“The ‘panic now, it’s all melting down’ tribe and ‘lol nothing’s happening, chill’ tribes are in a mutual gaslighting equilibrium. Me, I’m above these simplistic either/or things, I’m in a complex superposition of chilling and panicking.” — Venkatesh Rao
What’s in this Post?
Al Gore’s COP27 Lecture
In February 1936, Esquire magazine published F. Scott Fitzgerald’s essay “The Crack-Up” which contained the following quote:1
“…the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
On November 7, 2022, Al Gore gave his climate lecture to world leaders at the opening of the world leaders summit at the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27):
At times he sounded like Greta rabbiting on about the damage being done while world leaders remain unresponsive. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi nodded in pained agreement. They are, after all, part of that group of world leaders who are trapped deers in the headlights of systemic collapse, unable to courageously show the slightest trace of leadership.
Gore then went on to talk about the ‘blessings’ of renewable energy, linking the mega-investments required to a reduction of CO2. In other words, go deeper into debt and we’ll stop the planet warming.
His speech is the perfect example of holding two opposed ideas at the same time:
Economic stimulus and continued growth (epitomized as the concentration of wealth in late-stage societal collapse2), with a
Commensurate reduction in the inevitable impact of that continued growth.
The extent to which Gore (and other hard-core capitalists) are able to hold these opposing ideas in mind simultaneously is impressive. The extent to which the world is losing ‘the ability to function’ is testament to how the two ideas of economic growth and net zero are mutually exclusive.
To ESG or not to ESG?
This leads us on to the challenge business and sustainability leaders face. You’re caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the invisible hand that directs the affairs of business demands and mandates that you say something about ESG.3 On the other hand, planetary boundaries demand that all businesses limit their economic growth.
These two opposing ideas culminate in a greenwashed ESG report, regardless of which standard your organization adopts. Greenwashing is inevitable, because you’re trying to reconcile two opposing ideas, while retaining the ability to function. It simply cannot be done, no matter how much your auditing firm charges for ‘professional’ services.
We’re all experiencing this cognitive dissonance in one way or another. At best it’s an anxious feeling of being caught out hoodwinking the market about how ‘green’ we are. At worst it’s a sense of doom that our organization’s legitimate response to a market need is ‘destroying the planet’. We end up in extreme denial as a temporary escape from the polluted petri dish with diminishing returns on energy investment we find ourselves in.
It’s no wonder then that a higher percentage of executives than their employees are feeling overwhelmed, lonely and depressed.4 Employees are suffering too, which has an impact on productivity. An estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year globally to depression and anxiety.5
So, what to do?
How can we—individually and collectively—face the future boldly? We know that late-stage collapse is inevitable and unpredictable. There is no way that we can anticipate what will happen next. Anyone who claims they can is a charlatan.
In the face of such uncertainty, how can we embrace the future with calmness, composure, clarity, constructiveness… and even joy at being alive at this unique time in history?
Accept that times like these cannot be known. Release, regularly, the temptation to be right about what’s going on. Accept that simple cause-and-effect that has served us well in the past is no longer quite the same (because the causes are complex). Accept that we’re complex adaptive beings in a complex adaptive system. And amidst all this messiness, celebrate that the impossible emerges when we least expect it (especially from our teams and employees):
Be clear about our values, what we stand for and what we can contribute to a world in collapse. Communicate these values clearly, frequently and boldly. Include these values in any ESG or climate-related statement we make. Rather than begrudgingly meeting a market requirement, we can use our ESG report as a means of unequivocally stating our values.
Filter for the best. We know from history that collapse is always accompanied with the emergent. Seek out others who filter for the emergent. Ignore mainstream media that filters for collapse. “One should be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
What I’ve Been Reading
Alternatives to private property and ownership has been the theme of my exploration this past week, in light of the coming wave of reparations from first nation peoples who have had their land stolen from them.
“If COP27 does not deliver a convergent path on the $100bn… (a longstanding promise to poor nations of $100bn a year in assistance, to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather)… I think many developing countries will leave Sharm el-Sheikh at least thinking about their commitments to the global climate process.” — Achim Steiner, UN’s global development chief
Ours: The Case for Universal Property (2021) by Peter Barnes: https://peter-barnes.org/book/ours-the-case-for-universal-property/ and
This is a long read on the history of the seizure of the commons and its transformation into private property, with specific relevance to climate change and ESG. It is also the reason for a plunge into personal despair this week: https://monthlyreview.org/2022/03/01/nature-as-a-mode-of-accumulation-capitalism-and-the-financialization-of-the-earth/. It was because of this article that I needed a reminder of what’s necessary to stay sane in challenging times.
A turning point in the financial expropriation of the earth occurred from September to November 2021, overlapping with the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference negotiations in Glasgow. Three major interrelated developments occurred at this time:
(1) the creation of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero embracing most of global capitalist finance;
(2) approval of key elements of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, creating the unified financial rules for global carbon trading markets; and
(3) the announcement that the New York Stock Exchange together with the Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG)—whose investors include the Inter-American Development Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation—was launching a new class of securities associated with natural asset companies (NACs). As the IEG told its investors, while the asset value of the world economy is $512 trillion, the asset value of the earth’s natural capital is estimated at $4 quadrillion ($4,000 trillion), all potentially for the taking.
It would be an understatement to refer to this as a planetary-level protection racket raised to the level of the capitalist economic system as a whole.
See a vibrant discussion on the essay above in these comments: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hans-stegeman_nature-as-a-mode-of-accumulation-capitalism-activity-6996373158240886784-yxzG
Enclosure was the early practice of placing a hedge or fence around a portion of open land to prevent the exercise of common grazing across open fields. Summary of the Enclosure Movement in our research portal: https://bit.ly/enclosure-move
COP27 and reparations: Talks about how to compensate vulnerable countries for the damage caused by climate change are not ready to agree on a funding mechanism: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cop27-talks-climate-compensation-not-yet-ready-agree-new-fund-2022-11-11/
See the 7 Phases of Civilization: https://bit.ly/7-Phases-Civ
The EU has, as of 10 November 2022, adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) (with 525 votes in favour, 60 votes against and 28 abstentions). See this discussion: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-can-see-future-marie-josee-privyk-cfa-ripc-fsa-credential/