While at it, can we also suggest we stop burning other countries to the ground and destroying innocent lives?. Climate change is a reality that needs to be addressed but it’s unavoidable at this point to think of the wrath of God on a country that has been going around destroying lives all around the globe.
In addition to measures countering climate changes, how about repentance and pledging to right the wrongs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and even go back further to Vietnam.
Dare we suggest that we stop spending on arming the ongoing genocide and instead use the money to help the victims build back their lives.
Is it simply because the climate cost is usually born by government coffers, never from the wallets of those responsible? The crazy figures attached to these disasters are not a price tag any billionaire, war hawk, or corporate parasite has had to worry about to date. We need more than money as a measure.
It is disconcerting that the article never mentions capitalism, the root cause of the climate crisis. In his 1776 masterpiece, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith warned us about the capitalists, 'All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.' And here we are, a mere 250 years later. If a Tiger is preparing to eat you, reasoning with the Tiger is more than futile, it's insane. So long as capitalists run the world, we are doomed.
Agreed, but I’m thinking we will continue to choose delusional sociopathy. It’s easier, and best matches the essentially selfish nature of Americans. The whole idea was to delay action so as to make action ever-more disruptive and expensive while the horror of the problem increased. The scarier the problem is, the more we’ll choose delusion; the more disruptive the solution becomes, the greater the sacrifice and the more our essential selfishness screams at us to embrace delusion. Yes, a choice.
Don’t Look Up was fucking great—please. Hilarious, moving. Just great.
But it had one flaw. Seeing the asteroid should have led to even more intense denial, not revelation. I don’t fault it much: it was meant as a recommendation. Meanwhile, we can’t even stop flying for fun. Apparently, we are more than willing to help murder our children so we can drink and shop in another time zone.
Thanks for that film and all the work you’ve done, by the way. You should feel proud! You fucking showed up.
As long as we have "Predator Trump" in office ..up is down, black is white & he needs your money so you never have to vote again.... it's more than climate change it's oligarchy on steriods
Don't look up is a great film and a true parable of our times. Thanks for sharing this on Zeteo. I am subscriber to David Sirota's outlet "The Lever" (levernews.com) along with Zeteo, as I attempt to find media that is reliable and diligent (and I found it here and there!). I honestly forgot I was reading Zeteo as read this article.
I highly recommend that Zeteo readers subscribe to The Lever if they can, because its focus on the corruption that turns the "levers" of power really explains how we got here. Their podcast series Master Plan was genius, all about the plan, starting from the Nixon years, to get to exactly where we are today, a corporate bought and paid for government, and the ongoing reversal of "The Great Society' and "The New Deal".
That said, like many, my income took a huge hit this past year when my university began downsizing and failed to renew my adjunct contract, but I still continued and will continue to invest in these two news services, because there is comfort in knowing there is some sanity in this increasingly mad world.
As for LA, the scope of the horror there is mind boggling. I remember visiting SF and learning all about that great fire, and it is astounding and depressing to think that almost 120 years on, with all of our progress and technological developments our cities are still subject to the types of fire disasters that devastated SF in 1906, but also so many cities in the Middle Ages and deeper antiquity. That that fact is largely the result of choices we made, and choices made FOR us (AGAINST us?) by corrupt government and large corporations is all the more depressing. Oil companies, Republicans, most Democrats and Trump voters are all Neros fiddling while the planet burns.
It will be a wake up call only when we have the disaster burn those responsible for the policies leading to the disaster. the individual mentality that "crisis is not in my back yard therefore not my problem"is the roots of our short sighted policies. we dump the crisis to the poor countries and those we disagree with. but the backlash will come back to hit us all with higher magnitude. All the conservatives policy makers and their anti green policies should be thrown into the line of fire.
Mohamed, David & Mehdi: Thank you for the reminder that: U.S. wars of choice, including but not limited to Vietnam, Iraq,
Afghanistan and more recently, in occupied Palestine and vicinity, have inordinately contributed to the climate crisis. The current L.A. fires might be seen as collective blowback, payback, or karma. Some say: When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves; that is, it’ll come back to haunt us. It’s my understanding that Indigenous people in the U.S. (victims of one of our first war crimes, or crimes against humanity, genocide; met with impunity) also believe that when we harm/damage Nature we hurt ourselves. These concepts, or moral principles seem foreign to American exceptionalism, White supremacy, settler colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, consumerism, Earth plunder and/or its ecocidal ethos. We’re unable to change the past, but need to learn from it. One of ZETEO’s and our own personal priority ought to be stopping the flow of arms to apartheid Israel and recognizing its Zionist quest as fascist. Part of this effort should be demanding that Biden resign; the most recent genocidal “war” in Palestine and its vicinity occurred under the Biden/Harris watch, was not a coincidence; he’s an admitted Zionist. If he refuses to resign, we (ZETEO, et al.) ought to demand his immediate impeachment. The arms embargo should start now. It’s disingenuous to lament the L.A. fires and other extreme weather events while not holding warmongers accountable for their war crimes. Thanks again for your thoughtful comment. Please send an email to: Pres. Biden & VP Harris at WhiteHouse.gov; call your Congress people (202)224-3121. Pls, urge others to do the same. Palestinian genocide is Biden’s Watergate, except many times more egregious. The crime of genocide and other war crimes, are being normalized; one of the many tools in the fascist toolbox.
Don't Look Up was one of the most important movies I've ever seen. I thank everyone who contributed to the making of it. And thank you Zeteo for running this piece. I so appreciate both Zeteo and The Lever for their sanity and courage.
It's notable that firemen and women are coming from all over the world to assist. From Mexico to South Africa and Australia knowledge expertise and humanity arrives.
It is an example of the positive aspects of international cooperation. It is a timely reminder against isolationism. Perhaps we can all remember that this is not just about climate change, it is also about the benefits of human focussed international cooperation.
I think David is missing the best solution to the problem, at least in the Americas: Give (or sell) the land back to the Indigenous peoples, tribes, and nations. They are more environmentally conscious than anybody else, and since it's western capitalism (keep in mind that capitalism ≠ commerce; indigenous people had commerce which did not destroy the planet) that's destroying the planet, I think giving the indigenous people their land back seems like the best choice as far as saving all life on planet earth (because–as George Carlin pointed out–the planet will be fine, it's just that all or most life, let alone humanity, would not).
Absolutely, regular people can organize and change what's happening. I think a great point of the movie, "Don't Look Up" is that our leaders won't save us. That's not in their plan. They will put forth efforts mainly to save themselves. We keep looking to them for answers and they have proven again and again that they don't have any. It's debatable if they simply don't have answers or they don't want to get an answer. But they do know the problems exist, whether they accept them or deny them. I mean, insurance companies have stopped covering homes in LA and Florida due to climate issues. They know. The elite all know. And they aren't really doing anything about it.
If we want to survive as a species, we need to collectively handle this and organize locally. Ignore them. It's the only way.
Seeing the photos of a devastated LA reminded me of the devastation in Gaza. Luckily for the first responders in LA, they are not being sniped at, bombed, and/or kidnapped by soldiers while they are just trying to help others & save lives.
Dr. Strangelove may merit a remake, and with slight modifications, could be an apt metaphore for our climate crisis, and the list of other problems that we need to solve as well. The underground bunkers to preserve some of humanity, referenced in the original movie, are well underway in the mountains of Colorado and other places. Is Elon Musk a suitable Dr. Strangelove? If so, we'd better start filming soon!
Agree with everything you're writing here except for your statement that humans have collective control. It seems to me like that's the nub of it right there. We don't have Collective control. Maybe Collective control was possible when the global population was in the low billions but at this point I'm very skeptical that it's possible at all. Mass psychology is going to be a way harder not to crack than technological fixes. And if we don't figure out how to crack it we're fucked. Personally, I think we're fucked.
While at it, can we also suggest we stop burning other countries to the ground and destroying innocent lives?. Climate change is a reality that needs to be addressed but it’s unavoidable at this point to think of the wrath of God on a country that has been going around destroying lives all around the globe.
In addition to measures countering climate changes, how about repentance and pledging to right the wrongs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and even go back further to Vietnam.
Dare we suggest that we stop spending on arming the ongoing genocide and instead use the money to help the victims build back their lives.
Is it simply because the climate cost is usually born by government coffers, never from the wallets of those responsible? The crazy figures attached to these disasters are not a price tag any billionaire, war hawk, or corporate parasite has had to worry about to date. We need more than money as a measure.
It is disconcerting that the article never mentions capitalism, the root cause of the climate crisis. In his 1776 masterpiece, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith warned us about the capitalists, 'All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.' And here we are, a mere 250 years later. If a Tiger is preparing to eat you, reasoning with the Tiger is more than futile, it's insane. So long as capitalists run the world, we are doomed.
Agreed, but I’m thinking we will continue to choose delusional sociopathy. It’s easier, and best matches the essentially selfish nature of Americans. The whole idea was to delay action so as to make action ever-more disruptive and expensive while the horror of the problem increased. The scarier the problem is, the more we’ll choose delusion; the more disruptive the solution becomes, the greater the sacrifice and the more our essential selfishness screams at us to embrace delusion. Yes, a choice.
Don’t Look Up was fucking great—please. Hilarious, moving. Just great.
But it had one flaw. Seeing the asteroid should have led to even more intense denial, not revelation. I don’t fault it much: it was meant as a recommendation. Meanwhile, we can’t even stop flying for fun. Apparently, we are more than willing to help murder our children so we can drink and shop in another time zone.
Thanks for that film and all the work you’ve done, by the way. You should feel proud! You fucking showed up.
As long as we have "Predator Trump" in office ..up is down, black is white & he needs your money so you never have to vote again.... it's more than climate change it's oligarchy on steriods
Don't look up is a great film and a true parable of our times. Thanks for sharing this on Zeteo. I am subscriber to David Sirota's outlet "The Lever" (levernews.com) along with Zeteo, as I attempt to find media that is reliable and diligent (and I found it here and there!). I honestly forgot I was reading Zeteo as read this article.
I highly recommend that Zeteo readers subscribe to The Lever if they can, because its focus on the corruption that turns the "levers" of power really explains how we got here. Their podcast series Master Plan was genius, all about the plan, starting from the Nixon years, to get to exactly where we are today, a corporate bought and paid for government, and the ongoing reversal of "The Great Society' and "The New Deal".
That said, like many, my income took a huge hit this past year when my university began downsizing and failed to renew my adjunct contract, but I still continued and will continue to invest in these two news services, because there is comfort in knowing there is some sanity in this increasingly mad world.
As for LA, the scope of the horror there is mind boggling. I remember visiting SF and learning all about that great fire, and it is astounding and depressing to think that almost 120 years on, with all of our progress and technological developments our cities are still subject to the types of fire disasters that devastated SF in 1906, but also so many cities in the Middle Ages and deeper antiquity. That that fact is largely the result of choices we made, and choices made FOR us (AGAINST us?) by corrupt government and large corporations is all the more depressing. Oil companies, Republicans, most Democrats and Trump voters are all Neros fiddling while the planet burns.
It will be a wake up call only when we have the disaster burn those responsible for the policies leading to the disaster. the individual mentality that "crisis is not in my back yard therefore not my problem"is the roots of our short sighted policies. we dump the crisis to the poor countries and those we disagree with. but the backlash will come back to hit us all with higher magnitude. All the conservatives policy makers and their anti green policies should be thrown into the line of fire.
Mohamed, David & Mehdi: Thank you for the reminder that: U.S. wars of choice, including but not limited to Vietnam, Iraq,
Afghanistan and more recently, in occupied Palestine and vicinity, have inordinately contributed to the climate crisis. The current L.A. fires might be seen as collective blowback, payback, or karma. Some say: When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves; that is, it’ll come back to haunt us. It’s my understanding that Indigenous people in the U.S. (victims of one of our first war crimes, or crimes against humanity, genocide; met with impunity) also believe that when we harm/damage Nature we hurt ourselves. These concepts, or moral principles seem foreign to American exceptionalism, White supremacy, settler colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, consumerism, Earth plunder and/or its ecocidal ethos. We’re unable to change the past, but need to learn from it. One of ZETEO’s and our own personal priority ought to be stopping the flow of arms to apartheid Israel and recognizing its Zionist quest as fascist. Part of this effort should be demanding that Biden resign; the most recent genocidal “war” in Palestine and its vicinity occurred under the Biden/Harris watch, was not a coincidence; he’s an admitted Zionist. If he refuses to resign, we (ZETEO, et al.) ought to demand his immediate impeachment. The arms embargo should start now. It’s disingenuous to lament the L.A. fires and other extreme weather events while not holding warmongers accountable for their war crimes. Thanks again for your thoughtful comment. Please send an email to: Pres. Biden & VP Harris at WhiteHouse.gov; call your Congress people (202)224-3121. Pls, urge others to do the same. Palestinian genocide is Biden’s Watergate, except many times more egregious. The crime of genocide and other war crimes, are being normalized; one of the many tools in the fascist toolbox.
Don't Look Up was one of the most important movies I've ever seen. I thank everyone who contributed to the making of it. And thank you Zeteo for running this piece. I so appreciate both Zeteo and The Lever for their sanity and courage.
It's notable that firemen and women are coming from all over the world to assist. From Mexico to South Africa and Australia knowledge expertise and humanity arrives.
It is an example of the positive aspects of international cooperation. It is a timely reminder against isolationism. Perhaps we can all remember that this is not just about climate change, it is also about the benefits of human focussed international cooperation.
And from Canada.
I think David is missing the best solution to the problem, at least in the Americas: Give (or sell) the land back to the Indigenous peoples, tribes, and nations. They are more environmentally conscious than anybody else, and since it's western capitalism (keep in mind that capitalism ≠ commerce; indigenous people had commerce which did not destroy the planet) that's destroying the planet, I think giving the indigenous people their land back seems like the best choice as far as saving all life on planet earth (because–as George Carlin pointed out–the planet will be fine, it's just that all or most life, let alone humanity, would not).
Nature is taking back what’s theirs. Sometimes by fire sometimes by rain and wind and floods. Humans are getting their comeuppance.
Absolutely, regular people can organize and change what's happening. I think a great point of the movie, "Don't Look Up" is that our leaders won't save us. That's not in their plan. They will put forth efforts mainly to save themselves. We keep looking to them for answers and they have proven again and again that they don't have any. It's debatable if they simply don't have answers or they don't want to get an answer. But they do know the problems exist, whether they accept them or deny them. I mean, insurance companies have stopped covering homes in LA and Florida due to climate issues. They know. The elite all know. And they aren't really doing anything about it.
If we want to survive as a species, we need to collectively handle this and organize locally. Ignore them. It's the only way.
Seeing the photos of a devastated LA reminded me of the devastation in Gaza. Luckily for the first responders in LA, they are not being sniped at, bombed, and/or kidnapped by soldiers while they are just trying to help others & save lives.
Dr. Strangelove may merit a remake, and with slight modifications, could be an apt metaphore for our climate crisis, and the list of other problems that we need to solve as well. The underground bunkers to preserve some of humanity, referenced in the original movie, are well underway in the mountains of Colorado and other places. Is Elon Musk a suitable Dr. Strangelove? If so, we'd better start filming soon!
Agree with everything you're writing here except for your statement that humans have collective control. It seems to me like that's the nub of it right there. We don't have Collective control. Maybe Collective control was possible when the global population was in the low billions but at this point I'm very skeptical that it's possible at all. Mass psychology is going to be a way harder not to crack than technological fixes. And if we don't figure out how to crack it we're fucked. Personally, I think we're fucked.