Ahab and the Moderns

An opinion piece in today's Times argues that to remain competitive, America must modernize its infrastructure. Not a new idea. The authors are particularly worried about the grid, saying : "Unless we expand energy generation and build out transmission aggressively, the lights will start to flicker on our future prosperity." Ah yes, training these brilliant chatbots takes lots of juice, but we have to be modern, steady march of progress and all that. The trajectory is not to be questioned. Our prosperous future depends on technological advancement and more complexity, an accelerated pace. But, according to the authors, America has lost its "momentum": "All this is happening while our rivals are building fast. China will spend $138 billion on A.I., robotics and smart infrastructure as part of its “Made in China 2025” plan. Europe is modernizing its ports, roads and digital networks to stay competitive." Somebody is going to have to break the bad news that the planet cannot provide this modern dreamscape. No matter how much investment they are prepared to make to build this energy-intensive future, we have run up against biophysical boundaries, ecological limits, that make all these plans impossible. Like Ahab, they can rage all they want against nature. It won't change the reality of those limits. This is what the late Bruno Latour was trying to describe with his airplane metaphor: There is no modern future upon which to land - but neither can we return to the old airport from which we took off. In very short order we have to create a new land on which we can land, one that repects the limits of planetary boundaries.

Fun While It Lasted

I have rigorously researched the quantity of fossil fuels that Americans consume for entertainment / recreation on an average Saturday in June and it exceeds the yearly consumption of all African and Carribean nations combined. In my calculations I have included motor boats and the trucks needed to pull them, jetskis, racecars of all classes, sporting events, joy riding and fishing trips. Cruises.Jet travel. Etc. Just kidding. I don't have anywhere near the energy or inclination for such a study. But that doesn't mean it isn't true! The point is, you will have to pry American's toys from their cold, dead fingers, along with their guns. And at the same time they are burning all this fun-fuel, they will complain about how they have been unfairly taken advantage of by the rest of the planet. And how they're done with being the nice guy.Time to get what's rightly theirs! The quintessentially American term "joy riding" kind of says it all. Even if they believed climate change was an existential threat, most citizen/consumers would have to think long and hard about giving up joy riding just to save their children's future. Generally (again, according to my research), those same Americans believe climate change is a "problem" that Elon and the Tech Bros are working on and will soon solve with some cyber wizardry. Since few of the "best and brightest masters of the universe" seem concerned, they aren't either. Certainly not enough to give up the jetski, go-cart or ATV. So yes, we've got trouble, right here in River City, with a capital T that ryhmes with P that stands for phuel. And Production. And Progress. All of which are toast. No easy way to tell the Modernizers that the dream which has sustained them for two hundred years is in fact a nightmare. I included fishing trips in the recreation category because that is how I burn my grandchildrens future, chasing trout around Montana and other salt-water speicies in their various habitats. Sorry kiddos. It's just how we all roll.

Save The West

The ex-Prime Minister of Great Britian, Liz Truss, who stayed in office all of forty days, has on opinion piece in the WaPo that is instructive. She says the only way to restore growth ("save the West") is to get rid of climate policies and cut taxes on Capital. In this she is correct. Of course it means the destruction of the biosphere but such is the price for short-term growth. In a similar vein, there are separatists in Alberta who wish to leave Canada because of onerous climate policies. They want to "drill baby drill" and create short-term wealth at the expense of the future. They too wish to Save the West, mostly western Canada. Now Trump is exhorting Britain to drill in the North Sea and his EPA is suggesting all limits on greenhouse gasses from power plants be removed. We've already seen the "social cost of carbon" disappeared. Every petition 350.org submitted annuled in an instant. Also in today's news we see the Republican's Big Beautiful Bill cutting all the clean-enrgy tax credits. All except nuclear, that is. They did this to save money and promote economic growth. So it's not hard to see the through-line here; despite all the Green Capitalist blather, GDP cannot be de-coupled from burning hydrocarbons. And capitalism cannot be de-coupled from ecological catastrophe. Unfortunately, those in power (capitalists) are willing to sacrifice the planet for continued growth. They can call it "saving the West" or "Making America Great" or whatever stirs the sad passion for blood and soil, but it is Russian roulette with one bullet. Benjamin was right about history; it is " one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his (our) feet." The "state of emergency" is not the exception, but the rule under capitalism. We need to put our foot on the brake of this mad train racing towards the precipice, this train called modernity with its deadly promise of progress. Of course solar panels and wind farms weren't going to save us. But at least for the briefest moment you could imagine elites growing nervous about the suicide pact they had signed on to. Will Bernie keep telling us to vote harder? Will Bill Mc Kibben tell us to focus on the local? On a separate note, the murder of the two young Israeli embassy workers, (who just happened to be engaged) by a fanatic yelling "Free Palestine" signals the end of all possibility for Palestinians. You can always count on an idiot to thwart all your hard organizing work. Of course Gaza was going to be leveled by bulldozers and ethnically cleansed anyway, but now there can be no protest, no sympathy, no public displays of empathy.

Naked Capitalism

There is lots of liberal punditry scoffing at how "transactional" Donald Trump is. In their telling, a more measured, sober, capitalist statesman is supposed to show concern for other values besides crass accumulation. Yes, past leaders made financial deals but they left the details, the sausage making, to trade representatives, minor bureaucrats who dealt behind closed doors. But it was always artifice, a pretense of civility. Now all those atmospherics are out the door. Now the bloody, smelly sausage ingredients are the whole point. Missels for cash. we'll trade tanks for oil. Liberals wanted to pretend the state and the Market existed in separate spheres. That lie is now exposed. The State and the Market are one. At this grotesque stage of late capitalism everything exists in the economic register. And that act of sublimation is celebrated by the braying masses.As Wendy Brown wrote prior to the Donald ascending the throne, the demos disintegrates into bits of human capital; concerns with justice cede to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings and investment climates; equality dissolves into market competition. It's ideology all the way down. As Donald tours the gilded palaces of the Middle East, making deals with oil-soaked dictators, we witness "transactional" in all its naked glory. Indeed, capitalism's full-specrum dominance is on full display. All the tired rhetoric about democracy, freedom and human rights is exposed for the bullshit it always was. And much to the dismay of those same liberal pundits, Americans love it. Just bring us the treats and all is forgiven. 9/11? Whatever. The treatment of women and foreign workers and dissidents? Whatever. Give us the trillion dollar deal and we can believe everything will be great again. Just like it never was! It should also be clear to everyone that hydrocarbons rule. In a recent Truth social post, Trump said this about drilling for oil in the North Sea versus building wind farms: “U.K.’s Energy Costs would go WAY DOWN, and fast.” And he is correct. In capitalism, the "costs" of destroying the biosphere are externalized, dissapeared. Trump exists to generate profit, no matter the "costs". You could ask the AI chat bot how wise it is to burn coal to power the data centers that run the AI and it will whisper: "not very."

Put a Price on Carbon?

In the rational world The Market would reflect the cost of ecological damage with a price on carbon. Yeah right! And in Wonderland, the White Rabbit could lead us to the Queen! According to today's NYTimes, the Trump administration just nixed the whole "social cost of carbon" farce, and good riddance I say. The sooner people understand that Capital has no intention of "going green" ( in ways that impact profit), the better. Here is how the new head of the EPA explains it: “The Biden-Harris Administration’s so-called ‘social cost of carbon’ measurement was used to advance their climate agenda in a way that imposed major costs. To Power the Great American Comeback, we are fully committed to removing regulations holding back the U.S.,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin. Pretty straightforward. If it cuts into profit, it's gone. American greatness = maximum profit and putting a price on pollution holds us back. Simple logic. My critique from the first time I heard of the concept of "social cost of carbon" was that the so-called "cost/price" was totally arbitrary, a political calculation with no relation to actual ecological impacts. Obama put the price of a ton of CO2 at 42 dollars. Trump eliminated it. Biden put it at 112 dollars. Some scientists will tell you it should be 450 dollars per ton. I say 780. No. 960. whatever. let's make it an even grand. We were led to believe there was some scientific basis for this market adjustment, but think about it. What is the "cost" of species extinction? Of tens of thousands of deaths due to increased temperatures? The "cost" of mass migration due to climate stress? Pick your own number. Here is how capitalism works: ". On Jan. 21, 2025, President Trump issued another Order (Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity) that rescinded Executive Order 12898. " "Illegal discrimination" refers to placing concerns about justice or equity above concerns about profit. "Restoring merit-based opportunity" means the government will make all decisions based on what makes the most profit, and is therefore most deserving, ie.. has the most "merit". Obviously fossil fuels have the most merit and should not be discriminated against just because a bunch of hippies think they are bad. This is why Our Big Boy is off to the Middle East to schmooze with shieks and crown princes. "We would rather be ruined than change." WH Auden "...the common ruin of the contending classes." Marx

Poor America

We Americans have been used and abused and we're not taking it anymore! We want to make America rich again! No more helping out the lazy slackers around the world who have been taking advantage of our generosity, stealing our jobs, imposing Euro-trash wokeness on a once manly and masculine culture. All we do is send "aid" around the globe and what do we get in return? More begging! Meanwhile, we can barely scrape enough together for a family vacation to Disney World, what with payments for the new truck and hot tub. Why is it so hard for these foreigners to understand "exceptionalism"? We Americans are exceptional for a reason, it's why we deserve nice things. All those brown people used to be happy with their lot in life. Now they think they can be like us? WTF? Even the Chinese are getting uppity, forgetting their place, thinking they can compete with "the indispensible nation". And here come the Vietnamese for Christs sake, a people we tried not that long ago to bomb back to the stone age, capturing OUR market share! Commie bastards - maybe we should give them the old Allende treatment. We just don't get any repect - so it's time for some tough deal-making. If the world is going to keep using OUR currency and if we are going to keep protecting them with OUR military bases, it's time we got something in exchange! If these other countries want to be great like us, they should quit whinging and do what we did: steal land from the indigenous people and get some slaves to work for free. Then build up a big military and start opening up markets and protecting your "national interests", like minerals and fossil fuels, even if they happen to exist in other countries. Oh wait. We aren't great now, we want to be great again! Two dollars a gallon gas, avacados and tangerines year round, Nikes and Jordans for the whole family. Poor America, just a shadow of the Empire we once were. Yes, re-claiming the Gulf of America is a start, annexing Canada and Greenland will help build morale. Perhaps a Colosseum where our best warriors can fight each other and lions and shit.

Oh Canada

"Canada is one of the world’s highest emitters of greenhouse gases per capita and is off-track to meet its pledges to reduce its emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement. It has targeted cuts of at least 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, but the latest national emissions inventory report shows a drop of just 8.5 percent through 2023." Such nice polite people but what can they do? All that liquid/ gasseous gold lying beneath their feet. And it's not like any other countries are "on-track" to meet their climate goals. Or that anybody cares. Climate is barely discussed in the Canadian election debates and is totally off the radar here in the States. Here in Montana we are looking at a data center boom thanks to our cool climate and supply of fresh water and coal, oil and gas. More data is like more consumer goods or more fun. More is always better. Growth is always good. Earth Day came and went with liberals picking up trash and planting trees, signing petitions and donating to non-profits. We quickly approach 430 ppm with OPEC+ boosting production and all my neighbors obliviously buying behemoth, military-styled pick-up trucks. Since horse-power is the only form left for these working/middle/ de-classed males, wracked by doubt about their masculinity or whatever. Not enough trad-wives to go around? Don't want to join the Mormon Church? Yes they were "good old days" for white cis males, but there were issues and there is just no going back. There's no real going forward either. Unfortunately we are stuck in a vicious doom loop, seeking escape into entertainment and big trucks and nostalgia for what never was. 350 ppm is part of the dream, 450 the likely reality.