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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/23/billionaires-musk-divide-distract-humanity-come-together-resist>
"If it were not clear already, the biggest far-right protest in UK history is a
reminder that the battle for a fair and habitable planet cannot be fought
solely in the silos of science or environmentalism.
That may be a source of dismay for anyone who still believed the argument for a
cleaner, safer, more equitable future can be won by reason alone. But there is
also an upside to the alarming scenes recently witnessed in London: the
alliance between billionaires, thugs and other opponents of change has come out
of the shadows.
The global environmental context is key to understanding what is happening in
the UK, the US and other countries where the far right is becoming more vocal,
violent and lavishly funded than at any time in memory. But that climatic
analysis has been lost in much of the coverage of this phenomenon, which has
focused on the narrow, local concerns that provided the spark but not the fuel.
To step back to my distant vantage point in the Brazilian Amazon, that is as
shortsighted as blaming the record outbreak of wildfires here over the past 12
months solely on those who lit the matches, while ignoring the more significant
fact that decades of drought and rising heat, particularly in the past two
years, have left the rainforest more flammable than at any time in history.
Biologists tell me that when trees get too hot or too stressed for prolonged
periods, their primary coping mechanism is to shut down their periphery. They
shed leaves so that any remaining moisture can be cycled inside the trunk and
branches. This can sustain some individual species for a short time, but only
at the risk of their long-term health and the resilience of the forest.
Shedding leaves weakens a tree’s ability to interact with the outside world. It
loses capacity to cycle water and carbon. It also opens up the forest canopy,
allowing more sunlight and heat to reach the understory and suck the moisture
out of the soil and the fallen leaves. This degrades the ecosystem to still
more stressful levels, and turns normally damp undergrowth into a tinderbox.
The only hope for salvation is rain.
When human societies get too hot or too stressed for prolonged periods, we are
theoretically smart enough to come together and invent a range of survival
techniques and technologies. Recent history, however, suggests that the first
instinct of many individuals is to also shut down their periphery – “close the
borders”, “build walls”, “impose tariffs”, “stop the boats” – in an attempt to
conserve jobs, food and money for themselves. Stirring up hatred against
foreigners is a typical manifestation of this logic, which in turn risks
becoming eco-fascistic.
A moment’s consideration reveals this to be self-defeating. When economies
cease cycling labour and goods, then supply declines and prices rise. When
societies stop exchanging ideas and support, they become more exposed and less
likely to find solutions to the bigger problems that are at the root of their
stress. Left isolated for too long, they wither and die. Or self-combust.
Unlike for trees, movement is one of the most effective survival strategies
available for humans, which shows the analogy goes only so far. But both
forests and societies are under more stress as a result of the climate crisis.
And both are becoming more combustible, which is why the incendiary rhetoric of
the US billionaire Elon Musk is not just reprehensible, but sinister."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
