Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic) says we need to spend the next three-plus years reforming our labor unions and building toward a general strike in 2028.

I like it.

✊ pluralistic.net/2024/11/11/rip…

#Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateAction

It's not us. It's them.
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Private jet flights have soared in recent years, with the resulting climate-heating emissions rising by 50 percent, a comprehensive global analysis has revealed.

The assessment tracked more than 25,000 private jets and almost 19 million flights between 2019 and 2023. It found almost half the jets traveled less than 500 kilometers (311 miles) and 900,000 were used “like taxis” for trips of less than 50 kilometers (31 miles).

Private flights, used by just 0.003 percent of the world’s population, are the most polluting form of transport. The researchers found that passengers in larger private jets caused more CO2 emissions in an hour than the average person did in a year.
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FULL STORY ➡️ grist.org/transportation/used-…

#Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #CO2 #Emissions #Climate #ClimateChange

🧵 3/3

Here’s Barack Obama, speaking in 2012...
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“My administration has approved dozens of new oil and gas pipelines over the last three years. And as long as I’m President, we’re going to keep on encouraging oil development and infrastructure.

“Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states.

“We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”
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➡️ obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/t…

As I said above, when it comes to our climate and environment, we can't blame either the Democrats or the Republicans. We have to blame both. We have to blame capitalism.

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

🧵 2/3

From the Washington Post…
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The Biden administration has now outpaced the Trump administration in approving permits for drilling on public lands, and the United States is producing more oil than any country ever has. The unplanned fossil fuel boom reflects an uncomfortable truth for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris: It is difficult for any president to stop the spigot of U.S. oil production, a leading driver of both the economy and climate change.

“If you were to show someone who came from Mars the line of U.S. oil and gas production over the last 15 years, they probably would not be able to tell whether a Republican or Democrat was in the White House,” said Jason Bordoff, founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
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➡️ archive.ph/VnlWF

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

It’s obvious that a second Trump administration will be worse in almost every conceivable way from what a Harris administration might have been.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that a Harris victory would have been *good* for our climate and environment. We've been going in the wrong direction for at least 20 years under Presidents from both parties — and there's no reason to think that Kamala Harris would have charted a different course.

SEE ➡️ archive.ph/VnlWF

When it comes to our climate and environment, we can't blame either the Democrats or the Republicans. We have to blame both. We have to blame capitalism.

🧵 1/3

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

In the six years between 2016 and 2021, according to data published in the most recent Circularity Gap Report, the global economy consumed 582 billion tonnes of materials — nearly as much as the 740 billion consumed in the *entire* 20th century.

REPORT ➡️ circularity-gap.world/2024

That’s very bad! But I wonder, do you think the world has been doing better since 2021? 🤔

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that global consumption has NOT declined during the past three years. In fact, the level almost certainly has increased. But let’s just say it has remained steady.

If that’s true, it means another three years of the world annually consuming ~97 billion tonnes of materials. So the total over the past nine years is now at least 873 billion tonnes — or about 18% MORE than all the materials consumed in the 20th century!

Driven by capitalism’s incessant demand for profits at any cost, we are consuming ourselves to death. But who cares about that? As long as billionaires keep getting richer, that’s all that matters, right?

Business As Usual must go on.

#History #Economics #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

The United Nations — founded by and controlled by the world’s most powerful capitalist countries — will NOT save us from climate and environmental collapse.

All we’ll ever get from them and our so-called leaders is a lot more “blah, blah, blah.” Words, not actions.

What our biosphere will get is more chemicals poisoning the land and sea, more plastic waste, more cars, more roads, more forests chopped down, and more droughts...
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The Amazon Basin is responsible for around 15% of all fresh water discharged into the oceans and 13% of the planet’s biodiversity. But the rivers in the world’s largest tropical rainforest are drying up. Their waters have dropped to record lows this year.

This is all happening, scientists warn, at a point when the biome has lost 18% of its forest cover, reducing its capacity to absorb and store carbon. The Amazon is now approaching the point of no return, while global temperatures are set to break the annual heat record for the second consecutive year.
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FULL STORY -- sumauma.com/en/infografico-o-t…

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Blame Capitalism: for putting at risk not just your retirement savings but the entire fate of humanity.

theguardian.com/business/2024/…

#capitalism #neoliberalism #classwar #vulnerable #economics #bosses #workers #humanrights #environment #war #BlameCapitalism #livingwage #tax #taxburden #neoliberalism #trickledown #censorship #fossilfuels #mining #retirement

Private equity firms ploughing billions into fossil fuels, analysis reveals

US public sector workers’ retirement savings invested in projects that pump out a billion tonnes of emissions a year

^{Damien Gayle (The Guardian)}

great, use an unsustainable tool to improve that same unsustainable tool

wheresyoured.at/subprimeai/

#artificialIntelligence #AI #capitalism #money

The Subprime AI Crisis

None of what I write in this newsletter is about sowing doubt or "hating," but a sober evaluation of where we are today and where we may end up on the current path.

^{Edward Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)}

What oil companies say: "We can use carbon capture and storage technology to help save the climate! All we need is billions of dollars more in government subsidies every year."

But in fact the whole thing is a scam, because "almost 80% of all the CO₂ captured by existing CCS installations has been reinjected into oil fields – to pump more oil." 🤦‍♂️

LEARN MORE ➡️ theconversation.com/fix-the-cl…

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual