A Bold Plan to Preserve a Livable Climate

 We are in a desperate situation, with awful climate news coming nearly every week and with less than a decade to drastically cut exhausts of carbon in the air. We no longer have outright science deniers running the U.S. government, but for all President Biden’s climate talk his “solutions” are totally inadequate and his approval of pipelines and new drilling inexcusable.

 Here are some of what needs to be done to cut the output of carbon dioxide in at least half before 2030 and completely before 2050:

 • End exploration for fossil fuels.

 • Radically suppress fossil fuel consumption in the industrialized nations. 

• Produce things that are durable, rebuildable, recyclable, and shareable—instead of disposable. Minimize resource consumption. 

• Start to go plastic-free 

• Steer investments into things society does need, like renewable energy, organic farming, public transportation, bicycles, public water systems, clean-ups of polluted sites, brownfields and abandoned factories. 

• Devise a rational and thorough approach to handling and eliminating waste and toxics. 

• Cut back sharply on the amount of land used to raise food animals.  Move to plant-based diets.

 • Re-wild a large percentage of the earth with help from indigenous peoples. 

• Bring the world’s poorest up to a decent level of living

 • Provide better jobs and benefits to workers and displaced by the shutting down of harmful industries. 

Is there a ghost of a chance that neoliberal capitalist system can make these vital changes? How would the competing corporations, billionaires and financial operatives come together, fight their every instinct and renounce the Almighty Gods of Profit and Unlimited Expansion? We see what they prefer, to deny the whole thing as a “Chinese hoax” and go full steam ahead into climate hell or push dangerous techno-fixes like new nuclear power and "engineering" the planet. 

We need an emergency mobilization to get off our fossil fuel addiction. 

We need:

a peoples takeover  of the fossil fuel industries so we can rapidly abolish them

a de-centralized planned economy, 

a guaranteed good job for anyone who wants one

rationing of fossil fuels and other burned fuels. 

We also need to abandon the worship of an ever-growing economy. 

In fact we need to de-grow the economy and let a lot of land go wild (re-wild). It’s not only the best way to capture carbon. If we degrow we can have a shorter work week. 

All this requires community and worker ownership of the fossil fuel industry with the purpose of rapidly and justly transitioning to 100% renewables. 

We need to give land back, to partner with the indigenous nations of North America who have been stewards of the land for many centuries.  Carry out the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.

Rational planning requires democracy and transparency, not just in politics, but at work, too. We must figure out how to do this, to combine worker co-ops, and workers on company boards and working people on regional and national planning boards. We need to devise ways to coordinate that with the powers given to people chosen in general state and national elections. 

                                                                                               Preserve Our Forests 

                                                                                                        Re-wild Land

                                                                                          Move to a Plant-Based Diet

                                                                                          Ration Use of Burned Fuels

                                                                        Takeover and Abolish the Fossil Fuel Industries

                                                                                         Plan a Smokestack-Free Economy 

                                                                                                   A New World is Possible