Midterm

 Me: Do you think the 'human game has begun to play itself out,' or do you believe we will avert the worst imaginable outcomes of climate change in the century ahead? 

Jahren: All species will go extinct, eventually, even our own: it is one of nature's few imperatives. (161)

Me: Agreed.

McKibben: Well, it’s not exactly like this is our first rodeo with big issues, right?

Me: Go on.

McKibben: Rome fell, and something else rose. The Fertile Crescent turned into desert, but we found other places to grow out food… and we keep transcending one limit after another. (15)

Me: So…. are you saying that we are overreacting about climate change? 

McKibben: No. An interconnected world is different. (14) 

Jahren: During the last five decades, global fossil fuel use has nearly tripled. (104)

McKibben: since 2000, more than a dozen U.S. states have reported the largest wildfires in their recorded histories (25)

Me: Kind of like how every year we are now breaking records for the largest wildfires recorded every year, and we will continue the yearly tradition it seems. Not to mention the 2 degree Celsius rise of global temperatures-

Attfield: an average temperature rise towards 3 degrees being more likely. (113)

Me: Awesome...

Jahren: Since the first Europeans showed up (to the Americas), North and South America have lost 88 percent of their tropical forests, 90 percent of their coral reefs, and 95 percent of their tall-grass prairies. (159)

Me: So now we’re getting around to the real problem, huh?

Attfield: For there are other problems to consider at the same time, such as the needs of people and countries afflicted by poverty, problems of feeding a growing population, and ecological problems other than climate change (109)

Jahren: it’s really a Story of More- more cars, more driving, more electricity, and more manufacturing. (104)

Me: Exactly. The advancement of capitalism and colonialism is how we’ve ended up here.

McKibben: It’s all the same struggle. (86)

Me: A class struggle.

McKibben: But poverty and inequality and injustice are not going to end the human game. (85)

Me: Maybe that’s true. That does not negate, though, that the systems causing things like poverty and “feeding a growing population”- which I would like to sidetrack and say it’s not actually having the food that poses a feeding issue; we have the food, we just do not let people have it- are also causing the worsening of climate change. 

Attfield: Individuals and households, however, also have an indispensable role, in setting example, signing petitions, speaking out, and putting pressure on corporations and governments to play their full part and commit themselves to policies of radical action. (117)

Me: I would disagree with that. Of course living through example is not a bad thing. I do not believe, though, that signing a petition is going to take down the fracking industry. We obviously are pretty bad at pressuring governments to behave (see: 200,000+ people dead from a pandemic we are not addressing still). Let alone pressuring a corporation to align with our interests? Yeah right. While tens of thousands of Americans became unemployed during our current pandemic, Jeff Bezoz doubled his money. His money that before this could have already solved world hunger. Let alone now.

McKibben: now they (CEOs) make 295 times as much (as the average worker). (84)

Me: Showing that we are not the ones in power here. 

Jahren: The people benefiting from the use of fossil fuels are not the people who suffer the most from its excess (151)

Me: So maybe continuing to press reformism isn’t going to help us anytime soon. Our system needs to be restructured if we have any hope.

Jahren: Well Something will have to give (105)

Me: And if not….