Well. A post I made on Saturday morning sort of blew up.
(See https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/110757504942201874)

I’m very happy that so many people boosted it and seem to agree with the overall message. Thank you! 🙏 And I’m also glad that the post stimulated a lot of commentary and discussion. You made me think, and I’d like to offer some expanded responses to three points that were raised in the ensuing discussion.

1) A few repliers questioned the idea that “the planet is dying.” Quite obviously it’s not, but just as obviously, ‘planet’ in this usage is shorthand for our planetary biosphere, for life on Earth. And it certainly cannot be denied that industrial capitalism and billionaire-driven consumerism are laying waste to animal and plant life everywhere. So let’s not quibble over semantics.

2) I was a bit surprised to see several angry comments asserting that the meat and dairy business, aka Big Farming, are just as responsible for the climate crisis as is Big Oil. While I agree that a shift to plant-based diets is absolutely necessary, I’m not sure it helps for us to argue about who is worse, Big Farming or Big Oil. Both are terrible, a blight upon the planet. If you see me criticizing the latter, which you often will, that does not mean I don’t also hold the former in contempt, because I do.

3) Finally, the main point of disagreement seemed to be that the statements I made in the OP were somehow absolving ordinary middle class consumers, letting us off the hook by shifting all blame to the rich and powerful.

As I stated in some of my replies, and will repeat again: I believe that the behavior of consumers in the Global North is *part* of the problem, but compared to the behavior of governments and corporations, it's a relatively small part.

See, I think we can hold two thoughts at the same time and we can take parallel actions. That is, we can believe that we should do better ourselves and then adjust our behavior, adopting a sustainable approach to how we live — AND we can recognize that the criminal ecocidal actions of fossil fuel companies and the governments and financiers and corporate media who support them are vile and wrong and despicable, and we can demand that they all be held accountable for the damage they are doing.

For more on that idea, see this post — https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/110310302010127377

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual