One Has To Die: The Earth or Capitalism

okay guys I got to know who's

responsible for climate change well

according to Daren Woods the CEO of

Exxon it's you because you're not voting

with your dollars we have opportunities

to make fuels with lower carbon in it

but people aren't willing to spend the

money to do that Exxon has lower carbon

fuels ready to go but consumers are

simply too cheap to pay for them but you

know the real bad guys here are uh you

guessed it activists society as a whole

hasn't been doing enough of it and

frankly uh society and I'd say the the

activists the dominant voice in this

discussion have tried to exclude the

industry that has the most capacity and

the highest potential for helping with

that some of this Technologies the oil

companies want to save us we just won't

let them as you can imagine reactions to

this were not great as climate Economist

gnet Wagner put it it's like a drug lord

blaming everyone but himself for drug

problems but in fairness the logic used

by Woods makes sense at least according

to the rationality of the free market

which liberates corporations from

government oversight facilitates

Innovations and enables consumer Freedom

by this reasoning it's up to us to

consume our way to a better world flush

with electric cars solar panels and

eco-friendly sandals under this Paradigm

a corporation's sole imperative is to

generate profits for shareholders which

is why Woods is especially critical of

exxon's activist investors who have

proposed that the company aggressively

cut back on fossil fuel production

activists that hijack that process a

legitimate process and frankly abuse it

to advance an ideology that's

inconsistent with the well-being of the

company now it's frustrating of course

to hear the CEO of a behemoth fossil

fuel company imply that the slow

response to climate change is our fault

you know especially when we know that

according to some estimates 57 companies

are linked to 80% of global greenhouse

gas emissions since 2016 but getting gas

lit by an oil Mogul isn't just annoying

when Woods shifts blame onto consumers

he distracts from the real forces behind

climate change meanwhile his framing

suggests that mitigating its effects

could be a hopeless Pursuit especially

when Solutions are framed around

consumption and profit rather than you

know a reorganizing Society to

prioritize Humanity over fossil fuel

consumption it could feel a bit like to

paraphrase the famous quote by Frederick

Jameson it's easier to imagine the end

of the world than the end of climate

change under capitalism real quick quick

note to say that there's not going to be

time for us to convince you that climate

change is real today you can check out

the recent ipcc report for that uh if

you think it's not real just watch this

video as a fun exercise guess to

yourself throughout it just go oh really

to everything I say instead today we're

going to examine why things feel so

hopeless and consider some solutions

offered by recent theorists including a

philosopher who thinks that the best

thing that you can do to save the planet

is work less uh and spend more time

hiking cooking maybe playing guitar with

your friends so let's see if it might

just be possible to imagine the end of

capitalism without the end of the world

as Florence in the machine note It's

always darkest before the dawn so before

we tell you how things are going to get

better let's start by figuring out how

things have gotten so bad now when we

listen to CEOs and politicians explain

climate change to us it can feel like

everyone is the hot dog guy from that I

think you should leave sketch we're all

trying to find the guy who did this and

give him a spanking and even wor it

feels like the guys who drove the hot

dog car through our window are now the

ones trying to offer us exciting new

solutions to fix that very window now we

discussed this in a recent video but

both the fossil fuel industry and

climate change deniers have used all the

tools of propaganda to control cultural

and media narratives and that's how we

end up in a situation where the media

treats these guys like normal business

dudes have an energy system today that

has the the mix that it has and you

can't change this overnight and this

person like a radical outlier entire

ecosystems are collapsing we are in the

beginning of a mass extinction and all

you can talk about is money and fairy

tales of Eternal economic growth CEOs

are rational agents motivated by the

principles of market economics tunberg

is irrational for claiming that Humanity

should be prioritized over profit but

even if media narratives fall in One

Direction don't we still have some

agency in what and who we vote for for

Americans are more concerned than ever

about the climate catastrophe but we

still tend to vote on more urgent issues

like the economy or healthare when your

rent is soaring and your wages are

tumbling it's hard to worry too much

about melting glaciers in Greenland and

as this current US presidential campaign

cycle heats up faster than the North

Atlantic we've barely heard any

discussion of climate policy we've

barely heard discussion of anything cuz

one guy yells and the other guy mumbles

and it's hard to really make anything

out of it even supposedly Progressive

politicians know all of this and act

accordingly like when liberal hero Diane

Feinstein scolded a bunch of child

activists for asking her to help with

climate change which is why it can feel

like the only recourse we have is our

own consumption habits but guys let me

tell you a secret um here in Los Angeles

I see so many hybrid cars and electric

cars and reusable water bottles with

cool stickers on them and eco-friendly

tote bags and yet every summer is is the

hottest summer ever so if the media is a

propaganda tool and consumer choice

aren't moving the needle and politicians

are more or less just dropping a double

decker on the planet before they die

well then maybe it's time for some

Bolder actions but when climate

activists spray paint Stonehenge or

interrupt the golf tournaments they're

largely just seen as troublemakers and

in the case of the recent golf

tournament Spectators started chanting

USA USA as police arrested the activist

which I guess implies that the opposite

of climate action is the USA now all of

this seems like it leads to one of two

things either we're so dejected by all

this that we end up feeling both

hopeless and helpless and just lie in

bed consuming content until we die or it

can push us towards more drastic action

like those outlined by scholar Andreas

mman his book how to blow up a pipeline

if you don't really like reading books

it actually got turned into a Hollywood

picture that you could watch now in one

of our recent videos we argued that

neoliberalism is so ideologically

ingrained into our culture that's

basically a sort of religion and in the

churches of neoliberalism free markets

limited government intervention and

individual Choice are like the father

Son and Holy Spirit wealthy fossil fuel

companies face little regulation and are

often aided by government subsidies

operating under cold hard Market logic

they effectively offload moral

responsibility onto consumers like how

Exxon got government subsidies to

develop energy efficient alternatives

for the future while they just continue

to pump out fossil fuels and you know

just like all the fossil fuels in our

soil this sh runs pretty deep there's t

tons of overlap between the fossil fuel

industry and our political system take

notable American Sniper and former Vice

President Dick Cheney he was the CEO of

halberton which is an oil service

company before he served our nation by

becoming George W Bush's co-pilot and

fossil fuel lobbyists work to influence

policy at basically every level of the

government at the time of filming this

video

35,41

294 has been spent on oil lobbying this

year with yearly averages normally

Landing closer to $125 million they also

fund studies and scientific research

which encourage scientists to greenwash

their destruction of the planet

aggressively fight against some of the

science uh yes this includes companies

like BP forming intimate relations with

universities like Princeton donating at

least $700 million over 10 years but

unlike most intimate relations were the

people getting screwed and they pay

prominent media sources to create paid

content extolling the virtues of the

fossil fuel industry and that's why I

wanted to stop and tell you really quick

about the new Chevron cares uh program

that were sponsored by Chevron wants to

let all of you that's that's not a real

thing according to a report by drilled

even the most trusted news outlets run

internal brand Studios that create

content for major companies including

the fossil fuel industry often virtually

indistinguishable from hard news this

content packages corporate narratives to

look like objective media now one

particularly Wild example is Reuters

hosting Summits for the fossil fuel

industry which aims to remove the pain

points holding back faster production of

oil and gas that's to say nothing of the

massive advertising and marketing

budgets they spend convincing you that

we really need that oil okay so check

out this commercial which straight up

says that if we didn't have oil you

wouldn't be able to go to the hospital

you and your unborn baby would probably

die without oil and gas hospitals

wouldn't have what they need to keep us

healthy heal wounds

save lives and deliver little bundles of

joy we check out this one which I swear

to God tries to convince you that if the

oil industry didn't exist you would

never get to [ __ ] again that connection

was brought to by petroleum products so

is there anything left for us to do

other than hope that we can get jobs

writing funny commercials for oil

companies I'm going to tell you after

the break but I wanted to take a second

to shout out our friends over at yellow

dot Studios who are helping us make this

video today now if you haven't heard of

yellow dot they are immed company

founded by Adam McKay uh the guy who

probably made some of your favorite

movies of all time we're men okay that

means a few things we go on riverb

gambling trips we make our own beef

jerky that's what we do now what they do

is use comedy and media to spread

Awareness on the reality of climate

change hey everybody you know your house

your house is about to be part of the

ocean and they made some very funny and

good stuff featuring people you like a

lot you can definitely check out now at

the end of this video I'm going to tell

you to head over to Yellow Dot's channel

for part two where I'm going to sit down

with their director Stacy Robert Steel

and we're going to have a chat about how

we can fight back against the fossil

fuel Ghouls and we're going to learn

more about the work that yellow dot is

doing so be sure to stick around for

that once you get over there be sure to

subscribe to Yellow dos page and keep up

with what they're doing okay so let's

get back to feeling pretty bad about the

future of the planet now it might seem

like the fossil fuel industry and

capitalist is M are like the Ben and JLo

of corporate political power but the

good news is that Ben and JLo are

getting divorced and some contemporary

philosophers in academics are arguing

that there are viable alternatives to

this increasingly hot [ __ ] show I guess

increasingly hot [ __ ] show can refer

either to the boiling of the planet or

Ben and JLo having incredibly hot

breakup sex these Alternatives go Way

Beyond simply taxing corporations more

or subsidizing electric vehicles now one

option which is proposed by economic GE

rher Brett Christophers in his new book

is removing the Renewables Market from

the private sector and then making it a

state-funded Enterprise as he writes in

a recent SAA for time Western

government's renewable subsidies rarely

occasion strong profits more commonly

they allow just about sufficient profit

to keep the sector afloat he cites

Warren Buffett who admitted that his

firm Berkshire hathway only Built wind

farms for the tax credit Christopher

points out that there isn't a huge moral

component to the structure of the fossil

fuel industry simply follows the logic

of Campus as he writes the likes of

Exxon and Chevron continue predominantly

to drill for hydrocarbons instead of

investing in Renewables not because they

and their Executives especially love oil

but because they love money you know cuz

these guys like if the brains of babies

made cars go they would start an

orphanage and you'd never see the kids

again but rather than radically

overthrowing capitalism Christophers

proposes taking renewable energies out

of the market and then making them

public goods in doing so the value of

these energies wouldn't hinge on stock

value but I'm protecting the future of

humanity and as Christophers sees it

only the state has the necessary

financial and administrative capacity to

increase Global investment in solar and

wind energy at the pace needed so while

we don't need to undo capitalism as such

we got to take renewable energies out of

the capitalist market now at this point

I bet some of you are thinking oh yeah

so the same government which seems like

they can't even tie their own shoes

they're going to somehow fund and

develop renewable energy at a rapid clip

sure boss sure others of you might be

thinking that this solution doesn't push

against the dominance of the market

enough and some of you might still be

thinking about that extra hot Ben and

JLo divorce sex and to you I salute you

okay so let's consider another large

scale and controversial approach to

fighting against climate change and the

economic structures that enable it it's

called degrowth which economic

Anthropologist Jason hickle defines as a

planned reduction of energy and resource

use designed to bring the economy back

into balance with the Living World in a

way that reduces inequality and improves

human well-being while not A New Concept

de's most contemporary Advocate is

Japanese philosopher Koo author of slow

down the degrowth manifesto utilizing

some lesser-known works of Carl marks

Theo argues for a new type of degrowth

Communism in which everything from

production to labor hours slow down to

reverse the effects of climate change

Jordan Peterson you better not be

watching right now because this is all

going to make you real mad for seito the

political solutions to climate change

offered by the green New Deal along with

individual practices like driving

electric cars and using paper straws are

little more than the new opiates of the

masses he writes what kinds of measures

are you taking personally to prevent

global warming have you bought a

reusable shopping bag to reduce your

Reliance on disposable plastic ones do

you carry a thermos so you don't end up

buying drinks in plastic bottles did you

buy an electric car let me make one

thing clear from the start these Good

Deeds are meaningless in the end they

can even cause more harm than good he

argues that these policies and practices

function like Catholic indulgences

allowing us to escape the pangs of our

conscience about consumerism and look

away from the real imminent danger

around us which in turn allows the

forces of capital to swaddle our

concerns in environmental impact

statements and tuck them away beneath

the form of deception known as

greenwashing this is because these forms

of resistance are all completely

compatible with the same economic system

that benefits from the fossil fuel

industry A system that Cito argues

enables us to enjoy the Imperial mode of

living which is how he describes the way

in which the consumption focused

lifestyles of those in the global North

is dependent on the economic and

ecological exploitation of those in the

global South his lifestyle is predicated

on infinite growth that comes at a very

real cost this leads Saito to infuse his

plan for degrowth with a Marxist

analysis of class antagonisms and social

relations but unlike those who might be

scared of marks or associate his work

with Soviet Style communism and

state-led deprivation SEO argues for a

communism of abundance as he reads marks

when he talks about abundance he doesn't

mean having lots of stuff but what he

does mean is creating the conditions for

everyone to have a good life you know

stuff like Medical Care Transportation

housing food water all these things

guaranteed and free Sao opposes this to

Market environmentalism which promises

an end to climate change that will still

boost the economy now like Christopher

syo thinks that it's pretty absurd to

expect the profit centered logic of the

market to really prioritize a shift to

renewable energy and they both think

that there's no way to just capitalism

our way out of climate change and for

seito this means that we don't just need

to slow down our industrial production

but also the production and consumption

of media especially those which

perpetuate our culture of consumption so

sorry Kardashians you're not getting

renewed once Dr SEO takes over as the

Zar of all media now as he writes

production focusing on status symbols

and luxury goods on advertising and

brand in while ignoring use value spells

death in an age of climate crisis there

are so many vital issues to be addressed

guaranteeing universal access to Food

Water electricity shelter and

transportation combating Rising tithe

and flooding protecting ecology and so

on we must prioritize the production of

things necessary to respond to the

crisis not things whose worth resides

only in their capacity to produce value

I mean one upside to all this is less

ads for stuff that you don't need on

YouTube also none of those like tech

review channels things like that that a

lot less influencers I don't know it

sounds pretty good now Christophers and

syto might Inspire some hope but they

both do involve a pretty radical shift

away from our current system we might be

able to imagine a world in which

Christopher's policy suggestions were

taken on by some Western governments and

renewable energy is able to take off as

a publicly owned industry however we

might worry that even if a few major

Nations made those shifts it might not

really be enough and it could be even

harder to imagine seo's degrowth

communism in action as the seword often

makes folks imagine a violent revolution

led by angry men with beards but for

those of us not quite ready to do a

revolution SEO makes clear that what he

envisions is not a reboot of the Russian

Revolution which he doesn't think would

magically just change the economic

system instead what he advocates for is

something more gradual writing what's

more realistic is Rosa luxenberg's idea

of revolutionary real politic through

reform taxing the rich to introduce a

maximum income for example reforms and

policies can bring a lot of changes in

our daily perception and Behavior even

though it doesn't overcome capitalism

immediately but changing our

Consciousness and behavior in daily life

creates more room for demanding more

radical changes he also suggests

thinking about degrowth on a more local

scale and a lot of his favorite examples

are things that involve actions that are

communal rather than individual he cites

communities in Detroit that took

advantage of falling land values to turn

large swats of the city into urban farms

and a policy put into action in

Copenhagen to plant fruit trees all over

the city to start making food freely

available and he knows notes that

policies like this can then have

Downstream effects because you probably

don't want your Apple to taste like

engine exhaust so then you might want to

expand the already robust bicycle Lanes

in Copenhagen Theo's ideas for how we

can meaningfully make change run the

gamut from starting workers co-ops to

organizing School strikes from

volunteering for environmental NOS to

running for local office all pretty

doable things if you've done one of

these things let us know in the comments

if you want to do any of these things

tell us and let us support you and he

thinks these actions can create

Lifestyles less centered on production

and consumption and more focused on

letting us just be humans you know the

upside of less shopping is more time to

hang out and figure out what you're into

and maybe the best part of this idea uh

is that he imagines a world where we

have to work less Saito argues that one

of the biggest contributions to degrowth

can take place in reforming our

workplaces through labor unions

demanding our employers Institute

environmentally friendly policies and

advocating for here it is folks shorter

work weeks he writes that right now we

work 5 days a week and often more than

40 hours we could immediately reduce

that to 4 days with Technologies I think

we could go down to three in the future

so that's a 25h hour work week what will

we do with all this new time we will

spend more time with family we will

Garden we might do Sports we will do

some volunteering and have some

political engagement in the planning of

what we produce and what our local

government do we will commute not by car

but by bus and Tra and our workplace

will be more horizontal we should have

more job rotation should not always be

the same person doing the best part of

the job and then some people cleaning

their clothes with new technologies we

can share more and rotate jobs let me

know what you would do with more time

imagine that 25h hour work week what

else are you doing I'm probably watching

a lot more movies hopefully reading more

playing music a lot and probably making

more elaborate recipes like I'm probably

cooking lunch every day well maybe not

as easy as drinking a smoothie with a

paper straw these examples show that

it's not some absolute either or between

large scale political Solutions and just

some ineffective small actions or OPI

now this doesn't mean that you know if

we all get to work this weekend we're

going to reverse climate change but it

does mean the next time an oil CEO looks

you in the eye and says climate change

is your fault you can throw a book at

him and tell him to read up maybe also

to suck your di okay so you might be

thinking this is the part of the video

where I'm going to tell you to do

something but it's not really what we do

uh but this is in the Wheelhouse of our

friends over at yellow dot so go over to

their Channel right now and watch part

two of this video which is my interview

with yellow dots director Stacy Robert

Steel there's a link here and a link in

the description click either one and

once you're there be sure to subscribe

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letting them know that we sent you uh

and if you're still here for some reason

thank you so much a huge shout out to

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our Discord server lots of good stuff uh

thanks in general for just hanging out

and being here if you are still here why

don't you ring the bell you know like

this video subscribe to the channel uh

but in general I just really hope that

one day we all work a whole lot less and

in the meantime I don't know take it

easy slow down a little bit stop

consuming so much take a walk drink some

water take a nap you deserve it I'll see

you next time

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