Social structure discussions added to material culture discusions

# 4035

My view is most of the climate change discussion is about the physical world: CO2 concentration temperature changes, weather, solar panels, wind turbines, and all the supporting infrastructure. The obvious conclusions to be drawn from this focus is that important actions do not emerge. An example would be failing to face the fact that since the Paris accords fossil fuel use has increased and the illusion that new technologies should replace old ones did not face up to the fact that liberated fossil fuel quickly finds other markets, and the total amount of fossil fuel used continuous to increase. Missing from most conversations is an analysis of what the social structures of society would have to do to modify conditions, the organizations of states and institutions, of law and regulation or the media go relatively unexplored.

Reading the histories of our time, books on political science, anthropology, and sociology would all be good starting points as corrective to this bias. The reason this is so important is that we are looking for leverage towards thwarting rising temperatures and their consequences. It is obvious that we are doomed if we cannot shift the social landscape whose leverage is necessary to shift the physical and economic landscape. This will be hard and may be impossible. The current social structures support money making for some rather than the creativity that could go into making the world safer and saner and more interesting for all.

It might be that there is no alternative to capitalism because capital is merely the access of production over consumption that any society has. What to do with that surplus is the crucial question that the current capitalism answers with its stress on money, making for the few rather than quality of life for all. Part of the problem for the social structures is their an inability to handle the spiritual and belief questions of a viable society.

I will have more on social structure in the next post.

Comment and questions in the link below or in a personal email to me, doug@dougcarmicgael.com would be extremely helpful.