If I look back in time to the year that I first started following the news, there hasn’t been one without some kind of ‘disaster’ story.
That is because indeed we have had disasters, but more often than not: the event happened, it was narrated with a big story that made first pages on newspapers ( giving some kind of hope that things were going to change) and then.. puff.. disappeared to leave space to the next political scandal or next disaster. Diseases, tzunamis, floodings, fires, wars, financial collapses..
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Just over a year ago an article came out highlighting the need to reconsider the money spent on military budgets , putting them instead towards more ‘realistic’ threats - like climate change . Now we find ourselves in a situation where war is again 'realistic' and threatening our very own backyards (still physically far but feeling close , with all of the economic implications hitting us hard already) and governments are increasing the military budgets. by a lot. While I am not here to discuss whether this is right or not, as I am by no means a geopolitical expert, I am here slightly baffled as to the near unanimity with which this was voted (at least in Italy). Showing that government cohesion on important themes is indeed possible. Then why is this not the same when it comes to interventions for climate action ? Why can’t governments get their acts really together ? This is a slightly provocative question as actually the answer is pretty straight forward to me : fighting the war means protecting the economy , fighting climate change means threatening the economy (at least the one with know)... Time to recognise that the climate is as much as an emergency as bombs and other weapons. Not to diminish the latter, but to reinforce that the former should be perceived as equally worrysome.,, I woke up this morning to another ‘not so good’ piece of news in my inbox highlighting the long term impacts the war will have on the climate.. I initially thought about making today's post about this... But no. I think we are having enough negative in our lives right now. Of course, one may say ‘ but we cannot go around like nothing is happening’ And I agree. But also.. I feel very impotent. And I see some call to actions, but also feeling very dubious of their usefulness. I mean. I could give money to someone on airbnb, help collect some food. But what will it do? Help one person ? One family? What about all the others…? I was going to write about this. But I don’t have enough info, I am in the same boat as many of you reading me, impotent and with no answers. So, I went instead looking for some glimmers of good news in my newsletters from the week, of little steps that we are taking in the right direction, to prompt us to do more and bigger one and keep to the path, or just some positive news or feel good articles. I struggled to find many (but actually I found this on ‘how to avoid drowning in an ocean of information..’ which may be useful ) but here are some.. (click on the title to read the full articles) It is impossible to ignore what is happening not so far from where I am writing, and it would feel a bit weird and definitely not right to have an uplifting post. I don't want to appear overly negative either, with prediction for the collapse of humanity I mean, a while ago I was thinking of writing a post about all the ways humanity could be wiped out, and somehow I wasn't even thinking about a giant nuclear explosion.... So today I opted for a different kind of post. I am taking inspiration from this video (which I suggest you to watch) and leave you some pieces that I found most interesting 11:40 : Everybody will suffer terribly. The military budget is going to increase. And this will be a classical arms race where of course it will not be a single increase. The budget now is at an all time low. If we increase it.. we will lose money for healthcare, education and fighting climate change... 30:50: this feels like the first truly interconnected war. Tanks, trenches.. but also cellphones, twitter, tick tock.. ? Surprisingly with all of this so much is not don't know. And yes there is so much information but lots of information is not truth. there is so much disinformation and fake news. Yet in the era of facebook and google, everybody is now building stonewalls - 32:01 Sitting at home in California and Austrialia and are actively participating in the war... Now the international brigade is sitting at home in San Francisco and is still part of the war... developing a volunteer cyber army. 40:00 Link to the climate crisis due to the dependency on oil and gas from Russia- can this be an accelerator for climate action. Can this be THE way to undermine Russia? Oil and gas are actually the basis for dictatorship... (because to enjoy the benefits of oil you don't need to share it with your people, you don't need education, you just need to drill ....) |
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