This will be a short thread of home truths about capitalism.
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This will be a short thread of home truths about capitalism. Contrary to popular belief, Western economic dominance wasn't built on "free markets". It was built on pipeline and tanker routes, energy consortiums and contracts, enforced by brutal colonialist wars and the might of armies. It was built on the backs of the enslaved and the subjugated, and depends to this day on an endless supply of cheap hydrocarbons. And eventually, these fuels are going to run out.
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This will be a short thread of home truths about capitalism. Contrary to popular belief, Western economic dominance wasn't built on "free markets". It was built on pipeline and tanker routes, energy consortiums and contracts, enforced by brutal colonialist wars and the might of armies. It was built on the backs of the enslaved and the subjugated, and depends to this day on an endless supply of cheap hydrocarbons. And eventually, these fuels are going to run out.
1/6
Not only that, but emissions from the industries on which this system of oppression and violence depends, are heating our world at a rate too rapid for many ecosystems to adapt. Biodiversity is already collapsing fast. Food supply chains are at risk. So why, instead of continuing to spend countless trillions on genocidal military incursions over finite resources, won't our power elites invest more in renewable energies instead? It's not as if climate impacts won't cost us, regardless.
2/6
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Not only that, but emissions from the industries on which this system of oppression and violence depends, are heating our world at a rate too rapid for many ecosystems to adapt. Biodiversity is already collapsing fast. Food supply chains are at risk. So why, instead of continuing to spend countless trillions on genocidal military incursions over finite resources, won't our power elites invest more in renewable energies instead? It's not as if climate impacts won't cost us, regardless.
2/6
Why would the richest people who've ever lived be backing far-right movements everywhere, lobbying governments and politicians, and funding shady NGOs and public figures to promote rampant xenophobia, strengthening of borders, outlawing of protest and dissent, and rollbacks of civil liberties? Why is it that for them, it’s business-as-usual even if it means fascist police states and totalitarian rule? Even if it means destroying all life as we know it?
3/6
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Why would the richest people who've ever lived be backing far-right movements everywhere, lobbying governments and politicians, and funding shady NGOs and public figures to promote rampant xenophobia, strengthening of borders, outlawing of protest and dissent, and rollbacks of civil liberties? Why is it that for them, it’s business-as-usual even if it means fascist police states and totalitarian rule? Even if it means destroying all life as we know it?
3/6
Because it's not about the resources we've already extracted, it's about what's still in the ground. Not only are we burning fossil fuels, we're also banking on them. Like mortgage repayments yet to be made, the reserves of oil, gas and coal that remain unexploited have become financial assets, and are treated as though they've already been extracted and sold. They are traded, speculated upon, borrowed against, and woven into the fabric of global finance.
4/6
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Because it's not about the resources we've already extracted, it's about what's still in the ground. Not only are we burning fossil fuels, we're also banking on them. Like mortgage repayments yet to be made, the reserves of oil, gas and coal that remain unexploited have become financial assets, and are treated as though they've already been extracted and sold. They are traded, speculated upon, borrowed against, and woven into the fabric of global finance.
4/6
This whole rotten system is dependent on investors *believing* that we will, somehow, definitely keep extracting those resources. It's the Mother of all Bubbles: if everyone decided tomorrow to stop drilling and burning them for good, any financial assets based on them would become worthless. Gone. Poof. And with them, trillions of dollars tied up in fossil fuel-based investments. The richest people in the world would see their wealth evaporate overnight. Capitalism itself would implode.
5/6
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This whole rotten system is dependent on investors *believing* that we will, somehow, definitely keep extracting those resources. It's the Mother of all Bubbles: if everyone decided tomorrow to stop drilling and burning them for good, any financial assets based on them would become worthless. Gone. Poof. And with them, trillions of dollars tied up in fossil fuel-based investments. The richest people in the world would see their wealth evaporate overnight. Capitalism itself would implode.
5/6
Which is where climate change denial and disinfo comes in. It’s not only about greedy CEOs protecting their profits. For the people with the most to lose, it’s about keeping the whole capitalist system afloat by any means necessary. They don't want mainstream acknowledgment that we need to stop using fossil fuels. Because if that happens, this gigantic house of cards built on the remains of dead dinosaurs comes tumbling down, and all their mechanisms of power are broken. Kaput.
6/6
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