Units of Survival: We’re on Our Own

Wildfire not in France, but in Crete. Reuters image. https://news.sky.com/story/greece-wildfire-tears-through-southern-crete-forcing-more-than-1-500-to-flee-homes-and-hotels-13391740

I’ve been thinking a lot about the David Suzuki interview that has recently taken the “climate change activist community” by storm. When I read it, the first phrase that struck me to my marrow was “units of survival.” I am planning to do a few posts based loosely on that chilling phrase. This one is the first – and perhaps the loosest of the series in its practical connection to surviving the coming collapse.

In any event, in that interview Suzuki opines that it is “too late” – that the fight against climate change is lost. The damage is done. The emissions have been emitted that will seal our doom. The end is nigh. Or words to that effect.

(Here’s my hot take, FWIW.)

According to NASA, however, (and this is still posted on their government website, under science – climate change – FAQs, which is a small miracle in these parlous, Musk chainsaw wielding times):

Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries. There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it, but that lag is less than a decade.

While the effects of human activities on Earth's climate to date are irreversible on the timescale of humans alive today, every little bit of avoided future temperature increases results in less warming that would otherwise persist for essentially forever. The benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions occur on the same timescale as the political decisions that lead to those reductions.

That sounds relatively hopeful, no? In contrast to Suzuki’s gloom and doom, NASA appears to be offering us hope.

Here’s where we need to drill down.

In the interview referenced above, Suzuki does not advocate against climate action, even at this late date. He even mentions revolution! - something near to my heart, as you can tell from my Substack title.

But crucially, he says,

...I’m saying, as an environmentalist, we have failed to shift the narrative, and we are still caught up in the same legal, economic and political systems.

In other words, what NASA is framing as a “political discussion” that sounds, in their breezy prose, like a thing that might actually happen, is, to Suzuki, a still-intractable foundational issue that continues to stymie not just productive discussion, but any sort of action. (For the record, I agree.)

Heatwave image from Sky News...

Alas, the NASA message of a 10-year lag and the almost throwaway line, “if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today” seems not just naive, but disingenuous. Because honestly – do you see any momentum around the issue of climate change? Do you sense a groundswell of concern? Do you feel the public outrage, and the pent-up urge for action? Have you even seen the phrase “climate change” in any of the recent reporting on the flooding in Texas, or the wildfires outside of Marseilles, or the repeated heat waves/heat domes in Europe? Hell, have you even seen any reporting at all on those wildfires? Let me guess. You have not.

In a few reports here in the UK, “climate change” appears as a throwaway, as a tossed aside mention that elides the true horror in favor of blithely gesturing at the disaster as a foregone “this is our new normal” conclusion. In no reporting that I have seen anywhere does climate change take center stage. In no reporting that I have seen anywhere does climate change appear as a calamity against which people might rail. In no reporting that I have seen anywhere are there “further resources” or information on how to contact your MP or representative or... anyone.

In the interview linked above, Suzuki goes on to say this:

For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down. The units of survival are going to be local communities, so I’m urging local communities to get together. Finland is offering a great example because the Finnish government has sent a letter to all of their citizens warning of future emergencies, whether they’re earthquakes, floods, droughts, or storms. They’re going to come and they’re going to be more urgent and prolonged.

No surprise that a Nordic government has the right idea. We know that Scandinavia has its socialist, scientific, caring act together.

But in the United States? It looks like we are on our own.

“President” Donald Dump has publicly stated his intention to "phase out" or "wind down" FEMA after the 2025 hurricane season, shifting disaster response responsibilities to individual states. His faux concern for Texas right now, and the repeated promises of “help” from the federal government, are politically motivated, I am sure: both an artifact of the fact that the recent flooding disaster in Texas preceded the promised (threatened?) phase-out of FEMA and a byproduct of the fact that Texas Governor Abbot is a loyal MAGAt – a cruel, Christianist ghoul who dances to Dump’s tune and has spent the days since the floods preaching “thoughts and prayers” from his political pulpit, in direct contravention of the Constitution of the United States of America.

The weather is getting worse. The climate is swiftly degrading, Wildfires and drought and hurricanes and heat domes and flash floods and... gestures around wildly... are never – in your lifetime, or mine, or your children's - going to get less violent and destructive and horrifying.

The federal government under the current administration is withdrawing, rather than proffering more, help.

The corporate media is blind, compliant, and complicit.

Even the opposition – Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion and, heaven help us, Greta Thunberg, who has turned her formidable attention to Gaza (I don’t blame her and still think she’s awesome, FWIW) - have pulled in their horns. The silence is, to coin a phrase, deafening.

Like it or not – and who the HELL would like this? - we’re staring down apocalypse. We are looking barely a decade into the future and seeing the onrushing collapse. And unless we can scream louder and resist harder and get in more faces in real life, with revolutionary zeal, to get some assistance from government or NGOs or, I dunno, SOMEONE: we’re on our own.

We are our own units of survival, indeed.