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The Greens are right to point out to the history-impaired Dembots who suddenly have discovered the notion of a “Green New Deal” that the Green Party was touting it earlier. Of course it’s not a new idea at all, on the contrary it’s a hoary old theme. I think I first heard of it from Tom Friedman of all people, well over ten years ago, and I’m sure it wasn’t new then.
The Greens also are right that their public-oriented version is sound in a way that the fake “market”-oriented Democrat version is not.
But I don’t care who was there with this idea before whom, nor do I care which version is more superficially socialist. What’s more important is that the idea itself is a scam; that’s why the Democrat Party can embrace it, and why it so instinctively appeals to Dembots, and also to constructive critic, loyal opposition types like the Greens. It perpetuates the same anti-ecological onslaught under the fraudulent guise of ending this onslaught. As part of the general assault of the productionist cancer (“growth”) economy it’s part of the problem and cannot be part of the solution, since the solution can only be to end the assault, period.
As for the climate crisis, there’s one and only one way to avert the worst:
Stop industrial-level emissions; stop destroying sinks; rebuild sinks.
Anything else, including the pro-industrial “Green New Deal” meme, is a lie. The Paris babblers still fetishize 2 degrees Celsius as their red line; meanwhile the last time the atmospheric carbon concentration was above 400PPM global temperatures were 5-10 degrees higher than the present. So that amount of rise is already baked in; it’ll just take time for temperatures to catch up to the radical ahistorical speed of the atmospheric concentration.
And as we see, literally no one who’s part of the political class, including the UNFCCC-Kyoto-Paris crew, including climate scientists, including the Democrat Party and its “DSA” astroturf, has any intention whatsoever of ending industrial emissions, ending the destruction of sinks, or of committing to a global grassroots-based rebuilding of sinks. Nowhere are any of those necessary steps on the agenda at all, only the same old destruction, the same old death march of production and consumption, both of which boil down to nothing but destruction, waste, and pollution. (Including the social pollution of wealth and power accumulation, every bit as toxic as dioxin accumulation in the physical tissues, and ultimately every bit as much a biological war; the two modes of total war are inextricable.)
But as they say, when you’re in a hole, keep digging and blasting, just paint your shovel and sticks of dynamite green. “The American way of life is non-negotiable. Therefore the solution to ecological crises can only be More Capitalism. Keep Shopping! And Keep Driving.” That’s the necrotic essence of the “green new deal”.
So our climate heroes have no intention of holding any line at 2 degrees – that’s just temporary political theater. Nor are they satisfied with the 5-10 degrees already baked in. No, they join hands with their “conservative”, de jure denier counterparts in their determination to continue emitting and continue destroying. The real magic number of the ultimate global heating, for every apostle of the economic civilization, is far higher than 10 degrees Celsius. And since the accelerating warming will bring the great methane surges and other feedbacks, this ardently yearned-for heat surge may come much. much sooner than anyone in their system expects. They’ll get their Utopia of flame and die in ecstasy.
Volatility 