My proposal for the climate crisis is to destroy the Sun – 09/10/2023 – David Wiswell

The dramatic increase in erratic and devastating weather phenomena around the world in recent months, such as wildfires, hurricanes, droughts and heat waves linked to global warming, points to the need to address this issue immediately.

My proposal? Destroy the Sun.

Some say that ecocide laws, which hold company leaders directly responsible when they cause enormous environmental damage and are adopted by more and more countries, are the answer. These people don’t understand what great minds like me (and ExxonMobil) have been working toward for years: If, as scientists say, increasing the global average temperature by 1.5°C will mean we have reached an irreversible point, the only answer is to combat the environment’s blatant attacks on humanity in kind, with the capitalist and strategic (as well as highly profitable) destruction of the planet before it destroys us, humans!

But while we’re at it, what are these ecocide laws and how can they help improve the situation? In 2021, a group of international jurists defined ecocide as “illegal or unjustified acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial probability that they will cause serious and widespread or lasting damage to the environment”. Which, as far as I know, is exactly the same motto as ExxonMobil.

The organization Stop Ecocide International (SEI), something like “stop ecocide”, hopes to use this definition to create a global consensus on laws that directly affect executives of polluting companies. She believes that fining companies after they pollute the environment does not reduce their ecological impact, as they appear to incorporate sanctions into their business models. In this sense, personal legal accountability would be the only way to generate change.

Although most of the main polluting companies are in the energy sector, Amazon is also accused of emitting large amounts of CO_two. It’s ironic that in order to protect the Amazon, we have to destroy… the Amazon.

But I ask: how can we know that companies are knowingly polluting? Some jokesters respond that an example of proof would be a tape that the bad guys at Greenpeace have of when they tricked a poor lobbyist for ExxonMobil — the fourth largest carbon emitter in the world, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) — into inadvertently bragging , in a fake interview, of his alleged efforts to suppress scientific evidence about climate change for years.

This may seem incriminating, but only if you trust what the lobbyists say! What’s the truth, Greenpeace? Are lobbyists liars who purposely hide scientific evidence, or can we believe their accusations in this case?

Ten countries have ecocide laws today, and there are dozens of other places discussing their adoption, including Brazil and the European Union. The nations that have them so far are responsible for less than 8% of global emissions, while the United States and China (which together represent 41% of emissions) have so far rejected them.

For me, the US promise to spend US$10 billion (R$50 billion) to reverse emissions is enough! Some nerds point out that a large part of this amount is poorly monitored, was suspended or ended up going to luxurious Marriott hotels with infinity pools. They say this shows that ecocide laws are necessary for these countries to take environmental issues seriously. I say you don’t understand what global warming is if you don’t think an infinity pool helps cool you down.

SEI hopes that the growing consensus of laws and discussions in international forums will apply more pressure on countries that have not yet adopted them, or perhaps contribute to the creation of an international environmental law tribunal, shedding light on the issue of ecocide. I still think we can save humanity without any light if we just… destroy the Sun.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M.Gonçalves

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