[lbo-talk] Nicolas Stern's What Is To Be Done on climate change

[Carrol Cox]

Some years ago, focusing on "An Irish Airman Forsees His Death," I wrote
on the wrongness, almost evil, at the heart of much of Yeats's best
poeetry. One aspect of that is seen in all the poems in which he comes
_so_ close to saying EXACTLY what one wants him to say -- so close but
usually so far. With that preamble, these lines from "Lapis Lazuli"
catch something of my response to Dwayne's queries. (There is of course
a contempt for the mass of men and women implicit in hese lines -- but
try to ignore that for the moment.)

On their own feet they came, or On shipboard,'
Camel-back; horse-back, ass-back, mule-back,
Old civilisations put to the sword.
Then they and their wisdom went to rack:
No handiwork of Callimachus,
Who handled marble as if it were bronze,
Made draperies that seemed to rise
When sea-wind swept the corner, stands;
His long lamp-chimney shaped like the stem
Of a slender palm, stood but a day;
All things fall and are built again,
And those that build them again are gay.

---

I agree with a good deal of what Dwayne has to say, actually.

Dwayne Monroe wrote:

John Thornton: 

I believe Carrol's correct. We won't act until this problem is actually
biting us hard in the ass. 

That said the point of political action isn't negated. 

Such a change could mean the difference between cutting one leg off
beneath us or cutting both off beneath us. Besides, everyone needs a
hobby and Carrol doesn't collect coins or restore Edsels. 

.................

I agree. 

The irony here is that Carrol routinely admonishes us to sow seeds for
the political future instead of getting too caught up with current
conditions.  The idea apparently being that the time is not yet right
for the sort of changes most of us would like to see.  If we've done
this background work, when the time *is* right, we (or our movement
descendants) will be in a better position to offer genuine alternatives. 

At least, that's the 'theory'. 

As I see it, discussions of, and projects towards carbon neutral
technologies are the intellectual and engineering equivalents of the
political prep work Carrol insists is an absolute necessity.  He
dismisses it all as "cloud-cuckoo land" nonsense even though it's
precisely the sort of thing that seems so urgent in the purely political
context. 

How can 'we' hope to salvage the situation if, when the shit hits the
fan, we haven't done our homework? 

And by the way Carrol, 'we' can be everything and everyone from a
hobbyist working on hydrogen enhanced combustion to the folks at
Grist.org to a firm making highly efficient, super-conducting power
lines.  All this and much more is just the sort of work necessary to
prepare for a changed planetary situation.