{"id":3496,"date":"2021-10-31T23:58:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T23:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deepadaptation.info\/?p=3496"},"modified":"2021-11-13T00:43:47","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T00:43:47","slug":"cop26-a-daily-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deepadaptation.info\/pt\/cop26-a-daily-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"COP26 - uma reflex\u00e3o di\u00e1ria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COP26 day 13. The End is Nigh….or maybe not<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COP26, and after a frenetic fortnight it’s the (intended) final day of negotiations and drafting…though these are already looking like going far into the night, and perhaps tomorrow and further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some are calling the COP a failure, others saying that it’s to be greeted with ‘cautious optimism’ – that the mere fact that some things are on the table, albeit with watery commitments, is a significant step forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, it’s clearly not going to be enough to secure a safe and thriving future for us, and our cohabitants on the planet; we passed that point some time back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been very beautiful is the commitment of campaigners and activists, relentlessly and sometimes joyfully laying their passion – and sometimes themselves – on the line in the interests of climate justice. Not for them the bloodless protestations that we can, with a few tweaks, ‘preserve our way of life’ (who is this ‘we’, you speak of, Global Northern male? a miniscule proportion of the planet). And is that really a worthwhile ambition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has happened to you, you decision-makers and ‘leaders’? What has happened to you, wealthy narcissists who believe that the values of humanity and respect for this world don’t apply to you? You poor souls, you seem to be…what’s the opposite of evolving – devolving, or regressing, or otherwise retreating back into some sort of spiritual primordial slime, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you align your power with the money you control, the businesses, the lives, you give an immense hostage (yourselves) to fortune. When those things betray you, there is nothing to rely on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us, ordinary people, made the same mistakes along the way, even if we didn’t find ourselves elevated on that particular value scale to your own heady heights; most people, perhaps, still do. Normalising the acquisitiveness, normalising the defensiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who has done this damage to you? Who has led you to believe that you’re only worth something, worthwhile, worthy, if you have money and status and control over people and events?…..That’s such a fragile “strength”, and as a human you can be so much more. When you’re ready – and please, sooner rather than later, but it has to be when YOU are ready – come and join us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join those of us who are learning that strength doesn’t have to depend on control; that we can enjoy the true pleasures of life – community, connection, the security that comes of knowing that there are people who’ll help if you need it; a lungful of forest air, or (if you’re me) a lungful of sea water when you’re wild swimming…the love and fealty of a dog; the recognition of a thought, in a well-written book. The smile of someone you’ve helped. The joy of ‘wasting’ (and there ain’t no such thing) an afternoon…..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes I flirt with anger, at the economic power you control yet refuse to share or even use well, because you’re too scared and because your egos rely on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And sometimes – sometimes – I feel a pang of pity. Because there’s a world, or maybe I mean a life, on offer – right here in the here and now – where people are learning to look their vulnerabilities in the face; to step into, and through, their fears for themselves and their children in a climate-addled future. And to decide that, whatever the outcomes – perhaps now beyond anyone’s control, there’s always a good reason to do the right thing. Not just because it feels better, or because it helps someone else, but because it just is. <\/strong>And because it is, we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COP26 Day 11. Talking Transport, but Heading the Wrong Way<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There aren’t too many people still feeling enthusiastic about how the negotiations are going – well, aside from those set to profit from initiatives to ‘green’ the economy, though this seems to mean a colour similar to that of faded dollar bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s deeply depressing to read of the creation of a new financial vehicle – the ‘Natural Asset Company’, which will ‘hold
the rights to the ecosystem services produced on a given chunk of land, services like carbon sequestration or clean water.<\/em>‘ That’s an estimated $4 quadrillion worth of assets, or commodified nature, so far apparently….and it’s being touted as a route to a more sustainable economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attempts to put a monetary value on nature aren’t new: for decades now, there have been attempts to price the value of various aspects of the environment…from the worth of bees and other pollinators to the agricultural industry, in pollinating food crops, to the heavy lifting that plants do in cleaning our water and air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to decide on nature’s ‘worth’ in terms of money alone is dangerously reductive…we all know that the things that really matter aren’t to be commoditised, whether we’re talking about love or companionship, a beautiful view, a moment of peace, a feeling of security – or indeed the complex interactions of the mycelia under our feet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as GDP growth is a numbskulled, one-dimensional, outdated 1980’s way of measuring ‘progress’, so is any effort to express the worth of the environment in monetary terms. It sees nature as being of no more than its utility value to mankind, which is both narcissistic and stupid; much of the time, we don’t yet even understand the benefits we derive from being part of the beautiful, unfathomably complex system that sustains us. So – if we misprice it, what then? As a former fund manager, I’m acutely aware of the risks of mispricing assets; someone always has to pay. The stakes, when it comes to our planet, are much, much higher, and there will be many many people footing that bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any event, I don’t even want to call manifestations of nature ‘resources’, because that reduces them to more stuff for us to use up and dispose of. But even if they were, should not (and morally cannot) be up for sale. If they ‘belong’ to anyone, they belong to us all – and most of all those who’ve tended the land, managed their carbon outputs, loved nature as one would love one’s dearest. This latest sleight of hand is a theft of the Earth’s bounty, an attempt to create scarcity of common ‘goods’ like breathable air and drinkable water, things that should be (that within living memory have been) both abundant and free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next they’ll be putting a price on our freedom of thought….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see an external report from ‘Unlimited Hangout’ below: some aspects of how NACs will be operated have yet to emerge. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wall Street\u2019s Takeover of Nature Advances with Launch of New Asset Class<\/a><\/blockquote>