Wealth and power shape the climate emergency the most important tool we have to defend ourselves is the facts | Naomi Klein

"For a few years after the book came out, it seemed like we might just win a breakthrough. A cascade of large and militant mobilisations pressed the case for keeping warming below 1.5C as global calls for a green new deal grew louder and louder. Countries across the world announced long-term plans to reduce emissions and to hit net-zero targets; so did some of the largest corporations on the planet."

"In the first 100 days of Trump's second term, his administration took more than 140 actions to roll back environmental rules and push for greater use of fossil fuels. He signed executive orders to ease restrictions on their extraction and export, filled his cabinet with oil industry supporters, gutted federal agencies on the forefront of the climate crisis, and cancelled life-saving environmental justice projects."

"Empowered by the world's most powerful man's assault on the planet, the banks and corporations that have financed our climate disaster — those with an apocalyptic fear of regulation eating into their super-profits — have let their masks slip, dropping their stated renewable ambitions and ploughing money into fossil fuels. Meanwhile, climate misinformation — amplified by far-right and rightwing populist politicians — is now so virulent online that one comprehensive study says it is likely to help turn a crisis into a catastrophe."

Large public mobilisations and global calls for a green new deal created momentum to keep warming below 1.5C, and many countries and major corporations announced plans to reduce emissions and target net-zero. That momentum was undermined by a corporate-financed backlash and political actions favoring fossil fuels, including extensive rollbacks of environmental rules, executive orders easing extraction and export, pro-oil cabinet appointments, weakened federal agencies, and cancelled environmental justice projects. Major banks and corporations shifted investment back into fossil fuels and scaled back renewable commitments. Online climate misinformation, amplified by far-right and populist actors, has become highly virulent and risks turning a crisis into a catastrophe. The Guardian banned fossil-fuel advertising in 2020.

Read at www.theguardian.com