(Author’s note: Hi all, Rozali here from the Nevermore team. You may have seen a few of my essays posted here. I’ll be writing + sharing some posts on this Substack while Crow takes a mini-break, though you may still see posts from him. I endeavour to post my own essays here, as well as highlight work from fellow Nevermore contributors + other talented writers. Apologies in advance if this is not the kind of content you are expecting — blame it on me, not Crow! Please leave a comment, critique, etc. if you have something to say — reading comments is a highlight for me.
The following is a short piece on my current thoughts about the state of climate change discourse and what I’d like to see, though I’m interested to hear what others have to say on this contentious, polarizing issue.)
Everything is connected to everything else, nothing totally disappears, and nothing is a “free lunch.” — Barry Commoner
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. — T.S. Eliot
This summer (and the one before that, and the one before that), our vulnerable, miraculous, fragile planet Earth has endured a string of extreme weather events: raging wildfires, record heatwaves, and devastating floods were just a few of many extreme weather events we’ve witnessed over the past few years.
Even with these extreme events, some are insisting that all is well and that climate change is actually a scam, and that these natural events would have happened anyway, regardless of human activity. While I disagree with this position, I can understand it, particularly if you consider who is pushing the most for climate lockdowns and other wildly ineffective methods for mitigating planetary destruction (Spoiler: it’s the same globalist criminals who cheered on Covid authoritarianism).
Like every contentious issue, contemporary climate discourse operates within a very narrow framework that doesn’t allow for any nuance. While the past few years have awakened many, this awakening has also led otherwise rational people to find malevolence where there might not be any, and this, combined with shortsighted, top-down climate actions (e.g., land destruction by way of renewable energy), will lead to our downfall.
Polarization surrounding climate change discourse has amplified since Covid, and now it feels as if we are stuck in this perpetual loop where the alarmists and denialists are in constant battle with one another, and no other opinion, however nuanced, is considered.
Meanwhile Mother Earth continues to unleash her fury in what looks to be the ‘New Normal’ (a term I now resent thanks to Covid, but one that is fitting in this case).
In Nova Scotia where I currently live, we recently experienced unprecedented wildfires followed by historical floods only weeks later. Locals say the flooding is the worst they’ve seen since Hurricane Beth in 1971. My home and surrounding neighbourhood flooded along with many parts of the province. Some died while submerged in their vehicles trying to escape the floods; highways and roads were destroyed; infrastructure demolished; houses flooded. While I experienced floods, some of my family members living in the Okanagan have been feeling the impact of drought and water shortages. This year, 73% of B.C. was considered “abnormally dry.” This summer will be the driest on record for many communities in the Okanagan. A few days ago, my mother received an evacuation alert due to a local wildfire that jumped across the border from Oroville, Washington to Osoyoos, B.C. The image below was taken from her backyard.
In Canada’s North where I grew up, residents are experiencing the hottest temperatures ever recorded. Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope are just two of several Northern communities that have set a new all-time record for the hottest days ever seen.
To deny that climate change (or whatever you want to call it —it’s a term I personally loathe due to its highly politically volatile nature), is occurring is a foolish endeavour. All you need to do is look out your window and observe with your own eyes to see what is happening. And it’s not looking good.
While it’s true that extreme weather events have been occurring for billions of years — and that the planet has indeed recalibrated more than once (long before the presence of modern humans), there is the question of: to what extent are humans responsible for the changing climate today? While we can’t fully comprehend the extent of our own damage on this planet, we do know that our destruction has led to habitat loss, mass wildlife extinction, deforestation, poisoned waters, mass insect die-off, soil degradation, and irreversible ecological destruction. Combined, these human-caused destructive activities exacerbate the impacts of natural disasters and accelerate planetary destruction.
While ‘climate change’ may not be the most accurate way to describe what we are experiencing, it is hard to deny that Mother Earth is on a downward spiral.
But believing in climate change does not mean one should blindly support climate lockdowns, or any other authoritarian, top-down approach to mitigating human-caused planetary destruction, including renewable energy which also requires immense resource extraction, land destruction, and slave labour to meet its purportedly ‘sustainable’ goals.
While I agree that our planet is unraveling, I vehemently disagree with how our political leaders are tackling this problem.
Politicians are obsessed with market-based solutions, like carbon trading, carbon taxes, and technological fixes that prevent actual change from happening. Maintaining the status quo (see: unfettered growth) is their modus operandi, and to deviate from this would be antithetical to the religion of capitalism. We are so removed from the world around us, thanks in part to capitalists who see the environment as something that can be used either as raw material or as a dump for waste products.
And more recently, thanks to Covid, the ruling elite is now pushing climate lockdowns in a further attempt to punish citizens for their own unwillingness to deviate from the status quo and stand up to corporations who line their pockets. Have no doubt, we will once again be punished for our government’s inaction and corruption.
This is what I want to see more of in discussions surrounding climate change and the environment:
In an ideal world, I want to see efforts towards deepening our appreciation and understanding of Nature. Most conversations about the ever-changing planet are taking place on our digital devices, which is far more removed from the natural world and even more removed from each other. And since the online mediasphere rewards outrage farming and click bait, the topic of climate change is one of many that have been reduced to memes and out-of-context screenshots that further mislead the public. And when you have a large swath of the population that seems to lack any media literacy, this becomes a problem very quickly. The end result is hyperbole and hysterics from both sides.
In an ideal world, I want to see objective parties play an active role in analyzing these scientific papers and looking into the climate scientists that publish these papers (Are they neutral parties? Who do they work for? Etc.) I guess what I’m describing here are journalists, but the world seems to be woefully short of those these days (at least the good ones).
But before we can even begin having conversations about the climate, we must reframe the way we think about Nature as a whole. If we think of the natural world as something that has intrinsic value, then I suspect this perspective will naturally lead to a more harmonious relationship with other beings and the planet, and that we might even be able to co-exist in a way that benefits everyone.
If we were to better understand the natural world, we would have a greater awareness of what is needed to affect change in a way that is reasonable, proportionate, and maybe even scalable. Governments are colossally slow to change (this is a feature, not a bug). And so, too, are people (we are terrible at breaking bad habits and we don’t respond well to change, especially if it is forced upon us). But we’ve gone far too long living in this deep disconnect, and part of our growing collective dissatisfaction is rooted in this alienation between ourselves and our planet.
For too long we have been looking at the natural world as something to be used — as a utility, an object that serves us. Even renewable energy is another resource. We clear out hectares of land for wind farms and electric vehicles and other renewables, and we call this ‘sustainability.’ We call this the future. But gigafactories and wind farms also lead us down the same path: death and decay.
There is a critical need for alternative solutions not proposed by governments that insist on offloading all the climate responsibility onto its citizens. Carbon taxes, renewable products and goods, water restrictions, climate lockdowns, etc. are all top-down policy decisions made by people who continue to be paid off by corporations that value profit over the planet. This is not the way forward. This route will only pave the way to more resentment and dissatisfaction.
I’m a big believer in taking personal responsibility, but that requires all of us to rethink our relationship with the Natural world first. We can’t fly less, recycle more, turn off lights, or consume from ‘ethical’ companies if the economic system that requires continued growth remains unchanged. Capitalism is simply incompatible with impactful climate action — key word being ‘impactful’.
We have microplastics in our veins, glyphosate in our bodies, even our tap water has been poisoned with a cocktail of chemicals (for those who even have access to drinking water). We breathe in toxins, ingest toxins, and live on land that is being sprayed with toxins.
We are being poisoned in every way you can imagine and we are told it’s for our own good.
We’ve broken our duty to take care of our fragile, miraculous planet, and now we are paying the price — through our minds, bodies, and souls.
If we do not fundamentally rethink our relationship with Nature, I suspect we won’t have much time left to heal it.
I don’t think that capitalism is the villain. When technology breakthroughs are controlled and hidden by a few to either make them more “powerful” or to not interfere with their status quo. When someone emerges as a Tesla or a Rife we must communicate to everyone in our sphere of influence and form protection and support before the retarded elite can possess and destroy