Cancel All Coal Projects to Have 'Fighting Chance' Against Climate Crisis, Says UN Chief

[Steve_Fernandez]

@fern

I won’t even go into how you think nuclear fusion is a variable here.

I’ve looked at a couple of your groups without vetting them but t

Hi fern,
I don’t think nuclear fusion is a variable here. I have a degree from MIT and my particular interest was sustainable energy. I get the MIT press releases and they’ve made a lot of hype over the new Fusion initiative. From the hype, one could take the fusion project as the solution to climate change. I have my doubts and posted here. Nothing more.

@fern

My other question, if there is “white supremacy” why does that translate as a minority?

I am not sure I understand your question. Perhaps I can answer this way:

In the mid 1900’s British Labour Party politician Aneurin Bevan asked
“How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the 20th century.”

White Supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, capitalism, have done, and continue to do, great damage to segments of the world’s population. Yet, while those with privilege have limited potential to effect change, I don’t see them as being the one’s who reap the major benefits of these unjust and oppressive dynamics. Those who benefit are the wealthy and powerful few.

As is clear from this graphic:
=https://data.footprintnetwork.org/?_ga=2.42540205.922072615.1614921127-1717205978.1614921127#/
The Global North has a highly disproportionately negative ecological footprint while the Global South has a positive ecological balance.

Even if the populations of the Global South were completely eliminated, along with the bottom 90% of the worlds population, the ecological damage of the top 10% would still, eventually, make the world uninhabitable.

=https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621052/mb-confronting-carbon-inequality-210920-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916517710685

[fern]

Hi Steve

Well this certainly has been an interesting conversation so I’ll try to answer your question Maybe I should have used “how” instead of “why”?

“if there is “white supremacy” why does that translate as a minority?”

Merriam Webster/ Oxford definition (you may have something different)

(MW) “the social, economic, and political systems that collectively enable white people to maintain power over people of other races”

(Ox) "White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them.

By definition, white supremacy infers group privilege at the expense of other groups. (as a noun it is not definitive of other groups) but we can say ethnicity. This implies as a social group, some advantage. What I asked you is, based on your assessment of impacted communities and policy, how does that correlated with changing population demographic where there is a white minority trend both in the U.S. and worldwide. (Example: countries where there are white minorities, China, Africa, Latin America) Understandably, the U.S. has a changing demographic. Advantage then is how that is assessed if you have a comparison.

'White Supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, capitalism, have done, and continue to do, great damage to segments of the world’s population. Yet, while those with privilege have limited potential to effect change, I don’t see them as being the one’s who reap the major benefits of these unjust and oppressive dynamics. Those who benefit are the wealthy and powerful few."

So have Socialism, Communism, Monarchy, and other human systems of governance and economies. Unless you can name a society that doesn’t include one or all those things. Wealth is not a complete metric nor is equality.

I was unable to access your footprint calculator and I question these methods if all that can be said is terms of good or bad. Different yes.

[Steve_Fernandez]

@fern

What I asked you is, based on your assessment of impacted communities and policy, how does that correlated with changing population demographic where there is a white minority trend both in the U.S. and worldwide.

Hi fern,

That is a good question. Again, I see White Supremacy as having very real negative impacts on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other people of color. I see it having some advantage for White people, but in a broad sense I think they are harmed by it as well. I see it as another “divide and conquer” strategy that primarily benefits the wealthy and powerful few.

I am not sure how to answer your question about demographic shifts, but I will say that, recently, a South African friend referred me to work on Jan Smuts. Smuts was one of the founding fathers of Apartheid in South Africa. He wrote a lot about White Supremacy, Social Darwinism, and how to maintain White dominance in a country where White people are a minority. I think Smut’s framing can give insight into your question:

=https://reflexus.org/wp-content/uploads/Smut-Holism-and-Evolution.pdf
=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2091/111p199.pdf
=https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=articles
=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/opinion/jan-smuts-south-africa.html
=https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse/page/413/mode/1up
=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022009407084557

@fern

I was unable to access your footprint calculator and I question these methods if all that can be said is terms of good or bad. Different yes.

Hi fern. The link works for me. Perhaps it is the browser you are using. I’m using Chrome. You can also try navigating from the main page for the Footprint Network site (=https://www.footprintnetwork.org/) is pretty amazing. They incorporate sound methodology (=https://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/data/ and =https://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/data/footprint-standards/ and =https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/7/3/58) but if you would like to address your critiques, here’s how you can raise them with the data/methodology team (=https://www.footprintnetwork.org/about-us/contact-data/?_ga=2.252210817.922072615.1614921127-1717205978.1614921127). If you can’t access the Footprint Network site, here’s a link from wikipedia that has a tiny subset of their graphics.

[fern]

“That is a good question. Again, I see White Supremacy as having very real negative impacts on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other people of color. I see it having some advantage for White people, but in a broad sense I think they are harmed by it as well. I see it as another “divide and conquer” strategy that primarily benefits the wealthy and powerful few.”

Indeed, this is a challenge. You might find this interesting also. Especially part 3 where interventions are suggested. Clarifying values was meaningful to me. So I agree, white supremacy is not without consequences for everyone. This may not be your usual read but there is some interesting information.

Can Behavior Analysis Help Us Understand and Reduce Racism? A review of the Current Literature ~https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40617-020-00411-4

Thanks for the suggestions, Apartheid in South Africa sounds like a good adventure.

[Wayhey]

@Steve_Fernandez

efforts at population control, have been, and continue to be, heavily influenced by White Supremacy

And of course in other parts of the world, other colours and kinds of “supremacy”, based on heritage, based on gender, based on belief.

@Steve_Fernandez

No, Wayhey, neither I, nor Monboit are engaged in efforts to “cancel” Michael Moore or Jeff Gibbs.

Perhaps not, but there are many out there who called for censorship (Josh Fox, for example), and cheered when the film was arbitrarily pulled from YouTube.