We are, indeed, facing the crisis we all knew had to come that could destroy the balance kept by traditional powers-that-be. When people lament the “climate crisis” gripping humanity, all roads in the conversation lead to the inevitable reality — to “save the planet” humanity needs to take a drastic hit on their standard of living. This is a reality Big Corporate is not about to highlight.
Given that there are many countries with sovereign self-interests at stake (and even more private enterprise players with even bigger “strategies” at stake), it becomes a question of who is on the hook to cop the most “investment” — or, probably more realistically-worded, sacrifice — in this noble pursuit to “arrest climate change”. Wokedom puts the onus on the “Global North” who, we are told, have much more to give than “the poor” of the “Global South”.
What is missing in this argument is what that there are always two sides to a coin. The other side to this woke sentiment is the more confronting question around whether “the poor” are entitled to First World living standards.
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Imagine, for a second, what it would mean for a country the size of India, for example, (or even, for that matter, the Philippines with its enormous population of 120 million) to sport a market where the average household is capable of affording a fridge or two, an air conditioner or three (these are hot teeming countries, after all) a car for every one of its five or seven licensed (and driving student) teenagers, and many other nice things.
We can thank private enterprise for that scary — but mainstream — thought. Big Corporate continuously celebrate the coming of age of the next generation of “newly-affluent” young consumers — keen to jet off to weekend holidays overseas twice or thrice a year, buy the latest throwaway fashions, and drive their big SUVs to buy a toothbrush at the corner Seven-Eleven. Imagine all those phones they will buy and keep for a year or two before they “upgrade” to the next electronic fashion statement. Imagine all the AI (that rely on fuel-guzzling data centres) these people will need to consume to serve as crutches for their ever-eroding abilities to think for themselves.
Imagine all that.
A lot of this is driven by the idea that everyone is entitled to cheap stuff in enormous quantities and “abundant energy” to produce and consume these. Crazy right? The trouble is, the more popular sentiment is that allowing “global trade” to grind to a halt is crazier — because “the poor” will “suffer the most”. That argument only begs an important Darwinian question:
Are the poor entitled to be rich?
Food for thought. Meanwhile, barriers to trade are coming up, and every suit is shittin’ bricks in their BMWs as they watch their asset charts go red. Entire countries will need to rethink their “cash crops” and the “export machine” they call their “national economy” as the reality of having to produce domestically what they consume bites. What will set apart the men from the boys over the coming months and years will be not who merely survives all that. It will be who thrives in these interesting times.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.