On the profound stupidity of C02 scapegoating

YOU'RE THE CARBON DIOXIDE THEY WANT TO ELIMINATE. CHECK OUT CHAPTER HEADINGS IN THIS BOOK.

Unlearning Carbon Dioxide: Shall we review a profoundly stupid climatard book, just for fun?

Also lazy Saturday post and open thread

eugyppius

Aug 03, 2024

Today I betook myself to a regrettable bookstore in the centre of Dresden – the kind of place that is full of weird aromatic soaps, expensive candles, strange board games and plump middle-aged women in Birkenstocks.

My purpose: to buy Axel Bojanowski’s new book on climate politics, which I hope to review soon. Now, Bojanowski is not exactly a friend of the climatists; in fact he has roughly the same criticisms of their policies as I do. This means our good progressive bookstore could not simply offer his book for sale unchallenged. Instead, the forbidden knowledge contained on Bojanowski’s pages had to be flanked strategically by various tomes for the climatist faithful. These offending monographs had Bojanowski surrounded. Some of them I knew already, but one jumped out at me. It bore the bizarre English title Unlearn CO2 (with “CO2” crossed out just like that) and my God is this thing an absolute goldmine.

From the back cover:

The fossil fuel system is crumbling. People everywhere are getting involved and working towards a better future. It’s about much more than wind turbines and solar panels – the solutions apply to all areas of our lives: we can shorten working hours and eat and dress in a climate-friendly way. We can operate within planetary boundaries and ask the courts to make fossil fuel companies pay. And we can open our feelings on the climate and draw strength for action from them.

In 14 constructive essays, experts reveal how we can finally escape our dependence on CO2 – for a life without exploitation on this planet.

This is the deluded carbon dioxide-addled leftoid utopian ravings we have been waiting for. Every page of this profoundly idiotic volume promises to provide unsurpassed comedy.

From the introduction, we learn that Unlearn CO2 is all about feelings. In particular it is intended to help you deal with all of those negative emotions that climate policy normally evokes. The editors want you to feel optimistic! Climate change should be fun, and actually it’s going great!

Maybe you know that feeling of frustration – about the fact that humans have known better for decades but are still warming the planet by burning coal, oil and gas and cutting down forests. We know it all too well. Sometimes it seems like we’re treading water or even going backwards when it comes to climate protection. But appearances are deceptive. Of course, the pace of change is often still far too slow. At the same time, however, solutions are already being worked out in many areas. It always gives us hope to see how many people are tackling the problem with passion and expertise and working towards a better future day after day. Because then it becomes clear that a climate-friendly world is within reach.

That is exactly what this book is about. It shows that change is not only possible, it is already happening. We are convinced that we all need to tell ourselves these stories of change whenever possible. Because then the tasks that lie ahead will suddenly seem much easier. This is also why we are publishing this book. It is, if you like, your compass for finding your way out of frustration.

With this anthology, we want to show in how many areas effective climate solutions are already being implemented today – from mobility to fashion and psychology to equal rights.

I love how carbon emissions are constructed as an existential problem for all of life on earth, and in a list of exemplary affected areas, fashion, psychology and equal rights occupy 75% of the slots. We are dealing with extremely serious people here.

But why the weird title? What does Unlearn CO2 even mean? Well, the editors explain, “CO2 is a symbol of the climate crisis,” and they wanted to allude to a previous well-received volume from Ullstein Verlag called Unlearn Patriarchy. It would seem to have escaped our emotional geniuses, that unlearning a crossed-out patriarchy would seem to be the same as learning patriarchy, and that unlearning a crossed-out CO2 would seem to be the same as promoting symbols of the climate crisis. Double negatives are hard.

The table of contents is even more amusing. There are fourteen chapters:

1. “Unlearn Repression,” by Katharina van Bronswijk, who is a psychotherapist and founder of “Psychologists/Psychotherapists for Future.”

2. “Unlearn Nutrition,” by Sophia Hoffmann, who is a “cook, author and restaurateur” – exactly the kind of person we need to hear from about the climate crisis.

3. “Unlearn Ableism,” by Andrea Schöne, a noted intersectional feminist whose contributions to science include an extended investigation about how podcasts might be made more accessible to the deaf.

4. “Unlearn Media,” by Julien Gupta and Manuel Kronenberg, co-founders of Treibhauspost, which we are assured is “one of the largest German-language climate newsletters.” That is good to hear, as Treibhauspost appears to be a glorified blog with only several posts a month and a commentariat consisting of two or three people.

5. “Unlearn Law,” by the crazy climate journalist Alexandra Endres and deranged climate lawyer Roda Verheyen.

6. “Unlearn Automotive Mobility,” by Katja Diehl, host of the “SheDrivesMobility” podcast, founder of the “womeninmobility” agency, and apparent opponent of spaces between words.

7. “Unlearn Growth,” by the ominous climate economist Claudia Kemfert.

8. “Unlearn Fashion,” by “fair fashion” activist Nina Lorenzen.

9. “Unlearn Disinformation,” by Stefan Rahmstorf, the only actual climatologist to contribute to this collection of essays by alleged ExPerTs.

10. “Unlearn Work,” by Sara Weber, author of the pathbreaking monographs The World is Collapsing and I Still Have to Work? and Somebody Else Can Do That Though.

11. “Unlearn Weather,” by Özden Terli, state media meteorologist.

12. “Unlearn Patriarchy,” by Sheena Anderson, a “black feminist, political scientist, and activist, who works particularly in the areas of antiracism, anticolonial initiatives and climate justice”; and Kristina Lunz, co-founder of the “Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy.” Heavens preserve us, you can almost smell the sulphur.

13. “Unlearn Energy,” by Andreas Schmitz, a computer scientist who runs the YouTube channel “Akkudoktor” (“Battery doctor”).

14. “Unlearn Health,” by Eckart von Hirschhausen, an expert in “communicating medical information in humorous ways.”

Dear readers, can we please, please please have a few posts on this unmitigated stupidity? Could you perhaps vote in the comments below for which chapters you would particularly like me to cover?