Pauline von Hellermann

Regenerative Anthropology and/as Climate Action

#ClimateDiary; writing book about palm oil; political and historical ecology, climate justice, commoning

Avatar: a small person in a raincoat in a mirror with metal loops with LED lights swirling in front. This is the artwork “Sedibeng, It Comes with Rain” by Dineo Seshee Bopape, in Towner Gallery in Eastbourne

Background: a palm oil mill in North Sumatra, in a luscious green landscape.

University website: https://www.gold.ac.uk/anthropology/staff/von-hellermann-pauline/

Public Key

npub1wl5sn7hvyczng9shjha043nc87phu7qvjv5kymmy5vh8hxtzjccs8xvs4x

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs806gfltkzvpf5zctet7h6ceurlqm70qxfx2tzdaj2xtnmn93fvvgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dswxkm2n

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1wl5sn7hvyczng9shjha043nc87phu7qvjv5kymmy5vh8hxtzjccs8xvs4x

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Last Notes

2024-07-29 06:06:41

#ClimateDiary
“Fleeing flames in the middle of the night shouldn’t be a normal part of childhood. Eyes stinging from smoke that forces you to spend hot summer days inside shouldn’t be a normal part of childhood. Entire towns burning down shouldn’t be a normal part of childhood.
And yet, here we are.”
“And yet here we are”- kind of my go to phrase for everything at the moment. The world shouldn’t be the way it is, but it is.
#Canada #Jasper #Wildfire
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/my-family-spent-four-glorious-days-camping-in-jasper-a-week-later-we-watched-the/article_186cffc6-4b55-11ef-9e4c-b73cc8902f96.html

2024-07-18 20:05:13

#ClimateDiary This is just terrible. 4-5 years prison each for five acitvists for a Zoom call - planning action to stop fossil fuels destroying everything! #JustStopOil
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-prison-for-protest/

2024-07-08 11:48:05

Yesterday The Lancet published this article "conservatively" estimating that the death toll in the Gaza genocide could be 186,000 people or more. #Gaza
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

2024-06-30 11:22:18

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#ClimateDiary 3/3
Someone said this so well on here recently: it’s no longer anxiety, it’s fear. And there is a real difference between the two.
(must find this again; really stayed with me).
And yes, I am aware that for many people across the world it’s long been fear, not anxiety; they have already experienced real losses and trauma. So the shift occuring only now is a sign of real privilege, I fully recognise that. #ClimateAnxiety

2024-06-30 11:17:42

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#ClimateDiary 2/3 and this is in northern Italy (not sure where exactly)
Obviously realise this is v minor & don’t want to “me, me, me” this, but my husband is driving through this area in a few days and we are joining him in the Austrian Alps end of July. This is the 4th/5th time this year that our travel arrangements are directly impacted by climate change; and I do feel tangible worry.
https://x.com/Met4CastUK/status/1807157467174101353

2024-06-30 11:10:26

#ClimateDiary. Ever more flooding/landslides in the Alps. This was #Zermatt last night, just 8 days after last floods 1/3
https://x.com/DaveThroup/status/1807185349233287387

2024-06-30 11:06:41

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very good, as always. Thank you. I am honestly really scared about all this

2024-06-29 07:54:47

Every day, more horrors, more dead, more war crimes; “red lines” a distant memory whilst #Gaza continues to be systematically destroyed. Yet waning coverage and outrage. It really is, as Glazer warned us during his “Zone of Interest” Oscar speech, that genocide is now ambient background.
I wonder how much the casualty figures stalling at 35,000 or so for months now (due to health and counting systems being destroyed) has contributed to people forgetting about it.
https://aje.io/ey50er

2024-06-18 08:55:16

#ClimateDiary
It's so hot in Delhi that bats are dropping
dead from trees.
https://x.com/r_gov11/status/1802859276156998021
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/636/311/180/410/991/original/d2ccca19bb65cd68.jpeg

2024-06-15 08:52:47

Has it started happening? Has tue suffering in #Gaza - for those of us living privileged lives in the West - becoming “ambient” background, as Glazer warned us in his acceptance speech for Zone of Interest?
It is unbelievable how every single “red line” has been crossed; how Biden very evidently supports the complete eradication of Gaza; how genocide goes on and on and on, yet so many people don’t seem to really care.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/12/significant-part-of-gaza-facing-famine-like-conditions-who-says

2024-06-14 08:58:05

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you are right - i lied. I came on here to lie.
No. As i made very clear in my post, I just shared someone else’s post. I can’t even get past the paywall myself. I know no more than the totality of what you see. I happen to believe it’s accurate, based on what I read about Chinese solar expansion (and oil industry not dominated by corporations, as I said). But maybe you are right: this is Bloomberg publishing Chinese propaganda.
https://x.com/davidfickling/status/1801408245988528511

2024-06-14 08:28:55

#ClimateDiary But here some positive news:
Seven Chinese solar companies are already providing more energy for the global economy than Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP.
(I think most oil in the world is actually produced by state-owned companies; the big corporations produce a relatively small percentage, but still)
(From @npub1faw…h4d3)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-06-13/solar-power-s-giants-are-providing-more-energy-than-big-oil
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/613/558/306/587/456/original/3f093b7f25e1df7d.jpeg

2024-06-08 19:20:03

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#Gaza 2/2 Also, as Alon Mizrahi points out, this is very very bad news for the remaining hostsges, as Israel has made it patently clear that it is not interested in any further exchanges or agreements. This makes the remaining hostages worthless for Hamas and endangers them hugely.
https://x.com/alon_mizrahi/status/1799406891405123730
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/582/144/746/607/939/original/e77d832618d34695.jpeg

2024-06-08 19:13:56

Of course I am truly happy for the 4 hostages and their families to be reunited today. But I cannot stand Western media and leaders celebrating this today without even mentioning that 200 Palestinians were killed during the rescue and that IDF soldiers - as I understand it - came hidden on humanitarian aid trucks, using the humanitarian pier. And that none of this would have been necessary if Israel had accepted any of the ceasefire deals #Gaza 1/2 https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112342311753280104
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/582/120/754/506/895/original/1b564affee89bd61.jpeg

2024-06-07 17:18:55

#ClimateDiary A short 🧵 on why #Gaza is, and should be, a concern for the climate movement. I know the vast majority of you lovely people on here do see the connection, but just in case some of you don't, I wanted to briefly outline this. For me, there are four separate, key reasons why Gaza is not a "distraction"; why all climate activists should speak out on it. #ClimateAction 1/5
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/575/992/478/318/883/original/8888d15960190cf6.webp

2024-06-07 13:12:28

Israeli activists have chained themselves to the German Embassy in Tel Aviv to say: #StopArmingIsrael #Gaza
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/575/037/088/996/114/original/c2571e612c67112a.jpeg

2024-06-05 18:48:48

“It was the worst aggression I’ve been subjected to during my work as a journalist,” Nir Hassoun, Haaretz’s reporter, said after he was beaten harshly by settlers during their annual provocative march in #Jerusalem.
This picture alone.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/565/027/213/965/927/original/c52241a283a33ac6.jpg

2024-06-05 12:29:47

Amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II
Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza Strip since last October, exceeding World War II bombings in **Dresden, Hamburg, London combined**, according to rights monitor. #Gaza
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/amount-of-israeli-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-surpasses-that-of-world-war-ii/3239665#

2024-06-02 10:12:56

#ClimateDiary Yep, this is where we are at.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/546/019/601/418/635/original/b1ca0992035d50a3.jpeg

2024-06-01 10:48:03

The responses to this….
Seriously: if disputing numbers is your business, then please at least ask yourself exactly what motivates you.
Also: if your take it is: “it’s not 15,000 it’s 8,000”, or whatever: please reflect on that too. What kind of take is that! https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112537936912794012

2024-05-31 23:57:20

The names of 15,000 children killed in #Gaza will be read aloud in Berlin tomorrow.
https://lithub.com/the-names-of-15000-children-killed-in-gaza-will-be-read-aloud-in-berlin-tomorrow/

2024-05-30 08:47:04

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me too. Especially since hearing that in the US many homeless people die of burns, burns from pavements. So awful.
https://kolektiva.social/@donkeyherder/112519887203686873

2024-05-30 07:07:07

#ClimateDiary my heart goes out to everyone in Delhi, especially the workers and street vendors, children and elderly, the many without AC. Water scarcity and rationing; overflowing morgues in Rajasthan.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/29/delhi-temperature-hits-499c-as-indias-capital-records-hottest-day
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/528/302/021/808/126/original/2f7a92f68ffbafa1.jpeg

2024-05-29 16:39:35

#ClimateDiary Delhi recorded highest ever recorded temperature in India at 52.3 °C.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/524/890/751/428/328/original/14ed103137efb1a7.jpeg

2024-05-29 13:58:31

Burning the Indigenous Population up in their Tents is an old Colonial Technique of Genocide
Just read the opening paragraph of this. IDF using an AI program called “Daddy’s Home”, tracking Hamas militants but striking them when they are home with max number of chidren, family and friends.
“The AI program is set up to allow 15 to 20 noncombatant, civilian deaths for every member of the paramilitary Qassam Brigades killed in the attack. “
Sick, sick, sick. #Gaza.
https://www.juancole.com/2024/05/indigenous-population-technique.html

2024-05-27 08:50:26

#ClimateDiary The Papua New Guinea national disaster centre on Friday’s landslide in a remote village in the northern part of the country:
“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country,”
The mentioning of “food gardens” shows their centrality to people’s livelihoods. These people contributed nothing yet are now destroyed by climate change.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/27/papua-new-guinea-landslides-death-toll-enga-province-rescue-efforts?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/511/721/317/305/889/original/70fc8a7d2c3008dc.jpeg

2024-05-24 10:05:08

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 38/n
A rare silver lining to severe cuts in local council budgets: for the last few years Eastbourne have stopped spraying our streets and I love this time of year, flowers reclaiming the streets everywhere. #Rewilding #ClimateDiary
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/495/025/996/721/399/original/d3bf0b68974ecd69.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/495/026/526/331/747/original/69d367552db730d5.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/495/027/334/606/990/original/5544472f628e645a.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/495/028/094/019/636/original/15c8f20006777b30.jpeg

2024-05-24 07:55:27

#ClimateDiary Kidney disease is high and rapidly worsening in coastal Bangladesh due to rising sea levels increasing water salinity as well as extreme heat. For many, like 65yo Khatun, dialysis is too expensive.
The whole of Khulna, once a thriving city, is affected by saline intrusion due to frequent floods, cyclones and tidal surge.
“The global climate crisis is essentially a water crisis,” says Dr Mohammad Shamsudduha at UCL.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/24/its-in-our-rivers-and-in-our-cups-theres-no-escape-the-deadly-spread-of-salt-water-in-bangladesh?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/494/518/204/657/802/original/6246fa2a08886835.jpeg

2024-05-18 13:27:17

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yes! News articles say “scientists believe” so often, and it always annoys me. They don’t believe - they tell us what all the most recent research says!

2024-05-17 11:55:39

Sums up everything #Gaza #AI #ChatGPT #Racism
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/455/826/510/044/608/original/11cd72f6022ceb6e.jpeg

2024-05-15 13:22:48

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵37/n
Even though all of us living in the UK know that homelessness is terrible (and has grown exponentially since 2010), it is still shocking to see this graph.
(There are notes on methods: all countries included both rough sleeping and invisible homelessness).
https://www.oecd.org/social/homelessness-country-notes.htm?utm_term=pac&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1-CorporatePriorityContent,2-Recovery%5BSupportingPublicandSocialPolicies%5D,3-ELS&utm_source=twitter
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/444/844/577/168/823/original/752d6dae7d5ff781.jpeg

2024-05-13 10:29:41

#ClimateDiary Anyone else struggling to see any prospects for turning things around? I will keep on trying to do what I can. Of course. But 2024 is challenging.
Last year did a post about how I wasn’t motivated by hope but by #DesperateDetermination. I now realise i got that wrong. Hope isn’t just fluffy “things will be alright”. Hope is some flicker of belief that you and others can change things; I did, actually, have “hope”. Less now, but will keep going.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/13/banks-almost-7tn-fossil-fuel-firms-paris-deal-report
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/432/839/261/154/582/original/3169ee45f8a04f4d.jpeg

2024-05-09 19:23:15

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 36/n Here a positive, progressive use of money flows:
1400+ Columbia University alumni from its 20 schools have pledged to withhold all “financial, programmatic, and academic support” until school meets demands related to divestment, student discipline, and community safety.
Group website says over $63 million of donations at risk. #Gaza #studentprotests
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/412/288/075/099/864/original/78e020a6e60dd28f.jpeg

2024-05-09 10:28:40

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Here the list of #studentprotests and encampments across the world
- growing daily!
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/410/186/044/153/879/original/ad9ef85b207b35bd.jpeg

2024-05-09 10:19:28

It is really incredible just how big the student revolution has become. This is Lausanne in Switzerland, a country hitherto on a par with Germany or even worse in oppressing criticism of Israel. #studentprotests
https://x.com/Resist_05/status/1787955648636010988

2024-05-09 08:07:52

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#FollowTheMoney 35/n #ClimateDiary #AcademicVenting
This is why:
https://mstdn.ca/@dbattistella/112408392604056154

2024-05-09 08:06:38

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵34/n #ClimateDiary
We had a veg box for 12 years from Hankham Organics; 3 weeks ago we suddenly had a note with our box that they were closing, as it wasn’t working financially any more. 😢😢😢
And a fish merchant who we got smoked salmon for Christmas from closed this year too, for the same reasons. Plus Goldsmiths’ woes of course (#AcademicVenting). So many good, small organisations struggling and ending.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/409/627/530/795/655/original/4c1001cf67b800b2.jpeg

2024-05-09 07:56:39

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 33/n
Today an overlap with #ClimateDiary: British farmers are struggling due to climate change, Brexit AND supermarket power:
Most farmers receive less than 1% of the profit made from the food they grow. Of the 20% food inflation experienced by the public a minuscule proportion made its way back to the farmer. Tesco made a £2.3bn profit last year, while 49% of fruit and veg farmers fear they’ll be out of business before the end of this one.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/08/british-farmer-food-climate-crisis-business?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/409/588/263/035/629/original/244af92fe3fde781.jpeg

2024-05-07 12:01:31

If you do not see that Israel’s behaviour in all this is completely, utterly, outrageously reprehensible; if you do not see that we are all being gas-lit by Israel and the international media presenting Israel as a “rational” negotiation partner and repeating Israel’s statement “Hamas are not serious” whilst Israel themselves kill more and more children; if you come on here now “explaining” the situation to me (as I had all day yesterday):
What kind of person are you?
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/399/226/514/017/662/original/fda26fafc889ae8a.jpeg

2024-05-07 08:36:42

Arundhati Roy on Gaza: N̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ Again
The richest, most powerful countries in the western world, those who believe themselves to be the keepers of the flame of the modern world’s commitment to democracy and human rights, are openly financing and applauding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. #Gaza
https://scroll.in/article/1064867/arundhati-roy-on-gaza-never-again

2024-05-06 13:18:38

I keep on looking at this map. The Gaza strip itself is already so small , the most densely populated part of the world. And now everyone is supposed to cram into a minute part of this? And we are all supposed to appreciate this“humanitarian zone” - which has itself been repeatedly bombed already, too. #Gaza
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/393/867/407/483/617/original/90b8751f960557ff.jpeg

2024-05-05 08:59:15

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 32/n Watched “The Founder” on Netflix yesterday, about McDonalds. Really interesting- would recommend it. Particularly how the real breakthrough came when Kroc, advised by Sonneborn, went for real estate. Checked it on Wikipedia:
“McDonald's present-day real-estate holdings represent $37.7 billion on its balance sheet, about 99% of the company's assets and 35% of its annual gross revenue.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_McDonald%27s
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/387/185/175/612/324/original/a4e12f54270965cb.jpeg

2024-05-04 08:38:37

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 31/n I think the graph came from this New York Times piece but don’t have a subscription so can’t check.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/03/opinion/global-billionaires-tax.html

2024-05-04 08:31:44

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 30/n
Wow. As Bregman says: Stunning graph: the plummeting tax rates of the richest Americans. For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.
Look at 1980 - I do continue to think that *everything* could have been different if Carter hadn’t lost to Reagan.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/381/414/678/292/540/original/ef256b18914e068c.jpeg

2024-05-03 18:24:17

BREAKING: super proud and excited to share that our formidable students were not only amongst the very first (the first?) to start a #Palestine #Gaza occupation back in February - the occupation has now been resolved in the following agreement! There will be Palestine scholarships, a review of investments, and more!
Protest works! #Studentprotests
https://www.gold.ac.uk/about/responses-statements/g4p/
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/111969910024680198

2024-05-02 10:59:43

Meanwhile things continue to get worse and worse in #Gaza
Water is in desperately short supply, not just for drinking but sanitation. In Rafah there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people. The situation is four times worse for showers. That is, around one shower for every 3,500 people.
A military offensive in Rafah will be catastrophic because it is a city of children – some 600,000 of them.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/may/01/rafah-graveyards-children-european-hospital-injured-dying
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/370/671/856/554/159/original/6055fecf7bfcddaf.jpeg

2024-04-30 11:33:08

Great news: UK university divests from Israel-linked arms companies following pressure
“The University of York has been forced to divest from weapons and arms manufacturers tied to Israel after a series of protests from a student-led coalition.”
Protest works!
#Gaza #Divest #studentprotests #campusprotests
https://www.newarab.com/news/uk-university-divests-israel-linked-arms-companies

2024-04-30 11:23:51

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 29/n Another overlap with #AcademicVenting 🧵- because it’s all of a piece! Because the crisis in HE is a key phenomenon in all this!
This great piece by Jessica Wildfire really needs to be read in full, but this extract most apt here:
“Universities aren't institutions of knowledge anymore. They're assets. They're revenue streams. If they're not generating money for the top, then they only pose a threat, and they have to be weakened and destroyed.”
https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/112359018143961300

2024-04-29 07:51:29

If you went to one funeral a day for every child killed in #Gaza, it would take you 43 years to attend them all.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/352/944/878/978/131/original/6e9b1ad1aea87046.jpeg

2024-04-27 10:47:17

“We later found out that Hamas had offered on October 9 or 10 to release all the civilian hostages in exchange for the IDF not entering the Strip, but the government rejected the offer.”
It is unbearable to think what the remaining hostages and their families have been going through all this time. Netanyahu does not care about the hostages. Just as he does not care about people in #Gaza.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/no-doubt-netanyahu-preventing-hostage-deal-charges-ex-spokesman-of-families-forum/

2024-04-27 10:38:18

Wow, reading all these letters by NYU faculty to the office of the president is quite something. Do read them all. Highlighting one by History Professor Steven Hahn, as it encapsulates everything (in one screenshot).
#Gaza #campusprotests
https://facultyforpalestine.education/statements/faculty-letters-to-the-office-of-the-president-and-the-office-of-the-provost/
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/342/276/189/907/815/original/3d61bfaf2a52fe91.jpeg

2024-04-25 07:28:18

Holocaust Survivor Stephen Kapos’ Message to US Campus Protesters:
“This survivor of the Holocaust is against Genocide in Gaza & conflating Jewishness with Zionism, which does nothing but increase antisemitism.
Your protests are so persistent, large and global that eventually the Western leadership, which are trying to deny what’s going on, will be forced to face up to it.
Thank you for being brave and on the right side of history.”
#Gaza
https://x.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1783270524388294756

2024-04-18 11:08:28

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 28/n But honestly, just read this piece - everything in this 🧵 in one brilliant analysis. And, crucially, using to explain lack of climate action. This is what everyone, each one of us, needs to think about! “Ecologically speaking, neoliberalism couldn’t have come at a worse time.”
Here Christopher’s book itself:
The Price is Wrong. Why Capitalism Won’t Save The Planet.
https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong

2024-04-18 11:03:05

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵27/n The piece btw contains a necessary critique of my sci-fi “money rules” take a few posts above. Although i still like the idea of all this being a kind of superorganism. But yes, it is about power - political economy, not just economy.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/291/412/787/905/387/original/b6f8022d53626782.jpeg

2024-04-18 10:53:25

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 26/n An outstanding review by Will Davies (my Goldsmiths colleague) of Brett Christopher’s “The Price is Wrong”: about our neoliberal political economy (using a Braudelian distinction btw “the market” and “capitalism” - SO useful) and how this explain why investments in fossil fuels continue to vastly outstrip those in renewables. Key point: Capitalism IS rent-seeking.
#ClimateEmergency
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/william-davies/antimarket

2024-04-14 09:08:20

#ClimateDiary It seems, IS, utterly crazy, that amidst everything else the UK government is ruthlessly continuing its clampdown on climate protesters. But it is.
Excellent article by Natasha Walter here on how Dr Sarah Benn got 30 days in prison for holding up a placard saying “Stop New Oil” and overall recent developments:
“the direction of travel is fast and frightening and its repercussions are growing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/13/climate-crisis-protest-activism-repression
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/268/312/401/709/864/original/2dd076b39c8f47f3.jpeg

2024-04-13 12:39:29

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 25/n back to a reality most of us in the UK inhabit on a daily basis: the crumbling public sector. Found this report on NHS dentistry’s struggle for survival really very moving just now. #NHS #dentistry #UKpolitics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001y0kf?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

2024-04-11 09:39:26

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 24/n. Like, watching the blue tits busy building their nest in the box outside our kitchen window, feeding their young, flying back and forth: most of us humans are so much closer to them than to scheming billionaires.
And: this forever (i hope forever- in peril due to other!) reality - of birds, trees, parents hugging children, just enjoying being together - this is perhaps the real reality. Or at least always also there. Mustn’t forget!
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/251/447/752/668/251/original/1cb54aaf05e97a77.jpeg

2024-04-11 09:29:24

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 23/n. Sorry- one more! Just to end on a less bleak note: seeing this toot reminded me that, of course, that billionaire military might AI bleak dystopia is real,IS our world, but there is actually an even bigger reality here every day, in all of us, since forever. Which is that the vast majority of us humans basically just want a simple life, with family, friends, barbecues (ok maybe not perfect example but since it’s here). #FrugalAbundance
https://ohai.social/@archaeohistories/112251349725100974

2024-04-11 09:05:33

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 22/n Last point and then I will stop for today: saw #Hamilton a few weeks ago and was really struck by how then it was possible to start a revolution, raise an army and WIN! Like, that would just be totally impossible now. The imbalance in military power, just as in wealth (and control over media etc etc) is just so VAST now. It’s impossible to beat. That’s why noone really even tries anymore.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/251/314/502/126/680/original/e163477c0ff031a5.png

2024-04-11 08:57:33

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 21/n Suddenly remembered that at the end of 2022 I posted this here. So embarrassing - cringe, as my children would say! That I actually wrote “the new world is almost born”. No it’s not. The time of monsters is in full, full swing, the new world really is not born yet. All we can do is to keep on trying to organise to make it happen one day. #Gramsci
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109607575259368216

2024-04-11 08:49:14

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 20/n
Now really is the time of monsters. #Gramsci
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/251/250/341/221/433/original/ee80e5e795c6dad8.jpeg

2024-04-11 08:33:38

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 19/n
This is what I am thinking about now. Not at all the first to say this or even think it myself, but just to emphasise: better not to think of billionaires as evil scheming money grabbers - i mean, they are - but as vessels for money, capitalism itself. Like, sci-fi wise, human bodies that look like humans from the outside but have been taken over by an AI - money itself. And it’s ruling everything!
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112251122729288252

2024-04-11 08:24:31

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 18/n
Spotify too. Everywhere money is being sucked out (or who has the agency here really? More in next post) from artists to billionaires
https://mstdn.ca/@ned/112249803518261424

2024-04-03 14:50:26

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 17/n and here the whole Forbes Rich List for 2024. The planet has a record 2,781 billionaires now who are worth a record $14.2 trillion.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2024/04/02/forbes-38th-annual-worlds-billionaires-list-facts-and-figures-2024/

2024-04-03 14:44:46

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 16/n Back to who the money flows towards:
Nobody had a better year than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth has increased by more than any other billionaire, up by nearly $113 billion over the past 12 months, to an estimated $177 billion #AI #Meta
https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/04/02/tech-billionaires-have-added-an-astonishing-750-billion-to-their-fortunes-over-the-past-year/

2024-04-03 07:52:06

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#AcademicVenting ah! For years I have been thinking someone should write “Unlucky Jim” - a 21st century campus novel - now just came across this! Hope it contains all those little details I was thinking about when starting this thread.
https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Secret-Lecturer/Secret-Lecturer/9781914487217
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/205/727/227/203/405/original/b631338c17113ddc.jpeg

2024-03-27 06:43:17

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 15/n
“The average worker is now £14,000 worse off per year than if earnings had continued to rise at pre-crisis rates—it is the worst period for wage growth since the Napoleonic Wars. “Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this. This is what failure looks like.” “
A Herefordshire case workers has developed a phrase to describe people needing help, “for her paperwork”:
“Overwhelming Distress”

2024-03-27 06:32:59

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 14/n Just realised the title of this really excellent article by Sam Knight is actually perhaps the real theme of this 🧵:
What Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule have Done to Britain
As Sam says, #Austerity is not even talked about so much anymore, but it has just broken the #UK . Please do read the whole piece, so well written, so damning (and I’ve even managed to ignore an aside criticism of Corbyn - usually makes me hate any writer! 😊)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/01/what-have-fourteen-years-of-conservative-rule-done-to-britain
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/166/242/681/042/864/original/1114bbe91115880a.jpeg

2024-03-18 18:11:04

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 13/n and i have to mention UK universities too, since I am directly affected myself (see #AcademicVenting).
40% of UK universities are in debt, with major reduncancies right now (incl at Goldsmiths). All in arts, humanities and social sciences. All of this is crumbling, with too little money flowing into it. Another industry, another #CommonGood
being eroded. Check out this constantly updated tally. #TheCrumble
https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

2024-03-18 17:58:09

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵12/n Of course, things were never rosy for everyone. Nevertheless, key shared assumptions about the #commongood informed post war public spending and that is all eroding now.
“Continuing austerity does not just kill people’s services; it has long since warped most political debates about what we should expect from the state. In lots of places, squalor, mess and festering social problems are now seen as the norm. “
#TheCrumble

2024-03-18 17:51:44

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 11/n Another key area money flows away from are local councils and social services and, therefore, the young and, again, community. In Birmingham, whose council declared bankruptcy in 2023, provisions for children will be cut by £52m in 2024-25 and £63m in 2025-26; youth services by £2.3m; and eleven community centres are being sold off. As John Harris says:
The state is abandoning its people
#UKPolitics #Birmingham #Austerity
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/17/birmingham-britain-state-cuts-austerity-local-services
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/117/724/048/931/285/original/a4d8694052c2d440.jpeg

2024-03-16 10:15:36

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 10/n But note the title ⬆️ - what is going on here? Turns out quite a bit of of the program was about how “Zombie firms”were kept alive artificially for years by low interest rates; that it’s good if they die and others take over. Really struck and appalled by utter coldness, distance and dehumanisation by people who say this - as @npub1gas…tfr5 just said, they really think of others just as numbers (see also our “Understanding Growth” piece above 5/n).

2024-03-16 10:06:26

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 9/n So far the has been more about who the money flows towards, but now also some posts about who it flows away from. Again, random collection, no comprensive analysis - just snippets of what’s going on!
Yesterday I listened to this really heartbreaking and deeply worrying programme about the rapid rise in bankruptcies in the UK. Of course we see this all around us - all those closing restaurants, Debenhams etc. the #DeathOfTheHighStreet speeding up
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001x55h?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

2024-03-14 19:51:53

Naomi Klein on The Zone of Interest: the speech, the lies, most of all, Glazer's harrowing warning about how genocide can become "ambient."
As Klein says, this is what feels most contemporary, most of this terrible moment, about Glazer’s staggering film.#Gaza #ZoneOfInterest
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/14/the-zone-of-interest-auschwitz-gaza-genocide
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/095/547/229/279/414/original/67d17820d47b009b.jpeg

2024-03-09 09:47:51

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 8/n Adding here a (somewhat sweary, apologies) Politics Joe interview with Gary Stevenson (see 1/n), talking about the rapid increase in inequality in the UK and the world, and also about how we need to make people SEE THIS. They need to realise that the reason their lives are shit, that they can't get houses, is growing inequality. Because the system is set up to make money flow to the rich. Everyone needs to understand this. #SEETheOligarchy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvoyRpxG-A

2024-03-08 18:52:28

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 7/n Now something different - this really is a rag bag, really just adding things as they come along, occur to me, no careful crafting! Just things that enable you to trace and understand how money flows to the rich, how accumulation works. So here, a piece, with this fantastic map, of second homes in the UK, in #Cornwall in particular. Key arena of widening #WealthGap #Inequality
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/06/were-on-a-cliff-edge-cornish-village-where-52-of-houses-are-not-first-homes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
#SEEtheOligarchy
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/061/339/757/003/277/original/b30ad862674dec73.jpeg

2024-03-08 18:42:45

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 6/n This is important: in contrast to most other Central Banks, which simply sit out losses, the Bank of England has an indemnity arrangement requiring the Treasury to cover its losses. This has resulted in £38-£40 billion going in effect from taxpayers to private banks in 2023, and same this year. Adding a second hashtag: #SEEtheOligarchy
FT article only for subscribers, I know (i get it through work). Here screenshots of key passages.
https://on.ft.com/4bUtp80
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/061/301/099/047/024/original/da7a1e7c91fc350e.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/061/301/401/583/145/original/2b071189b811bb39.jpeg

2024-03-08 08:39:22

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 5/n Adding here a piece a group of us co-wrote at an #anthropology
workshop, on “Understanding Growth”. This was experimental - co-writing on the spot! -, but i do come back to it: we distinguish between“Growth rooted in life” from “growth rooted in numbers”. Capitalism is pure number thinking.
Obviously there are many real experts on all this (Marx, Pikkety for a start), this piece is left field! But just thought of it again in this context.
https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2023/10/26/anthropology-and-degrowth-where-to-next/

2024-03-08 08:21:11

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#FollowTheMoney 🧵 4/n
This is happening in creative industries, in higher education, in literature: the more “content” - a lecture, an article, a role in a film - becomes a commodity divorced from its creators, the less creators themselves are paid and valued; they are workers, labourers like everyone else, the value of whose labour gets extracted by capital.
Capitalism isn’t over, replaced by #technofeudalism as some of claimed; it’s in full swing, in its purest form.

2024-03-08 08:13:45

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3/n Have decided to turn this into a #FollowTheMoney 🧵, collecting pieces on how money flows in our system- more and more towards those already rich. As Kelsey McKenney, in this piece on #Hollywod, writes:
“The reality is that the people with the most money have devised, at every turn, new and more bulletproof ways for them to make and keep more money, and for the people who make things to make less. This is the eternal story of labor and management.”
https://defector.com/the-money-is-in-all-the-wrong-places

2024-03-06 10:07:04

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#TragedyOftheNonCommons 2/n
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109308498065515745

2024-03-06 10:06:02

#Budget #UKPolitics This article by Gary Stevenson is so good, please read every word of it.
“Whatever Jeremy Hunt says, traders know the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. And they’re paid millions to bet on it.”
This is what the world is - it is run by a minute elite for a minute elite and the rest of us, the masses, the natural world, we just don’t count. It is a #TragedyOftheNonCommons (will reshare my own piece on this below 1/n)
#FollowTheMoney
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/05/banker-budget-mega-rich-traders-jeremy-hunt?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/047/944/997/827/050/original/39b216dd31c2e842.jpeg