Today has been truly terrible. The waves of pain that are about to ripple out into the people is unfathomable. The destruction of the planet—heart breaking. But. I have this feeling that darkness thrives on us giving up. Feeling hopeless. Shutting down. Withdrawing from each other. I think the antidote is in our connections to each other. In our continued acts of caring for the collective. And it is hard. These blows are so relentless it is easy to give up. I am grateful you wrote today’s essay. Grateful for all the comments. We are not alone and we will keep on going.
Everything passes. It's inevitable. That includes this regime. It seems hopeless right now, but all empires and fascist governments fall. They get complacent and increasingly stupid and insular, and they eventually fuck up. Patience is truly a virtue, and we need to be patient. In the meantime, people need to simplify their lives to make it easier to find some peace, review and simplify their financial lives (economic collapse is possible, so extricating as much as possible from the economy might be useful--e.g., pay off debts as much as possible, get rid of credit cards, buy little and only essentials if possible, rethink all the subscriptions, etc.), connect with others who are not insane, prepare for emergencies that MAGA will be in denial of...
Thank you, Bill, for continuing to muster the energy--in the face of considerable despair--to keep churning out solid commentary and motivation to fight the climate crisis. I, for one, really appreciate it.
“of course ethanol (earth’s dumbest energy source) does great” —
Ethanol is not an energy source any more than Hydrogen is.
Ethanol is a system for laundering fossil fuels into private profits and the poisoning of waterways throughout the Midwest and the Gulf of Mexico with excess nitrogen from all the fossil fuels based fertilizers poured on the corn to be harvested and processed with fossil fuels into alcohol in order to keep America chained to the infernal combustion engine and to delay replacement of the vehicle fleet with electrics.
When you buy a deceptive framing, it’s hard for even the best arguments to win. If you let the grifters convince you to refer to ethanol as an energy source, you’re conceding half the battle.
If you add it up, this is all an effort to keep America precisely where it is now. It’s the Make America Immobile Act. Trump is doing his best to freeze things in place: on behalf of oil companies that want to keep pumping oil, on behalf of automakers that want to keep churning out SUVs. That depends, among other things, on shutting down research at universities, because they keep coming up with things that point us in a different direction, be it temperature readings demonstrating climate change or new batteries that enable entirely different technologies. If America lived alone on this planet that would be truly terrible; luckily for everyone else, there are other places (China, and the EU) that are not making the same set of stupid decisions. But if this stands it will kill the future for America.
It will also, of course, kill the present. I’m not bothering to talk about the deep cruelty of the Medicaid cuts (and the fact that they will destroy America’s rural hospital system). There’s also the not-small matter of the intense attacks on transgender people the bill contains. And I won’t bother gassing on about the utter grossness of handing over yet more money to the richest among us. (The top 0.1% of earners gain $390,000 a year on average, while Americans making less than $17,000 lose on average about $1,000. This is, among other things, Christianity in reverse).
There have also been stories about communities in the south that have experienced economic comeback because of the IRA, and now this will end. Stupidity and cruelty is Beyond understanding.
This is so dark. I can feel your despair. I know you’ve been through the fire before so I have confidence that you’ll find a way through this time. We all will. Because it’s our only choice. Thanks for the links for action. Take care.
I’ve become convinced that the reparable and resilient responses to this rape and pillage of US will be overwhelmed by the irreparable national snd international DAMAGE that push Societies and Economies over the tipping point brink and civilization won’t survive the chaos and conflict to suffer the worst Earth Systems tipping points.
This is not the world I want to give to my children. These are the seeds of destruction, inequity, tyranny. I know we have it in us to bestow graciousness, compassion, justice... I know however dark it seems right now we must and will lift eachother up to the light, we will claw our way out of this madness and the light of the world to come will blind the monsters that tried to shut it away. Not one without pain, or human error, but one where we are all free to be what we are; stewards and children of the earth. I still believe in the triumph of a brighter future.
Heinous. Why? Superwealth for the few. Suffering for the masses. I hope EU countries take their strengths and run with them, right over the US to make the world better.
"these are the days, these are the strangest of all
these are the nights, these are the darkest to fall"
MAGA is all about rushing to the Rapture, when their god will bring paradise, or maybe just deeply deluded people running off a cliff. But we don't have to make that choice for ourselves. The future will be very different, but not so different we can't change to meet it. The best way to resist is to build something different.
Managed to get the link wrong for Amory Lovins' essay--it's fixed now, but for anyone seeking it out https://integrative-design-for-radical-energy-efficiency.stanford.edu/amory-lovins
Thank you for assembling the bad news, Bill. It's hard and heavy work, but needed and ultimately helpful to us all.
In my academic corner of the world, people are too terrified to do or say much about climate.
Today has been truly terrible. The waves of pain that are about to ripple out into the people is unfathomable. The destruction of the planet—heart breaking. But. I have this feeling that darkness thrives on us giving up. Feeling hopeless. Shutting down. Withdrawing from each other. I think the antidote is in our connections to each other. In our continued acts of caring for the collective. And it is hard. These blows are so relentless it is easy to give up. I am grateful you wrote today’s essay. Grateful for all the comments. We are not alone and we will keep on going.
Everything passes. It's inevitable. That includes this regime. It seems hopeless right now, but all empires and fascist governments fall. They get complacent and increasingly stupid and insular, and they eventually fuck up. Patience is truly a virtue, and we need to be patient. In the meantime, people need to simplify their lives to make it easier to find some peace, review and simplify their financial lives (economic collapse is possible, so extricating as much as possible from the economy might be useful--e.g., pay off debts as much as possible, get rid of credit cards, buy little and only essentials if possible, rethink all the subscriptions, etc.), connect with others who are not insane, prepare for emergencies that MAGA will be in denial of...
Thank you, Bill, for continuing to muster the energy--in the face of considerable despair--to keep churning out solid commentary and motivation to fight the climate crisis. I, for one, really appreciate it.
In my own way, I'm doing the same for the unprecedented attacks on our nation's public lands: https://noonatthepark.substack.com/p/national-parks-are-not-safe
“of course ethanol (earth’s dumbest energy source) does great” —
Ethanol is not an energy source any more than Hydrogen is.
Ethanol is a system for laundering fossil fuels into private profits and the poisoning of waterways throughout the Midwest and the Gulf of Mexico with excess nitrogen from all the fossil fuels based fertilizers poured on the corn to be harvested and processed with fossil fuels into alcohol in order to keep America chained to the infernal combustion engine and to delay replacement of the vehicle fleet with electrics.
When you buy a deceptive framing, it’s hard for even the best arguments to win. If you let the grifters convince you to refer to ethanol as an energy source, you’re conceding half the battle.
If you add it up, this is all an effort to keep America precisely where it is now. It’s the Make America Immobile Act. Trump is doing his best to freeze things in place: on behalf of oil companies that want to keep pumping oil, on behalf of automakers that want to keep churning out SUVs. That depends, among other things, on shutting down research at universities, because they keep coming up with things that point us in a different direction, be it temperature readings demonstrating climate change or new batteries that enable entirely different technologies. If America lived alone on this planet that would be truly terrible; luckily for everyone else, there are other places (China, and the EU) that are not making the same set of stupid decisions. But if this stands it will kill the future for America.
It will also, of course, kill the present. I’m not bothering to talk about the deep cruelty of the Medicaid cuts (and the fact that they will destroy America’s rural hospital system). There’s also the not-small matter of the intense attacks on transgender people the bill contains. And I won’t bother gassing on about the utter grossness of handing over yet more money to the richest among us. (The top 0.1% of earners gain $390,000 a year on average, while Americans making less than $17,000 lose on average about $1,000. This is, among other things, Christianity in reverse).
There have also been stories about communities in the south that have experienced economic comeback because of the IRA, and now this will end. Stupidity and cruelty is Beyond understanding.
This is so dark. I can feel your despair. I know you’ve been through the fire before so I have confidence that you’ll find a way through this time. We all will. Because it’s our only choice. Thanks for the links for action. Take care.
It’s a shame when the party in power needed to do all of this in two midnight sessions. They are clearly afraid of a debate in the daylight.
I’ve become convinced that the reparable and resilient responses to this rape and pillage of US will be overwhelmed by the irreparable national snd international DAMAGE that push Societies and Economies over the tipping point brink and civilization won’t survive the chaos and conflict to suffer the worst Earth Systems tipping points.
This is not the world I want to give to my children. These are the seeds of destruction, inequity, tyranny. I know we have it in us to bestow graciousness, compassion, justice... I know however dark it seems right now we must and will lift eachother up to the light, we will claw our way out of this madness and the light of the world to come will blind the monsters that tried to shut it away. Not one without pain, or human error, but one where we are all free to be what we are; stewards and children of the earth. I still believe in the triumph of a brighter future.
Bill, you are the best… Sandy
Heinous. Why? Superwealth for the few. Suffering for the masses. I hope EU countries take their strengths and run with them, right over the US to make the world better.
As David Bowie sang
"these are the days, these are the strangest of all
these are the nights, these are the darkest to fall"
MAGA is all about rushing to the Rapture, when their god will bring paradise, or maybe just deeply deluded people running off a cliff. But we don't have to make that choice for ourselves. The future will be very different, but not so different we can't change to meet it. The best way to resist is to build something different.
I live in Alabama. What chance do you think there is that Tommy Tuberville or Katie Britt are going to oppose anything baby Donald wants?
🤯