The earth has experienced as many as 5 previous mass extinctions, the 5th being 65 million years ago, and was caused by a large comet or meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, then the Earth’s dominant species. We are now deep into the 6th, with the human race on its agenda both for mass extinction and for being the primary cause. Our current mass extinctions are caused solely by homo sapiens and threatens all life on earth in one way or another. It has already wiped-out hundreds of species.
‘All In’ on Fossil Fuels
The situation today can be compared to the popular playing card game, Texas Hold’em. Industrialization’s successful development was always firmly tied to fossil fuels like coal, petroleum (gasoline), and natural gas. Combined with the driving forces of market capitalism, continued planetary development has gone ‘all in” on these fuel sources. The predicted climatic disasters have not only been confirmed by weather science, they are also happening right before our very eyes at regular intervals. And mostly ignored or denied by the major oil producing nations.
Capitalist development results in many perpetual problems. The universal goal of increasing profits by any means necessary has spawned many of these continuous, self-created ones such as generational poverty and unemployment, to name just two. Along with a huge incentive to spend as little as possible on eliminating the toxicity, pollution and the massive environmental destruction created to produce its products.
Now it’s debatable for exactly how many years the oil industries and their own scientists have known the effect of the fossil industry on the atmosphere and climate, but it’s probably very long. Modern understandings of climate go back as early as the1820s, when French mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier proposed that energy reaching the planet as sunlight must be balanced by energy returning to space since heated surfaces emit radiation. But some of that energy, he reasoned, must be held within the atmosphere and not return to space, keeping Earth warm. Even earlier understandings were made by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians who believed that trees and plants influenced climate and temperature. To deny global warming is to deny both science and basic common sense.
Historic Failures
In any case, both the fossil fuel industries and the industrialized capitalist system they largely supported were incapable of even considering to gradually begin acting in the national and global interest and instead actively discouraged such actions. Fossil fuel was power, the ultimate power for many nations that were in competition or at war with each other and they were not about to act in any other way, even when the process was understood more fundamentally and scientifically.
Education, Knowledge, Science
and the Preservation of Truth
Virtually every government in the world is incapable of telling the complete truth, some putting out nothing but outrageous mega-lies. That’s because the wealthy and powerful elites created by our now global capitalist systems have reason to fear trying to justify their own extreme privileges and the many problems they have created for the exploited and for the planet. The real truths and consequences must be concealed by lies, racism, socially divisive and hateful propaganda, fear mongering, religious mysticism, and even greater lies.
Human history is dominated by a cultural monopoly of the elites that does not hesitate to use deadly force, wars, terrorism, imprisonment and torture. The ignorance and divisions among the exploited majority must be maintained at all costs. Truth, knowledge and objective science threaten that control.
Science Offers Hope
Science potentially offers remedies to combat the many problems we face. But turning science towards such goals requires dramatic changes in social and political life. We are in desperate need of ways to counter global warming which is, as was said, mainly caused by the current engines of industrial society. Other forms of energy are known, yet still are dramatically underused due to the fossil fuel virtual dictatorship.
Also needed are new discoveries for ways to neutralize existing greenhouse gases on a massive scale. Changes in the levels of these gases have been produced in a geological blink of an eye, with biological life and civilization having little chance to adapt to it. Even greater switching to alternative energy sources is not going to have an immediate effect and make take hundreds of years to make a significant difference. We need something now to help bring down those levels. Without something as yet undiscovered the oceans will continue to rise and the climate will rapidly change, spawning floods and droughts and torpedoing the water and food supply.
The Importance of Activism and Hope
I hesitate to write such articles because of the way so many of us appear to be discouraged by such news. We often, myself included, drift into a state of denial, withdrawal or resignation. Which are states far too many of us in America seem to be in. It appears too much to digest or even consider as possible, hence the tendency for each one of us to become overwhelmed and bury ourselves in the moment. Problem is, the moment has arrived, and things will only get worse if we do nothing.
At such times we have to collect ourselves and dedicate our lives to the struggle to prevent victory for both fascism and the global warming deniers as they are typically one and the same. Here and in other parts of the world. But the absolute worst thing we can do is nothing and resign ourselves and future generations to the death and suffering that will surely follow doing nothing or not enough.
A Return to the Dark Ages?
The ruling oil producing countries are not leveling with us. In fact, they have as yet no answers or desire to tackle the problem in a way that it demands. Instead, they offer us a return to the dark ages of ignorance. That will not, of course, alter our fate.
Is there a Strategy to Make Global Warming a National Priority?
Yes, but it’s not a conventional one. Planetary climatic catastrophes have arrived. But few governments are willing to sound the alarm the crisis deserves. One reason is that the tenacles of fossil fuel power are deeply ingrained in the global capitalist system. I’m 100% sure that most governments have been briefed on the possible consequences in the coming years. It is not a pretty picture, largely brought on by decades of inaction. Major industrial countries, especially powerful oil producing and consuming ones like us, are most responsible for the disasters that are coming. The elites behind them are concentrating on protecting their own butts as much as possible. Governments so far have shown little willingness to change or commit the major resources the crisis merits.
Youth Are Key
Biden, it can be argued, has done some positive things in response to climate change. Voting for 2024 is therefore critical but not nearly enough. Biden’s abilities are limited by the politics behind the crisis, as just pointed out. As are all politicians in virtually every country that has made major contributions to worsening the problem. Our young people will be facing much worse conditions than we now face. It will then be their world and futures that we have ruined.
They must be reached in large numbers, as during the Vietnam War, and put uncompromising pressure on the political and upper classes to act and commit billions and eventually trillions to both alternative energy sources and ways to lessen the current levels of greenhouse gases. Without some breakthroughs in the latter area, global collapses of industrial civilizations are on the future planetary agenda.
Billions will be pushed out of their climate niche by 2030 from rising temperatures.
Top 6 ways to suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.