We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
aljazeera.com
We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
1–10 of 209 posts
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#2Greening and green-washing are causing a lot of harm.
Good on Al Jazeera publishing this article and Kolinjivadi for writing it. More Western publications need to follow suit!
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#3Biggest point this article gets right: The political figures who brand themselves as environmentalists are there to syphon energy and support for these movements, while providing no real change.
Biggest thing this article gets wrong: Not realizing that the dismissive approach to indigenous peoples and the poor does not make a policy (by defenitiion) ineffective. Turns out that environmentalism and humanism can be (and often are) at odds.
I don't think problem 1 will be solved until problem 2 is addressed, because pretending like there is no contention or sacrifice by the already downtrodden in order to prevent climate change is the only way the grift maintains popular support.
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#4[dead]
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#5Climate change has only one priority: stop releasing carbon into the atmosphere.
We're all dead if we don't and we cannot afford to add one tiny extra burden onto that monumental task. Sorry. The alternative is death for us all and no chance of any justice ever.
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#6I recently took a course on greenwashing, the history of distraction in the ecoactivist movement, and effective political activism.
I don't know if there's a single movement that has been sidelined more than the conservation movement. Maybe the US labor movement.
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#7> But this fallacy has been repeatedly exposed. For one, the organisations that are supposed to certify that indeed enough tree-planting has taken place do not have the tools to verify that the declared emissions will definitely be absorbed. Another problem is that many offsetting activities do not actually offset anything.
> A recent investigation into the world’s largest carbon standard found that 94 percent of its rainforest offset credits did not actually contribute to carbon reduction.
When I looked at the offset market in the past, I realized that it was one of the few markets where both the buyer and seller are perfectly happy with fraud.
- The buyer is motivated to seek the lowest cost offsets they can find. They're not paying for the cleanup - all they need is the offset document itself, often for legal purposes.
- The seller is more than happy to take the buyer's money and spend it on looking like they're doing something. The rest is free margin.
Neither side remotely cares about the underlying activity behind the offset, and neither side is really penalized if the underlying activity is fraudulent. In fact, both sides are actually better off if the whole thing is fraudulent! I can't think of many other markets where this dynamic exists.
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#8Climate change has only one priority: stop releasing carbon into the atmosphere. We're all dead if we don't and we cannot afford to add one tiny extra burden onto that monumental task. Sorry. The alternative is death for us all and no chance of any justice ever.
This is like saying "weight loss has only one priority; eat less food and exercise more".
Of course, but people simply won't. So what do we do?
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#9Climate change has only one priority: stop releasing carbon into the atmosphere. We're all dead if we don't and we cannot afford to add one tiny extra burden onto that monumental task. Sorry. The alternative is death for us all and no chance of any justice ever.
This is like saying "weight loss has only one priority; eat less food and exercise more". Of course, but people simply won't. So what do we do?
Descend into a planet of billions of migrants, mass famine, ultra right wing governments, while the population drops by billions
Re: We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
#10Biggest point this article gets right: The political figures who brand themselves as environmentalists are there to syphon energy and support for these movements, while providing no real change. Biggest thing this article gets wrong: Not realizing that the dismissive approach to indigenous peoples and the poor does not make a policy (by defenitiion) ineffective. Turns out that environmentalism and humanism can be (an…
Indeed, whenever bigcos get onboard something in flashy ways, its mostly a me too gimmick with the purpose of providing cover for something nasty and at the same time gaining favor over their competition who are caught flat-footed and not taking advantage of this cover: one of the prim examples is Apple's manufacturing. On the one hand they project an aura of justice and caring, whatever, and on the other hand, they still use metals sourced under dire conditions and have their phone manufactured under less than ideal conditions --meanwhile, back in the West they pretend they are all for the good things every upstanding citizen stands for.