on fire
(2019) by Naomi Klein.. on climate et al: https://naomiklein.org/on-fire/
For more than a decade, Naomi Klein has documented the movement of the climate crisis from future threat to a burning emergency. She has been among the first to make the case for what is now called the Green New Deal – a vision for transforming our economies to battle climate breakdown and rampant inequality at the same time. In our era of rising seas and rising hate, she argues that only this kind of bold, roots-up action has a chance of rousing us to fight for our lives while there is still time.
On Fire’s long-form essays, based on her extensive research and reporting, show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but as a spiritual and imaginative one as well. Delving into the clash between ecological time and our culture of “perpetual now”; the soaring history of rapid human change in the face of grave threats; rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of “climate barbarism” and more, this is a rousing call to transformation – and a dire warning about what awaits if we fail to act.
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part way thru intro.. this tweet
Peter Kalmus (@ClimateHuman) tweeted at 2:33 AM – 28 Nov 2019 :
a planet that’s not on fire is like the ONE thing all 7.7 billion of us should agree on (http://twitter.com/ClimateHuman/status/1199984610337161218?s=17)
but it’s not
let’s let go of the should‘s and listen deep\er for something 8b already share [ie: maté basic needs]
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notes/quotes (thanks library):
intro – we are the wildfire
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wherever in the world they live, this generation has something in common; they are the first for whom climate disruption on planetary scale is not a future threat, but a lived reality.. and not in a few unlucky hot spots, but on every single continent
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young people around the world are cracking open the heart of the climate crisis, speaking of a deep longing for a future they thought they had but that is disappearing w each day that adults fail to act on the reality that we are in an emergency
they never had that future.. just an illusion/promise of it.. we’ve been whales in sea world for an eternity..
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people w autism tend to be extremely literal and, as a result, often have trouble coping w cognitive dissonance, those gaps between what we know intellectually and what we do that are so pervasive in modern life.. many people on the autism spectrum are also less prone to imitating the social behaviors of the pope around them
greta.. higashida autism law.. et al
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at least now, in their own small ways, they were not pretending that everything was fine .. the most important change thunberg made, however, had nothin to do w eating and flying.. it had to do w finding a way to show the rest of the world that it was time to stop acting like everything was normal when normal would lead straight to catastrophe
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that’s how, at age 15, she decided to stop doing the one thing all kids are supposed to do when everything is normal: go to school to prepare for their futures as adults
deeper problem right there than with climate.. the supposed to’s.. of school/work.. making/perpetuating us all as whales in sea world
‘why’ greta wondered’ should we be studying for a future that soon may be no more when no one is doing anything whatsoever to save that future? and what is the point of learning facts in the school system when the most important facts given by the finest science of that same school system clearly means nothing to our politicians and our society’
facts? dang.. we’re so messed up we can’t even see.. this thinking will keep us spinning our wheels.. dang.. let go
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thunberg’s overarching demand is for humanity as a whole to do what she did in her own family and life: close the gap between what we know about he urgency of the climate crisis and how we behave.. the first stage is to name the emergency, because only once we are on emergency footing will we find the capacity to do what is requires..
the emergency/urgency.. is that we would wake up .. realize what is truly missing.. what truly needs to be our focus (as it could be.. via 2 conversations as infra).. focus on climate won’t get 8b people to wake up.. and what the world needs most: the energy of 8b alive people
mufleh humanity law: we have seen advances in every aspect of our lives except our humanity – Luma Mufleh
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in pat, this is because if we were to decide to take climate disruption seriously, pretty much every aspect of our econ would have to change, and there are many powerful interests that like things as they are
well.. not really.. no one really likes it.. (we just aren’t listening deep enough to hear that.. too busy pointing fingers in search of a cure)
sinclair perpetuation law.. much deeper than that.. like the reusable bag industry becoming worse than plastic bags.. we (helpers) are the cancer we’re trying to cure
and it most certainly doesn’t help that we are truing to navigate this civilizational crisis at a moment when some of the most brilliant minds of our time are devoting vast energies to figuring out ever more ingenious tools to keep us running around in digital circles in search of the next dopamine hit
unfortunately that includes author and subject.. go deeper.. if you really want.. and really think we need to.. leap.. aka: not part\ial.. for (blank)’s sake…
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‘i think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones, and the rest of the people are pretty strange’ thunberg has said.. adding that it helps not to be easily distracted or reassured by rationalizations..
living w autism is anything but easy – for most people, it ‘is *an endless fight against schools, workplaces, and bullies,. but under the right circumstances, **given the right adjustments it can be a superpower‘
*ie: realizing we’re not really whales in sea world
**yeah.. one that all of us have.. so .. let’s embrace unconditionality enough to do this first
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for a decade and a half.. since katrina.. i have been trying to figure out what is interfering humanity’s basic survival instinct – why so man of us aren’t actin lie our house is on fire when it so clearly is..
issue is that we keep going for defense/survival.. rather than cure/offense/alive-ness
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this book.. tracks my own attempt to probe a diff set of barriers.. some econ, some ideological, but others related to the deep stories about the right of certain people to dominate land and the people living closest to it..stories that underpin western culture.. the essays here return frequently to the kinds of responses that might succeed in toppling those narratives, ideologies, and econ interests, responses that weave seemingly disparate crises (econ, social, eco and demo) into *a common story of civilizational transformation. today that kind of bold vision increasingly goes under the banner of a ‘green new deal’
dang.. *a common story of civilizational transformation.. we need to let go of civilization ness
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pulling off this high speed pollution phaseout.. is not possible w singular technocratic approaches like carbon taxes.. rather, it requires deliberately and immediately changing how our societies produce energy, how we grow our food, how we move ourselves around, and how our buildings are constructed.. what is needed the report’s summary states in its first sentence, is ‘rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’
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many more people are beginning to grasp that the fight is not for some abstraction called ‘the earth’.. we are fighting for our lives. and we don’t have 12 yrs anymore; now we have only 11.. and soon it will be just 10
dang.. not a fight.. ugh
and we can get to a better world in 1 yr.. if we are brave enough to go deep enough
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(on the green new deal) the idea is a simple one: in the process of transforming the infra of our societies at the speed and scale that scientists have called for, humanity has a once in a century chance to fix and econ model that is failing the majority of people in multiple fronts..
the idea of a an econ model fails/compromises 100% of humanity on all fronts
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the green new deal’s roots up approach to the climate crisis is not itself new
actually/tragically/dangerously.. it’s not roots
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my book – this changes everything – explored this kind of holistic approach in depth
not holistic/deep enough
‘we need a marshall plan for the earth.. must mobilize financing and tech transfer on scales never seen before..’
let’s try/code money (any form of measuring/accounting) as the planned obsolescence
ie: ubi as temp placebo..
let go
we wasted the entire decade following that call w tinkering and denial, and we will never get back the wonders that are gone as a result .. or the lives and livelihoods destroyed because of it
we can do better.. let’s not wait.. let’s quit going part\ial.. for (blank)’s sake.. there’s a nother way
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that is no longer the case today (screaming into a political void).. there is now a bloc of politicians in the us, europe, and elsewhere, some just a decade older than the young climate activists in the streets, ready to translate the urgency of the climate crisis into policy, and to connect the dots among the multiple crises of our times..
(brilliant caring people.. aoc et al.. yeah.. but) that won’t happen if we keep insisting on policy ness.. that’s too much.. a distraction.. a cancer..
it doesn’t matter what the people are like.. if they’re focusing on the wrong thing.. let go
standing rock.. diem25.. et al
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where previous policies were minor tweaks to incentives that were designed to cause minimal disruption to the system, a green new deal approach is a major operating system upgrade, a plan to roll up our sleeves and actually get the job done. markets play a role in this vision, but markets are not the protagonists of this story – people are
people will never be alive if we don’t let go of market ness.. incentives.. money (any form of measuring/accounting).. cancerous to human being
let’s try this os: ie: cure ios city
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i have alway shad a tremendous sense of urgency about the need to shift to a dramatically more humane econ model.. but there is a diff quality to that urgency now because it just so happens that we are all alive at the last possible moment when changing course can mean saving lives on a truly unimaginable scale..
imagine deeper
none of this means that every climate policy must dismantle capitalism or else it should be dismissed (as some critics have absurdly claimed) we need every action possible to bring down emissions and we needs them now
then what we truly need is the energy of 8b alive people
the absurd thing is insisting we keep cancers (like policies) as our levers
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on history (new deal, ww2 mobilizations, marshall plan – getting more to use transit.. have vegie gardens).. each precedent has its own glaring weaknesses and contradictions..
of course.. what we need is not part\ial.. for (blank)’s sake…
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the ocasio-cortez/markey green new deal resolution goes to considerable lengths to outline how it plans to avoid repeating these injustices.. listing as one of its core goals ‘stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous, color, migrant, deindustrialized, depopulated, rural, poor, low income women, elderly, disabilities, youth..
this is wack a mole guys .. we can do better..
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in other words, we need something we’ve never tried,
indeed.. and what you’re describing is not that
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the message coming from the school strikes is that a great many young people are ready for this kind of deep change
change yes.. but we have to go deeper on the focus ie: maté basic needs rather than climate survival
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‘once you have done your hw’ greta thunberg says ‘you realize that we need new politics.. we need a new economics, where everything is based on our rapidly declining and extremely limited carbon budget.. but that is not enough.. we need a whole new way of thinking.. we must stop competing w each other. we need to start cooperating and sharing the remaining resources of this planet in a fair way’
let’s try augmenting our interconnectedness with 2 convers as infra via tech as it could be..
while just finished reading on angry people:
Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) tweeted at 4:08 AM on Fri, Nov 29, 2019:
“The world isn’t just getting hotter, it’s getting meaner, it’s getting nastier.” – @NaomiAKlein https://t.co/ztqGU6RWk3
(https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1200370995342823425?s=03)
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the bottom line is that an ecological crisis that has its roots in the overconsumption of natural resources must be addressed not just by improving the efficiency of our economies, but also by reducing the amount of material stuff that the wealthiest 20% of people on the planet consume
dang.. the root of the ecological crisis is much deeper than overconsumption.. it’s missing pieces.. it’s 8b people w holes.. trying to fill the holes with the wrong things.. and it’s all of us.. not just 20% of people.. it’s a distraction to try to point fingers
a great many job could be created this way
yeah.. jobs (ie: supposed to’s.. of school/work).. big part of the cancer
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on climate creating mistiming.. (out of sync w the natural)
begs holmgren indigenous law.. via 2 convers as infra
art (by day/light) and sleep (by night/dark) as re\set.. to fittingness
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if nothing else, this (pope courage not changing things) should be a reminder of the urgency of an intersectional approach to social and political change: if we pick and choose which urgent crises to take seriously, the end result will be an inability to effect change on any of them. only a fearless and holistic approach, which sacrifices no issue on the altar of any other, will deliver the deep transformation we need..
indeed.. go deeper.. ie: maté basic needs
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on the leap manifesto.. the backlash.. it was really just one line in the leap that caused most of the uproar, the one that said we can’t build anymore fossil fuel ‘infra that locks us into increased extraction decades into the future’.. the ‘no pipelines’ line
we need to go deeper .. we need to truly leap
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only when we have the courage to tell the truth about out old stories will the new stories arrive to guide us.. stories that recognize that the natural world and all its inhabitants have limits. stories that teach us how to care for each other and regen life w/in those limits. stories that put an end to the myth of endlessness once and for all
rather.. we need less stories/talk.. and more listening.. to what’s already in each heart.. everyday.. that’s the leap we need.. the leap each soul already craves.. and doesn’t need trained (ie: told a story) for
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rinaldo walcott: ‘when it comes to climate action, it’s abundantly clear that we will not build the power necessary to win unless we embed justice – particularly racial but also gender and econ justice – at the center of our low carbon policies’.. those of us who talk about peace, justice, and equality must rise to that challenge
we won’t get there with policies.. with winning/losing mindset.. perhaps rather than rising to a challenge.. we need a means for all of us to go deeper
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crabapple suggested doing a film on the green new deal w aoc as the narrator and herself as illustrator.. . the question was.. how do we tell the story of something that hasn’t happened yet.. the biggest obstacle to he kind of transformative change that the green new deal envisions is not that people fail to understand what is being proposed (though there is certainly plenty of misinfo floating around) it’s that so many are convinced that humanity could never pull of something at this scale and speed. and a whole lot of people have come to believe that dystopia is a foregone conclusion
yeah that.. but go deeper.. ie: three ship ables
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be you. 