God help us. I don’t write that about wars or poverty or power. They can all be repaired over time. They are social matters. They hurt people but society continues, somehow, despite grievous harm to many. But I write for climate and that’s a matter of physics. Drill baby drill is a recipe for burn baby burn and flood baby flood and more. We hit tipping points in the climate and we lose control. As I write this, BBC is reporting that this year is the first to breech the 1.5degC barrier. We can repair Japanese cities after nuclear bombs, but we can’t repair Earth after climate tipping points, or at least not for thousands or millions of years. This is an existential danger and scientifically-accepted fact. So I fear for our world. But we must understand why Trump won. The short term economics of Covid, the longer term economics of neo-liberalism, the local poverty of globalisation, the lost hope of financialisation of property and more, the unfairness of this winner take all approach. And local matters like meekness, media, failed decision making. The issue, though, is whether Trump will actually improve things for the very people who voted for him. It may be emotionally satisfying to hear his rants but who will win? The huge industries? The billionaires? And how does he go about his changes? Legally? Violently? Justly? But the losers must see their failures and blindnesses and unreasonablenesses. Recognise their extremes (in identity, but more), state their purposes and argue strongly and convince. Rail against weaknesses and failures and unfairnesses. They too have work to do. But perhaps it won’t matter with such a conception of a free world? And maybe those tipping points will come even quicker than our new expectations expect. And maybe the very structure of democracy is about to be dismantled. Dangerous and distressing times.
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