Frogs in a pot

For two days I've been reading "This Changes Everything" by Naomi Klein. It echoes the message of "Carbon Democracy" that the oil majors are in control and we are basically screwed. She uses the frogs-in-a-pot analogy--where the water heats up so incrementally that we lose the ability to jump out to save ourselves. In my climate change class, I learned that the scientific consensus is the earth can heat up no more than 2 degrees celsius (3.9F) before all bets are off re. rising sea levels, disappearing cities, mass species die offs, and other dystopian scenarios. We have already used up 0.9 of those two degrees. Our current trajectory dictates a rise of 4-to-6 degrees. She assesses why, in the face of overwhelming evidence, we and our leaders do nothing:

"The real reason we are failing to rise to the climate moment is because the actions required directly challenge our reigning economic paradigm (deregulated capitalism combined with public austerity), the stories on which Western cultures are founded (that we stand apart from nature and can outsmart its limits), as well as many of the activities that form our identities and define our communities (shopping, living virtually, shopping some more).” And one more thing, the richest and most powerful industry the world has ever known (oil) must die. As oil dries up, Exxon et al. are fracking gas out of shale, boiling oil out of tar sands, and plunging ever deeper into the sea bed in search of a few more gallons, like some frenzied crack head. These extraction methods are far more polluting than pumping conventional oil, partly due to the amount of methane gas released. So Big Oil has been doubling down on its carbon bet at a time when we need to leave carbon in the ground--the atmosphere can't absorb much more without heating past the tipping point.

You can see how this kind of reading is disturbing, even as I reconcile myself to the idea of hundreds of bonfires being lit on 11 July, a night of massive pollution designed only to terrorise Catholics in nearby neighbourhoods.

As you can see, these aren't little fires.

One more.

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