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.