Mastodawn

The ultimate neoliberal “dreamworld” – on desert sand without water
Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling

* "The Dubai project requires demanding visitors and expats to not think too much about the suffering or question what goes on beyond the city’s borders. And how that city came to be built in the first place."

"The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/dubai-influencers-expats-denial-middle-east-crisis

* Living Well at Others' Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity, Stephan Lessenich, 2019, Polity Press >>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-well-at-others-expense-the-hidden-costs-of-western-prosperity--9781509525621

#WesternProsperity #GlobalInequality #wealth #inequality #externalisation #mobility #Dubai #drylands #settlersociety #WilfulBlindness #CrumblingDreams #FossilFuels #oil #water #war #WarZone #ClimateCrisis

Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling

The Maseratis are borrowed, the helicopters rented by the hour. But deep down Dubai is a lonely place, built by oppressed people

The Guardian

AI6YR Ben 2h ago

👀

BBC: Long queues in Myanmar as Iran war fuel crisis deepens

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cn08w9ye38yo

#IranWar #fossilfuels #gasoline #shortages

Long queues in Myanmar as Iran war fuel crisis deepens

Drivers are queuing for hours at petrol stations in Myanmar as the Iran war continues to send shockwaves across the globe.

ApaulD 2h ago

Rachel Donald
“the American (now world?) Dream (ie capitalism), sold as the ultimate vision of freedom, promises the freedom of choice.
#usa #australia
Freedom becomes limited to the infinity of pre-determined options, all powered by cheap, available energy.
#energy #fossilfuels
That this "freedom" hinges on the unlimited exploitation of fossil fuels—and the wider exploitation of capitalism—makes it a posture geared towards irresponsibility, towards cultivating the opportunity to do whatever one wants, whenever one wants, and not feel constrained in any way by biological or geophysical limits, let alone the limits of the wider community.
#environment #society
It is peculiar and interesting that contingent to capitalism is the very limit of capital itself: resources must be distributed unequally so that some dream while others toil.”
#inequality #capitalism
Book : Alyssa Battistoni ‘ free gifts: capitalism and the politics of nature’
https://www.planetcritical.com/freedom-at-the-end-of-the-world/?ref=planet-critical-newsletter

Freedom, at the end of the world

We are nearing the limits of resources, international politics, and war. Can we be free if we do not overcome them?

Planet: Critical

The Japan Times 5h ago

Countries in Asia are bracing for a complete cutoff in coming days of Middle Eastern liquefied natural gas, a fuel that underpins power generation and industrial output across much of the region. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/03/30/asia-gas-cutoff-middle-east/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #us #donaldtrump #middleeast #iran #oil #oilcrunch #lng #fossilfuels #coal #saudiarabia #straitofhormuz

This is what happens when the gas runs out

Countries in Asia are bracing for a complete cutoff in coming days of Middle Eastern LNG, a fuel that underpins power generation and industrial output across much of the region.

The Japan Times

Nigel Pugh (he/him/they)6h ago

In 2022 the Senedd required all Welsh local authority pension funds to get rid of their investments in fossil fuels by 2030. But still, over a £125m is invested rip off climate busting fossil fuel companies.

Now invest in community renewable energy & our children!

https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-pension-funds-still-investing-in-firms-that-create-climate-change/

#renewableenergy #climate #fossilfuels #energy #Iranwar #Wales #Politics

Welsh pension funds 'still investing in firms that create climate change'

Martin Shipton A climate change group has accused Welsh public sector pension funds of ignoring clear instructions to move money out of oil and gas. Divest Cymru argues that pension contributions from local authority and other workers should no longer be invested in companies such as Shell, Exxon, Total, Chevron and BP, and instead should […]

Nation.Cymru

Show thread

Eric Maugendre about carbon 6h ago

Oil flows from the Gulf and Asia: the supply disruption is to reach East Asia this week, Europe next week, the USA in two weeks.

#petrochemicals #markets #oilAndGas #oil #Gulf #Iran #fossilFuels #Hormuz #inflation

Dropkollektiv 10h ago

Why we confronted #EricGujer `s NZZ:

As the fourth estate, the media bears the responsibility for reporting that holds the state and society to account. Democracy cannot function without independent, fact-based reporting.

Gujer’s newspaper has long since abandoned the foundations of fact-based discussion and media balance. It has thus become a danger to our country and our democracy. Without the #nzz people in this country would be better informed. But that’s not all.

Through its biased advocacy in favor of the #FossilFuelIndustry it is one of the main culprits behind #Switzerland ’s climate failure. It actively and deliberately supports the status quo and the #FossilFuels elites, thereby preventing any urgently needed #change to mitigate the life-threatening #ClimateCrisis .

Through its unscientific discourse of denial, trivialization, and diversion, the NZZ is an active #ClimateCriminal .

Don’t read NZZ if you want to be informed.

#dropkollektiv #neinzurzukunftnzz #climatedenial #civilrestistance #scientificfacts

Richard Ashwell 10h ago

No Oil Profits for Occupation and #Genocide

Sign the petition to let the government know that we’ve buried Cambo once, and we’ll do it again

#Cambo and #Rosebank would send profits to one of Israel’s biggest #oil companies which operates in illegal settlements in the #OccupiedWestBank and supplies fuel to the Israeli military

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-oil-profits-for-occupation-and-genocide #StopCambo #FossilFuels #climate #Israel