Searing heat waves and floods have left millions homeless and starving in Pakistan; bombed one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants; and the cost of fossil fuel energy to heat and light our homes has increased at an all-time high.
These are just some of the existential crises that have occurred in the past few hours and days. The impact of our global economy on fossil fuels has never been more pronounced – so dire.
How do we deal with such a huge threat, especially when mass movements and democratic organizations are being disrupted and purged around the world in the name of neoliberal economics.
There has been an extremely courageous and strategic response to the environmental crisis we now face, both in the UK and around the world. This includes Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, Ende Gelände and the activism of hundreds of thousands of activists from outside Europe.
The team at The Ecologist has been busy behind the scenes developing clear and convincing strategies so that we can use the few resources available to the best effect, providing a useful service to front-line activists and activists.
The strategy we’re launching today includes a laser-like focus on the fossil fuel economy, a major driver of ecological crises — from climate collapse to biodiversity collapse, and the ongoing war on oil and other resources.
We have a small team of one and a half staff with an annual project budget of £74,000. We hope to raise another £70,000 a year to hire a full-time economics journalist who can help us explain why capital accumulation, the pursuit of profit and ignoring environmental and social costs are the drivers of all the different problems that threaten to overwhelm us now.
We have started publishing a special series – by Professor Herbert Girardet titled Great change – This will explain how the enormous scale, extractiveness and destructiveness of our current economic system can lead to ecological catastrophe.
We plan to publish two more new series. The first will examine how the UK relies on fossil fuels extracted from Europe, Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union. This dependence is almost always accompanied by ecological and social injustice in the countries with which we trade.
The second will develop a “philosophy of energy” to explain why fossil fuels are so important to, and threaten to, life in the known universe.
We hope that by publishing our strategy, we can ensure our readers know what to expect: ecologist Educational news with a focus on systems thinking and unorthodox economics will continue to be provided—as well as brief, informative news stories about the myriad impacts of our fossil fuel economy.
We also hope that this strategy will serve as the basis for better and more sustained collaboration with activists and organisations on the front lines to end the fossil fuel economy, and to be transparent and accountable to our funders and supporters – from those Donate £5 per month We hope trusts and foundations will support our economic projects.
Activists, activists and academics dedicated to protecting our planet are the hope of the world. We hope that sometimes the articles and papers we publish here will help them make as much impact as possible.
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Brendan Montague is the editor ecologist. If you would like to provide feedback on the new strategy, please email us at brendan@theecologist.org.
