- Blasted Peruvian uplands, ploughed up and burned for superfood maca.
Those who visit this blog know how concerned I am about climate change, and the psychology of human denial of the urgency of approaching catastrophe.
Our 32-year-old son Alastair is now on a kind of retreat in Peru, where we as parents were ourselves recently doing much the same – and where, as picture illustrates, we saw close-up the devastation we humans wreak wherever we go.
So, here – cross-posted from Facebook – are Alastair’s urgent musings on climate change and survival, which I thought were well worth a wider airing.
(I’ve just toned down some of his expletives, but look forward to responses…)
“So, here’s a question.
If we’re f***ed with climate change if we don’t start reducing our economic activity so that emissions can drop at never-before-achieved rates…. how do we do that without huge numbers of people losing their jobs and livelihoods and therefore their ability to feed themselves and their families?
In all the debates around climate change and how politicians and governments aren’t doing enough, I’ve literally never heard anyone ask this question, let alone answer it.
The science is absolutely clear; we need to reduce the rampant churn of resource consumption dictated by our current economic system.
But if the question of how people feed themselves – realistically, right now, today – if that question isn’t asked, let alone answered, how can we possibly make any coherent yet rapid move on this issue? Either via capital-P Politics or via local direct community organisation.
