Blind Spots in the Climate Movement
www.resilience.org
In the media and in activist circles, Climate Change is generally presented as a problem with one cause—carbon emissions—and one solution: a “green energy transition.” But this narrative is far too narrow, and unless we expand our collective perspective and responses, the already grievous consequences will worsen.

A very long essay, but I think worth a read - for solarpunks especially - even if you end up disagreeing with the anti-growth and anti-renewables conclusion.

Tldr: the first blind spot is that land disturbance (such as, for example, turning forests into agricultural land) is the “other leg” of climate change: it disrupts the water cycle, making some areas drier and some areas wetter, leading to, eg, crop failures and natural disasters.

Why don’t we hear more about land disturbance as the other leg of climate change? Because capitalism demands growth. Capitalism can “solve” emissions with “green growth” - replacing old fossil fuel power plants with shiny new solar panels, and making a bunch of companies and developers richer in the process. But capitalism can’t make more land. It can’t solve the land disturbance problem by growing - it can only solve it by not growing. And that capitalism cannot do.

And the second blind spot is the tremendous ecological, environmental, and human harm done by the capitalist growth of “renewable” energy - from the slave children digging rare earths in the Congo to the pristine deserts paved over for giant solar projects. But because we are so single-mindedly focused on cutting emissions, we think “at least renewable energy doesn’t produce carbon dioxide, so that’s better, right?” And we put a nice green coat of paint on the world-destroying von Neumann machines of capitalism.

So what’s the solution?

That being said, personally I propose: Let’s start with the goal of no new energy infrastructure whatsoever from any source, make do with what we have now, and shut down infrastructure from there as we eliminate frivolous use. This is an attainable goal. What are examples of frivolous use? Here’s a few candidates: AI, next day shipping, cheap plastic shit from China, cut flowers imported from South America on airplanes, perishable food shipped halfway around the world, commercial air travel, weed-free mown lawns, streaming movies and music, fast fashion, video game consoles, big screen TVs, f’ing single-use coffee pods, and the list goes on and on and on.