You've heard of nuclear bombs,
well carbon bombs are just as dangerous.
Carbon bombs have the potential to destroy life on earth.
Carbon bombs are the fossil fuel reserves which the oil,
gas and coal companies intend to exploit which will
release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
There's nearly 200 of these projects in the pipeline
which will easily push us past 2 degrees
of global heating and perhaps beyond.
And are likely to push earth systems past their
tipping points and create an uninhabitable planet.
And these are all happening they're just going ahead
it's just been normalised.
Yeah we'll grant you permission to exploit this shale gas space
and we'll grant you permission to exploit
these north sea oil reserves they're literally signing off
on the extinction of most life on earth including most human life.
You just go ahead guys yeah it's fine yeah go and make
some money just make sure that you keep funding
our political party that's fine yet go ahead.
Fossil fuel companies need spend only a very small
amount of their money to protect their investments
they spend that money on buying politicians
on funding political parties but also on funding lobbyists
and in particular think tanks.
And what those think tanks are the ones who don't reveal
who funds them are lobbyists who don't declare
that they're lobbyists.
So they have more credibility because people say oh they're
think tanks they think about stuff.
Recently we had a case of the Global Warming Policy Foundation
one of these so-called think tanks which claims it's independent
which has refused to reveal its funders and lo and behold
there's been buckets of U.S fossil fuel money channeled into it.
Perhaps the most dangerous of all these fossil fuel interests
when it comes to changing the political conversation
has been the Koch brothers Charles and David Koch
they have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into trying
to alter our perceptions of what's going on in the world
in their interests and the interests of other fossil fuel companies.
The Conservative MPs who've been trying to sync the government's net zero program they've
been funded by fossil fuel interests as well surprise surprise this is how the system operates
you have to fund people who are going to talk on your behalf but are not seen to be linked to you
because if they are seen to be linked to you they lose their credibility so you fund them secretly
and they try to keep the sources of their money hidden from you and me the great environmentalist
aldo leopold said the price of an ecological education is to live in a world of wounds
in other words it's to know how awful the damage we're doing to the world is that comes back
to me when i think of what's happening to our coral reefs if we reach 1.5 degrees of warming
we've lost almost all of them at least 95 if we reach 2 degrees that is it no more coral reefs
at all that's what we're on course for so if we're prepared to lose all our coral reefs
these stunning beautiful amazing ecosystems which are already now suffering from bleaching
step just before the coral reefs die almost universally in places like the great barrier reef
what else are we prepared to lose if that's a necessary sacrifice so that fossil fuel
industries can make their billions then what isn't a necessary sacrifice oh the rainforest
oh people huge populations of people where land is becoming uninhabitable i mean we've just seen this
massive heatwave in india and pakistan and that's just at the beginning of the process this is with
just over one degree of global heating we haven't any conception of how far this is going to go
huge tracks of the planet where billions of people live are simply going to become too hot to sustain
life let alone to sustain crops and all the other things that we need to survive and we just haven't
got our heads around this but yeah all these are necessary sacrifices so the fossil fuel companies
can keep making their profits in fact the entire habitable planet is a necessary sacrifice so
that fossil fuel industries can keep making their profits i spent years of my life fighting climate
deniers people who said oh this climate science is all nonsense of course humans aren't changing the
world's climate and that's kind of over there's a few idiot holdouts but that's pretty well it
most people have stopped trying to push that line instead the dangerous force now is the
politics deniers the people who say technology is going to sort this out automatically the
market is going to sort it out we don't have to do anything we don't need any political protest
we don't need any political change we'll just let these processes operate automatically
it doesn't work like that the only way we're going to protect the living planet is through political
change it's through political protest through political challenge now of course the media loves
the politics deniers just as much as it loved the climate deniers 10 years ago because the politics
deniers are saying we didn't challenge power power is fine so the billionaire press which
is owned by billionaires they don't want any challenge to power so they give a huge platform
to the politics deniers to people like bill gates stephen pinker matt ridley oded galore who
basically say we just can leave this to technology to demographic change we don't need to intervene
this politics denial is the disney version of environmental science the idea that through the
invisible hand of the market and the magic of technology everything will work out just fine
in the end the fairy dust will be sprinkled over the situation and everything will resolve
it just does not work like that if good things happen they happen because people have struggled
for them if you're in a place which is beautiful it's because someone struggled for that place
if you're in a society which is functional it's because someone has struggled for that society
if you're in a nation in which everybody is well fed and everybody is cared for and everybody has
a decent home it's because people have struggled for that it does not happen by itself we need
hope we need optimism but it has to be rooted in political and environmental realities the optimism
which says yeah we reckon it'll all work out by itself you know we'll trust the powers that be
we'll trust in technology to deliver we'll trust in some vague social forces to see that everything
comes right that is groundless optimism and groundless optimism is a threat to life on earth
we need grounded optimism we need the optimism which is vested in ourselves the optimism which
is vested in our preparedness to stand up and fight for life on earth we need to realize as
david graber pointed out humans made these systems humans can change these systems all the systems
which look monolithic and huge and terrifying and overwhelming to us these were made by people
these can be unmade by people they can be made differently by people and recognizing that is to
unleash the greatest power we possess the power to recognize that human societies are made by human
beings the rules that govern human societies are made by human beings and we are those human beings
to reclaim our power we need to reclaim our media it's no good relying on the billionaire
press to express what we the people and the rest of life and earth requires to get
through this century that's why we urgently need alternative media like double down
news so please become a supporter please support double down on patreon