Series Intro: Revealing Denouements

Generally, the “Apocalypse” is thought of as the final cosmic showdown between good and evil. In the Book of Revelation, written 2,000 years ago, the forces of good are prophesied to finally overcome the forces of evil. Over the centuries, libraries of books predicting the soon-coming Apocalypse, put out by thousands of Biblical interpreters, have come and gone. 

But, as yet there has been no showdown, final or otherwise. 

On January 15th, activists Max Wilbert and Will Falk launched a protest on pristine land in northwest Nevada (Northern Paiute / Western Shoshone territory), slated for destruction on behalf of “green” industry.

In the final days of the Trump administration, the BLM fast-tracked the approval of a lithium mine in northwest Nevada, at Thacker Pass.

Lithium Americas Corporation, a Canadian-based company, plans to blow up this pass, extract millions of tons of stone, and build an array of infrastructure to process this into lithium, with harsh chemicals like sulfuric acid trucked in from oil refineries. Along the way, they will build vast mountains of toxic tailings, leaching heavy metals and uranium into what groundwater remains after they pump nearly 1.5 billion gallons per year into their industrial machinery.

And they have the gall to call this GREEN!!!

This wild and beautiful place has some of the best remaining old-growth sagebrush habitat and is home to many wild creatures, including the most iconic of Western species, the critically endangered greater sage grouse. This area is part of a wildlife management unit that is home to 5-8% of the total remaining sage grouse on the planet. Crosby’s Buckwheat, a rare desert wildflower, lives in this project area. Several creeks here host threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout, and nearby springs are the only home of King’s River pyrg (a critically endangered snail).

From BRIGHT GREEN LIES co-author Max Wilbert:

We want to resist this project because it is emblematic of the lies that are being sold to us about so-called “green” technology. This company and many others are trying to convince us that if we just switch to electric cars, the destruction of the planet and global warming will be fixed. This could not be further from the truth. So we're here to push back against this specific mining project, as well as the entire narrative of "green" technology, and to try to build and strengthen a movement that has its allegiance to the land, to Mother Earth, and to the other beings with whom we share this planet.

As the author of a new book BRIGHT GREEN LIES that examines the failures of so-called green technology, I know these issues well — and lithium is a distraction that allows us to maintain the illusion that a modern, wasteful, high-energy lifestyle can (or should) be maintained, not a solution. We will not solve the problems caused by destroying and consuming the living planet by further destroying and consuming the living planet.

Donate to fund the grassroots resistance and defend this land.

Support the resistance in other ways -- join the protest or help provide needed supplies.

Learn more about Thacker Pass and the proposed mine's impacts here and here.

Learn more about the new book BRIGHT GREEN LIES.

Industrial civilization is strip-mining Life. Human economies are suffocating our remaining natural living systems. As a result, wildlife and insect populations are plummeting, while humans, pets, and livestock numbers are soaring.[1] But some of the newest threats to the natural world are from unexpected sources: wind turbines, solar panels, energy storage, and other “green technologies.”

UPDATED: This is Part 1 in the ATL's free e-book Climate and Ecological Delusions and Contradictions That Will Rapidly End Humanity, Unless…. 

The story about our collective Delusions and Contradictions picks up speed with a stunning revelation!

It goes like this: With the UN 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, all of the world’s leadership and nations have promised to hold-the-line on warming the planet and to stabilize our climate system at no more than 2° Celsius (3.6◦ Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures.[1] Yet, the way they have chosen to do this is to blast past that 2°C heat limit with hundreds of billions of tons of excess pollution, and then later to magically suck the polluting CO2 that causes a cooked and broken climate—out of the air. If you do not know this (perhaps because the world leaders are hiding behind what might be called the “Tinkerbell-Effect”) then you have not yet heard how the world’s leadership plans to actually implement this magical technology. 

Originally published at The Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere.

It’s time to accept that we are not going to dislodge the entrenched interests holding back effective action on looming climate chaos by any means tried so far. Believing that 97% of credible scientists is consensus enough is 103% short for effective response. (Even 200% may not be enough.) Undeniability and incontrovertibility are the only criteria that will work to break through the Hydra-Headed Delusion Dragon clutching all of us.

For growing numbers of Americans, tracking the exploding Trump-Russia scandal has become a necessity, like slowing for a major multi-vehicle pileup. Rachel Maddow delivers bombshell reports almost every weeknight, each plotline adding more gasoline to the conflagration that is consuming our political system. As Senator John McCain has offered: “There’s a lot more shoes to drop from this centipede.”

"Donald Trump and his band of Banana Republicans are turning our country into a banana republic."
– Swami Beyondananda

Is the honeymoon over yet?

Perhaps a better question is, what kind of honeymoon follows a shotgun wedding? For the past two months, I have explored how the failure of neoliberalism helped fuel the perfect storm that put Donald Trump in the White House, and how given the choice between status quo and disruptive change, the body politic chose the latter.

OK, so here we are. Now what?

For those who know we are in a real climate emergency, Donald J. Trump’s presidential victory comes as a devastating shock and blow, as he intends to eviscerate climate protection and ramp up fossil fuel extraction. The world needs to be cutting carbon drastically now, yet the United States is accelerating towards the brick wall of climate chaos. Is there any plausible climate emergency response worth considering in this deepening crisis?

Today we already live in the middle of a genuine climate emergency. Yet is this perceived, understood, or discussed anywhere? Despite the overwhelming case, little is being done to eliminate the fossil fuel Goliath and stabilize our climate.

With government gridlocked and business even adding more sand to the gears, policy responses are ridiculously inadequate. Can Philanthropy be the David to the fossil fuel’s Goliath? Where else can we find the influence and resources that could fulfill a David role and support a coordinated, broad-based people’s campaign? Who else could create the “slingshot heard round-the-world” to down the behemoth?