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To what quality of life does the west need to be lowered to? How many human lives need to culled?
Our evolved resilient nature causes us to quickly reset our norms in adverse circumstances. This is how our evolutionary ancestors survived through all the adversities they experienced, and it is the source of optimism that helps us find the willpower to overcome hardships. Unfortunately it also numbs us to the strong, increasing signal that things are getting worse and worse for us on a grand scale.
We shouldn’t need to kill people if we act now.
Electrification of home heating and transport means that people are going to lead very similar lives to what they lead today on a regular basis. People living in cities and towns are going to be more likely to use mass transit, and we’ll repurpose some structures so that people can live closer to where they work and shop.
The very wealthiest are going to need to give up their mega-yachts, and air transport will be a lot less common.
Some industrial processes will need to change how they’re done.
We’re going to use a lot less concrete, and somewhat less steel.
This will need radical government regulations as the industries are not voluntarily doing. People need to start taking over their governments.
Such a interesting time frame to be alive! Humanity is in a race against itself. Losing could not only mean the end of humanity, but of vast forms of life on Earth. And it’s an uphill race of common democratic people racing against the rich, who own the means we need to win.
Almost like a movie, however, I feel in a movie there wouldn’t be as many people shrugging shoulders and looking away.
The fact is human lives are being culled right now and will be increasingly over the next decades by the rapid changes coming to the environment and the scarcity fears, looting, and displacement that follows. Even if you choose to ignore the deaths that aren’t in the West, as if they aren’t related to your current quality of life, soon enough you will start to see the destruction right in front of you.
What activists are saying is that a lot of this death can be avoided if those in power, corporately and governmentally, are willing to do more than is legally or traditionally required of them. This takes more willpower than the average politician or CEO can muster on their own and this is where activists work to put pressure on one side of the equation and the enthusiasm of the people on the other to drive the radical decisions that are needed to confront the crisis.
Lazare isn’t fully aligned with [Andreas Malm, author of How To Blow Up a Pipeline], who has advocated an “ecological Leninism” of top-down state intervention in the economy.
Anybody have a good sense of what “ecological Leninism” is? This several-word description of “top-down state intervention in the economy” isn’t particularly descriptive, and doesn’t really speak to what is Leninist about Malm’s views in contrast to Lazare’s
They’re taking Mario Savio’s famous speech regarding civil disobedience and running with it. Good for them!
love her already.