Missing 'Law of Nature' Found That Describes The Way All Things Evolve

Story by Rebecca Dyer •  ScienceAlert

An opalized ammonite in striking green colors on a black background© Provided by 
Complex, evolving systems abound in our Universe, even beyond the realms of biology. From the growth of stars to prebiotic chemistry, diverse mixes of materials can often be shaped into far more complex forms.

Yet unlike other so many other physical phenomena, their changing nature is yet to be represented by a discrete law.

That's according to a US team of astrobiologists, philosophers, a mineralogist, a theoretical physicist, and a data scientist who describe the "missing law" of nature in an intriguing new peer-reviewed paper.

"Given the ubiquity of evolving systems in the natural world, it seems odd that one or more laws describing their behaviors have not been more quickly forthcoming," the authors write.

The team's own "law of increasing functional information" says evolution in all its forms inevitably leads to more patterning, diversity, and complexity in natural complex systems.

Evolution is certainly not unique to Earth's biosphere; it takes place in other extremely complex systems, such as our Solar System, stars, atoms, and minerals.

"The Universe generates novel combinations of atoms, molecules, cells, etc," says first author of the study, astrobiologist Michael Wong from Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC.

"Those combinations that are stable and can go on to engender even more novelty will continue to evolve. This is what makes life the most striking example of evolution, but evolution is everywhere."

The paper describes how just hydrogen and helium – the two most abundant elements at the time of the Big Bang – coalesced to form the first stars. By the time a star reaches the end of its life it can generate more than 100 elements with around 2000 varieties of isotope.

On Earth, an enormous diversity of mineral 'species' were created from simple beginnings as the planet formed across 4.55 to 2.5 billion years ago. There are now more than 5,900 known mineral species on Earth, which became increasingly chemically complex as emerging forms of life released oxygen into the atmosphere.

Iron's reaction with oxygen-based minerals ushered in a new era in ancient life and laid the groundwork for our own evolution in tandem with other minerals.

The complexity of Earth's surface mineralogy grew further as life evolved from single-celled to multicellular organisms and ecosystems formed. The wide range of minerals that were formed changed the course of evolution and its options.

Biological and mineral systems continually interact to influence each other's diversity, and life as we know it is the result of this interaction.

"These evolving systems appear to be conceptually equivalent in that they display three notable attributes," the authors write.

"1) They form from numerous components that have the potential to adopt combinatorially vast numbers of different configurations; 2) processes exist that generate numerous different configurations; and 3) configurations are preferentially selected based on function."

So, is there something in the way information can be transferred that accounts for the shared characteristics of seemingly diverse evolving systems? Could there be a universal basis for selection? The team thinks both answers are yes.

"An important component of this proposed natural law is the idea of 'selection for function,'" says Wong.

According to Darwin, an organism's primary function in the context of biology is to ensure its own survival long enough to reproduce successfully. The team says this new proposal broadens our understanding by pointing out the existence of three distinct types of function in the natural world.

The most fundamental function we could call 'static persistence' – maintenance of stable atomic or molecular arrangements.

'Dynamic persistence' describes how systems that are dynamic and have access to constant sources of energy are also more likely to endure.

And lastly, 'novelty generation' refers to the propensity of evolving systems to generate novel configurations, which can result in surprising novel behaviors or characteristics.

Wong and team point out that physical laws of motion, gravity, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics govern the functions of macroscopic natural systems across space and time. So it makes sense that we should have a law of nature for evolution.

"An asymmetric trajectory based upon functionality may seem antithetical to scientific analysis," the team concludes.

"Nevertheless, we conjecture that selection based on static persistence, dynamic persistence, and novelty generation is a universal process that results in systems with increased functional information."

The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Leading scientists, philosophers identify nature’s missing evolutionary law

Evolution of plants, animals: “A very special case within a far larger natural phenomenon.” Similar marvels occur with stars, planets, minerals, other complex systems; When a novel configuration works well and function improves, evolution occurs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CARNEGIE SCIENCE EARTH AND PLANETS LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: 

AS EARTH FORMED, NEW GEOLOGIC PROCESSES, ESPECIALLY THOSE RELATED TO THE INTERACTION OF HOT FLUIDS WITH ROCK DURING IGNEOUS ACTIVITY AND PLATE TECTONICS, GAVE BIRTH TO OVER 1500 NEW MINERAL SPECIES (4.55 TO 2.5 BILLION YEARS AGO). AT 2.5 BILLION YEARS AGO, EMERGING BIOLOGICAL LIFE INTRODUCED OXYGEN INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. THIS WAS A TIME OF PIVOTAL CHANGE, WHEN PHOTOSYNTHESIS BEGAN AND THE INTERACTION OF IRON WITH OXYGEN-BASED MINERALS CHANGED ANCIENT LIFE, PROVIDING THE BLUEPRINT FOR OUR FUTURE EVOLUTION, TOGETHER WITH MINERALS.

WITH THE PROGRESS OF THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE FROM SINGLE-CELLED TO MULTICELLED ORGANISMS, AND THE FORMATION OF ECOSYSTEMS, THE MINERALOGY OF THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH BECAME MORE COMPLEX. THE MINERAL DIVERSITY THAT WAS CREATED FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED THE DIRECTION AND POSSIBILITIES OF EVOLUTION. BIODIVERSITY LEADS TO MINERAL DIVERSITY, AND VICE VERSA. THE TWO SYSTEMS, BIOLOGICAL AND MINERAL, INTERACTED TO CREATE LIFE AS WE KNOW IT TODAY.

PHOTO: HTTPS://DRIVE.GOOGLE.COM/FILE/D/1WBQWSDAHYVP0XUGFBTMZC7_JJFSPMOMA/VIEW?USP=SHARING

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CREDIT: DR. ROBERT LAVINSKY

A paper in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today describes “a missing law of nature,” recognizing for the first time an important norm within the natural world’s workings.  

In essence, the new law states that complex natural systems evolve to states of greater patterning, diversity, and complexity. In other words, evolution is not limited to life on Earth, it also occurs in other massively complex systems, from planets and stars to atoms, minerals, and more.

Authored by a nine-member team — leading scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Cornell University, and philosophers from the University of Colorado — the work was funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

“Macroscopic” laws of nature describe and explain phenomena experienced daily in the natural world. Natural laws related to forces and motion, gravity, electromagnetism, and energy, for example, were described more than 150 years ago. 

The new work presents a modern addition — a macroscopic law recognizing evolution as a common feature of the natural world’s complex systems, which are characterised as follows:

• They are formed from many different components, such as atoms, molecules, or cells, that can be arranged and rearranged repeatedly
• Are subject to natural processes that cause countless different arrangements to be formed
• Only a small fraction of all these configurations survive in a process called “selection for function.”   

Regardless of whether the system is living or nonliving, when a novel configuration works well and function improves, evolution occurs. 

The authors’ “Law of Increasing Functional Information” states that the system will evolve “if many different configurations of the system undergo selection for one or more functions.”

“An important component of this proposed natural law is the idea of ‘selection for function,’” says Carnegie astrobiologist Dr. Michael L. Wong, first author of the study.

In the case of biology, Darwin equated function primarily with survival—the ability to live long enough to produce fertile offspring. 

The new study expands that perspective, noting that at least three kinds of function occur in nature. 

The most basic function is stability – stable arrangements of atoms or molecules are selected to continue. Also chosen to persist are dynamic systems with ongoing supplies of energy. 

The third and most interesting function is “novelty”—the tendency of evolving systems to explore new configurations that sometimes lead to startling new behaviors or characteristics. 

Life's evolutionary history is rich with novelties—photosynthesis evolved when single cells learned to harness light energy, multicellular life evolved when cells learned to cooperate, and species evolved thanks to advantageous new behaviors such as swimming, walking, flying, and thinking. 

The same sort of evolution happens in the mineral kingdom. The earliest minerals represent particularly stable arrangements of atoms. Those primordial minerals provided foundations for the next generations of minerals, which participated in life’s origins. The evolution of life and minerals are intertwined, as life uses minerals for shells, teeth, and bones.

Indeed, Earth’s minerals, which began with about 20 at the dawn of our Solar System, now number almost 6,000 known today thanks to ever more complex physical, chemical, and ultimately biological processes over 4.5 billion years. 

In the case of stars, the paper notes that just two major elements – hydrogen and helium – formed the first stars shortly after the big bang. Those earliest stars used hydrogen and helium to make about 20 heavier chemical elements. And the next generation of stars built on that diversity to produce almost 100 more elements.

“Charles Darwin eloquently articulated the way plants and animals evolve by natural selection, with many variations and traits of individuals and many different configurations,” says co-author Robert M. Hazen of Carnegie Science, a leader of the research.

“We contend that Darwinian theory is just a very special, very important case within a far larger natural phenomenon. The notion that selection for function drives evolution applies equally to stars, atoms, minerals, and many other conceptually equivalent situations where many configurations are subjected to selective pressure.”

The co-authors themselves represent a unique multi-disciplinary configuration: three philosophers of science, two astrobiologists, a data scientist, a mineralogist, and a theoretical physicist.

Says Dr. Wong: “In this new paper, we consider evolution in the broadest sense—change over time—which subsumes Darwinian evolution based upon the particulars of ‘descent with modification.’”  

“The universe generates novel combinations of atoms, molecules, cells, etc. Those combinations that are stable and can go on to engender even more novelty will continue to evolve. This is what makes life the most striking example of evolution, but evolution is everywhere.”

Among many implications, the paper offers: 

1. Understanding into how differing systems possess varying degrees to which they can continue to evolve. “Potential complexity” or “future complexity” have been proposed as metrics of how much more complex an evolving system might become
2. Insights into how the rate of evolution of some systems can be influenced artificially. The notion of functional information suggests that the rate of evolution in a system might be increased in at least three ways: (1) by increasing the number and/or diversity of interacting agents, (2) by increasing the number of different configurations of the system; and/or 3) by enhancing the selective pressure on the system (for example, in chemical systems by more frequent cycles of heating/cooling or wetting/drying).
3. A deeper understanding of generative forces behind the creation and existence of complex phenomena in the universe, and the role of information in describing them
4. An understanding of life in the context of other complex evolving systems. Life shares certain conceptual equivalencies with other complex evolving systems, but the authors point to a future research direction, asking if there is something distinct about how life processes information on functionality (see also https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2022.0810).
5. Aiding the search for life elsewhere: if there is a demarcation between life and non-life that has to do with selection for function, can we identify the "rules of life" that allow us to discriminate that biotic dividing line in astrobiological investigations? (See also https://conta.cc/3LwLRYS, “Did Life Exist on Mars? Other Planets? With AI’s Help, We May Know Soon”)
6. At a time when evolving AI systems are an increasing concern, a predictive law of information that characterizes how both natural and symbolic systems evolve is especially welcome

Laws of nature – motion, gravity, electromagnetism, thermodynamics – etc. codify the general behavior of various macroscopic natural systems across space and time. 

The “law of increasing functional information” published today complements the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy (disorder) of an isolated system increases over time (and heat always flows from hotter to colder objects).

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Comments

 

"This is a superb, bold, broad, and transformational article.  ...  The authors are approaching the fundamental issue of the increase in complexity of the evolving universe. The purpose is a search for a ‘missing law’ that is consistent with the known laws.

"At this stage of the development of these ideas, rather like the early concepts in the mid-19th century of coming to understand ‘energy’ and ‘entropy,’ open broad discussion is now essential."

Stuart Kauffman

Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle WA

“The study of Wong et al. is like a breeze of fresh air blowing over the difficult terrain at the trijunction of astrobiology, systems science and evolutionary theory. It follows in the steps of giants such as Erwin Schrödinger, Ilya Prigogine, Freeman Dyson and James Lovelock. In particular, it was Schrödinger who formulated the perennial puzzle: how can complexity increase -- and drastically so! -- in living systems, while they remain bound by the Second Law of thermodynamics? In the pile of attempts to resolve this conundrum in the course of the last 80 years, Wong et al. offer perhaps the best shot so far.”

“Their central idea, the formulation of the law of increasing functional information, is simple but subtle: a system will manifest an increase in functional information if its various configurations generated in time are selected for one or more functions. This, the authors claim, is the controversial ‘missing law’ of complexity, and they provide a bunch of excellent examples. From my admittedly quite subjective point of view, the most interesting ones pertain to life in radically different habitats like Titan or to evolutionary trajectories characterized by multiple exaptations of traits resulting in a dramatic increase in complexity. Does the correct answer to Schrödinger's question lie in this direction? Only time will tell, but both my head and my gut are curiously positive on that one. Finally, another great merit of this study is worth pointing out: in this day and age of rabid Counter-Enlightenment on the loose, as well as relentless attacks on the freedom of thought and speech, we certainly need more unabashedly multidisciplinary and multicultural projects like this one.”

Milan Cirkovic 

Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, Serbia; The Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University

The natural laws we recognize today cannot yet account for one astounding characteristic of our universe—the propensity of natural systems to “evolve.” As the authors of this study attest, the tendency to increase in complexity and function through time is not specific to biology, but is a fundamental property observed throughout the universe. Wong and colleagues have distilled a set of principles which provide a foundation for cross-disciplinary discourse on evolving systems. In so doing, their work will facilitate the study of self-organization and emergent complexity in the natural world.

Corday Selden

Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University

The paper "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems" provides an innovative, compelling, and sound theoretical framework for the evolution of complex systems, encompassing both living and non-living systems. Pivotal in this new law is functional information, which quantitatively captures the possibilities a system has to perform a function. As some functions are indeed crucial for the survival of a living organism, this theory addresses the core of evolution and is open to quantitative assessment. I believe this contribution has also the merit of speaking to different scientific communities that might find a common ground for open and fruitful discussions on complexity and evolution.

Andrea Roli

Assistant Professor, Università di Bologna.

* * * * *

“On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems,”

Authors:

Michael L. Wong 1,2, Carol E. Cleland 3, Daniel Arends Jr. 3, Stuart Bartlett 4, H. James Cleaves II 1,5,6, Heather Demarest 3, Anirudh Prabhu1, Jonathan I. Lunine 7, and Robert M. Hazen 1

1 Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC 20015, USA

2 NHFP Sagan Fellow, NASA Hubble Fellowship Program, Space Telescope Science Institute,

Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

3 Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA

4 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

5 Earth Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

6 Blue Marble Space Institute for Science, Seattle, WA 98104, USA

7 Department of Astronomy and Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

* * * * * 

About Carnegie Science

https://carnegiescience.edu/about 

 

* * * * *

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems

 

Extreme habitats: Microbial life in Old Faithful Geyser

New research presented at GSA Connects 2023

Meeting Announcement

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

 

IMAGE: 

IMAGE OF OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER AND THE SURROUNDING SPLASH POOLS. STEAM CAN BE SEEN COMING OUT OF THE CONDUIT OF OLD FAITHFUL.

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CREDIT: LISA M. KELLER

Contributed by Arianna Soldati, GSA Science Communication Fellow

Pittsburgh, Pa., USA: An eruption of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is a sight to behold. Indeed, millions of tourists flock to the park each year to see it. Hot water and steam are ejected in the air to a height of 100–180 feet approximately every 90 minutes. Many adjectives come to mind to describe it: powerful, mesmerizing, unique, otherworldly . . . homey? Not so much. Yet new research by Lisa M. Keller, published on PNAS Nexus earlier this year and to be presented on Sunday at the Geological Society of America’s GSA Connects 2023 meeting, shows that for some microbial life forms, Old Faithful Geyser is exactly that: home.

Meet Thermocrinis ruber and Thermus aquaticus. Thermocrinis ruber is the most abundant bacterium residing in Old Faithful, making up over 60% of the microbial population. As a chemoautotroph, it makes its own energy, not only for its own sustenance, but also to the benefit of the rest of the microbial community. But how? Old Faithful is a dark, hot place, which makes photosynthesis impossible. Instead, Thermocrinis ruber takes CO2 outgassing from the geyser and turns it into carbon forms that are potentially cross-feeding heterotrophs in the community, such as Thermus aquaticus.

Both bacteria are extremophiles—life forms that thrive where most would not survive. Whatever the challenging environmental factor, there are microbes adapted to overcome it. Hypersaline pools? Check. Lack of oxygen? You bet. Scorching hot water? Not a problem.

Geysers present a unique challenge: they are extremely dynamic environments. As if being thrown hundreds of feet in the air every 90 minutes isn’t disruptive enough, the microbes are subject to fluctuating steam and water temperatures that constantly change throughout the eruption cycle.

In every challenge there is an opportunity, and Old Faithful’s thermal excursions and eruptions are no exception. More strains of Thermocrinis are found in Old Faithful than in any other non-geysing hot spring in Yellowstone. “We think that the highly dynamic geyser environment creates many different ecological niches that Thermocrinis can occupy, causing increased sub-species level diversity,” says Keller. These findings show not only that Old Faithful Geyser is habitable, but also that its dynamic environment promotes genomic diversity.

In order to prevent any possible sample contamination, Keller collected geysed water as it was falling from the eruption in weighted sterile bins. Ten minutes after the end of the eruption she would walk out to the cone with a National Park Service escort and retrieve the precious samples. Additionally, she sampled a pool fed exclusively through Old Faithful’s eruptions.

Once back in the laboratory, Keller incubated the samples at different temperatures representative of geyser and pool conditions. The objective? Monitor the microbial activity to verify that the sampled bacteria would really be active at those extreme temperatures. And active they were, to Keller’s delight. “They immediately showed signs of activity, suggesting there is active microbial life in Old Faithful waters!” says Keller.

Beyond Earth, geysers are of extreme interest to the planetary community, as active geyser eruptions have been observed on the moons Enceladus and Europa. “Everybody gets excited about sampling Enceladus plumes,” says Keller, “but prior to this work we didn’t even have terrestrial geysers microbial samples. I thought, let’s take a step back and figure it out on our own planet first.” Sampling planetary geysers may still be a long way off, as the current methodology requires filtering liters and liters of water—something that would certainly be challenging away from Earth—but now that we know for sure that terrestrial geysers can host life, the race to find it on planetary geysers is on too.

An Active Microbiome in Old Faithful Geyser
Author: Lisa M. Keller, Montana State University, lkeller02@gmail.com
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2023AM/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/390179
Sunday, 15 October 2023, 8:05–8:25 a.m.

The Geological Society of America (https://www.geosociety.org) unites a diverse community of geoscientists in a common purpose to study the mysteries of our planet (and beyond) and share scientific findings. Members and friends around the world, from academia, government, and industry, participate in GSA meetings, publications, and programs at all career levels, to foster professional excellence. GSA values and supports inclusion through cooperative research, public dialogue on earth issues, science education, and the application of geoscience in the service of humankind.

# # #

Eruption of Old Faithful geyser taken between sampling trips.

Image of the conduit of Old Faithful geyser where steam is rising up (left of picture) and splash pool sampled during this study immediately to the right of the opening. Tubing can be seen extending from where we were sampling in the splash pool. Permit number #5544.

Filtering mechanism used to pump water from the splash pool for analysis of microbial communities within the pool. Old Faithful geyser cone can be seen directly behind the filtration setup. Permit number #5544.

Plastic catch tub with weights used to collect plume water during Old Faithful eruption. Permit number #5544.

CREDIT

Lisa M. Keller

A mistake is a gift: decolonizing journalism includes missteps and teachings

 The Nisg̱a’a word for respect is kwhlixhoosa’anskw. 

Driving up to Nisg̱a’a territory to bear witness to a ceremony and take part in a feast, I knew there was going to be a lot of media at the events and I was concerned I might see some extractive or disrespectful behaviour. As a non-Indigenous journalist who lives near Nisg̱a’a lands, I am committed to decolonizing my journalism and know how easy it is to make a mistake.

I was worried there would be a lack of kwhlixhoosa’anskw. 

I’d spoken to Sigidimnak’ Nox̱s Ts’aawit, Amy Parent, a couple of weeks prior and she asked me to keep an eye out and gently step in if I saw any examples of that happening. But in the end, it was me.

Luu-giis n̓iiy̓, xts’iwaalhl wiliy̓is. I made a mistake, a bad mistake.

On Sept. 30, the day after the ceremony and feast, photographer Marty Clemens and I were taken inside a temporary structure in the village of Laxg̱alts’ap to see the Wilps Ni’isjoohl pst’aan (totem pole) — an ancestor that had been brought back to Nisg̱a’a lands nearly a century after it was stolen from the village of Ank’idaa. Protocol specifies no one but family members of Wilps (House) Ni’isjoohl is allowed to touch the ancestor. 

Standing next to the pst’aan, her hand resting gently on it, Nox̱s Ts’aawit answered a few questions and told me about the crests carved into the pole. Marty did his best to take photos in the confined space.

She was talking about clashing worldviews, settler-colonial impacts and the importance of people being willing to express vulnerability when I heard the sound of a ladder clattering behind me. I later learned that Marty had been standing on a small step ladder to get an overhead angle of the pole when it suddenly gave way under him. Instinctively, he stopped his fall by bracing himself on the pole. We were a team and I feel responsibility for what happened. 

Moments later, everything was done — interview over, cameras away, everyone out. But for Nox̱s Ts’aawit, Sim’oogit (Chief) Ni’isjoohl and family members, it was not over. Protocol had been breached. Ceremony had to be held to cleanse the pole before it could be raised. 

I often tell my kids mistakes are gifts; what comes after a mistake is made, the learning experience, is what matters most. At The Narwhal, we are deeply committed to decolonizing our work, minds and hearts, and this mistake is teaching us that it’s a journey, a process. Journeys are rarely linear and often they include moments of stumbling, faltering, making mistakes. We are still learning.

Reporting in Indigenous communities — especially for non-Indigenous journalists — comes with great responsibility and requires a lot of care. For too long, media has been entrenched in colonial ideas and historically has been used as a tool or weapon that privileges settler-colonial ways of thinking over Indigenous ways of being. Starting to address that imbalance means you need to learn about the people whose land you’re on: protocol, ceremony, expectations. You need to be mindful of who you are and where you’re coming from, and continually question what you might be consciously or unconsciously carrying with you. You need to be patient. And, most of all, you need to be respectful.

As Anishinaabe educator Duncan McCue noted in Decolonizing Journalism, building relationships with the Indigenous communities we report on can be complex and messy. 

“There will be missteps and miscommunication,” he wrote. “But it’s all about building trust. Over time, the benefits will be apparent.”

As we drove away from Nisg̱a’a territory that afternoon, Marty expressed his deep regret and admitted he didn’t know what to do. We’ve since reached out to Nox̱s Ts’aawit to apologize and ask for guidance. We’re waiting to find out the protocol for our next steps. Whatever it takes, we want to make things right — and using this as a teachable moment is part of that process. Nox̱s Ts’aawit said she wants others to learn from this and asked me to share what happened in a public way, to help us all collectively take a step forward. 

What happened was avoidable. I’m left thinking that sometimes it’s best to walk away without getting the beautiful photo or that perfect interview moment. Be patient and accept that building trust takes time. And when mistakes are made — and they are inevitable — sit in the hard and uncomfortable space of apology. Do what’s needed; ask if you don’t know. 

The ancestor was cleansed and blessed and, on Oct. 3, it was successfully raised inside Hli G̱oothl Wilp-Adokshl Nisg̱a’a (Heart of Nisg̱a’a House Crests, also known as the Nisg̱a’a Museum) where it now stands in soil gathered from Ank’idaa. 

To Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl, Sigidimnak’ Nox̱s Ts’aawit, and members of Wilps Ni’isjoohl, t’ooyaksiỳ n̓isim̓ (thank you) and gwilks-at’itkws n̓iiy̓ loon (we apologize to you).

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

Governments got the COVID response right, most Canadians — outside the Prairies — feel
Story by Tyler Dawson •

A pedestrian walks by a bus stop with a poster explaining© Provided by National Post

A majority of Canadians believe that federal and provincial governments responded appropriately to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some provinces were more divided, according to a new poll released by the Association for Canadian Studies.

The national opinion survey by Leger found that despite the protests and political uproar around various restrictions and vaccine mandates, 54 per cent of Canadians believe their governments responded in an appropriate and balanced fashion. Just 26 per cent believe that the response was excessive, while just 13 per cent of Canadians count themselves among those who believe governments didn’t respond with sufficient severity.

“As time elapses, more of us will tend to lose sight of the state of urgency that many of us found ourselves in, in the middle of the pandemic,” said Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Association for Canadian Studies. “So as we look back, I think, disproportionately we’ll see more people thinking that we overreacted when looking at it in retrospect.”

In some parts of the country, though, there is evidence of more intense polarization on these questions. In Alberta, 44 per cent said the government’s response was balanced. But slightly more (a combined 46 per cent) thought governments did either too much or too little. Twenty-five per cent said the response was excessive and 21 per cent said the response was insufficient. Similar figures exist in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where 30 per cent believe the response was not balanced, and 20 per cent believe it wasn’t enough, while 49 per cent thought it was balanced.

“It was very hard to carve out the middle of this, given that the two ends of the spectrum were kind of going at each other,” Jedwab said.

Of all the provinces, Quebec has the highest rates of approval for the government’s response. Sixty-six per cent of Quebecers felt the government’s response was appropriate, compared to 56 per cent in the Atlantic provinces, 31 per cent in Ontario and 51 per cent in B.C.

“Those who think it’s excessive or insufficient are indicators of the degree of polarization around this issue,” Jedwab said.



Hundreds of anti-mask protestors rally outside city hall in Calgary on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020.© Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia/File

The views on how Canadian governments handled the pandemic tend to hew closely along political affiliation. Of those who consider their political ideology on the right, 65 per cent said the government’s response was excessive, while about 26 per cent said they believe it was appropriate. Of those who consider themselves right-of-centre, about 42 per cent said the response was excessive, while 46 per cent said it was appropriate. Of those in the political centre, about 56 per cent said the response was appropriate, and 24 per cent said the response was excessive. Of those who consider themselves left of centre, just under 10 per cent said that the response was excessive, while 73 per cent said the response was proportionate.

Only among those who consider themselves politically on the left do a significant proportion think the government’s response was insufficient. Twenty-six per cent said governments didn’t do enough, compared to just under 12 per cent of those who are left-of-centre, just over 12 per cent of those in the centre, 10 per cent who are right-of-centre and about nine per cent of those on the political right.

While Canadians may have somewhat more polarized views on governmental responses to COVID-19, they largely feel like they made appropriate choices themselves: 82 per cent felt they handled the pandemic well, while just 10 per cent said they overreacted and four per cent said they didn’t do enough. The polling, Jedwab said, shows that people who felt they overreacted, said it was because of the way the government acted. Of those who said they personally overreacted, 66 per cent also felt that the government overreacted.

“That’s what basically the message is, if I overreacted, it’s not my fault I overreacted, it was because the government did so,” Jedwab said.

The polling also asked about some of the takeaways from the pandemic. Of those who felt they had overreacted, just under 34 per cent believe the main takeaway is that governments are not to be trusted. Of those who felt their response was appropriate, the largest takeaway, at about nine per cent, was that other people are selfish and ignorant. For those who said their personal response to the pandemic was insufficient, just under 17 per cent said their main takeaway was that other Canadians were stupid, ignorant or selfish.

“It makes for a very big challenge in terms of aligning those two points of view in the event that this thing re-emerges,” Jedwab said.

Leger polled 1,500 Canadians via an online survey the week of Sept. 25. A margin of error cannot be associated with a web panel survey, but for comparison purposes, a probability sample of 1,500 respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

 

Chinese Women

by Frans Vandenbosch / October 10th, 2023

Never underestimate Chinese women

Don’t underestimate them, the Chinese women. They’re not wimps. They are way more strongminded than Chinese men. In China, it is the women who wear the pants. The labour force participation of women in China is the highest of the world. No other country on this planet has so many female engineers, scientists, mathematicians or other STEM graduates as in China. More than half of the Mensa China members are women.

Chinese women are in no way comparable with Japanese women.

The ruling rěn (忍)

The Chinese are way too Confucian-Daoist-Buddhist to express their disillusionment to Westerners’ faces outwardly, but among themselves, they can be quite open about it. From personal experience, I can say that a few rounds of beer or spirits can bring out the truth. I also hear it when speaking Mandarin with them.

Once they realize that I really am on their side, only then, they will vent their spleens, politely I might add. But again, most of the time, Westerners are clueless and kept in the dark. All of this goes back to the ancient notion of rěn (忍) which means to forbear or endure. The top half of the Chinese character is a knife (刃) and the bottom half is the heart (心), as can be seen in the enlarged character here.

So, rěn is a knife coming down on top of you. You can’t escape it, and it is cutting into your heart. Not killing you but hurting you, and you have to take it, endure it. The four parts which look like commas represent drops of blood. Rěn is serious business. Rěn is considered the apex of great leadership¹ and the ideal civilisation among the citizens, between each other and other nations.

There are dozens of different words and idioms centred on rěn and its concept of endurance, patience and tolerance.

The Chinese endure endless foreign insults with a famous axiom, rěn bēi qiáng xiào (忍悲强笑), which means to endure sadness with a forced smile. Notice the second character for sadness (悲) also has the symbol for the heart at the bottom of the character.

In English, there is a similar saying: ‘grin and bear it’. But Westerners do not base their entire system of governance and people’s civilisation on it. The Chinese do and have been doing so for 5000 years. Confucius codified it into statecraft and sociocultural protocol. Laozi made it into a philosophy (Daoism) and Buddha (albeit an Indian import) turned it into a world religion.²

The way in which Meng Wanzhou, the “Princess of Huawei” has endured the excruciating humiliations of the American rulers is a textbook example of rěn 忍, enduring hardship with a forced smile.

In business

I have met dozens of business women in China. Especially in business negotiations, they’re unfathomable. And unfortunately for the people at the other side of the table, they read you as a book and see through every manoeuvre you make. Moreover, they do not hesitate to use their feminine charms during negotiations. They’re way more relentless and driven than Chinese men.

No other country at this globe has so much female business tycoons as China.

In the PLA

Long gone are the days when female soldiers in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) only took on duties as nurses. Today they are especially snipers, programmers, scouts, researchers, communications experts, peace keeping forces. Also at the PLA they have discovered the strong and persistent determination of the Chinese women.

Look at their movements, look at their facial expressions. These are fighting machines:

Listen to their decisive and resolute words:

Who will defeat this highly motivated army of women, ready to endure hardship with a smile?

In politics

In the early eighties, there was a saying in China: “During daytime it is  邓小平  Dèng Xiǎopíng who’s ruling the country, but after sunset, it is 邓丽君 Dèng Lìjūn (Teresa Teng) who’s the star of the Great Motherland.”

In Chinese politics, there’s a strong woman behind every politician. Almost all Chinese politicians are engineers or at least STEM graduates, working ten to twelve hours per day. Without the support of their wife, they can’t sustain the pace.

Another Dèng, madame  邓新华 Dèng Xīnhuá, director of the Confucius Institute in Leuven is another example of the unrelenting determination of Chinese women.

The Tiger Mothers

Tiger parenting is a typically Chinese phenomenon. It is a way of strict upbringing of a child, whereby parents, almost always the mother or aunts, highly invest in ensuring the child’s success. Specifically, Tiger Mothers push their child(ren) to attain high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status extracurricular activities such as music or sports.

The term “Tiger Mother” has existed for centuries in China, but it was brought to western public attention by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua in her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Do not read the Wikipedia entry on this subject, as it is highly American biased; instead read Amy Chua’s book which is gripping and compelling.

The Shengnu

Shèngnǚ 剩女, commonly known as “leftover ladies” are the 30+ year-old ladies who have deliberately chosen to be single. Almost all of these women are highly educated and well off. Most of them do not live in solitude but are fully integrated into society. Some of them have changing relationships or a permanent toy boy.

Due to rapidly declining birth rates, successive government campaigns have attempted to combat the shèngnǚ phenomenon. But that did not go down well on social media. The Chinese government was forced to stop the anti-shèngnǚ campaigns.

Shanghainese women

The Shanghainese women, those born in Shanghai from Shanghainese parents, are in various ways a breed apart. In China, the phenomenon is known as the “Shanghai Princess.”

Again, it is the Shanghainese mothers who teach and train their daughters to behave like princesses. And likewise bring up their sons to serve their future “princess.”

As per the Shanghainese traditions, it is the men who are responsible for the family income; it is the men who do the daily food shopping and prepare the dinner.

Outside Shanghai, in the rest of China, parents recommend their daughters to try to catch a Shanghainese young man and warn their sons to watch out for Shanghainese princesses.

Never underestimate Chinese women

Chinese women rule their families, rule China and soon will rule the world.

Originally published at Yellowlion.org.

ENDNOTES

1. Jeff J. Brown, “All the Chinese People Want is Respect” Chinarising Puntopress, 20.10.2019
2. Frans Vandenbosch in Statecraft and Society in China page 54.  24.09.2023.  ISBN: 978-9-46433-732-7

Frans Vandenbosch is a Fleming who lived in China for years. Previously, he has crossed all of China and visited more than 50 large and small towns and cities throughout the country. Read other articles by Frans, or visit Frans's website.

 

A Reading List for the Delhi Police from Tricontinental Research Services

by Vijay Prashad / October 14th, 2023

On 3 October, the homes and offices of over one hundred journalists and researchers across India were raided by the Delhi Police, which is under the jurisdiction of the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs. During this ‘act of sheer harassment and intimidation’, as the Committee to Protect Journalists called it, the Delhi Police raided and interrogated the Tricontinental Research Services (TRS) team. Based in Delhi, TRS is contracted by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research to produce materials on the great processes of our time as they play out in the world’s most populous country, including the struggles of workers and farmers, the women’s movement, and the movement for Dalit emancipation from caste oppression. It would be a dereliction of duty for TRS researchers to ignore these important developments that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians, and yet it is this very focus on issues of national importance that has earned them the ire of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Is it possible to live in the world as a person of conscience and ignore the daily struggles of the people?

At the end of the day, the Delhi Police arrested Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty, both of the media project NewsClick.

During the raid of the TRS office, the Delhi Police seized computers, phones, and hard drives. I very much hope that the Delhi Police investigators will read all of the materials that the TRS team has produced with great care and interest. So that the Delhi Police does not miss any of the important texts that TRS has produced for Tricontinental, here is a reading list for them:

1. The Story of Solapur, India, Where Housing Cooperatives Are Building a Workers’ City (dossier no. 6, July 2018). Balamani Ambaiah Mergu, a maker of beedis (cigarettes), told TRS researchers that she used to ‘stay in a small hut in a slum in Shastri Nagar, Solapur city. When it rained the hut used to leak, and there wouldn’t be a single dry patch inside’. Since 1992, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has campaigned to secure dignified housing for workers in this town in the state of Maharashtra. Since 2001, CITU has been able secure government funds for this purpose and build tens of thousands of houses, a process led by the workers themselves through cooperative housing societies. The workers built ‘a city of the working class alone’, CITU leader Narasayya Adam told TRS.

2. How Kerala Fought the Heaviest Deluge in Nearly a Century (dossier no. 9, October 2018). In the summer of 2018, rain, and subsequent flooding, swept through the southern coastal state of Kerala, impacting 5.4 million of the state’s 35 million residents. TRS researchers documented the flood’s rage, the rescue and relief work of organised volunteers (largely from left formations), and the rehabilitation of both the Left Democratic Front government and various social organisations.

3. India’s Communists and the Election of 2019: Only an Alternative Can Defeat the Right Wing (dossier no. 12, January 2019). To understand the political situation in India in the lead-up to the 2019 parliamentary elections, the TRS team spoke with Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat. Rather than confine her analysis to the electoral or political sphere, Karat discussed the challenges facing the country at a sociological level: ‘Cultures promoted by capitalism and the market promote and glorify individualism and promote individualistic solutions. All these add to the depoliticisation of a whole generation of young people. This is certainly a challenge: how to find the most effective ways of taking our message to the youth’.

4. The Only Answer Is to Mobilise the Workers (dossier no. 18, July 2019). In April–May 2019, the National Democratic Alliance, led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, prevailed in India’s parliamentary elections. In the aftermath of the elections, the TRS team met with CITU President K. Hemalata to talk about the periodic massive strikes that had been taking place in the country, including an annual general strike of nearly 300 million workers. Whereas working-class movements in other countries seemed to be weakened by the breakdown of formal employment and the increasingly precarious nature of work, unions in India displayed resilience. Hemalata explained that ‘the contract workers are very militant’ and that CITU does not distinguish between the demands of contract workers and permanent workers. One of the best examples of this, she said, is the anganwadi (childcare) workers, who – along with Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers – have been on the forefront of many of the major agitations. Both of these sectors – childcare and health care – are dominated by women. ‘Organising working-class women is part of organising the working class’, Hemalata told TRS.

5. The Neoliberal Attack on Rural India (dossier no. 21, October 2019). P. Sainath, one of the most important journalists reporting on rural India and a senior fellow at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, traced the impact of the crises of neoliberal policies and climate catastrophe that are simultaneously imposed on India’s farmers. He documents the work of Kudumbashree, a cooperative made up of 4.5 million women farmers in Kerala, which he calls ‘the greatest gender justice and poverty reduction programme in the world’ (and about whom we will publish a longer study in the coming months compiled by TRS).

6. People’s Polyclinics: The Initiative of the Telugu Communist Movement (dossier no. 25, February 2020). In the Telugu-speaking parts of India (which encompass over 84 million people), doctors affiliated with the communist movement have set up clinics and hospitals – notably the Nellore People’s Polyclinic – to provide medical care to the working class and peasantry. The polyclinics have not only provided care but have also trained medical workers to address public health concerns in rural hinterlands and small towns. This dossier offers a window into the work of left-wing medical personnel whose efforts take place outside the limelight and into the experiments in public health care that seek to undercut the privatisation agenda.

7. One Hundred Years of the Communist Movement in India (dossier no. 32, September 2020). Not long after the October Revolution brought the Tsarist Empire to its knees in 1917, a liberal newspaper in Bombay noted, ‘The fact is Bolshevism is not the invention of Lenin or any man. It is the inexorable product of the economic system which dooms the millions to a life of ill-requited toil in order that a few thousand may revel in luxury’. In other words, the communist movement is the product of the limitations and failures of capitalism. On 17 October 1920, the Communist Party of India was formed alongside scattered communist groups that were emerging in different parts of India. In this brief text, the TRS team documents the role of the communist movement in India over the past century.

8. The Farmers’ Revolt in India(dossier no. 41, June 2021). Between 1995 and 2014, almost 300,000 farmers committed suicide in India – roughly one farmer every 30 minutes. This is largely because of the high prices of inputs and the low prices of their crops, a reality that has been exacerbated by neoliberal agricultural policies since 1991 and their amplification of other crises (including the climate catastrophe). Over the past decade, however, farmers have fought back with major mobilisations across the country led by a range of organisations such as left-wing farmers’ and agricultural workers’ unions. When the government put forward three bills in 2020 to deepen the privatisation of rural India, farmers, agricultural workers, and their families began a massive protest. This dossier is one of the finest summaries of the issues that lie at the heart of these protests.

9. Indian Women on an Arduous Road to Equality (dossier no. 45, October 2021). Patriarchy, with its deep roots in the economy and culture, cannot be defeated by decree. In the face of this reality, this dossier offers a glimpse of the Indian women’s movement for equality and maps the range of struggles pursued by working women across the country to defend democracy, maintain secularism, fight for women’s economic rights, and defeat violence. The dossier closes with the following assessment: ‘The ongoing Indian farmers’ movement, which started before the pandemic and continues to stay strong, offers the opportunity to steer the national discourse towards such an agenda. The tremendous participation of rural women, who travelled from different states to take turns sitting at the borders of the national capital for days, is a historic phenomenon. Their presence in the farmers’ movement provides hope for the women’s movement in a post-pandemic future’.

10. The People’s Steel Plant and the Fight Against Privatisation in Visakhapatnam (dossier no. 55, August 2022). One of my favourite texts produced by the TRS team, this dossier tells the story of the workers of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, who have fought against the government’s attempts to privatise this public steel company. Not much is written about this struggle led by brave steel workers who are mostly forgotten or, if remembered, then maligned. They stand beside the furnaces, rolling the steel out and tempering it, driven by a desire to build better canals for the farmers, to build beams for schools and hospitals, and to build the infrastructure so that their communities can transcend the dilemmas of humanity. If you try to privatise the factory, they sing, ‘Visakha city will turn into a steel furnace, North Andhra into a battlefield… We will defend our steel with our lives’.

11. Activist Research: How the All-India Democratic Women’s Association Builds Knowledge to Change the World (dossier no. 58, November 2022). The dossier on Visakha Steel was built in conversation with steel workers and reflected the evolving methodology of TRS. To sharpen this method, the team met with R. Chandra to discuss how the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has used ‘activist research’ in the state of Tamil Nadu. Chandra shows how AIDWA designed surveys, trained local activists to conduct them among local populations, and taught the activists how to assess the results. ‘AIDWA’s members no longer need a professor to help them’, she told TRS. ‘They formulate their own questions and conduct their own field studies when they take up an issue. Since they know the value of the studies, these women have become a key part of AIDWA’s local work, bringing this research into the organisation’s campaigns, discussing the findings in our various committees, and presenting it at our different conferences’. This activist research not only produces knowledge of the particularities of hierarchies that operate in a given place; it also trains the activists to become ‘new intellectuals’ of their struggles and leaders in their communities.

12. The Condition of the Indian Working Class (dossier no. 64, May 2023). In the early days of the pandemic, the Indian government told millions of workers to go back to their homes, mostly in rural areas. Many of them walked thousands of kilometres under the burning hot sun, terrible stories of death and despair following their caravan. This dossier emerged out of a long-term interest in cataloguing the situation of India’s workers, whose precariousness was revealed in the early days of the pandemic. The last section of the dossier reflects on their struggles: ‘Class struggle is not the invention of unions or of workers. It is a fact of life for labour in the capitalist system. … In August 1992, textile workers in Bombay took to the streets in their undergarments, declaring that the new order would leave them in abject poverty. Their symbolic gesture continues to reflect the current reality of Indian workers in the twenty-first century: they have not surrendered in the face of the rising power of capital. They remain alive to the class struggle’.

The Delhi Police investigators who took the material from the TRS office have each of these twelve dossiers in hand. I recommend that they print them and share them with the rest of the force, including with Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora. If the Delhi Police is interested, I would be happy to develop a seminar on our materials for them.

Study and struggle shaped the Indian freedom movement. Gandhi, for instance, read voraciously and even translated Plato’s The Apology into Gujarati, rooted in the belief that reading and study sharpened his sense not only of how to struggle but how to build a better world.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. Prashad is the author of twenty-five books, including The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. Read other articles by Vijay, or visit Vijay's website.

 

The Illusion of Green Capitalism

Green Capitalism Will Not Solve Climate Change or Any of the Other Problems Driving Us Toward Extinction

by Charles Derber and Suren Moodliar / October 14th, 2023

Adapted from Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It

Many Americans – even those who recognize capitalism’s destructive impacts – find the idea of discarding capitalism for a more just system unimaginable. Yes, capitalism is part of the problem. But, they think, realistically, the world is not going to invent anytime fast a visionary postcapitalist system. Meanwhile we barrel toward environmental destruction. If we’re going to be pragmatic, as millions of concerned Americans believe, we should listen to the growing number of capitalist leaders and companies who are taking climate change seriously and proposing their own solution: green capitalism.

Capitalist companies are already responding to market incentives promoting green technologies that are important in slowing climate change. In fact, Big Tech leaders such as Bill Gates are beginning to focus on climate change, with Gates writing a 2021 book on how to transform the world to save the environment. But a closer look shows that Gates, like most corporate leaders in the United States and around the world, sees climate change as mainly a technological problem to be solved not by system change or politics but by innovative technologies. Gates starts off saying he is not a political guy but a tech expert. New technologies can get carbon emissions way down, without needing to distract ourselves with the giant and disagreeable task of changing our economic system. In fact, in his view, it is the Big Tech capitalist companies, as well as the smaller tech capitalist entrepreneurs that will solve climate change; capitalism is not the problem but the solution!

Gates’s technological approach to the climate crisis typifies the “progressive” capitalist factions, including powerful capitalist groups in Europe and the developing world, willing to acknowledge a deep climate crisis. Technological innovation on a grand scale, subsidized by states when necessary, makes “green” capitalists like Gates, believe even more fervently in capitalism because they see it as the only system generating and rewarding technological initiatives of the kind necessary to stop climate change.

Moreover, because they see markets as rational and responsive to consumers, increasing public concern about flooding, drought, and extreme heat, are likely viewed as providing the “market signals” that will presumably increase the profitability of green investments. Twenty-first-century capitalist entrepreneurs – people like Elon Musk who have already made a fortune from electric cars – see this as the wave of the future. And even big corporations will end up on the global green capitalist wave. GM has announced it plans to stop producing gas engine cars by 2035 and go fully electric. Ford is building its electric F-150 Lightening trucks – one of the most popular vehicles in America – and plans to dramatically increase its electric truck and car fleet, President’ Biden’s 2023 executive order that half of all new US cars and trucks must be electric by 2030. Many other huge global companies are promising to drastically reduce their carbon emissions; Amazon has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 and Walmart promises to eliminate emissions by 2035. Their expectation is that the entire global capitalist system will follow – and save the planet.

This “capitalist solution” is seductive but deeply flawed. “Green” technology, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars, incurs grave environmental costs:

Every stage of the life cycle of any manufactured product exacts environmental costs: habitat destruction, biodiversity loss and pollution (including carbon emissions) from extraction of raw materials, manufacturing/ construction, through to disposal. Thus, it is the increasing global material footprint that is fundamentally the reason for the twin climate and ecological crises.

As material or resource costs escalate, both climate change and material depletion imperil survival and the environment.

Since unlimited growth is in the DNA of capitalism, the shift to green technology is not enough to prevent environmental destruction. The tech-based vision, by focusing simply on technology, ignores all the other aspects of capitalism – from profit maximization to the public goods deficit to commodity fetishism as well as unlimited growth – that cause environmental destruction.

The green tech capitalist solution actually protects the wealth and power of Big Tech and other corporations, and is likely to accelerate environmental destruction by deflecting focus from the underlying systemic aspects of capitalism fueling climate change. But this doesn’t mean we should ignore technology nor that capitalist innovation and reforms can’t play a role. Technology obviously has a major role to play in solving climate and other environmental crises. Where capitalist corporations seek to invest massive amounts of capital into non-carbon energy sources, this may help with the larger economic, social, and political changes that will need to ultimately transcend the capitalist-driven forces that green capitalists such as Gates claim to champion. The greening that is possible within capitalism is hugely important, when not used as a substitute for crucial system change.

The key is to accelerate the green innovation possible within capitalism while making larger systemic changes where these technologies can truly prevent extinction. In the current corporate order, despite the importance of electric cars and other green products, the purely technological approach de-linked from systemic change will not create a sustainable world.

Green capitalists’ reforms may be a step forward, but their claims of social responsibility should not be confused with actual solutions to the climate crisis. Even the biggest global corporate emission-spewers – Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and other large oil and gas companies – now advertise themselves as green companies, promoting a brand mixing renewables and fossil fuel together as the only road to prosperity and survival in a green capitalism. But these same companies used their money and political clout to prevent the necessary systemic changes that would solve the climate change crisis. In the United States, the American Petroleum Institute, the leading oil and gas lobbyist, put Exxon and Chevron’s money to work opposing Biden- proposed climate policy changes. Nevertheless, these companies brand themselves as “green.”

Green brands, according to extensive research, are most likely to create “green-washing” rather than sustainability. Global auto manufacturers are talking aspirations rather than committed realities to electric cars; and the US auto firms, also talking a good green story like Big Oil, tried in 2021 to limit stricter carbon emission standards introduced by the Biden Administration. As one Forbes commentator noted, the greenwashing temptation is inherent to work of industry leaders, “The allure of greenwashing sustainability initiatives often taps into what CEOs are best at: projecting confidence, managing risk, and creating followership.” Again, this does not mean that we should not use all the reforms in capitalism that actually contribute to mitigation. But we should also not confuse those reforms with solutions that will save humanity.

Charles Derber is Professor of Sociology at Boston College and has written 25 books. Most recently he is the coauthor of Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It. Suren Moodliar is editor of the journal Socialism and Democracy and coordinator of encuentro5, a movement-building space in downtown Boston. He is the coauthor of Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It. Read other articles by Charles Derber and Suren Moodliar.