This drawing predate the COP 28, but it mark a sad reminder that this is not the first international conference that bogged down due to a head-on collision between different visions of humanity and the planet.
Money (“the economy”) is more important than people
One vision considers everything as expendable (except their inner circle of privilegied people) and merchandisable at short term. Their long view is to accumulate material riches to weather out the climate breakdown/ social unrest. Because the fossil industry, like the cigarette industry before, knew what was in store as soon as the 70s. So yes, sir, capitalists do care about the future, but only a future where they can lord it over the rest of us.
People (and a livable planet!) are more important than money
The other vision holds the planet and all the living beings on it as important, worth preserving. Humans should work hard to stop pollution now (and also put an end to the multiple conflicts) to ensure a sharable, convivial future in the long term. And of course, the society sprouting up would be very different from today’s rat-race.
Since 2009, I have penned several stories dealing with the destruction of the environment, like Ice Monarch.
Our own actions
So the COP 28 ended with a milked-down version of phasing out fossil fuels. It was expected. Since we cannot count on the incredibly rich overlords to help out of their deep, fiscal-paradise pockets (too busy prepping their luxury bunkers), the brunt of the work falls on us.
As I said in a 2009 conference* at the Anticipation World SF panel, fossil oil is not bad… provided we stop burning it. Leave maybe 1/100 of fuel vehicles for emergencies. There’s a lot of useful things we can do with the fossil oil, (once they clean up their extractive process). Leaving in the Earth is not a bad option either.
We cannot content ourselves with the “small actions add-up” model. We have to do a LOT of work on many fronts (food and clothes and computers and waste management among those). As consumers, we can and will force the backward industries to stop polluting, stop hogging all the government monies to clean up their processes.
The base of the pyramid must move!
It has to come from down up, because those at the top of the pyramid don’t not listen often. Create a helpful environment, change the way we name things to make them accessible. And accept to pay a price, in loss of comfort, less social media, and sometimes, harassment.
At the time of St-Exupéry, WW II was the big concern. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring would come eighteen years after the valiant writer’s death at his plane’s commands.
But the deceptively simple fable he told in The Little Prince talks about the frailty of beauty, like the rose, that the boy wants to protect. *
Let us protect the fragile things that are important to us.
* There’s also a fun allusion to invasive species… with the baobab story.
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Michèle Laframboise feeds coffee grounds to her garden plants, runs long distances and writes full-time. Fascinated by sciences and nature since she could walk, she holds advanced degrees in geography and engineering, and draws from her scientific background to create worlds filled with humor, invention and wonder. More on her author website.
Echoes of a Sunday artist 