Please Don't Declare a Climate Emergency

When I worked with Extinction Rebellion, one of the goals was to compel governments to "declare a climate emergency". At the time, the UK Extinction Rebellion had some success convincing Parliament to declare emergency. Locally, it seemed like a symbolic action that could be significant because it represents an awareness of the problem, among lawmakers. But I didn't think it was strategically very important. After all, the point of "rebellion" is to take power away from the lawmakers and return it to the citizens (through Citizens' Assemblies), not to beg them to do the right thing.

So, I didn't understand why some people in the local chapter of XR were so fixated on this "declare emergency" initiative. Things became clearer in the ensuing years...

In 2020, President Trump declared a national emergency concerning COVID-19, enabling emergency funding for the medical industry, along with all kinds of overreach. Under the guise of emergency, Congress passed the CARES Act -- the largest upward transfer of wealth in history. Ordinary people might've been thankful for their $1200 payments and extended unemployment, but billionaires made out like bandits. Billionaires' wealth has increased 88% since 2020.

Additionally, the COVID emergency gave the government the rationale for rushing experimental tests and medications to the market. Faulty PCR tests, which were never meant to be used as diagnostic tools, suddenly determined who could travel, go to school or work, etc.

Early on, Remdesivir was approved for treating COVID, despite its prior track record of failing to treat Ebola, and its record of causing kidney failure among COVID patients. And it was incredibly expensive, which benefited its producer, Gilead. (Coincidentally, a top lobbyist for pharma, who previously worked for Gilead, was very influential in the Trump administration)

The COVID emergency also enabled "Operation Warp Speed" to develop and produce COVID vaccines. OWS was driven by the Department of Defense, not the FDA. The ordinary drug approval process was completely sidestepped. Once the vaccines were released, they were actually produced by military subcontractors, not the (completely corrupt) drug companies whose name appeared on the bottles. Also, since COVID was such a dire emergency, the drug companies had complete immunity from litigation if their products contained nasty side-effects (which they exhibited at rates far higher than any previous vaccine). In fact (and unlike any other medication) they didn't have to list any known side effects in the information included with the emergency-use vaccine.

Once Biden took over the reigns of the Empire, he used the COVID emergency to coerce the population to take this experimental (and highly profitable) medication, with little to no recourse. Thousands were fired or chose early retirement, rather than submit to medical experimentation. The Biden administration also used the threat of emergency to massively increase online surveillance and censorship of criticism. And it fomented division and distrust among the population.

In 2022, when the Empire decided to move on from the COVID emergency, suddenly war in Ukraine became the new emergency. The censors of COVID critics smoothly shifted to censoring NATO critics. You're not allowed to criticize the war effort (even though the US was never officially at war with Russia) because criticism could harm morale, or kill grandma, or something...

After living through these COVID years, I've become convinced that the idea of "declaring a climate emergency" is a way to enable more authoritarianism, under the auspicies of tackling climate change. There may be well-intentioned activists who think it's a good idea, but I think there are also authoritarian technocrats who love the idea of a mass movement pleading for unaccountable governments to lock us down harder, but this time in the name of saving the climate.

But it is a moot point, since the shifting winds of politics have given us Trump, once again. This time, he is even more of an obedient tool of the ownership class than he was in 2016 (or 2020). And he's learned from 2020 that emergencies are really useful to push society in the direction that the owners want. We are now in "perpetual crisis mode", as Trump has declared national emergencies over immigration, tarrifs, domestic energy production, etc.

From the article: “That’s an abuse of emergency power that threatens the most fundamental right people have in a democracy: the right to peacefully express dissent and disagreement with their government’s actions.”

And yet, most people went along with the stifling of dissent during the COVID years. The amount of authoritarianism varied by country, with scenes of riot police in Germany beating up protesters and arresting people who didn't wear masks. Or police in the UK knocking on doors to harrass people who made online posts that were critical of the government. If we don't reckon with the crimes and coordinated overreach of the COVID years, we won't be able to understand or resist the new emergencies inflicted upon us.

It is clear to me that The System (represented by national governments who might pretend to disagree with each other but are all controlled by corporate interests and oligarchs) is becoming increasingly authoritarian. The gloves are coming off. As I've said before, "their plan is to maintain control and wealth during a time of instability and declining standards of living for the rest of us." For a brief window, "declaring a climate emergency" would've fit nicely into the authoritarian plan to maintain control. Since most people don't seem to care about climate change, our rulers can feel free to stop pretending to mitigate the disasters. But they will find creative new ways to pacify us. Perhaps World War III will do the trick.