"Clean" Energy

The Great Transition David Wallace-Wells is promoting involves a few "sacrifice zones" : "A United Nations study found that meeting international climate goals by 2030 could require building as many as 80 copper mines, 70 lithium mines and 70 nickel mines to supply the materials for electric vehicles, solar panels and a host of other low-carbon technologies." All of this requires water which is getting harder to find: "With long-term declines in groundwater levels putting thousands of domestic wells at risk and causing the ground to sink in parts of the San Joaquin Valley, state regulators are moving forward with efforts to force local agencies to take stronger steps to begin to rein in chronic overpumping by California’s agriculture industry." Dr. Stephan Lezak, writing in the NYTimes, believes "Although mining will never be zero-impact, it has the potential to be fair and responsible." Yes, just as capitalism has the potential to be equitable and peaceful. In dreamland. Environmentalists are fighting mine proposals all over. One Biggie is the Resolution copper mine in Arizona but there is a proposed rare earths mine in my backyard. How do we get the "clean" energy future without mining? Not to worry says Wallace-Wells: " clean power, primarily from wind and solar, that will be so cheap and abundant that the dirty old sources can’t possibly compete." Nice and CHEAP! and CLEAN! In this bright green vision "the rapid progress made not just in renewable energy, but also with those pieces of the climate puzzle once known as the hard-to-abate sectors: things like steel making, cement production and various other areas of heavy industry and infrastructure for which there are suddenly green alternatives..." Green Alternatives! Thankyou technology! Just in the nick of time. Now I can relax.

The Obvious Way Forward

From the WA PO: "As global temperatures spiked to their highest levels in recorded history on Monday, ambulances were screaming through the streets of Tokyo, carrying scores of people who’d collapsed amid an unrelenting heat wave. A monster typhoon was emerging from the scorching waters of the Pacific Ocean, which were several degrees warmer than normal. Thousands of vacationers fled the idyllic mountain town of Jasper, Canada ahead of a fast-moving wall of wildfire flames." At first glance you might think the Dems would just be pounding the Repubs over the head with climate change. On so many other issues conservatives have managed to triangulate and one might have imagined them finding some nuanced position on global heating, as have the Dems; "yes it is real but markets will fix it" or "we can make incremental change without hurting GDP" blah blah. But no. Having staked out a denialist position (hoax or bad science or commie plot), they now cling to it with increasing desperation, hoping it just doesn't get brought up. Which for the most part, it doesn't. I suppose putting a spotlight on the fact we are quickly approaching climate tipping points is the kind of bummer news all political parties try to avoid, especially around election time. It would also require admitting that fossil fuel production and consumption is at record levels despite all the rhetoric and investment in renewables and carbon capture and hydrogen and blah blah. Better we talk about Israel's (read Jewish) right to self-defense and tariffs on Chinese goods and Kamala's laugh and Moutain Dew. It is also liberal environmentalists that resist having too much emphasis placed on the Climatic Regime or ecocide. They too would be forced to confront their abject failure to protect much of anything. As Alberto Toscano writes in his latest book "Late Fascism" : "An ideal for the left might be to become what its enemies think it already is, namely a strategically ingenious and systematic endeavor to undermine white, Western, Christian capitalist civilization across all institutions of society”. Not just civilization, such as it is, but the whole project of progress and globalized modernity. The planet has other ideas and can no longer be ignored.

Insane Ordeal

The Times interviewed a young, uncommitted voter on her reaction to Trump's speech: “You read a lot of stuff about what this guy says, but to actually sit down and hear it and sit through it, it was just insane to me,” she said. “That’s the only way I can describe this whole ordeal.” Unfortunately, she will have to get used to it. I find alcohol helps but whatever works. There is a fine line between a hilarious comedy routine and an insane speech and as the first post-postmodern politician, Trump walks it. All the rhetoric about "fascism" or "authoritarianism" or "populism" is just old language trying to capture a new phenomenon. Trump transcends our descriptors because this fusion of power and entertainment is unique. As I've tried to point out, Hulk Hogan is the perfect sign in the symbolic register. A fake wrestler and cultural icon, with his own line of mechandise, media, cartoons etc.. Inspiring the masses who willfully embrace the illusion, the Spectacle, their own sacrifice to the machine. Immersing oneself in "the insane ordeal" is a way to dull the pain, to be "free" of the grotesque indignity, of "ideology" as such. Just laugh! Enjoy! Let the joisance wash over you! Or you can join the resistance, set yourself outside all the fun and loaded weapons and hilarity. Anxiously watching polls and global unrest and rising CO2 levels.

Bumpy

Watch out for the bumps, warns the NY Times: "That the price and demand for oil have been so strong suggests that the shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles will take longer and be more bumpy than some climate activists and world leaders once hoped." Relying on markets to fix the problem, activists hoped for a smoother shift. But alas, the economics, and "politcs", are tricky. So many bumps. While not everyone agrees the Jevons Effect is real, we are seeing that despite the increase in renewable energy sources, fossil fuels continue to be produced and consumed at a record pace. Demand is the driver. All the species being exterminated are the bumps on the road. With Trump waltzing his way to the Presidency and MAGA ascendent, Capital finds itself in an awkward position. The People demand growth at all costs. This is the "great" they want America to return to. They loves their treats and are perfectly willing to let others pay the price. But Investors and Insurers have to factor in the risks. There is no solution to this contradiction. I suggest we have entered the Age of Permanent Disruption. The Time of endless Whiplash. No party or ideological faction will be able to govern given the aforementioned unsolvable contradiction. This won't stop them from trying. Power fills all voids. But physics trumps all. The geopolitics will only accelerate this devolution. MAGA isolationism and anti-China/ Russia fervor means nationalist hysteria and increased military spending versus climate cooperation and a Global Green New Deal. Seeing the Teamster leader speak at the Republican convention sends signals that Labor hopes to triangulate the Age of Disruption. Good luck with that. Capitalist "democracy" is going down hard and will drag everyone along with it.

Kneeling and Scraping

Apparently our political economy will not be satisfied till it has extracted the last shreds of dignity from its subjects. Like an alcholic promising that this is the last drink, we wake in the morning to find ourselves knocking on doors and pleading with strangers to vote for Joe Biden. After we get through this one, we'll make the big changes, yeah. Sure. We just have to stop fascism first. The slow-motion train wreck has a certain perverse, even obscene fascination of course. Why we can't take our eyes off it. Or another cinematic metaphor for liberals, our wounded democracy engaged in a sword fight on the edge of the cliff, knocked down, struggling back to its feet. Oh my! Those with the means are considering various escape options; Mexico, Canada, Portugal? Just in case our hero takes a tumble. Just cut and run, wait it out on a beach somewhere. Seek asylum and hope they are not as cruel and xenophobic as we are. I keep a photo clipped from the local paper on my wall. It shows the ecstatic college Democrats the moment the election was called for Barack Obama. Who picked Old Joe for his VP. Old Joe made sure Israel and the Saudis got all the jets and bombs they wanted. He made sure NATO kept up it's steady eastward movement. He made sure American's gas tanks remained full of cheap gas. Everything was easy, Shock and Awe, defeat the Taliban, contain Iran and China. Now we are in this moment of the most mendacious, venal farce, with the emperor's hair on fire, the whole dumpster on fire, and everyone pretending it's just a blip. An embarrassing moment to get through. "Going to a town that has already been burnt down."

Modernity on the Skids

Everyone is abandoning the modern project. But for what? Bruno Latour argued that ecological catastrophe signaled the end of "progress" as envisioned by moderns. How do we "develop" given the new constraints? Indigenous folk around the globe are rejecting modernity in favor of the old pre-modern cultural practices, but installing a cosmovision ( just read Jack Forbews Columbus and Other Cannibals) is no simple task. Just ask Jesus. Forbes diagnoses Euro/white destructiveness as a "disease" but one for which there is no medicine, no cure. Then there are these new/old age Christians looking to retreat from modernities harsh assault on aesthetics and the patriarchal family structure. Marx warned them that " all that is solid melts into air, everything sacred is profaned" but these confused white people love their Capital. Their imagined Father Knows Best community is not far from the Nazi volk, as they procreate and settle the American Readout. You may be thinking that I'm just describing Mormons but in a description of this "movement" in today's Times, they are evangelicals who reject Mormons due to some esoteric cult conflict over the Trinity. Don't ask me. So basically they are Mormon wanna be's clinging to the Holy Ghost. But described as "intellectuals". So yeah, pretty low bar. The other anti-modern clique are the "deep green" enviros who reject industrial society, much technology, and Marxian analysis, but who are aligned in many ways with Bug Out back-to-the-land types who tend to romanticize survival of the fittest/ pioneer narratives. It is hard to say where these anti-modern enthusiasts all hope to end up: pre-modern? post-modern? Anyway you slice it there will be some rough sailing between here and Paradise.

General Steve

In a very revealing piece in the NY Times, David Brooks interviews General Steve Bannon of The War Room. Like Brett Stephens, Brooks is concerned about the dismal state of liberal democratic capitalism, going so far as to say he almost went Marxist! But he was able to steer away from that terrifying cliff and is trying to understand the Alt/ MAGA right-wing populism that General Steve espouses. Steve is that famously "dishevelved" Catholic warrior hoping to lead the next revolution. He truly believes he has it all figured out and at the moment, his global movement is indeed experiencing a surge. But we have seen this movie before. We know where this leads. They can build walls and buy American but they have no answer for the unfolding ecological catastrophe. Christian nationalism gets you only so far, dismantling the "administrative/ deep state" leaves you with corporate rule. Bannon claims to be at war with what he calls "techno-fuedal capitalism" ( borrowing from Christopher Lasch and Yanus Varafakous) but his deplorable minions only want treats; anything powered by a motor, vacations in Vegas, lake-side second homes. Liberals are panicked now that the Biden campaign is a total dumpster fire, sputtering about the fact that Trump lied! Lied, I tell you! The whole insane Spectacle is such a shit show it is amazing people still cling to it with such "passionate intensity". Billionaire donors, clown candidates, flag waving knuckleheads, democracy in action! At some point you look at your ballot and see Popeye the Sailor vs Brutus and say WTF? This is what liberal capitalist "democracy" hath brought?

Brett Stephens Joins Occupy

In today's column, veteran "principled" conservative Stephens bemoans the state of todays Capitalism and yearns for a return to the good old days. This was basically the complaint of Occupy, that Capital had skewed too far towards the 1% and needed some adjustment towards a kinder, more equal mode. Brett is considered a deep thinker, so this tells us a lot about the state of American exceptionalism. Exceptionally banal. Brett is reviewing a book he admires written by another intellectual who has given this a lot of thought. They think we should get back to "competitive capitalism", less government spending, less wild speculation, more responsibility.Remember, these people get paid big bucks to turn out this kind of sophomoric drivel. One never knows if they actually believe this stuff or if they are just required to crank out a "how to save capitalism from itself" article every couple of months. Along these same lines is an article published today titled: Dilemma on Wall Street describing the way climate risks are not being priced into the Markets. The argument is that financial markets can't seem to grasp long-term thinking, as with the last housing bubble and crash. But in fact the problem is much deeper. If the markets were to take seriously the "cost of carbon", it would mean the end of GDP growth. Investors would have to divest from not just fossil fuels but half the global economy. And that's just climate change. If they had to price in all ecological damage... yeah. Instead, the risks will be ignored until the collapse of the insurance industry and subsequent banking crisis, followed by collapse in financial markets. There are warnings. A group called Better Markets has issued a report called The Unseen Banking Crisis concealed Behind the Climate Crisis. But this report will be ignored, just like Brett's review.