The process of taking on the corporate-state power nexus that underpins the extractive economy is leading a great many people to face up to the underlying democratic crisis that has allowed multinationals to be the authors of the laws under which they operate —whether at the municipal , state/ provincial, national, or international level.

Klein, Naomi (2014-09-16). This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (pp. 360-361). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

That “corporate-state power nexus”  is what the Occupy movement arose to confront.  And that same nexus,  that same political force that seeks nothing but expansion and greaterprofits,  all “for the good of everyone”,  has been found to be fraudulent.  It is CLEARLY for the good ONLY of a few.  The rest is a PR game,  which they play VERY WELL (witness the number of conservatives and right wingers amongst the lower middle class who are being pushed further toward poverty.  They are being sold that it is “Obama” and “the liberals” that are to blame).  And the sell on the environment and how much it will cost is even more effective,  because it has an element of truth:  It WILL COST SOMETHING,  but as all “investment” goes,  it is only at the head end.  The returns of moving to renewables and away from fossil fuels will only become clearer and clearer,  once the charade becomes increasingly exposed as the money grab that it is,  and the consequences visited upon us by the increased volatility of the climate make it more difficult to deny,  even for the presently hard of heart and most stubborn. What is remaining is for THEM to be affected.  Then the tide will turn for them.

The Climate Crisis is , therefore,  the most pressing consequence of the mechanizations of Wall Street.  The forces of capitalism as we have lived them,  have led us to a place where people find it easy to dismiss and easy to believe the denial think-tank propagnda,  because this is a problem that is literally unprecedented “in the history of the world”. We’ve only had one industrial revolution,  and it is extremely young as the timeline of the history of the cosmos goes.  And the effects are becoming ever clearer in the science community. And so the skepticism is an easy sell to the majority who seemingly find it impossible to fathom a truly unprecedented effect.  It is also a problem for the left as well.  Way too many hear the science,  say they believe it,  but still subscribe to what Naomi Klein calls “Magical Thinking”.  That because it is unprecedented,  this Climate threat,  there is an auto-pilot effect on the brain,  along with an undying belief in “human progress” that also means that this said “inevitable progress” means that humans can NEVER overdo it,  that they can never crosss the line.  Theologically,  this is what I call,  “The Problem of Babel”;  the hubris of humans as wielders of technology.