A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRESHOLD
“There’s a psychological threshold you cross when a threat you dismissed as vague and abstract suddenly becomes real. An existential threat is distant until it is much too close to ignore, then impossible to stop.”
We hear about the lived reality of the poor after a disaster. We see how, for instance, Hurricane Dorian devastated communities in the Bahamas. How it put the human dimensions of climate change at the front page of the news.
While at the same time the world grapples with the failure of governments to put into effect an action plan: “Climate change will have devastating consequences for people in poverty. Even under the best-case scenario, hundreds of millions will face food insecurity, forced migration, disease, and death. Climate change threatens the future of human rights and risks undoing the last fifty years of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction.” Human Rights Council
Now, how many of us are aware of how the rich take advantage of these disasters to carry out hidden agendas and enrich themselves? Yes, climate change will get worse and investors are betting on it: “As the U.S. grapples with a second straight year of record hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, a small but growing number of hedge funds, pension plans, and other investors are testing strategies to take advantage of those signs of climate change.” Bloomberg Businessweek
Environmental crises are economic crises. They are crises for human rights. Crises that happen while everyone believes in the illusion of free will: “Perversely, while people in poverty are responsible for just a fraction of global emissions, they will bear the brunt of climate change, and have the least capacity to protect themselves.” United Nations News
To survive, we cannot be so alienated from political power. We cannot be so alienated from wealth: “We risk a ‘climate apartheid’ scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the world is left to suffer.” United Nations News
If we want to fight against global warming, we need to fight against capitalism and its excessive consumption, its imperialist markets, and its ambition for infinite growth in a limited world: “This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.” https://globalclimatestrike.net
Yes, “we out.” Harriet Tubman
