They start looking like fixed features of the landscape, like mountains or rivers, rather than choices we are making.
“As subsidies age,” he writes, “they start to look less like subsidies. As my former colleague David Roberts points out, that’s about seven times the government support that renewables receive. You’ve likely heard the free-market argument that “fossil fuels are the cost-effective option.” That take isn’t really valid, because oil and gas companies receive about $20 billion in subsidies every year. I’m just saying that the whole reason it is hard to do is because our current world is set up pretty much entirely to bolster the position of fossil fuel companies.
Now that we’re in the “I’ll-be-good-now” month of January, many of us feel the urge to restrict indulgences more than usual. I’m not shading self-driven austerity just because it’s hard to do. This is looking like a very ascetic and, dare I say, rather untenable, life. Anything made with plastic, anything using a combustion engine, and, if you live in most parts of the world, anything that uses electricity. The everyday things that are tied to fossil fuels in some way are … well … very numerous. The idea of working against a fossil-fueled lifestyle isn’t a small decision. The best thing that you can do to fight climate change and hold those companies responsible is to take revenge by jumping into, not out of, the climate action game. Certainly less catchy, but a more noble motto nonetheless.īut you correctly point out that living that motto often seems like an exercise in futility (unless you happen to be the CEO of a major gas conglomerate)! The 100 companies that are responsible for 71 percent of emissions are the biggest fossil fuel producers in the world. In response to your question, I propose a slight modification: Every day, once a day, give your future self a present … by doing something to counteract climate change. Have you ever heard the credo “every day, once a day, give yourself a present?” It comes from Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, and personally, I live by it. Why should I feel guilty for flying abroad for vacation or having a child when 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of CO2 emissions? And how do I hold those companies responsible for climate change when every facet of our political system benefits them?Ī. Classical Sparta was far more than simply a ‘military society’.Got a question for Umbra? Submit a question here. Notwithstanding the professionalism of the Spartan army, a Spartiate was, in the words of Jean Ducat, not so much ‘un guerrier professionnel’ as ‘un citoyen professionnel’.
#BEAR UMBRA AND SACRAFICE PROFESSIONAL#
To characterize the Spartans as ‘a community of professional soldiers’ is consequently too narrow. For most citizens, their role as warriors was only part, albeit an important part, of a wider range of citizen activities. But Xenophon himself did not think that all Spartiates were like Klearchos and the fact that to indulge his pursuit of warfare he had to spend his final years in exile illustrates the dissonance between his attitudes and those of other citizens. The classic example is Klearchos, whom Xenophon’s Anabasis (2.5.1) characterizes as ‘a man who was both fitted for war and fond of war to the last degree’. It is true that Sparta society was capable of producing warlike leaders. Overall, the military elements in Spartan society were clearly significant, but not dominant over other aspects of polis life in the way that has often been claimed.
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