Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

governance S 25
access to oil in order to perpetuate consumerism a while longer
at considerable expense and risk. But we pay for our oil imports
mostly by borrowing from lenders, including China. Much of that
money goes to people who in turn fund terrorists. All empires,
however, eventually rot, subject to arrogance, overreach, debt, and
defeat at the hands of resourceful and agile adversaries—and ours
is no exception.
The fi fth challenge is the necessity to repair the collapsed
fi nancial system and reform an economy built on excess, debt,
and dishonest bookkeeping. The economic collapse that began in
2008 came as a surprise only to the comfortably drowsy. In the
years leading up to the crisis we had ample warnings, including
some from insiders like George Soros. But those in charge were
paralyzed by the ideology of the free market, the sheer complexity
of the global fi nancial and economic system, and the artful practice
of greed. Unsurprisingly, they failed to take preventive action
in time because they saw nothing to their advantage that needed
preventing. 16 The economic and social consequences of that failure
will be felt for a long time, and they go well beyond this book.
Suffi ce it here to say that the denominator common to the fi ve
is a mind-set that blends the philosophy of “after us the deluge”
with the proposition that the devil can have the hindmost. The
lesson is that bovine indifference to defi cits and debt, whether
pertaining to the atmosphere, ecosystems, energy, or even international
goodwill, tend to compound each other and sooner or later
take their toll on the “leading economic indicators.” But by any
full reckoning we were never as rich as we thought we were. We
were living on credit by drawing down natural capital, as Herman
Daly and other ecological economists said long ago.
While each of the fi ve challenges can be described separately,
we will experience them as interactive parts of a single long emergency.
Each part will amplify the others, generating novel results.
The challenge posed by the deterioration of planetary ecosystems
will be worsened by higher temperatures, larger storms, and