will exacerbate that economic storm.
If only we had politicians who could publicly stand up and reference The New Green Deal as a blueprint for the changes we need here..I shan’t be holding my breath. Maybe it needs a hashtag before they can take it seriously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal
“climate change damage will exacerbate that economic storm”
Nothing surer than that Martyn.
We will reap what we sow and the wrecking of our climate will exact the level of harm upon us equal to our ignorance to change our ways.
Only when they suffer personal harm from their stupidly will they wake up sadly.
Ultimately only a global effort to avert the worst consequences of human caused emissions and climate change will achieve something. As we have nation compete with nation, besides of corporate with corporate business, and all others also at varying levels, there is simply NO sign of any unified effort to be achieved.
The Paris Climate Summit was just another talk fest with targets set by individual states, which will become virtually unenforceable, as there is no punishment for not meeting targets that were set.
New Zealand should lead in all this, but is actually one of the worse emitters, that is per capita.
We have a continuation of the blame game, nation against nation, group of nations against other groups of nations, and individuals and classes against other individuals and classes, and so forth.
It is like standing in a circle and every one person in it is pointing to the person behind them, to blame them for not doing anything or not enough.
I see NO hope to achieve what needs to be achieved. Hearing James Shaw speak in Parliament today was a ridiculous performance, I thought he must be on another planet, to say what he did.
One way plastic bags abolition and the likes are hardly any achievement at all, try and tell the consumerist middle class to stop flying overseas for holidays, as for instance a trip to London creates one and a half TONS of carbon emissions, that is for ONE person!
Tell people to stop driving their fossil fuel powered cars everywhere and they will scream and tar and feather you.
That is the damned reality out there, there is talk and damned little honest action. And where they are more serious about the matter, they are also far too slow to implement anything.
And who will put up living with ‘bugs’ around us, that is insects, as they are about to die out en masse too, taking us as humanity with them. People live in cities, totally disconnected to nature now, so have NO awareness of the seriousness of what we are talking about, they do not even understand nature, of which we all depend.
I am NOT hopeful, sorry.
I see that yet another report warning of systemic collapse has been released overseas. Such reports are coming thick and fast now that we are witnessing the ‘collapse of nature’ that Rachel Carson warned about in the early 1960s.
What the Guardian’s coverage of this latest study fails to note (because it cannot) is that collapse is an inevitable consequence of the growth-based financial, economic and political systems that operate throughout most of the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/12/climate-and-economic-risks-threaten-2008-style-systemic-collapse
The introduction to the report, titled ‘This is a crisis: Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown’ does at least point out what many of us have been saying for many years, that ‘The historical disregard of environmental considerations in most areas of policy has been a catastrophic mistake.’
That said, we can be certain that governments around the world, including that of NZ, will ignore the report and continue to promote the business-as-usual growth-based policies that disregard the environment, and in doing so guarantee collapse at some point in the not-too-distant future.
We castigate the oil companies for supplying the fuel we use; the fishermen for supplying the fish we eat; the farmers for supplying the milk and meat we eat; and the banks for supplying the money we keep on borrowing.
Fixing the environment might have to be achieved from closer to home.
D J S
Saving the planet and the people on it is going to require the good of the many over ruling the good of the individual. In other words, actions that will require blanket compliance. However, New Zealand society is completely based on the rights of the individual and in particular the rights of property owners. The perfect example of this is how people will not accept the government telling them that they must protect the trees on their own property.
RAGE in other words. OK.
But what happened to the old-fashioned words like unqualified naked CAPITALISM as the cause and unadulterated new world SOCIALISM?
Or even REVOLUTION since that is what we need.
Extinction panic should focus the mind not double dumb down politics.
Disagree this is a cultural debate. That’s falling into the MSM trap of blaming individual behaviour. The only debate for me is around the timing of the popular revolt – because the worse things get, the more likely it will be that people take to the streets.
Once people take to the streets governments and corporations will be forced to capitulate – this is the usual way that significant change happens in our culture’s history – the problem is we need it to happen sooner rather than later
New Zealand’s biggest problem is we have a faux red/green government who give the impression they’re doing something but who lack the courage or the electoral support to do anything useful. I feat that we will need an ignorant right wing government in power to get people to the necessary level of concern so they will get active.
Here’s a good sign for NZ. https://www.schoolstrike4climatenz.com/
Good on the kids.
They need support and a many adults as can manage marching with them, should be there encouraging their bravery in facing what adults have left for them.
Want to see how climate change denial was applied by business groups in New Zealand to stymie responses to climate change in NZ starting more than two decades ago?
Take an hour and watch this documentary “Hot Air” to see how these fuckers went about ensuring there has been no meaningful action on climate change.
https://youtu.be/IGf4maDU7Ps
We’ve been systematically screwed over – don’t let it happen again or any more!
A renewed direction for NZ
https://popularresistance.org/catalan-integral-cooperative-simpler-way-revolution-is-well-underway/
Some action is needed.
https://wentworthreport.com/stop-the-climate-stupidity/
Wonder who really spread stupidity here???
One quote from that link –
There is no role for renewable energy because it is not sustainable.
Rick are you suggesting that climate shift is a Marxist plot.
Then lets go with them as they obviously are pretty influential operators;
getting 97% of scientists supporting them,
they have managed to acidify the ocean,
melt icecaps and most glaciers ,
reduce insects by 40% of their mass,
put atmospherics CO2 up in the 412+ppm
and create ongoing wars using the puppets in the US do their dirty work.
The Marxists must be very corrupt unlike the unelected NWO.
Probably worth reading Marx’s Das Kapital and get the low down.
https://www.wnd.com/2017/07/study-blows-greenhouse-theory-out-of-the-water/
just trying to post research links, i dont support the opinions expressed, its about the data, and corruption of that data
That has serious flaws all through it.
you my friend have drunk the Koolaid
RICKOSHAY the dumb sheeples will never wake up to this collossal Scam.
I know Cassie but at lest ill have the satisfaction of being proved Right bye the passage of time, these ass clowns will freeze there unprepared nuts off and no longer be a problem, lets see what solar cycle 25 brings us.
Where we go one we go all
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