73. Climate Memo Mondays, #73, May 2, 2022
Convergence of War and Warming, Sites of Remembrance. --Dick
The French nation pays attention to their “lieux de memoir,” or sites of remembrance. Tthe German occupation of France during WWII—known as the “années noires,” or dark years—is marked throughout France, not only by places but people also and even ideas. A resolve never to forget past sociopaths and altruists.
Perhaps we could better decrease our present wars of aggression and our failure to resist climate catastrophe by changing attention from past to future --resisting our calamitous wars and climate chaos by marking significant moments, events, and individuals of rising temperature and its consequences as they happen. By not waiting, particularly when nuclear holocaust and unchecked emissions heat might prevent a future—dooming us to “années noires” forever--, but by meeting and notingthe future head-on now, we might at least help decrease its destruction.
So how to conceptualize the project? By creating our ongoing “lieux de memoir.”
I. Public Enemies. Massive exposure of those who prepare for war instead of peace and those who fail to prepare for warming. For example, Taylor and Watts, “Revealed: The 20 Firms behind a Third of All Carbon Emissions,” (Oct.9, 2019).
II. Public Friends. Those who prepare for peace and cooling.
The French of course also understood the difficulties of their great undertaking, because they understand the instability of memory after passage of time. The long quest for the identity of the man who betrayed Jean Moulin to the Gestapo offers a precise example. More remarkable in the US is the little known though dramatically public former CEO of ExxonMobil, Lee Raymond. It’s not merely forgetfulness, but is called by Jean-Marie Borzeix; “refoulement collectif,” a repression of atrocious events (One Day in France). Every effort to reconstruct the past must be undertaken with respect for the facts. Our recording of the present is only a little less demanding. And whether sleuthing past or present, our larger goal should be not only identifying criminals and heroes, but retrieving both from future forgetting.
There are no accidents could be our motto. Dick
Ukraine war: UN chief arrives for talks in Moscow as 'messenger of peace'
Full Story: UN News (4/26)