narF 😵✌️Watching the conference from Green Software Foundation.
It looked promising when I registered but unfortunately, I came to the conclusion that it should really be called Greenwashing Software... 😞
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The Fondation steering committee consists mostly of folks from big tech companies like #Microsoft, #Shell, #Siemens, #GitHub #GoldmanSachs or #Google.
While they all claim they want to save energy and resources, they are corporations. They only care about optimizing revenues, which they are legally obligated to by being corporations. The real reason they want to save energy and resources is because they think it will make them earn more money in the end.
Corporations want to optimize their resources consumption to reduce their cost, not to save the planet.
They do this as a way to look greener, because they think it will attract more clients. It's marketing.
When corporations talk about #sustainability what they talk about is how they plan to make their company grow faster to survive against other corporations.
Under capitalism, corporations are in competitions. They have to grow constantly and acquire other companies in order to not be acquired themselves by other corporations.
A corporation talking about sustainability is only a mean to defend themselves against acquisition.
Yet we all know that infinite growth isn't sustainable!
Rich people, the 1% who own all of Earth's resources and money, are terrified of the #climateCrisis but not for the same reason as you and I. They aren't afraid for their life, because they own houses in countries that won't be affected by climate changes or mega-yachts that can move around in search of good weather.
No, rich people are afraid of the economic crisis that will come with the environmental crisis. They are afraid that their company will lose clients and lose value.
They are afraid other corporations will be more sustainable and will buy them.
The questions from the conference's crowd are all about "why should I be green?", "How will it increase my market value?"
They don't care about the planet, their workers, their social impact. They only care about their bank account. That's the exact definition of greenwashing.
So why should we care about them?
As someone in the comment remarked, using the expression "the 1%" is an exaggeration. Rich people represent much less than 1% of our population. The billionaires who own half of Earth's wealth are only like 26 (from memory. Maybe 28. Less than 30 for sure)
That's Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and few others. These 30 people have names and addresses. We're 8 billion humans suffering because of there 30 ultra-rich individuals!
How come we even let them do this???
So what's the solution?
There are many!
First, if you can, refuse to work for a corporation that exploit you! Go work for a non-profit or a worker co-op!
If you can't, form a union in your workplace. It's time for your bosses to start listening to their workers!
This conference from #GreenSoftwareFoundation is so frustrating to watch... They only talk about carbon emissions. They completely ignore the human cost! It's not just about #CO2 emissions! We're reaching the point where we're running out of resources. We're running out of petrol, rare metals (lithium, cobalt, etc) required to make batteries. We're running out of farmable land, which will cause a food crisis and famines.
We won't be able to transition to solar panels and windmills if we can't build them because we ran out of energy or resources! 😞
People are ready to transition. I see it. People are tired of their shitty useless job, their shitty useless politicians. People are ready for a better world, a greener world, a fairer world.
The only thing stopping us are the 1%. The rich folks. The politicians. The people with power. But their power come from us! Without us, they are nothing. They need our labour, our brains. We are the ones powering their money-printing machine!
So lets stop powering their machines! Let's kick them out! We don't need the rich and powerful people to build a better world! We can do a better job than them. We can organize ourselves!
If you want to help, join an advocacy group, go to your city council meeting, join your #union, go read about #solarpunk, start a #garden in your front yard! Learn to #repair your clothes and appliances instead of buying new ones.
You don't have the time or mental energy to do that? Of course you don't! We all work too much! That's the #neoliberal world we live in. So quit your job! Find a better job!
Nikolay Robotoev 🥞🎙️@narF Working unions, repairs and gardens… You are talking about the Soviet Union 😌 I don’t know what kind of image people around the world have about that time, but speaking about the residents, they were definitely tough, inventive, and prepared to live off the grid.
@mikolasan I know very little about this era. We don't talk about it in our History classes.