Now that COP 27 in Egypt has ended it is time to take stock. The overall consensus seems to be that COP27 was a massive failure because there was no progress in terms of carbon reduction or in setting more ambitious carbon goals.
The very fact alone that COP27 saw over 600 fossil fuel representatives was a clear and predictable pathway towards failure. Or as Julian Cribb puts it, ‘the nations of the world have voted to terminate human civilization and commit all our grandchildren to bake and starve on an uninhabitable ruin of a Planet.’
With the failure of COP27, we are firmly on the road towards civilisational collapse.
Professor Jem Bendell is quoted in ‘The study on collapse they thought you should not read – yet, “I am releasing this paper immediately, directly, because I can’t wait any longer in exploring how to learn the implications of the social collapse we now face.”
Professor Bendall’s research paper, ‘Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy’ was rejected by reviewers of an academic journal due to the deep emotional impact it could have on readers. This raises the question, what are we allowed to know and what is hidden from public view.
As we have all learned from the western and Russian propaganda regarding the conflict in Ukraine, the so-called western free press is everything else but free when only a handful of media corporations own the majority of news outlets worldwide. The picture is not much different in the social media landscape.
There is a sense of self-censorship in the world of academia regarding what should be communicated and what should not be communicated to the general public in order not to inspire helplessness, inadequacy, disengagement, and ultimately hopelessness.
The premise of the Deep Adaptation Agenda is that societal collapse in the near term is unavoidable due to our inability to rain in carbon emissions. COP27 has proven that individual stakes and interests along with global corporation greed for profit is the major driver for sustained fossil fuel exploration and thus the resulting increase in carbon emissions.
It is no accident that the Fossil Fuel Lobby was disproportionately represented at Sharm el-Sheikh which subsequently stalled any meaningful progress.
As Prof. Bendell explains in his paper that societal breakdown may already be occurring Terri the question could be raised if the conflict in Ukraine is perhaps the first sign of such a collapse. As much as the Western narrative has been framed in terms of Russian expansionism or the resurrection of the old Soviet empire we should not forget that this conflict is as much about resources, especially oil, gas and food (grains).
In his paper ‘Deep Adaptation‘ Prof. Bendell suggests that climate change is not linear due to certain barriers being breached and feedback loops being activated but that we have already reached a runaway climate scenario. If true, this makes the failure of COP27 so more serious and disappointing.
There seems to be a tacit assumption that climate change can still be controlled. However, this might be the greatest folly we are constructing for ourself. It makes it almost predictable that we are ending up with extreme emergency measures such as geo-engineering which have unforeseeable results and consequences. Slowly the consensus arises that we have entered the non-linear phase of climate change where events follow an exponential trajectory, not a linear one. This makes most established climate models unreliable.
The world is comfortably watching as it squeezes out the last drops of oil and gas for the profits of the global industrial fossil fuel complex as if we had all the time in the world to address the problem. However, the floods in Pakistan, wildfires elsewhere, and the melting arctic don’t take a break. Just the opposite, runaway climate change is on track to produce a hothouse earth with resultant crop failures and the inevitable social and societal breakdown.
Below is an interview and discussion with John Coster from the Documentary Media Centre on Climate Activism in the Centre’s series of #16DaysOfActivism. The Centre can also be found on Twitter or via it’s Parallel Lives Network.
Discussion points
Climate compensation/reparations. Loss & Damage Fund proposal.
Massive Fossile Fuel presence, over 600 delegates.
Rising sea will erode parts of British coastline ‘by up to 22 metres’ in the next 80 years.
Deep Adaptation. Prof Jem Bendell.
Just Stop Oil. Activism. Orange paint is water based. What about their banners? Greta.
“We don’t want to be doing COPs forever”.The world votes for “climate hell” Julian Cribb.
COP15 Montreal CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) biodiversity framework. 30 by 30 target. erosion of ecosystems. rebalance our relationship with nature.
Societal and social breakdown in Haiti
Notes
Rising sea will erode parts of British coastline ‘by up to 22 metres’
https://apple.news/A8UnUe-FrQp28Mk_HjviRtg
“We don’t want to be doing COPs forever”.
https://apple.news/ADdYu8LRxROq4q6326dvkBg
Climate change: Five key takeaways from COP27
‘Not enough for people and planet’: Critics denounce COP27 deal
https://apple.news/Ah9_CE8oCTs2gx3TtI2gxzQ
The world votes for “climate hell” Julian Cribb.
Blog: COP 27 – Egypt to Tame the World’s Fire
https://thecommonwealth.org/news/blog-cop-27-egypt-tame-worlds-fire
From land grab to soil grab – the new business of carbon farming
https://grain.org/en/article/6804-from-land-grab-to-soil-grab-the-new-business-of-carbon-farming
Monica Piccini: Geoengineering
Deep Adaptation. Audio Book. Prof Jem Bendell
https://twitter.com/jembendell?s=21&t=E0AsoZ1aRaRWPsX4VpZrPg
COP15 Montreal CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) biodiversity framework. 30 by 30 target. erosion of ecosystems. rebalance our relationship with nature.
https://apple.news/AIvgFZVZ9QVK59dyk1I-7_w
Societal and social breakdown in Haiti
Environmental Newsroom 
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