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This essay is motivated by two current debates. The first is about the feasibility of a complete transition to a post carbon economy in the United States by the mid-century that has generated many interests not only in the science and technology communities but also among the climate justice activists. The second is the intense interest in and the debate about David Wallace-Wells’ “The Uninhabitable Earth,” a long essay in investigative journalism about the devastation that can result from a runaway climate crisis in the New York magazine. The article has been read by well over two million people and has been criticized by some scientists and others as too alarmist. I do not agree with such criticism as will become clear below. If anything, I think Wallace-Wells has done us a service by sinking the illusion perpetuated by mass media that the climate catastrophe would simply cause a moderate rise in sea levels sinking under some coastlines. I also think Wallace-Wells’ essay does not fully account for the climate crisis as just one key element of the planetary crisis and its root causes. That is why he hinges his hopes on a technological resolution of the crisis.
The essay will have three part. In Part 1, I will argue that to deal with the crisis we must significantly reduce production and consumption in the U.S. and the rest of the Global North and show how this radical transformation will improve the lives of almost all of the world population especially in the Global South and in the in-need populations in the Global North while averting ecological collapse. In Part 2, I will outline institutional obstacles to this transition and outline significant parts of a transitional program to transcend them. Part 3 will be a summary conclusion.
full: https://forhumanliberation.blogspot.com/2017/07/2667-to-be-or-not-to-be-ecocentric.html
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