Another fascinating interview, Rachel. Thank you so much. It really is important work you are doing.
I think our government is perfectly aware of the extent to which anger is building in the climate movement and where it's heading.
I've just finished reading the new Global Risks Report 2024 by the World Economic Forum ,which makes for grim reading, but illustrates the extent to which climate pessimism is entering the mainstream. In a strange way it gives me some hope when insurance brokers and actuaries start taking severe climate risks seriously, because they belong to the same tribe as the likes of Sunak and Starmer. The WEF are not as easily dismissed as climate extremists as JSO and XR.
A really interesting piece that I feel is moving the debate on from 'what is' to 'how we change'. While you have always asked those 2 questions at the top this episode seemed to get into the 'how' in a much more meaningful way, bumping up against the vastness of the problem and the uncertainty of how to address it. It is arguable that, particularly with the sense of economic fear that is prevalent, XR's disruptive tactics allowed the government the space to tighten up on the right to protest. Action perhaps should be judged against how the tired and fragile population will be persuaded to see the urgency of our plight rather than the nearly or wholly converted. My experience of working with vulnerable populations is that doing something that improves their lot gains their interest and trust far better than battering them with information and disruption. Action on multiple fronts is necessary to find the weaknesses in the Death Star - political action to demonstrate popular support, economic action such as facilitating pension funds to invest in safer, growing green businesses, grass roots community building using the tools we would like to see nationally such as deliberative democracy and local food and energy generation. We have, in the global north, become complacent about the structures we rely on and as these structures become more degraded it will become more obvious and necessary that we can and should set up local alternatives. We might then have built a sufficient body of people who can see an alternative future and who are prepared to vote for it.
After listening to your conversation with Fabian, especially the bit you shared about coming home after your encounter with the vulture capitalists, I thought you might appreciate this discussion Rob Hopkins had with Aimee Lewis Reau and LaUra Schmidt, co-founders of the Good Grief Network and authors of "How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet". Here's the link https://lnns.co/QxHOS7BX-_R. Maybe you could invite them on Planet Critical? Thank you for all your good work.
Here's a substack on the clearest recent signs of that Sixth Mass Extinction, and that we are in serious imminent danger of it hitting us hard in our own lifetimes by creating a collapse of the world's oceans..
Nature Is Giving Humanity Our Final Extinction Crisis Warning
After listening to your conversation with Fabian, especially the bit you shared about coming home after your encounter with the vulture capitalists, I thought you might appreciate this discussion Rob Hopkins had with Aimee Lewis Reau and LaUra Schmidt, authors of "How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet". Here's the link https://lnns.co/QxHOS7BX-_R. Thank you for all your good work.
Every time I read an analysis of our current problems like this one by Fabian Dablander, an old Chinese pearl of wisdom lobs into my brain: "it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness". It's like we all follow each other around a circle of darkness, bemoaning our fate, whingeinge about everything in our world that is not perfect. In Australia we call that self-centred attitude "Poor bugger me"
I'd like to know how many alternatives someone like Fabian practices: does he go anywhere curtesy of fossil fuels, or does he ride a bike everywhere? Does he eat food that is grown within 10ks of where he lives? Has he built a community that practices sustainability? Has he adopted the mantra of "think globally, act locally "? The Chinese are right: our world is in desperate need of candle-lighters, not darkness-cursers. OK, recognise the darkness for sure; but spend most of your energy building the world of tomorrow, today.
XR was/is a phenomenon, but when the response required from the centre of power requires removal of that power, hundreds of thousands or even millions on the streets will be ignored. Witness Iraq, Palestine or even XR’s the big one. I’ll have to read Andreas Malm’s book, but I’m not sure about sabotage of infrastructure either.
Rachel Donald, you are getting yourself tied in knots and feeling helpless for no good reason by:
1) You are not understanding that the problem is not remotely as hard to solve as you think it is. See the following images that show how small a land area is required to power the world on Solar or Wind power:
- Total Surface Area Required to Fuel the World With Solar
2) You are focusing far too much on national and global responses when it will be much more effective to simply start from the ground up by transitioning our own communities to renewables and transit. See the following PDF link for what we are pursuing in San Francisco, California for local energy. Any community can simply do this on its own *right now* without waiting for national or global governments..
- 100% Local Clean Energy & Climate Justice for San Francisco
Another fascinating interview, Rachel. Thank you so much. It really is important work you are doing.
I think our government is perfectly aware of the extent to which anger is building in the climate movement and where it's heading.
I've just finished reading the new Global Risks Report 2024 by the World Economic Forum ,which makes for grim reading, but illustrates the extent to which climate pessimism is entering the mainstream. In a strange way it gives me some hope when insurance brokers and actuaries start taking severe climate risks seriously, because they belong to the same tribe as the likes of Sunak and Starmer. The WEF are not as easily dismissed as climate extremists as JSO and XR.
A really interesting piece that I feel is moving the debate on from 'what is' to 'how we change'. While you have always asked those 2 questions at the top this episode seemed to get into the 'how' in a much more meaningful way, bumping up against the vastness of the problem and the uncertainty of how to address it. It is arguable that, particularly with the sense of economic fear that is prevalent, XR's disruptive tactics allowed the government the space to tighten up on the right to protest. Action perhaps should be judged against how the tired and fragile population will be persuaded to see the urgency of our plight rather than the nearly or wholly converted. My experience of working with vulnerable populations is that doing something that improves their lot gains their interest and trust far better than battering them with information and disruption. Action on multiple fronts is necessary to find the weaknesses in the Death Star - political action to demonstrate popular support, economic action such as facilitating pension funds to invest in safer, growing green businesses, grass roots community building using the tools we would like to see nationally such as deliberative democracy and local food and energy generation. We have, in the global north, become complacent about the structures we rely on and as these structures become more degraded it will become more obvious and necessary that we can and should set up local alternatives. We might then have built a sufficient body of people who can see an alternative future and who are prepared to vote for it.
Rachel, can you share the name of the book you referenced?
After listening to your conversation with Fabian, especially the bit you shared about coming home after your encounter with the vulture capitalists, I thought you might appreciate this discussion Rob Hopkins had with Aimee Lewis Reau and LaUra Schmidt, co-founders of the Good Grief Network and authors of "How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet". Here's the link https://lnns.co/QxHOS7BX-_R. Maybe you could invite them on Planet Critical? Thank you for all your good work.
Here's a substack on the clearest recent signs of that Sixth Mass Extinction, and that we are in serious imminent danger of it hitting us hard in our own lifetimes by creating a collapse of the world's oceans..
Nature Is Giving Humanity Our Final Extinction Crisis Warning
https://ericbrooks.substack.com/p/nature-is-giving-humanity-our-final
Meat is not a problem and hence veganism is no kind of answer. How do people still believe this?
After listening to your conversation with Fabian, especially the bit you shared about coming home after your encounter with the vulture capitalists, I thought you might appreciate this discussion Rob Hopkins had with Aimee Lewis Reau and LaUra Schmidt, authors of "How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet". Here's the link https://lnns.co/QxHOS7BX-_R. Thank you for all your good work.
Very good speaker - how do we highlight the points Fabian made to a wider audience. Does he have publications etc that we can access?
I particularly like his point - "we need to end this, before it ends us..."
Every time I read an analysis of our current problems like this one by Fabian Dablander, an old Chinese pearl of wisdom lobs into my brain: "it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness". It's like we all follow each other around a circle of darkness, bemoaning our fate, whingeinge about everything in our world that is not perfect. In Australia we call that self-centred attitude "Poor bugger me"
I'd like to know how many alternatives someone like Fabian practices: does he go anywhere curtesy of fossil fuels, or does he ride a bike everywhere? Does he eat food that is grown within 10ks of where he lives? Has he built a community that practices sustainability? Has he adopted the mantra of "think globally, act locally "? The Chinese are right: our world is in desperate need of candle-lighters, not darkness-cursers. OK, recognise the darkness for sure; but spend most of your energy building the world of tomorrow, today.
XR was/is a phenomenon, but when the response required from the centre of power requires removal of that power, hundreds of thousands or even millions on the streets will be ignored. Witness Iraq, Palestine or even XR’s the big one. I’ll have to read Andreas Malm’s book, but I’m not sure about sabotage of infrastructure either.
Rachel Donald, you are getting yourself tied in knots and feeling helpless for no good reason by:
1) You are not understanding that the problem is not remotely as hard to solve as you think it is. See the following images that show how small a land area is required to power the world on Solar or Wind power:
- Total Surface Area Required to Fuel the World With Solar
https://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127
- Powering the World with Offshore Wind
https://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/77315
2) You are focusing far too much on national and global responses when it will be much more effective to simply start from the ground up by transitioning our own communities to renewables and transit. See the following PDF link for what we are pursuing in San Francisco, California for local energy. Any community can simply do this on its own *right now* without waiting for national or global governments..
- 100% Local Clean Energy & Climate Justice for San Francisco
http://our-city.org/100_Percent_Local_Clean_Energy_Buildout_Sign-On_2022.pdf