Ben's Blog

It is time to admit, democracy has failed us! Since 1990 we have decreased our reliance on fossil fuels from 87% of global energy use, to 83%. A 4% drop in 30 years. Not good enough! At this rate it will be down to 79% by 2050. It will take 900 years to reach zero!

This is because bad actors are manipulating democracy, yet we keep believing in the system. Here in Australia the Labor party governs federally and in every state except Tasmania. There has never been such a golden opportunity for them to implement effective climate policy. They no longer have the excuse that they would be rejected at the ballot box if they did. So I for one, am bitterly disappointed that they have not banned all fossil fuel production immediately. They are not even discussing fazing it out. Quite the contrary, they espouse a vision of a big Australia, built on cheap energy. Yes, they will increase our renewable energy. This will service our commensurate increase in economic growth, whilst our fossil fuel use continues to chug along as usual, reducing slightly over the decades.

Forget about democracy tackling climate collapse. It will not happen!

The only way to tackle the problem, as we all know, is by reducing GDP, and no government in the world is going to do that, simply because the entire capitalist system would collapse. So it is up to us to reduce our own GDP. Basically, earn less money. Every dollar we earn creates emissions. We must begin to do things for free. The more we do for free, the less money folks need, so the more time they have to also do things for free, until eventually almost all our essential services are provided free of charge, because all the essential workers are being looked after free of charge. It is called the caring/sharing economy.

Ben Boyang 2/8/23