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ollout of renewable energy would save money that otherwise will go into
the hands of fossil fuel companies.
That is also why every oil, coal and gas company’s business plan is to
make sure that never happens.
It is sometimes said that the big corporate polluters and bankers are
guilty of ignoring the climate crisis. Some are, but the big money is paying
very close attention — looking for ways to profit from whatever happens.
A much warmer world will bring more dangerous storms, droughts,
floods and bushfires — but it will also present new opportunities to profit
from the disasters. In her book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein showed
how corporations and Western governments have become experts in taking
advantage of crisis and human misery.
She said this tendency has grown worse, with an “intensely violent
brand of disaster capitalism” — defined by the West’s invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq — dominating “since September 11”.
Because fossil fuel use is so central to the capitalist economy, and
because the system must ceaselessly grow in wasteful ways or risk
collapse, “disaster capitalism” is the only capitalism we will ever get.
Humanity won’t be able to shape a new, sustainable relationship with
nature as long as mining CEOs, media barons and army generals still
make all the big decisions. The steps we need to take on climate change
are affordable and relatively straightforward, but we won’t get close to
dealing with climate change without fundamental social change as well.
The People’s Agreement adopted by the 2010 World People’s
Conference on Climate Change, held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, made
the point this way: “Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue
on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the
path of harmony with nature and respect for life.
“It is imperative that we forge a new system that restores
harmony with nature and among human beings. And for there to be
balance with nature, there must first be equity among human beings.”
NRC ASLB rules against environmental coalition's contentions
challenging 20-year license extension at Davis-Besse