In the Guardian, a great piece from Rebecca Solnit, who has a way of helpfully turning things on their heads, on how we look at violence (normally from the bottom up, not the top down), which means that we never think of what the carbon barons of Big Energy are doing as violence at all. So scientists are already speculating about whether, in a climate changing world, violence will grow -- i.e. the violence of masses of people. Think again, writes Solnit: The message is that ordinary people will behave badly in an era of intensified climate change. All this makes sense, unless you go back to the premise and note that climate change is itself violence. Extreme, horrific, longterm, widespread violence. She adds, So if we want to talk about violence and climate change – and we are talking about it, after last weeks horrifying report from the worlds top climate scientists – then lets talk about climate change as violence. Rather than worrying about whether ordinary human beings will react turbulently to the destruction of the very means of their survival, lets worry about that destruction – and their survival. But thats just a taste of the piece. Check out the whole thing! Tom theguardian/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/climate-change-violence-occupy-earth
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:37:30 +0000
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