Opinion | Billionaires Will Not Save Us. Here’s What Will – YES! Magazine

As a Jamaican graduate study pursuing a degree in international affairs, I struggle to find common ground with my fellow students. We spend a lot of time discussing different approaches to tackling climate change, and one of the hardest things Ive had to explain to my classmates is the fundamental difference in how Black, Brown, and Indigenous people see the environment versus White westerners, andwhy that viewpoint matters. It doesnt help that none of them speak my native Jamaican patois, which is the only language I can use to verbally explain something so intangible yet fundamental to my existence as a Caribbean person.

This discrepancy in how people of different backgrounds view the worlds problems was especially conspicuous last year, when the never-ending shit show that was (and is) the COVID-19 pandemicincreasing global temperatures,rising wealth inequality,the breakdown of democratic norms,andescalating waves of ecological collapsecalled into serious consideration whether our currentWestern model of capitalism is sustainable.

These times have tested all of us, except maybe the worlds elite, who are havinga whale of a time. In such times, some among us call for deliverance, for the emergence of a savior with a proper mix of resources and expertise to guide humanity out of its collective undoing. While Im pretty sure no one person can save humanity from its failings, I am absolutely sure the worlds billionaires wont lend a hand to dig us out of this pit. Rather than placing our faith in a pipe dream, I argue that only through partnering with theglobal poor, theIndigenous,and othermarginalized groupscan we avoid climate catastrophe.

Billionaires arent the paragons of productivity theyre made out to be.

The wishful thinking that makes us cast our hopes on the ultrarich stinks of thecult of the founder, the misguided assumption that those with the good fortune of wealth and privilegesuch as the billionaires of the worldare the most qualified to diagnose and treat societys ills.

Billionaires arent the paragons of productivity theyre made out to be, and they certainly arent fit to run society.

Setting aside for a moment the fact thatwealth begets wealth or thatseveral of your favorite billionaires were born rich, there are many real-world examples of the failures of trying to run society like a for-profit firm. The United States health care system alone isreplete with cautionary talesagainst profiting off an essential service. Even in a pandemic, the worlds richest country hasfailed to galvanize its resourcesin a meaningful way to stop the spread of disease, focusing more ongetting people back to work, which in turn is generating greater wealth for the rich.

The proposed solutions that Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos are offeringsuch as theMetaverse,Martian settlements,andspace colonizationignorethe problems facing the world today and instead divert public consciousness toward making these billionaires even more money as the world burns around us.

Aside frombeingimpractical pipe dreams, these ideas are nothing but efforts to double down on our dystopic capitalist system, designed to divert attention from the system problems that the ultra-wealthycontinue to exacerbate, made more palatable with buzzwords and dished out to us by million-dollar PR campaigns.

The real-life day-to-day carbon footprint of the ultrarich isdisproportionately highand directly fuels climate change, and these billionaires proposals are fully intended to distract us fromany real effortto disincentivize carbon emissions. Their visions for the future areidealistic,neocolonial,dystopicflights of fancy, and they often center theinsufficient abilitiesofthe free marketto respondto climate change, which runs therisk of recreating the same cycles of inequality and abuse perpetuated by our current system.

Its high time that we draw from themassive wealth of knowledgepossessed by Indigenous peoples.

Billionaire philanthropy exists toreform worsening public opinion of the ber-rich and to provide tax havens. Sinceso much power to affect changewithin philanthropic spacesrests in the hands of individual donors, bullheaded initiativeslikeBill Gates ideato focus all agriculture on synthetic fertilizersare prioritized more than they deserve. The reality is that you cannot fix systemic issues by throwingmoney at the problem. When one man holds the purse strings, the entire mission of relief agencies can bereroutedas theBill & Melinda Gates Foundationhas demonstrated with its high-profile vaccination efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.

Its high time that we draw from themassive wealth of knowledgepossessed by Indigenous peoples and learn how to work with the natural world and not against it. Throwing the power of global institutions behind front-line problem solversbe they Native American tribes reviving traditional practices torestore their environmentorIndigenous peoples solidifying land tenure rightsin the Amazoncan result in observable improvements in environmental well-being.

Rather thanhumiliating ourselves onlinebegging for crumbs, there is a massiveneed to overhaul the global tax systemso the ultra-wealthy are forced to pay into government revenues without having a say in how to spend them. Those revenues then need to be poured into thesmall-scale farmers,women,andpeasant groupsalready working on saving the world.

For example, instead of placing roadblocks in front of Indigenous access to the lands they once held, the best-case scenario for harnessing the power of unused land to combat climate change is simplyto give it backto the people we stole it from. This is a much cheaper and more viable alternative to thegeoengineeringpipe dreams floating around some circles. Returning land is already happening withthe #LandBack movementacross the U.S. and world. Its high time we realize the massive potential of harnessingIndigenous expertiseand federal wherewithal to sustainably manage the land.Such a radical yet necessary solution is unlikely to be proposed by the likes of Gates,Americas largest private farmland owner.

Billionaires are hoardingseveral trillion dollarsin ill-gotten gains that thegovernment needs to track downfrom offshore tax havens and put to good use. But if or when the hidden money is acquired, it should go to the people on the front lines already engaged in fighting for our future.Its time to rework our global food systemto feed the worlds poorest. Its time to elevateIndigenous-led biodiversityefforts andheirloom farmingto the mainstream. Its high time for us to prioritize those who operate with a sense of the shared fate of humanity at their core, not a profit margin.

Its not that the ultrarich wont intervene from time to time, its that theywont put in the effortto rework a system that suits them. Kowtowing to the whims of a few willresult in money being poured into impractical, wasteful efforts. Instead, societies and governments ought to put considerable effort into working with those directly involved in fighting climate change.

The fundamental truth is that we are part of the environment. The fact that we are inseparable from the Earth is the modus operandi of oppressed peoples. This is obvious to me, but perhaps not to my peers in graduate school.The core of my argument is perhaps best expressed by James Baldwin, who wrote inNo Name in the Street: There is a reason, after all, that some people wish to colonize the moon, and others dance before it as an ancient friend.

Sign up to receive email updates from YES!

Here is the original post:
Opinion | Billionaires Will Not Save Us. Here's What Will - YES! Magazine