Billionaires like Musk want to divide and distract humanity must come together to resist | Jonathan Watts

"If it were not clear already, the biggest far-right protest in UK history is a reminder that the battle for a fair and habitable planet cannot be fought solely in the silos of science or environmentalism. That may be a source of dismay for anyone who still believed the argument for a cleaner, safer, more equitable future can be won by reason alone."

"The global environmental context is key to understanding what is happening in the UK, the US and other countries where the far right is becoming more vocal, violent and lavishly funded than at any time in memory. But that climatic analysis has been lost in much of the coverage of this phenomenon, which has focused on the narrow, local concerns that provided the spark but not the fuel."

"To step back to my distant vantage point in the Brazilian Amazon, that is as shortsighted as blaming the record outbreak of wildfires here over the past 12 months solely on those who lit the matches, while ignoring the more significant fact that decades of drought and rising heat, particularly in the past two years, have left the rainforest more flammable than at any time in history."

"Biologists tell me that when trees get too hot or too stressed for prolonged periods, their primary coping mechanism is to shut down their periphery. They shed leaves so that any remaining moisture can be cycled inside the trunk and branches. This can sustain some individual species for a short time, but only at the risk of their long-term health and the resilience of the forest."

The biggest far-right protest in UK history illustrates that the struggle for a fair, habitable planet extends beyond the silos of science and environmentalism. An alliance of billionaires, thugs and opponents of change has emerged openly, and much coverage has focused on local sparks while neglecting the broader climatic fuel. Global environmental stress, including decades of drought and recent sharp warming, has increased forest flammability. Trees subjected to prolonged heat and stress shed leaves to conserve moisture, which weakens water and carbon cycling, opens canopies, increases understory heat and dries soils and litter, degrading ecosystem resilience and raising wildfire risk.

Read at www.theguardian.com