Helpful negatives; Lack of compassion

# 4065

I have been looking at negative developments that could turn out to weaken climate heating. First are developments, such as COVID-19 or recessions that lower economic activity and thus produce less CO2. But more challenging because more negative are slavery and plagues. Braudel in his Civilization and Capitalism argues that Europe, keeping the Americas at a distance, allowed the development of slavery.

Distance reduced empathy and compassion. But slavery also slowed down the economies of the Americas. we might interpret this ass that any underclass will be less productive than if freer in their choice of economic production. The implication for climate is obvious

He writes:

( Placing the blame for slavery, not on the Americans,but -

In reality the root of the evil lay back across the Atlantic, in Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Nantes, or Genoa, without question in Bristol, and in later years in Liverpool, London and Amsterdam. It was inherent in the reduction of a whole continent to the status of periphery, a result brought about by a distant force, indifferent to human sacrifice, operating by the almost mechanical logic of a world-economy.

Such people, reduced in their humanity, would slow down economic activity. Hence the current labor-povert-inequAlity development might be helpful on climate. what is at stake here is the hope that we can deal with climate and inequality, racism, sexism, redlining, poor education, and health simultaneously.

I have written some about plagues, mostly using McNeil'd book Plagues and People. The big plague of the 1380’attaced the cities weakeing production and workers. Half of Europe died. Labor shortage emerged and wages rose. The economy went into free fall for a few years.

Obviously, slavery and pagues are not attractive, but then neither is climate catastrophe. These possibilities emerge in the quest for possible factors that can prevent civilizational collapse. Let’s keep looking.