Jan ’25
This was written during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
So many questions:
When are we all going to agree that these fires are caused by the climate crisis?
When are we going to admit the climate crisis is already here?
For how long can we think we are immune?
When are we going to focus on the root cause of the problem?
You hint at the answers to these questions:
Maybe we’ve lost the ability to connect the dots. We see the increasing number of extreme weather events as separate events, not part of a pattern.
Some of us are so busy trying to keep food on the table that we don’t have the time or energy to think about the planet.
The news from California is clear, but we don’t want to see it. It’s too confounding, too big, too complex. But we can sense the danger.
For a start, let’s face it, we are never going to agree on how much, if at all, these fires were driven by the climate crisis. We were all warned about climate change by George Jensen way, way back in 1988.* We have been inundated with evidence ever since, on a daily basis, for over 30 years, yet half the adult population still stubbornly refuse to even admit the existence of climate change. Of course they are aware of it, but as you say, ‘it is too confounding, too big, too complex.’ The human mind has never contemplated such a scenario in the entire history of humanity. Then we have those who have ‘joined up the dots’. They believe climate change is real, but they are not doing anything about it, for pretty much the same reason as the deniers. Maybe they trust the government and/or business, or some bright spark like Elon Fucking Musk, to come up with some hair brained notion, or more likely they just think, let someone else fix it, if we ignore it, it will go away. Then we have the next cohort, who are utterly convinced that the cause of the problem is the evil fossil fuel merchants conspiring with the venal politicians. They have some naïve idea that if we just shout at the perpetrators loud enough and long enough they will run away with their tail between their legs. Not gunna happen! We have been shouting from the rooftops for over 30 years now, to little effect. 30 years, and emissions are still rising exponentially. When are we going to give up that strategy and try something that actually works? Are we going to wait until 2050 to be completely and absolutely certain we are 100% fucked before we decide to change tack.?
Thank God there are a handful of diehards who haven’t abandoned the cause, because we are aware of the cause of the impasse. But we are seen as a fly in the ointment, and who listens to flies? (except blowflies, you can’t help listening to blowies) We have many ideas about how to get around the present stalemate, but no one is listening to our sage advice. Folks are not listening to us because what we are suggesting involves abandoning your ever so precious dreams and delusions.
Most of us have wilfully ignored the ever growing signs of climate collapse because we want to keep this short interregnum of ever growing material wealth flowing until the bitter end. We have never had it so fucking good!
I am not talking about folks just trying to get by, they are not part of the problem. The cause of our predicament is simple, discretionary spending. The vast bulk of humanity indulge in very little discretionary spending, and if they do, it is inconsequential. The average income in the U.S.A. is about 80,000 dollars per year. Half of that is spent on necessities, half on discretionary items. (things we don’t need, otherwise known as useless crap) Your average common or garden movie star, on the other hand, if they have clawed their way to the top of the dung heap.( we will not mention how) most likely lives in Malibu, and makes around 50 million dollars per movie. Admittedly it can take several months to shoot a blockbuster movie, but even so, it’s nice work if you can get it. Now the amount of money you need to get by does not change according to your income. So your average movie star on 50 million is also spending about $40,000 a year on necessities, the rest is spent on…God knows what! Frivolous nonsense is my guess.
That is the root cause of the climate catastrophe we are now faced with. Of course the evil fossil fuel merchants are not helping. Nor are the venal politicians, but when we look the truth in the eye, lo and behold, we find that we, the richest people in all of history, are the root cause of the planet being rooted. But don’t expect us to admit it, that would be just soooo embarrassing!
So, we cannot possibly convince the rich to stop being so God damn rich! We cannot convince the evil fossil fuel merchants to get another job. We cannot convince the venal politicians to become Sadus instead. WTF can we do? Do not fret yet!
I have a plan, a devious and dastardly plan. We crash the economy, simple is that. We stop making money. Every dollar we make generates 270grams of CO2, so unless we sequester the same amount of carbon we have generated, we are in the RED! Here is the conundrum. We haven’t got time to plant that many trees because we are too busy earning money making things we don’t need in order to buy things we don’t need. But the beauty of our strategy is that when we withdraw our labour from the system, the more time we have to make things we do need. The more things we make, the less we need to work for the man. It’s called a positive feedback loop, but It’s not loopy. This brings us to the crutch of the issue. It is time to choose between time and money? We know we can’t have both, The more time we spend making money, the less free time we have to enjoy being free.
This is the deal we are offering, come over to our side and you will have so much less money, but so much more time. Ask yourself, what do you want, money or time? We can’t have both. (unless of course, we get so filthy rich we never have to work again, but then we could start to feel guilt, plus some other unwanted emotions best left in ‘the box.’)
So we have to admit that the very people who are the root cause of our predicament happen to be the very last people on God’s green earth to want to swap money for time. Mainly because they are beyond that dichotomy, having scrounged
so much money they can buy time.(such a pity they seem to spend so much of their hard earned time being bored shitless).
So who is going to take the deal we are so generously offering?
The poor and the destitute, that’s who. That’s how our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ garnered his faithful flock. He was not so proud as to shun the ‘dregs of humanity’. . lepers, Gypsies , camel thieves, grifters, charlatans, real estate agents, lawyers, even Jews were welcomed with open arms, given a glass of magic wine and a crust of stale bread.
Now here is the beauty of our mischievous plan. As we withdraw our labour from the system, at some point the economy is bound to slump. The whole pack of cards is actually quite unstable. It wouldn’t take much to bring it tumbling down. A well directed fart should do the trick! But here’s the rub. As the economy starts to disintegrate, as it is already, you may have noticed, millions of people, then billions of people, will be thrown back into dire poverty. They will need a lot of support just to survive. We here in the rich world could provide that support if we felt inclined, and people do feel inclined, over 1% of us on a good day, but we are limited in what we can do because we are chained to the system, and must work all our lives to make those above us richer than they already are.
The second world war was, without doubt, the greatest calamity the world had faced in all our history. That is why we took it seriously, very seriously! We all chipped in for the war effort. We did not waist our precious time making or buying or enjoying discretionary items. Our lives were in ‘clear and present danger,’ In Europe anyway. Nothing like imminent death to focus the mind. Where as, here in the now, are facing the greatest threat humanity has ever confronted, with a rather blasé attitude, one would have to say. Here in the rich world death is far from imminent. (with the exception of some parts of LA county.) Soobviously, we cannot cajole and coerce the comfortable to give up their comfort voluntarily. But as the economy begins its inexorable slide towards its nadir, folks will be forced to give up their creature comforts involuntarily. They may become bereft. They may well get terrified. Then and only then, will they be willing to contemplate the uncotemplatable.… and that is when we, the uncontemplatable, can ever so gently present them with the alternative reality they have so assiduously shunned up to this point in time.
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Ben Boyang – January ‘25
Ben Boyang – January ‘25
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