qedMar 7, 2024
Bread and Circuses

Please read this opinion piece by Johan Hansson, a theoretical physicist at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. Here are a few excerpts...
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I find it tragic that the world is governed exclusively by economists and is driven by economics, which is not a natural science, but just a human invention. There are physical limits to continuous economic expansion – a fact that most economists do not seem to understand.

In my view it is crazy to think that uncontrolled technological “development” and exploitation driven by unbridled and increasingly unequal capitalism will save us. It is what has plunged us into today’s crisis in the first place.

After all, if you are sitting on a tree branch that you are sawing off, and the ground underneath is burning, the solution is not to switch to a better saw – it is to stop sawing.

Role models like climate activist Greta Thunberg are trying to save those who, for some reason, have not yet understood how serious the situation actually is. To reach the climate pledge of limiting global warming below 1.5°C, the use of fossil fuels must completely cease by 2035, with zero deforestation and a drastic reduction in other greenhouse gas emissions. Yet according to the International Energy Agency, about 80% of the world’s energy today still comes from fossil fuels.

There is one option to reverse the current trend and that is to abide by Earth’s natural limits. Governments need to realize that rich countries must adapt their production and consumption to bring it below what is sustainable for the Earth-system as a whole. The only alternative to a planned and controlled downsizing is a forced and catastrophic global collapse.

Only degrowth can save us.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://physicsworld.com/a/the-climate-is-doomed-if-we-continue-to-be-fixated-by-economic-growth/

#Economics #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth

The climate is doomed if we continue to be fixated by economic growth – Physics World

Johan Hansson argues that it will never be possible to meet our climate targets if countries continue their obsession with growing the economy

Physics World
Mar 7, 2024 at 6:30pmWeb
Show threadChrisUMar 7, 2024

@breadandcircuses

Excellent article👍

Show threadAsarielMar 7, 2024
@breadandcircuses I believe this is why Globalization (as we know it today) was formed twenty years ago. But the ideology of what Globalization is it's erasing regional cultures around the planet, so it's effects are doubly pernicious. It's effects are seen as protests in Paris and insurgency in the Middle East.
Show threadEdelruth, PBS Passport HolderMar 7, 2024

@breadandcircuses

Excellent article, and the included link to the Global Footprint Network was welcome. I had not heard of them before.

https://www.footprintnetwork.org/

I have a lot of respect for AASHE, so this banner caught my attention:
Network researchers recognized with AASHE Sustainability Award

Show threadSpaceLifeFormMar 7, 2024

@breadandcircuses

#MotherNature will solve this problem

There will be no trees.

Show threadStu Duerson, machina exo deusMar 7, 2024

@breadandcircuses

"rich countries must adapt..." is exactly the reason we will fail. As long as money/wealth/richness is the metric for success, we will avoid every effort to spend more to preserve the basis of production. Capitalism has no mechanism included to marshal resources, other than...higher profit thru deferral. And capitalism works on a human calendar. If that higher profit is from deferring a longer time than a working life span, then most people don't have the ability to comprehend the benefit.

Show threadBakunin BoysMar 7, 2024
@breadandcircuses I don't think it's the economics, but the bad economics. Carbon tax, for example, is an idea created by and advocated for by economists. Even the "OG" economist who ruined the original climate reports could be thought to be an ideologue. The study is not the problem, the dressing up of ideology as study is the problem. It is a cancer in the field.
Show threadKent PitmanMar 7, 2024

@breadandcircuses

"There are physical limits to continuous economic expansion – a fact that most economists do not seem to understand."

One of those limits is time. Failing to respect this has allowed people to think that human ingenuity can eventually come up with solutions to almost anything. And probably it can. But we don't have "eventually" to work with. And it is just not equally true that human ingenuity can come up with solutions to almost anything within a year or two.

There really is not time to invent and deploy new tech. We need to act fast enough that we have what we have. And, given that, we need to scale back. We're just in collective denial.

Some say we can't change society fast enough. But we have counterexamples, the most recent of which was covid. Almost overnight, we changed how society's core functions and cash flow worked. We did it because we knew we had no choice.

The reason we aren't changing for Climate Change is not that we can't, it's that we think we have some other choice or we think we have more time. We don't. We're just in denial.

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateDenial #Degrowth

Show threadO! ver Mar 8, 2024
@breadandcircuses Very good, as well we should consider more often equality/equity when talking about ,#degrowth. For some ideological reasons, politicians are attracted by austerity but they systematically increase inequalities and discrimination in their agenda. Raising insecurity...
Show threadlegraLeGraMar 10, 2024

@breadandcircuses

Had this exchange posted for a LONG time in my office.

“Scalia:… your assertion is that after the pollutant leaves the air and goes up into the stratosphere it is contributing to global warming.

Mr. Milkey: Respectfully, Your Honor, it is not the stratosphere. It’s the troposphere.

Scalia: Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I’m not a scientist.”

https://blogs.kentlaw.iit.edu/iscotus/stratosphere-troposphere-whatever-looking-back-at-mass-v-epa-2007/

We need some scientists somewhere in government.

Stratosphere, Troposphere, Whatever - Looking Back at Mass. v. EPA (2007) - ISCOTUS now

The Supreme Court today considered the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases. According to early reports from oral arguments—and to the surprise of no one—the more liberal justices seemed open to allowing the EPA to regulate, while at least some of the more conservative justices were skeptical of allowing the … Continue reading Stratosphere, Troposphere, Whatever – Looking Back at Mass. v. EPA (2007) →

ISCOTUS now