Addressing humanity’s fossil-fuel addiction
Intro
Human society’s addictions to fossil-fuels, wealth and growth are threatening our survival. Fortunately, we can overcome addictions and climate dividends may be part of the solution.
Twin societal pathologies
If the findings and predictions of science were accepted and acted on, climate change and ecological breakdown would be under control. Humanity would be enjoying a much more benign existence on planet Earth. Instead, we have two deadly interconnected pathologies that are driving us to the brink of existence: fossil-fuel addiction and a cancer-like economic system.
Fossil fuels have built our civilisation. Nearly every material thing we value derives in some way from fossil fuels and many non-material benefits as well. We have been blessed by their discovery and the many comforts and pleasures they bring. Now we are using them to such excess that they are destroying the civilisation they have helped to build.
The political economy that has grown up with fossil fuels has flourished and is now similarly out of control. It requires continuous economic growth and is likely to destroy itself, in the same way as cancer keeps growing til it kills its host. It will also seriously alter the planet’s ecosystems endangering human society and many other species.
Addiction
Human ingenuity has achieved extraordinary things with our fossil-fuelled economic system. We can be justly proud of many of them. But a few social and psychological phenomena are driving them to excess and threatening to pull it all down. The first is our vulnerability to addiction.
We like pleasure and comfort and we like to minimise our energy expenditure. Fossil fuels deliver these 3 things in spades. They have ushered in an era of abundance and plenty, even luxury at times for a billion or so people. And for them at least, it has replaced the scarcity and deep insecurities our ancestors endured and feared for many millennia. (DNA evidence suggests that we were an endangered species at least once in our history). The remaining billions can see that a life of abundance is at least possible, if not probable in a world of great inequality.
Fossil fuels and capitalism have delivered an enormous amount of wealth to significant numbers of people. Fabulous or obscene, whichever way we see it, this wealth makes the addiction to fossil fuels even more sticky.
There are significant parallels with the drug trade, which has also generated enormous wealth for small numbers of people. The drug trade is a microcosm of our fossil-fuelled economy and similar actors can easily be identified.
The suppliers – the fossil fuel companies that have been able to generate huge profits from the production and sale of their products.
Many industries and businesses that make use of the energy and by-products of fossil fuels are also able to generate large profits and many supply similarly addictive and destructive substances and services
The pushers - governments are addicted to (and often corrupted by) the ever-growing revenue generated by the fossil-fuelled economy and the money that washes through the political system.
They support, promote and often subsidise fossil fuels and many derivative industries and businesses. The industry is supercharged by the marketing industry that knows a great deal about how to get consumers addicted and keep them there. Political think-tanks ply governments with the justifications needed to keep the society addicted and most of the media get drawn into stressing the benefits of the fossil-fuelled economy and ignoring the damage it does.
The consumers - almost all of us are the addicts who consume the pleasures, comforts and energy-saving products and services that are derived from fossil fuels and so effectively marketed to exploit our vulnerability to addiction.
As in the drug trade, suppliers, pushers and consumers are all addicted to some extent, whether to the wealth that it generates or to it products. We are all complicit in the system that is harming us and the ecosystem that supports us. Some have a greater investment in the system than others and a small number benefit hugely, while others derive almost no benefit but are still locked into the addictive system. And sadly, there are many who derive no benefit and only get the deficits.
Several mechanisms that operate in substance addiction and other more familiar addictions (gambling, food, sex, etc) are just as present in fossil fuel and wealth addictions.
The pleasures they bring diminish over time and the dose has to be increased – eventually it reaches the stage where too much is never enough (the title of Mary Trump’s book, “Too Much, Never Enough” about her uncle Donald is strangely appropriate).
Addiction and addictive behaviours are denied, defended, justified and fought for and can lead to extraordinary levels of lying and deception, including self-deception
Unchecked addictions almost always lead to serious harm, sometimes death, to the addict and to those around them
Addictions are very difficult to give up – often because the addiction suppresses difficult feelings that have to be faced to enable the addict to give up the addiction. In some cases, the feelings are based in deep fears that are difficult to access and address, especially as they are usually faced alone, without the persistent and skilful support that is needed to address their root causes.
Ordinary people, myself included, are also addicted as we too enjoy the many comforts and conveniences that fossil fuels bring, directly as well as through all the services and systems they fuel. This makes it is easy to be swayed by the false hopes coming from those who deny or downplay climate change and its likely effects. Our own addictions make it hard to face the adaptations we will have to make, especially if they involve reducing or giving up the many things we have grown dependent on.
By being less invested in the fossil fuel and wealth systems however, some ordinary people may be more open to seeing the risks and more able to accept the need to adapt to a zero-carbon world than those whose identities, lifestyles and livelihoods are embedded in the system. But up to now few are prepared to act on this knowledge and take appropriate action, including voting for parties with climate policies that may challenge their addictions in the short term.
Nations too can be seen as producers, pushers and consumers and whichever category they fit is likely to affect their behaviour in international climate negotiations. As the 5th largest producer, Australia, like a few other producing nations, clearly reflects the attitudes and behaviours of producers and denies the damage it is doing while pushing its products onto consuming countries.
Global policy failure
This perspective helps us to understand why it is that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising 40 years or more after our political systems were clearly informed of the risk of climate change and its likely consequences. Nations, corporations, financial institutions, investors and the individuals deriving fabulous wealth from fossil fuels are understandably so addicted that they too have denied, defended, justified and fought for the continuation of a system that delivers easy and lavish profits. And they have deceived themselves about the harm and destruction that it will bring them, their families and eventually the systems that deliver the wealth. The immediate pleasures and comforts easily overcome any awareness of the damage being done and make ethical and moral considerations easy to ignore.
Again, it is important to recognise that we are all complicit in this addictive system, even those who are actively working for change – our efforts are bound to be hampered by our own addictions as well as the by the systemic addictions of our society.
The fossil fuel industry has probably peaked and clearly should be planning to phase out, for economic reasons as well as for the survival of our ecological and climate systems. And yet they are fighting hard and convincing themselves and others that they will ‘continue to be part of the energy mix’ but don’t admit to being a declining part of the mix. Instead, they continue to demand and receive generous concessions and subsidies from governments the world over. And they still control huge amounts of wealth; Carbon Tracker estimates that “$32tn in fixed assets, a quarter of the global equity market and half of the global corporate bond markets are in sectors linked to the fossil fuel system”.
The role of oppression
Like all systems, our political economy is extremely complex, with many factors simultaneously influencing the constantly changing interactions in the system. Our social systems are equally complex and powerfully influence the political economy, particularly through the ways in which minor differences between people are used to ‘divide and rule’.
Systems of oppression value some humans more than others; they privilege or disadvantage particular groups accordingly. Gender, race, class and age are the most obvious of the many divisions which result in mistreatment and oppression and greatly affect how the benefits and the damage of the fossil fuel and wealth industries are experienced by different people. The dangerous and growing levels of inequality are an inevitable consequence of an oppressive society that values people so unequally and exploits the many in order to benefit the few. Oppression and its consequent inequalities further adds to the deep insecurities that have driven us for millennia.
This system of division and oppression further enables our fossil fuel and wealth addictions by justifying inequality and numbing any sense of it being wrong or unethical to so lavishly reward some and so drastically disadvantage many more. It is clear that the oppressions that divide and stratify our society have to be addressed if we are to end the addictions that are causing the climate and ecological crisis; especially racism, classism and sexism.
It is important to stress that no one is to blame for this situation. Systems of oppression and exploitation have existed and evolved in human society over many hundreds of years and we have all been made part of the system by growing up in it. We have all experienced various forms of oppression, internalised them and inevitably acted them out at others from time to time. This is how oppression replicates itself. For this reason, it is pointless to blame any individuals or any groups for their part in the system – we all do it.
But it does make sense for all of us to do what we can to become aware of oppression and how it operates in us - and to unravel the painful emotions that hold it in place. Many of these painful emotions feed our addiction; the comforts and pleasures derived from the fossil-fuelled economy help distract us and soothe some of the pain.
Healing our addictions
Addictions are very difficult to give up - virtually impossible without some sort of outside assistance. Denial and self-delusion are exceedingly difficult to get past. Addiction therapies can be effective, however. They generally include the following elements, each of which suggest a matching element for addressing our fossil fuel addiction: -
Addiction therapy can save the lives of addicts and the people around them – addressing our fossil fuel addiction can save many more lives. It may also save many species, including our own. It can also save our corporations and the economy they operate in from the huge disruptions, even catastrophic collapse, that addiction to business as usual will likely bring. Fossil fuel executives need tough love from us and from governments to enable them to phase out in an orderly fashion and transition their assets and wealth into zero-carbon activities. Without the glide path that a steadily rising carbon fee provides, they will try to maintain business ‘almost’ as usual and will inevitably crash, as all addicts do. They will also crash the economy, the society and many ecosystems at the same time.
Blame is pointless
As we are all addicted to some extent it is hard for any of us to think clearly and respond rationally to the situation we are in. We all have a stake in the fossil fuel industry, as consumers, and for most Australians, as beneficiaries of the wealth that it has generated. We are all complicit – we are all embedded in an addictive system that we have almost zero personal control over. And for that reason, it is pointless to blame others, no matter where they sit in the system. They, like us, have succumbed to the addictive system. And they too need help to break the addiction.
To be able to take on the global addiction, it is very useful for us to face what we would lose if fossil fuels were phased out very soon; or if they crashed out quite suddenly. What would we have to give up? And how difficult might that be? Acknowledging our own part in the addictive system and the feelings that hold our addiction in place will make it much easier to provide the tough love that is needed to end the global addiction.
Implications for lobbying.
Having an awareness of our own addiction and that of the whole society makes it easier to advocate for the phasing out of fossil fuels and for a return to safety. It makes it possible for us to apply the mix of empathy and toughness that is needed to challenge addiction in others. It makes it easier for us to be peers with MPs and other people of influence; not superior in any way - just people who share an addiction that needs to be addressed.
The difference is in the degree to which one may have more awareness than the other and the degree to which our lives are invested in the continuation of fossil fuel production. If we can acknowledge our own addiction and have already addressed some of the insecurities that underpin it, we may find it easier to assist others to do the same, friends, family members or people of influence.
It helps us recognise and work with the fears of those we are meeting with. People of influence are public figures and a bit of research can help us identify how they are personally, socially and politically invested in the fossil-fuelled economy and the wealth it delivers. We are then better able to empathise with what they stand to lose in a decarbonising economy; and the fears, discomforts or inconveniences they would have to face. Acknowledging these and allowing their expression can prepare the way for discussing the much greater losses the climate crisis is bringing on at an accelerating rate.
Of course, this shift in awareness won’t happen overnight – it may take months or years. It requires research, planning, strategic thinking and coordinated action over time. This is what Citizens’ Climate Lobby does best with its respectful listening approach to creating political will in our parliaments.
By acknowledging and addressing our own addictions, CCL volunteers help to reveal the harm our fossil fuel addiction is doing to our communities, to our environment and our economy - and to address the many insecurities that hold the addictive system in place and blind us to the many solutions available to us, such as a price on carbon.
How a price on carbon can help
A predictably rising price on carbon is the simplest and kindest way to wean humanity off fossil fuels. It gives us clear signals about the rate of reduction required and a bit of time to face up to and consciously adapt to a world without fossil fuels. The dividend to households eases the transition for all stakeholders, encourages us all to invest in zero-carbon living and reduces the harm that inevitably comes from ongoing addiction to harmful substances.
