Essay by Eric Worrall
Greta Wazzername tries to stay relevant in a world that has largely forgotten her.
Greta Thunberg on the climate illusion: ‘We have been swept away from our senses. It’s time for us to stand our ground’
Greta Thunberg Saturday, October 8, 2022 19.00 AEDT
Governments can say they are doing all they can to avert the climate crisis. Don’t love it – then we might still have time to turn things around
Perhaps the name itself is the problem. Climate change. Doesn’t sound too bad. The word “change” resonates quite interestingly in our restless world. No matter how lucky we are, there is always the possibility of significant improvement. Then there’s the “climate” part. Again, it doesn’t sound too bad. If you live in many of the highly luminous countries in the global north, the idea of ”climate change” can also be interpreted as the opposite of scary and dangerous. A world is changing. A warming planet. Don’t like what?
Maybe that’s part of the reason why so many people still think of climate change as a slow, linear, and even rather harmless process. But the climate doesn’t just change. It is destabilizing. It is being broken. Natural patterns and cycles are delicately balanced, a vital part of life-sustaining systems on Earth being disrupted, and the consequences can be dire. Because there is a negative cut-off point, the point of no return. And we don’t know exactly when we might get over them. However, what we do know is that they are getting very close, even the really big ones. The conversion usually starts off slow, but then it starts to pick up speed.
…
We cannot live sustainably in today’s economic system. However, that’s what we’re constantly told we can do. We can buy sustainable cars, go on sustainable auto roads, run on sustainable petroleum. We can eat sustainable meat and drink sustainable soft drinks from sustainable plastic bottles. We can buy sustainable fast fashion and fly on sustainable planes using sustainable fuels. And, of course, we will also achieve our short- and long-term climate sustainability goals with little effort.
…
Greta, I’d love to hear your explanation for how the flavor of communism can replace “today’s economic system”, to allow us to live sustainably, but not enough to buy your books.
In any case, since you’ve been truanting so much, maybe I could learn more about economic systems from watching my pet fish, than reading or listening to his juvenile economic theories. friend.
Related
