Chris Till

Tag: Politics

  • What I would do tomorrow if I was in charge

    After the last post where I talked about how much it feels like what we’re doing now is leading us straight to extinction; I thought I would indulge myself and come up with a list of things I would do immediately if I was in charge of the country (and assuming every other country was led by someone with exactly the same ideals). In the process show any doubters that I am in fact positive about the future. Just one where we make massive changes; rather than one where we waste precious time tinkering around the edges of our disastrous current system.

    Rather than write a lot about each policy idea, I just want to simply lay out the basics of my plan, and perhaps go into more detail in future. Especially on topics I haven’t previously covered.

    • End capitalism
    • Nationalise all essential industries, and shut down all businesses that don’t bring a clear benefit to society.
    • Bring in a universal income so work is optional and only for the benefit of society as a whole; not for individual gain.
    • Ban all new and begin rapid phaseout of existing fossil fuel infrastructure
    • Implement the MEER Reflection Framework, Marine Cloud Brightening, Ocean Pasture Restoration, and other Geoengineering / solar radiation management techniques.
    • Tax the rich 99% (everyone lives the same way)
    • Ban all unsustainable building materials
    • Ban private cars for everyone except for those who couldn’t live without one today (disabled etc). Begin rapid phaseout of diesel taxis and the small number of private cars that will remain in favour of EVs.
    • End deforestation and give back vast areas of grazing land to nature.
    • Ban all cryptocurrencies, mining, NFTs etc.
    • Ban pesticides
    • Ban meat production
    • Ban all new road, airport, port, and other developments intended to increase trade and GDP.
    • Ban all new single family homes, luxury apartments and mansions, and begin the process of converting existing large homes into many tiny apartments or buildings for other societal purposes.
    • Ban landlords
    • Begin rapid phaseout of fossil fuelled vans, trucks etc. Aim to replace most vans with cargo bikes. Demand for vans and trucks will drop due to massively reduced consumption levels.
    • Ban private jets, super-yachts and all other privately owned luxury transport.
    • Ban second homes
    • Severely restrict flying. Mandate that people may only take one return flight per year, regardless of wealth. Only holidays, visiting family, moving overseas permitted. Business travel by air banned.
    • Mandate that ground transport must be used for all trips where the destination can be reached within about 24-36 hours. Air travel only when absolutely essential.
    • Immediately invest massively in public transport, bicycle parking, and begin the phaseout of diesel buses, coaches, trains.
    • Immediately begin phasing out plastic and mandating the use of reusable containers and schemes to return them to shops for reuse.

    I could probably go on endlessly listing more and more things, but I think this covers a lot of bases. Imagine a real politician coming in day one and doing all of this. It would be incredible compared to everything we’re used to. But we shouldn’t forget that what I’m talking about here isn’t some crazy nonsense. What politicians do right now is pure insanity. What I’m proposing is entirely logical and urgently necessary. The people talking about net zero 2050 are the crazy ones.

  • Electoral Politics Don’t Matter Any More

    Even if the Greens or similar left-wing parties win the next election in every single country around the world (which unfortunately isn’t going to happen), it still wouldn’t be enough to give humanity a chance of survival. The climate crisis is far too advanced for that.

    What we need is an immediate change to the way societies are run, and that is impossible within the political and economic systems that currently govern our lives no matter where we live. It can only happen now through protest, strikes, and generally refusing to live the way society wants us to.

    An example of how useless electoral politics now are is in Japan, where there is a higher chance a far-right nationalist leader will be the new PM than the centre-left CDP forming a government. And there is zero chance of any left-wing party making any real impact.

    Recently, we’ve been seeing record job vacancies and employers struggling to attract workers back. People have realised that they are endlessly disrespected with slave wages and poor conditions. They’re sick of it and they want to get off the hamster wheel. And this is exactly what we need; the people to hit the elites where it hurts. Once the ruling class of mostly boomers realise that the game is up (no matter how much they attempt to rig democracy), they’ll escape in the life rafts. We’ll be left with a sinking capitalist ship, but at least we’ll have a chance to swim to the eco-communist island. But it has to happen in the next year or so for it to be salvageable. If we wait another 4 or 5 years for the next elections, it will be too late. Especially because it doesn’t seem likely that the right kind of parties would win even then.

  • The Loud Minority Aren’t the Problem, the Quiet Majority Are

    The other even smaller minority that desperately needs to be heard.

    Most people want bike infrastructure and a green recovery, but the loud minority don’t. And they’re the ones that always get listened to. And not only that, the nice people even assume that most people disagreed with them. The tiny minority of sociopaths dictate the narrative in the media and the direction society takes.

    I keep hearing this type of thing. Greta posted a while ago when I first started writing this blog saying that climate deniers are no longer the issue. The problem is with “general ignoring and belittling of the climate emergency”. And it’s no less true a year later.

    This is becoming increasingly obvious as a problem in almost every aspect of society. The bad people run the show and the good people let them. I don’t believe for a second that there are more climate deniers in this country than people who care deeply about protecting our future. I mean why would you want to hurt your own future and that of your children and the rest of the future generations?

    Same with politics. I can’t imagine that there are more people in this country that when fully informed would choose to vote for Boris Johnson over Jeremy Corbyn. The reasons they didn’t were that many of the good people were either not paying attention, or they were tricked by the media and the evil people who want nothing to change.

    The only way we can move forward is to ignore these people and get everyone else properly informed. People like Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage will never have an epiphany and change direction, or admit what they’ve done was wrong. They will continue all the way to us roasting, drowning or starving to death in the climate chaos to come.

    If we’re to have any chance for a better future, the quiet majority need to get the fuck informed and engaged. And fast.

  • Does Trump Matter?

    At first, I was so angry every time he undid a climate or energy regulation. But as time has gone on, it’s become clear to me that it really doesn’t matter what he and his cabinet of fools does. Not to mention, it’s practically a never-ending process which is still relentlessly continuing until every law is repealed. This week’s energy week (aka fossil fuel week) is a prime example.

    Coal is on the way out, gas and oil are soon to follow, with renewable energy in the ascendancy. He can only slow down the transitional process, but really, when the rest of the world are so united, and he is showing himself more and more to be living in the past, he will just look increasingly delusional, even to the people who voted for him.

    A huge number of cities in the US and around the world have pledged to stick to the terms of the Paris Agreement, and even step up efforts further. That is great news of course. But even beyond this, there has to be a point in the near future where the rest of the country say enough is enough and force the hand of Trump to do what’s right and keep the US competitive economically. Tesla will of course help to keep them competitive in the green economy regardless. But whether or not they can do it by themselves really depends on how quickly they can scale up both their car and solar / storage businesses.

    At this point, it seems inevitable that we’re on the cusp of a huge swing towards the left in politics in major economies around the world. I could be wrong, but the tide definitely seems to finally be turning away from the right and far right. People are seeing what Trump and Brexit meant, and they fought back. They pushed back in France, The Netherlands and the UK in the general election where Theresa May didn’t lose and lost big at the same time.

    Don’t get too angry about Trump like I and many others have been. Still bring attention to his moronic, trolling policies, but don’t get too stressed about it. Focus on the positives and do what you personally can to make an impact. All he can do is slow things down, and to be honest, the way things are going, I don’t think he can even do that very successfully. I take everything personally as an insult to me. But if I just remember that it’s not my fault and Trump and his team of idiots are the ones who are going to be a laughing stock in years to come (not that they aren’t already, but you know what I mean), it makes me feel a lot better.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started