Tim Winton on the politics of climate, identifying ‘fossil capitalism’ as the enemy. The real enemy is…

Tim Winton on the politics of climate, identifying ‘fossil capitalism’ as the enemy. The real enemy is something he also mentions. The status quo. Fossil fuels fuel the status quo, well beyond those specific industries. 1/5 https://t.co/7kvezXmPLn

Tourism, transport, petrochemicals, fashion…just some of the ways the status quo is dependent on fossil fuels. The status quo is a social creation, maintained through the networks that form our societies. Would that it was as easy as shutting down just one industry. 2/5

As @EdConwaySky describes, the new industrial revolution needed to save us means re-building nearly everything, all of these networks. By focusing only on energy we’re missing the intricate complexity of the status quo. 3/5

It’s that complexity which makes the status quo pretty much impossible to shift, without catastrophic disruption. Resistance will come from every turn, as we’re finding. A society has all its habits and rules at once, I think Rousseau said. The status quo is that knot. 4/5

It’s why meaningful change historically has only come from the destruction of an existing status quo. Not through any gradual planning process. Catastrophe. /end