Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Wall Street to Earth: ‘We don’t mind and you don’t matter’

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, September 30, 2013

Wall Street to Earth: ‘We don’t mind and you don’t matter’

Click here to access article by Chris Williams from Climate & Capitalism.

On Friday, the 27th of September, knowing that the IPCC report was to be released the author anxiously awaited the opening of the stock market to see what effect it would have on the fossil fuel related stocks.

...the overwhelming majority of oil, coal and gas reserves can never be fracked, drilled or mined, even though they are worth trillions of dollars on the balance sheets of those corporations. A suitably devastating prognosis for corporate survival that it would surely have to be reflected in market valuations the second the IPCC report went public.

Of course, that is not what happened.

In a nutshell: capitalism and a healthy ecosystem are incompatible, and capitalism will always take priority with the wealth and power addicted ruling class. The author provides all the troubling, but realistic details; and explains why it is up to us to make the necessary changes.