Democracy our best avenue to address climate change - Leigh Phillips

Leigh Phillips - he advocates
democracy to
 address climate change.

Shortly after the Copenhagen UN climate talks in 2009 collapsed, James Lovelock, a godfather of modern environmentalism, was asked by Guardian reporter Leo Hickman what should be done in light of the failure. Lovelock issued a call for what can only be described as a climate dictatorship.

Rejecting the idea that a solution to climate change could be achieved in a modern democracy, Lovelock thundered that what was needed instead was “a more authoritative world” where there are “a few people with authority who you trust who are running it.”

“What’s the alternative to democracy? There isn’t one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.”

This call for a sort of benevolent dictatorship of science is increasingly being made for a range of problems that we confront globally, from biodiversity loss to antibiotic resistance.

Read this piece by Leigh Phillips - “The Solution is Democracy.”

Apology for Phillips' accusation - he actually cares about humanity

-      Robert McLean

Leigh Phillips deserves an apology.

Posting about his book, “Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence Of Growth, Progress, Industry And Stuff”, I accused him of being in the pay of the world’s corporations and such an assumption, made wrongly after having read just a few early chapters, was clearly wrong.

I apologise, Phillips is clearly in the “pay of humanity”, that is he cares about the welfare of the human race, but his solutions jar somewhat with those who see any possible resolution to climate change in serious de-growth emanating from an immediate uncoupling of the world economy from carbon-based energy and resources.

In what appears at first glance to be a contradictory idea, Phillips sees the way out as more growth that allows for the embrace of our natural intuitive and innovative essence, rather than blanketing and smothering all those traits as suggested by the “collapse-porn addicts”, chief among the Naomi Klein, whose recent book, “This Changes Everything: The Climate Versus Capitalism”, draws considerable criticism from Phillips.

Phillips unquestionably sees climate change as humanity’s greatest threat, but fears it will be worsened if we take the advice Klein and her contemporaries and subsequently slink-off to our personal bolt-holes and in doing so opt for a way of living that sees us forego, and be forced to ignore the wonderful advances that will always and forever emerge from our inventive minds.

Having seen the early part of Phillips’s book through the eyes of child (children, and the immature, always see a project half completed and make a judgement), it was astoundingly comforting to see the author seriously argue for “public” ahead of “private” writing:

“I am convinced that our greatest hope in combatting a scale of climate change that significantly inhibits human flourishing lies in a turn away from a neoliberal emphasis on market-based mechanisms; ecological austerity; privatization; localism; and regressive consumption taxes – but above all, away from Malthusianism, misanthropy and anti-modernism; and a turn toward  a renewed enthusiasm for the public-sector-led large scale infrastructure; expansion of access to abundant cheap energy; and an open ended, steady raising of everyone’s  standard of living. Our best hope is for humans to keep getting happier, healthier, and yes, wealthier – but also more equal.”

Leigh Phillips - an apology.

Having been an ardent student for several years of what Phillips describes as “collapse porn” and a cautious supporter of what had been written, it was refreshing to stumble upon a writer who was equally concerned about climate change, but who saw the solution through a different prism.

Phillips’ concern about climate change and its impacts are equal to those of the “collapse porn” authors, but he see the solution in the pursuit of what it is we (humans) do best – invent and apply, so more growth.

Should you see climate change as a huge, insurmountable problem for which the existing solutions, or those promoted in the “collapse porn” are so distasteful, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to have any significant desire to pursue them, then take a look at what is suggested by Leigh Phillips in “Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence Of Growth, Progress, Industry And Stuff”.

Help the environment by leaving the 'collapse porn' under the bed

Leigh Phillips - concerned about
the environment, leave the
"collapse porn" under the bed.

Collapse porn. Apocalyptica. Eco-rapture.

These are labels UK science journalist Leigh Phillips has given to a growing genre of environmental writing. Prominent among them are Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate (2014), James Kunstler’s The Long Emergency (2005), Paul Kingsnorth’s Uncivilization (2009), John Zerzan Against Civilization (2005), and Dereck Jensen’s Endgame: The problem of civilization (2006).

In his book Austerity Ecology and the Collapse Porn-addicts: a defence of growth, technology, industry and stuff (2015) published last month, Phillips points to the collapse merchants’ belief in a mythical time when humanity lived in harmony with nature.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Director, Centre for Environment, University of Tasmania, Ted Lefroy - “Want to save the environment? Let’s leave the collapse porn under the mattress.”

(Guilty as charged – several of the books listed by Ted have been among those I have devoured and while I have read them with enthusiasm, it is a matter that needs to be put in context.

Hungry to know, or at least have some understanding of what was really happening behind the positive and celebratory rhetoric of the world’s corporations and those driving the capitalist economy, I set out on a personal search that took in everything from Rachel Carsen’s “Silent Spring” to Donella Meadows’ “Limits to Growth” and James Hansen’s “Storms of my Grandchildren” and Herman Daly “Steady-State Economics”, just to name a few, and the unequivocal evidence illustrates that humanity has misunderstood its purpose – the economy, which was once of servant, is now in charge and the collapse porn that Ted concerns himself with appears unavoidable unless, and until, we give primacy back to human wellbeing. I have just bought “Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-porn Addicts: A defence of growth, progress, industry and stuff” and will read that with equal enthusiasm - Robert McLean.)