Climate-change activism vs. the third world

I recently saw an argument that says that people like Greta Thunberg—let’s use her as a placeholder for any semi-affluent first-worlder—can argue all she wants for a massive reduction of fossil-fuel usage, but that she’s privileged to be able to do so, as there is zero chance that her life will be impacted negatively by it. The argument is that stopping fossil fuels now will leave the developing world even farther behind because they won’t be able to benefit from the economic growth they need in order to improve their lives.

This is the type of hot take that will be repeated endlessly and that impresses those who like to be led by the nose, but it’s not true. A drastic reduction in fossil-fuel usage will affect everyone, both initially negatively and eventually positively. People in the developing world will be impacted more severely in either case. People in the first world will, but more through an increase in climate refugees, which will drastically change those societies as well.

Arguing that we should ignore climate change because no-one has an alternative plan is intellectually lazy. There is an alternative plan, but nobody wants to do it: stop mindless growth built with fossil fuels everywhere. Just stop building stuff we don’t need. Stop driving an economy based on fabricated desire.

Everyone who benefitted massively from the reckless usage so far is obligated to help everyone else who is severely impacted by either,

• the climate change that usage engendered or
• the potential drop in quality of life engendered by stopping the use of fossil fuels (“potential” because there is no reason why people should suffer other than the greed of the wealthy).

Obviously, it’s a giant long shot to think that any of the “winner” countries will step up and take responsibility, but it’s really the only way forward. Keeping on keeping on while telling Greta to go fuck her bratty, white, privileged self is a super-bad plan.

The whole plan isn’t just to stop using fossil fuels and then sit back and see what happens. The whole plan—laid out in countless well-written articles and books—is to change how we do things from the ground up. There is no other way. There is no shortcut. Just because there’s almost no way that it’s going to happen doesn’t mean it’s not the only way out. There is no techno-miracle lurking around the corner. We are well and truly fucked if we continue on this path. Even just slowing down a bit won’t help. Our system isn’t really capable of doing something like that, anyway.

Pissing on first-world climate-change activists for being more privileged under the current system is just being spiteful and unproductive. They are mostly right and they have a plan for everyone. Go piss on the people who are standing in the way of bringing that plan to fruition.