The climate crisis didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was a long time coming, not only because countries and regions were industrialising but because we were creating systems on already existing unjust foundations. These foundations are rooted in patriarchy, white supremacy, colonialism, classism, heteronormativity and ableism. All neatly coming together in the form capitalism or its more recent insidious form neo-liberalism. For me the solution is obvious, we can’t address climate breakdown alone.
Climate Home News does a great job of summarising the new IPCC Special Report in this piece, and you can follow my twitter thread where I explain the root causes of the climate crisis and interlinked systems failure.
The capitalist system encourages us to think, live, produce and consume as individuals. Everything has a price and all interactions and engagements are seen as transactional. The economy is extractive rather than generative. Local and community driven solutions, traditions, and practices that are not deemed to produce value for the system or do not yield profit for the share holders are either…
Self worth and productivity
I just read an article about how if one is depressed the best way to fight it is by being productive. That to me shows a lack of understanding of what depression really is. Depression means not being able to be productive no matter how much you may wish yourself to be. Depression is not having control over you brain and rather the brain controling you. Depression often comes with its twin — anxiety — which in many ways is the oposite of depression but causes the same fears around ones capability and likability. Depression and…
Collaboration over competition
This is something I’ve been saying on repeat, ad nauseaum to folx within the non-profits and activist circles for years. Whether its for creating brand recognition, getting more funding or working in teams but to seek validation from our supervisors and bosses. It’s competition driving us- pegging us to be at odds with each other and even with ourselves. As @adriennemareebrown says “competing with all my co-workers for the approval of our boss in a highly socialized situation does not produce the best work! It only produces this kind of cutthroat, ever-shifting hierarchy; a hierarchy that doesn’t…
Meera Ghani
“Care is the antidote to violence” — Saidiya Hartman #CultureOfCare
