Bread and Circuses on Nostr: I don’t often quote directly from Twitter (for obvious reasons), but I really do ...
I don’t often quote directly from Twitter (for obvious reasons), but I really do want you to see this unrolled thread from George Monbiot.
He starts out by posting a link to a new scientific research paper which has this title: “Risks of synchronized low yields are underestimated in climate and crop model projections.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38906-7
Monbiot’s comment on the research paper is…
______________________________
Alarm bells should be ringing everywhere.
We seem to have underestimated the chance of climate breakdown causing simultaneous harvest failure in the world's major breadbaskets. It's an issue I’ve discussed before, but it appears much worse than we thought.
Global food system failure — can you imagine what that would look like? Think about it for a moment and you can't help wondering why the hell governments aren't urgently preparing for the worst.
______________________________
Then Monbiot shifts into an angry diatribe against Big Oil and Big Finance and Big Media, all of those who work tirelessly to maintain the status quo, to forestall system change, and thus enable the continued devastation of Earth’s biosphere…
______________________________
The forces of distraction and denial are more powerful than we are, mostly because they have thousands of times more money. It's a deadly combination of the ever-inventive manipulations of old industries resisting change, and the ever-inventive attention grabbing of social media.
They can hire as many junktanks ("thinktanks"), troll farms, marketing gurus, psychologists, and micro-targeters as they need to drag our eyes away from what counts and leave us talking about trivia and concocted bullshit instead. It's a refined art. They've got really good at it.
By comparison, we're all amateurs, doing our best with the limited resources and capacities we have, but simply outgunned. Oh, and demonized, demoralized, swamped by bots and trolls, abused, threatened... just for trying to sustain a fucking habitable planet.
It couldn't be more screwed up. All the power and resources being deployed to keep pushing us towards the edge, while the effort to prevent Earth systems collapse is led by people working mostly in their own time with a fraction of the capacity.
How will anyone explain this to those who are to come? To our children and grandchildren, to anyone who survives this shattering of the conditions of life? It's just not comprehensible. They won't believe it.
That we knew what we did and did much worse than nothing — that the most powerful forces in the land deployed their wealth and creativity TO STOP COLLAPSE FROM BEING PREVENTED.
How will anyone manage to believe that?
______________________________
LINK TO THREAD — https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1676505239740985344
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #Propaganda
He starts out by posting a link to a new scientific research paper which has this title: “Risks of synchronized low yields are underestimated in climate and crop model projections.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38906-7
Monbiot’s comment on the research paper is…
______________________________
Alarm bells should be ringing everywhere.
We seem to have underestimated the chance of climate breakdown causing simultaneous harvest failure in the world's major breadbaskets. It's an issue I’ve discussed before, but it appears much worse than we thought.
Global food system failure — can you imagine what that would look like? Think about it for a moment and you can't help wondering why the hell governments aren't urgently preparing for the worst.
______________________________
Then Monbiot shifts into an angry diatribe against Big Oil and Big Finance and Big Media, all of those who work tirelessly to maintain the status quo, to forestall system change, and thus enable the continued devastation of Earth’s biosphere…
______________________________
The forces of distraction and denial are more powerful than we are, mostly because they have thousands of times more money. It's a deadly combination of the ever-inventive manipulations of old industries resisting change, and the ever-inventive attention grabbing of social media.
They can hire as many junktanks ("thinktanks"), troll farms, marketing gurus, psychologists, and micro-targeters as they need to drag our eyes away from what counts and leave us talking about trivia and concocted bullshit instead. It's a refined art. They've got really good at it.
By comparison, we're all amateurs, doing our best with the limited resources and capacities we have, but simply outgunned. Oh, and demonized, demoralized, swamped by bots and trolls, abused, threatened... just for trying to sustain a fucking habitable planet.
It couldn't be more screwed up. All the power and resources being deployed to keep pushing us towards the edge, while the effort to prevent Earth systems collapse is led by people working mostly in their own time with a fraction of the capacity.
How will anyone explain this to those who are to come? To our children and grandchildren, to anyone who survives this shattering of the conditions of life? It's just not comprehensible. They won't believe it.
That we knew what we did and did much worse than nothing — that the most powerful forces in the land deployed their wealth and creativity TO STOP COLLAPSE FROM BEING PREVENTED.
How will anyone manage to believe that?
______________________________
LINK TO THREAD — https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1676505239740985344
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #Propaganda