The conference in Paris is underway as I write this.
World leaders have gathered to discuss, debate, harangue and eventually come to some agreement…hopefully!
However, there are two aspects of any agreement, that the mainstream media will ignore, in their reporting of the biggest threat to face humankind ever!
The first one is evident to anyone living in the developed world: we have to consume less, much less and, in fact, change our entire perspective of how we live with this planet…not, as many say, on this planet!
This means reducing consumption of consumer goods, oil, but, more importantly, changing our diets and expectations.
We have become used to buying food from all over the world, holidaying all over the world, eating more meat than any other generation before us and living in homes where heat is supplied at the flick of a switch.
You will not hear political leaders talk such talk, as this has no place in “economic growth”…
Western society in it’s present form is unsustainable…even without the massive problem of Climate Change!
(For example…did you know that there are, today, nearly 65 billion animals worldwide, including cows, chickens and pigs, crammed into Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)…Factory Farms to you and me!)
We eat meat as a snack food…unheard of when I grew up!
However, much as the mainstream media ignore much of the above, there remains a most important part of this problem unspoken of…
War and the Military machines of increasingly feudal governments. They’re right up there in the major league of Climate destroyers!
Did Al Gore even mention the devastating impact of endless wars and military in his money-spinning presentation?
No!
Why?
It was an Inconvenient Truth.
It represents the Elephant in the Room that no-one wants to talk about!
Last year, the UK government spent $60.5Billion on Defence.
A huge amount of money that could have provided solar power and retro-fitted insulation to millions of homes…yes, millions!
Here’s an article that evaluates the US military’s impact on climate http://www.countercurrents.org/smith261115.htm
“Militarism is single greatest institutional contributor to the growing natural disasters intensified by global warming.” 
~J Lawrence
Some of the facts, should you care to research them are staggering… for example, an F-4 Phantom Fighter burns more than 1,600 gallons of jet fuel per hour!
It is interesting that the spin on war and climate change has already begun, with the media posing the question does climate change cause war and refugees.
Refugees do not cause climate change.
It is time we did a little number crunching for ourselves!
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Thank you once again. This point about the military machine was mentioned as part of the tribunal for the rights of mother earth. Stay in your cottage and stay sane and care for mother earth and for yourself.
Bless you Jacqueline…just at this point I needed to hear that! XXX
Great post and I completely agree. I was listening to a podcast last week and the speaker said that the problem with the Paris talks is that each of the developed countries is looking for the best deal for that country, rather than the best deal for the Earth and our future. co2 levels or methane levels know no geo-political boundaries, yet governments still think in terms, as you mention, of endless economic growth. Sigh.
Their utter arrogance and stupidity is now transparent…
Reblogged this on REIMAGINING PEACE and commented:
Militarism ITSELF adds to the multidimensional causes of CLIMATE CHANGE as Colette O’Neill so clearly points out:
Isn’t it strange when governments talk about reducing greenhouse emissions, but never explain how.
Ha! Ha!…just what I was thinking as I listened to the nonsense being spurted, by politicians at the Paris conference!
I know there is a movement going on now. They just don’t know they are a part of it yet. Unemployment rates are so high, and sales for this weekend we’re down a lot. The media can no longer disguise what’s going on and being forced even in small ways to confront it. Many would like to blame current administration for their problems. This has been coming for quite a while but the bandaid they kept putting right back on lost its sticky. I think people are waking up. Is it enough to make a difference though? We can hope I suppose and keep on spreading the message.
We must never give up!
Lovely post
I agree wholeheartedly with your views,but with the American election likely to vote in some extreme Right wing candidate, I’m really concerned for the world.Perhaps as a country they’ll have a rush of blood to their heads and vote for Bernie Sanders ,who seems a reasonable candidate!
All we can do is continue in our small way . My first permaculture potager is ready to over winter courtesy of your blog .All our house moving cartons are layered with leaf mold and compost !! 😀
blessings,
M
We can all work in small but determined ways to do what our governments have failed to do…take charge! Blessings on your new home X
If Trump is elected I will have lost all hope in my countries sanity! Not to be political or anything 🙂
Politician come and politicians go…we must never be deterred from doing the right thing and keeping faith with Mother Earth.
So true! Also, unmentioned: how geo-engineering and confirmed weather warfare disrupt ecosystems and entire regions. Until these world leaders start talking about organic farming, dismantling the war machines and call to stop spraying our skies with toxic chemicals, I hold little hope that the Climate Conference is anything more than another chance to impose more regulations and more restrictions on ordinary people, rather than the military industrial complex causing most of the damage. I do find this movement very encouraging: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17825
Clearly, the people themselves will need to make the lifestyle and other changes. Permaculture, Transition Towns, Victory Gardens, Farmers Markets … the wave of the future is already here for those willing to surf it. 🙂
We look to the future and work for Mother Earth…She knows what we do!
We have little to no control over the military, but the industrial entities are supplying ‘us’. Albeit they use twisted and deceitful advertising to lure people in, but we can say NO to new iPhones or whatever the latest gadget is. But people believe it is their right to have a £2 chicken or a £3 t-shirt from ASDA without a care for who made it or how. The best hope we have is to do what Collette does and lead by example, although I fear it may be too little too late.
It is never too late…Mother Earth could have shaken us off a long time ago…she hasn’t…though that does not mean that a reckoning isn’t on the way. So, in the meantime we do all we can do to honour her.
Blessings X
It’s nice to hear you say this, and although I personally think our days are numbered, it is even more important to honour and respect her and to radiate love.
I am encouraged by just how many people I know doing what Colette has done. We have an entire (albeit small) city here planting fruit and nut trees as street trees all over town, encouraging front yard gardens, a thriving farmers market. I believe education and living examples are key. I know so many people who’ve started at least small gardens because of my ridiculously large one.
Even if it’s too little, too late, there can still be a tipping point — plus, Mother Earth Herself has a great deal of say in the matter. As drastic and crippling as an EMP would be, I do sometimes wonder if that’s not the saving grace for humanity. Time will tell, but in the meantime, we can educate people about greening the deserts, living locally, saving or finding alternatives to BigEnegry, and growing as much of our own food as possible. Colette’s such an inspiration!
I trust that Mother Earth will continue to self-regulate as I believe She does…and I pray that includes humanity staying with Her…therefore we continue to do the best by Her…those who care!
Yes you are very right, and this has got to change, the climate change summit has to include this sort of considerations, war is too expensive and destructive for the earth, for human life, and is polluting disastrously. There should now be a law against waging war, I know that it sounds maybe naïve to say this, but why not! It is an excellent post and thank you very much, will share.
You are right…there should be a law, for that makes more sense than many of the laws we have!
Excellent post. Governments will never save the world. Only people can do that by making the right choices.
Let’s continue to make those choices and confound the economists and politicians!
Absolutely!
You are absolutely right!!! I wish we could choose our representatives at the Paris conference on climate. You would have front row seating. I don’t believe in evil as religion portrays it by giving it a personality and mythological character for us to fear in the hopes of controlling us. Evil has only the power we give it by serving it and believing in it. That said, War is evil. Men fighting over the earths gifts and personal power for the sake of controlling them and enslaving and controlling other people. We need a global shift in mentality where material objects and consumer growth is not more important than people, animals, trees, plants and other living things… and all nations need to turn from in fighting over the earths gifts to honoring and nurturing those gifts. Shame on the super powers of this world for not taking the lead from a position of power and continuing the profits of war. Profits that only benefit the few. If Geoff Lawton can use perma culture principles to green the desert a stones throw from the dead sea which seemed an impossible task, certainly there is hope for the entire world.
You;re right, if Geoff can do it, then why is he and others like him being ignored? We must keep challenging the myths created by the media and others!