The World Is On Fire And The Fix Is Embarrassingly Simple
The World Is On Fire And The Fix Is Embarrassingly Simple
Even Canada and the UK are getting unnecessarily scorched
Even Canada and the UK are getting unnecessarily scorched
I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines by now:
Hundreds of people died and a billion seashore animals that filter and clean our water may have cooked to death on the British Columbian coast, where temperatures reached 122℉.
Portland’s heat dome is hotter than Egypt.
The hottest city on earth just hit 125.6 ℉.
The American West is now in a permanent drought.
What’s truly, madly, deeply, embarrassingly obvious is that the fix to global warming is so aggravatingly simple.
It’s not easy, but it’s so, so simple:
1. Fire all the politicians
Politicians are motivated by three things: power, wealth, and the absurd delusion that history will remember them fondly. The only thing politicians care about is amassing enough power to get themselves re-selected by their corporate backers. You and your planet are not on that list unless it furthers their ambitions.
They all need to be fired, immediately.
That’s right — no more politicians. None. Just direct democracy. One voice, one vote. See, we don’t actually need politicians: we just need a robust and nimble civil service to administer our collective will, a transparent judiciary to protect individual human rights, and a wicked-smart blockchain voting system.
Because here’s the thing: Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe climate change should be the government’s #1 priority. For most nations, it’s not even in the top twenty in a meaningful way.
Because the stats make it clear:
Most people want more protection for lakes, rivers, and streams.
The majority want to protect animals and their habitats.
Air quality also seems to weirdly matter to breathing voters. (???)
Direct democracy is how we get all this done. Because when the people actually have a voice for the first time in history, they’ll do something.
2. End fossil fuel production
John D. Rockefeller unleashed the Kraken on planet earth and it’s time to slay it once and for all.
Thankfully, there’s an incredibly simple mechanism for destroying the oil and gas industry: make it illegal for banks to finance fossil fuel projects.
Don’t worry about the poor banks. They’ll re-allocate in days, and pretty soon, fossil fuels will go the way of CFCs and asbestos.
3. Declare war
The Pentagon admits that the US military could collapse within 18 years because of climate change. (The majority of Department of Defense installations are reliant on a grid that will almost certainly fail in the near future.) Naturally, there’s only one thing to do when facing a foe of this magnitude:
Declare climate destruction as America’s #1 enemy, then sick the United States military on it.
Just imagine if the US of A brought to bear on environmental degradation the same hatred and vitriol and misplaced desire for justice that they unleashed on Iraq and Afghanistan.
We could get other nations to do the same, too. Instead of fighting each other, Team Human could re-allocate a hefty portion of our $2 trillion in global annual “defense” spending to:
Rapidly transition us to renewables. (Even 78% of Millennial and Gen Z Republicans say the development of alternative energy sources should be a priority for the United States.)
Shut down fossil fuel mining, fracking, and deep-sea drilling sites. (Go Marines!)
Stop air, land, and water polluters. (Go Air Force!)
Plant trillions of trees. (Go Army!)
Safeguard half the ocean as a wildlife habitat. (Go Navy!)
Even progressives would vote to increase military spending.
Dems and Repubs will continue their propaganda campaign to convince you that they-the-elites are the only ones who can save you-the-people… if you’ll just keep putting your trust in them. They’ll continue to undermine your political power and erode democracy like they’ve been doing for a decade straight. (Never forget: people have more freedom in Mongolia, Romania, and Argentina than they do in America.)
When elite-controlled politicians do “address climate change,” it’ll be the way Joe Biden is doing it — with the big, flashy, spending of trillions of printed dollars that steal your purchasing power and further enrich their corporate backers.
But here’s the truth:
We won’t see rapid wide-scale environmental reform until we see economic reform.
And we won’t see rapid wide-scale economic reform until we see democratic reform.
And we won’t see real democracy until we stop voting for corporate candidates and corporate parties en masse.
More of the same will only get us more of the same.
Obviously, fixing climate destruction is a massive and complicated undertaking that will require the full force of humanity’s efforts, capital, and ingenuity. But there are macro wins that will do much of the heavy lifting:
We need to fire the politicians, end fossil fuel production, and declare actual war on climate destruction.
Until then, we’ll just keep burning.
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