“The disruption to the commons that followed Christopher Columbus’ initial journey dled to the death of 56 million Indigenous people by 1600 …” p13
“The total compensation to Indigenous people amounted to pennies per acre for Native territories … The treaty procedure was propelled by threats of war, forced removal, and simply taking the land without compensation.” p14-15
“Throughout the early 20th century, the federal an dprovincial governments in Canada similarly systematically displaced the first peoples of the land and claimed the immense wealth of the water, forests, fish, minerals, and land in their territories. … banned First Nations people from land ownership and allowed companies to exract resources on reserve land for nominal or no compensation at all.” p15
Europeans did the same thing in South America, Africa, Australia, and India.
“Corporate revenues of Apple, BP, and Shell exceed the revenues of Russia, Belgium, and Sweden. Exxon’s exceed India’s. [Etc.]” p20
“The World Trade Organization was created in 1995 … founded on the doctrine that the market, not governments, should set the rules of trade.” p21
“Fossil fuel companies are using ISDS [investor-state dispute settlements] to force governments to compensate them for lost profits when the governments introduce measures to transition to a low-carbon economy.” p22
So now you know how we got here: it’s because of all those people, overwhelmingly men, who majored in Business and know nothing about how the world actually works (how we get water, and food, and a survivable temperature…) and are too immature (arrogant and selfish) to listen to the people who do know.
“… investment treaties give foreign energy corporations the right to sue for compensation in the billions if governments start to fulfill their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement …”
But who agreed to sign those treaties?
“Investing just 0.1% of global GDP every year in restoring agriculture, forests, pollution management and protected areas would … avoid ecological collapse.” p27
Yeah. Had that happened in 2021. Now?
“An international group of scientists announced in 2017 that to keep pace with the global demand for food, crop production needs to grow by 50% by 2050, which will require an increase in water for irrigation by 146%. Where is this water to come from?” It’s already maxed out. p96-7
“UK water bills have soared over 360% since privatization … The largest, Thames Water, … was rescued with an almost US$4 billion government bailout in February 2025.” p100
Okay, so that doesn’t work. (Either.)
“SpaceX purchases large amounts of water from the public utility board in Brownsville, Texas, to suppress fire, dust, and debris when it launches from its nearby test site. The company claims it uses 180,000 gallons … with each launch … The utility board, which has raised water rates to the public to deal with the prolonged drought in the area, refuses to disclose the purchase agreement with the company.” p109
“… two-thirds of new AI data centers are in parts of the US already in the grip of high water stress. ‘Each time you ask an AI chatbot to summarize a lengthy legal document or conjure up a carbon squirrel wearing glasses, it sends a request to a data center and strains an increasingly scarce resource: water.'” p110
“Google’s data centre in The Dalles, Oregon, … consumes almost one-third of the town’s water supply. … Google is planning two more data centres in this small town of 16,000.: p110
“Asked about the harmful environmental effects of AI in Washington, DC, … former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said we might as well continue to invest in AI because ‘we are never going to meet our climate goals anyway.'” p110
“Nearly three-quarters of Earth’s land is now degraded …” p140
“The top 1% in rich countries gained US$30 million an hour.” p142
“Six of the nine planetary boundaries that Earth scientists have defined as needing to be respected to ensure a stable global environment have already been breached …” p146
Seven, now.
“Countries can raise US$2.1 trillion a year by following the example of S[pain’s successful wealth tax on the 0.5% richest households … at a rate of 1.7% to 3.5% …” p151
“Half the wealth around the world each year goes to people who earn for a living; the rest is collected in investments, interest, dividends and capital gains [making money off money]. Not only is this wealth not taxed fairly, it is less economically productive as much of it is diverted toward speculative derivatives [gambling] instead of providing goods and services in the real economy.” p152
