The Money is in Tomorrow’s Denial
There is loads of money to be made telling people that it is not yet too late. By too late, I am not suggesting that the end of the world lurks in tomorrow, a thought too paralyzing to be a catalyst for anything but hedonism or barbarism. Instead I am referring to the fact that the inevitable consequences of collective and coerced inaction are unavoidable and must be contemplated and responded to. Acknowledgement of the present unpleasant may also be motivation to prevent matters from unraveling even further.
I don’t believe we should sleepwalk into oblivion, as hard as it may be to contemplate. There are many choices we could make now to soften the blow of ecological breakdown and abrupt climate change. We should not let complexity urge us into catatonic acceptance either — that is not what I am talking about.
If the end of the world as we know it is coming, we should not discount that we will exist in a far less charitable world, not of our own choosing or preference except in humanity’s collective failure to prevent it. The end of the party doesn’t mean the end of the venue, we will all have to find our way home after it has ended.
Until things are absolutely undeniable, there will be many who are happy to sell fantasies that if only we do this or that, no matter how fantastical, it will be okay. The definition of ‘okay’ will resemble the dictionary definition less and less each time the assurance is made and those hanging onto these assurances will be more and more inclined to ignore reality as they cling to a normality that has long departed.
Scientists have done the analysis, we have all looked looked at the data. I do not see a path where the ice doesn’t melt and the permafrost doesn’t release large quantities of methane that dwarf our emissions just from the emissions already in the atmosphere which have a lag til their full effects are felt. Those assuring otherwise sound more and more fantastical in their predictions and appeal to their authority or position more heavily in the absence of an objective explanation to the contrary. At that point, a major contingent of the warming will be from feedback loops, and our actions, even of a magnitude not yet sustained, will have a negligible effect unless we miraculously find a way to drawdown what’s already in the air.
What we lose by this denial of tomorrow is the tomorrow we pretend we are already building: one approaching climate justice, one where human rights survive in tact, one where humanity retains its collective agency rather than trading it for perpetual chaos.
It is now, at the peak of technological capability, yet before we reach the era of constant rebuilding and recovering from simultaneous catastrophes is the time for ambition on the scale of the Marshall Plan. To fully engage with the depth of moral depravity that would be the unchecked mitigation of the destruction of our biosphere would be to acknowledge that it is a crime against the future and the present that dwarfs the scale of the mass slaughter of World War II. Confronting evil, truly acknowledging it, necessitates in the conscientious observer a response. To idly witness and remain impartial would be complicity and cause moral outrage in those whose self image paints them as moral actors. To truly see and understand the implications of climate breakdown necessitates in those who wish to remain moral a change of thought that makes mindless participation in the dominant paradigm impossible, an uncomplicated prospect in a world where so many are still asleep to the finite possibility that this normalcy of overexploitation of the natural world persists.
Be very wary of miracle solutions which make you feel good, but don’t fundamentally change anything. I am sure there is a lot of money to be made in trying not to spook the cattle while running out the clock on the remaining ‘good’ years.
Capitalism as it has developed from feudal, imperial and settler colonial development is incompatible with an ecologically sustainable future and therefore the solutions that lead us there are not financially incentivized. We must recognize when supposed solutions are still predicated on the same extractive and exploitative constructs that caused our ecological condition and demand better for ourselves and each other.
What is to be done?
We must counteract this resistance of the truth by staying rooted in reality and in so doing engaging with complexity to reject simple solutions that solve nothing while squandering good will. We must live by example to demonstrate that a better future is possible, making it come alive in the imaginations of those not able to see it themselves. We must protect the earth, her creatures and each other, knowing that humanity is worth saving as well as the living planet. We must never tire of reality, and rejoice in our ability to understand and choose as our greatest accomplishment and asset.
This was written three years ago and little has changed except that obvious manifestations of climate breakdown have only hardened the resolve of those bent on denial and minimization.
Storms beyond our imagination happen not every 100 years but in successive years. Governments response has not risen to the occasion but instead decides to hide information or cease to continue counting the dead. Resources that could be better used to sure up the future are used to shred anything of value in the present. Now is the time that those who want a better tomorrow realize that it requires active participation rather than passive observation more than ever. A large part of that is active participation and holding those who distort the truth accountable.
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