Our Mastodon friend, Geoffrey Deihl (aka Sane Thinker
@gdeihl), has posted a long and passionate diatribe about all the illusions we live under, the dangers we face from fascism and climate collapse, and the crimes of our billionaire owners who brainwash the masses, promoting those illusions in an attempt to keep us passive.

Geoff also presents an inspiring vision for how we might live instead. Getting there would be a huge challenge, difficult to achieve — but if you don't have a dream, how can you ever have a dream come true?

This is must-read stuff. I'll offer a short excerpt, and then I hope you'll click through to see it all...
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At this moment, one million species face extinction. Countless others were already consigned to oblivion by our activities. Twenty thousand years ago, humans comprised just 1% of the combined weight of all land vertebrates. Today, we comprise 32% of that weight and wild animals have been reduced to 1%. The other 67% are the domesticated animals we imprison, torture, and eat to sustain our overpopulation. We have outstripped our environment. Any species that does so is destined for collapse.

A plastic island twice the size of Texas floats in the Pacific. It isn’t safe to drink rainwater. Our bodies are filled with toxins from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and volatile organic compounds. We walk into public spaces and shoot random strangers, blow away black boys who rang the wrong doorbell, and shoot you dead if you pull into the wrong driveway. We go to jobs we hate, anesthetize ourselves in front of screens, large and small, buy the very junk that destroys our environment and eat addictive fast food, cynically manufactured to reward primal pleasure centers in our brains.

As I write, another record heat wave is sweeping Asia and the Mediterranean as well. Wildfires are out of control in western Canada, again. People around the equator are fleeing north, as their countries become uninhabitable. The politicized crisis at the Mexican border has worsened because the poor are struggling to farm in Central America. Climate change is destroying their livelihoods. It’s coming for us, too. We’ve already experienced it, with record drought and fires, more powerful hurricanes and biblical flooding washing lives away.

It’s too late to escape all the consequences, but it’s not too late to spare ourselves some of the worst pain. The time is now, before tipping points guarantee self-sustaining feedback loops.

We must demand a world where the colors are green and blue, a thriving natural world. A world where new pavement is banned. A world where your job has meaning. A world where your work helps others. A world where you look forward to the day, rather than endure it. A world where you don’t have to wait until you’re near dead to live. A world where you spend time outdoors, connected to the Earth.
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FULL ESSAY -- https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/the-illusions-of-fossil-fuels

#Pollution #Biodiversity #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice #Capitalism #Fascism