Ten Reasons to be Thankful
A Firebreak Thanksgiving Reflection
In this season of gratitude, during the American holiday of Thanksgiving, the Firebreak would like to celebrate the good news from 2024. Here are ten reasons why we should take this moment to pause and be thankful that the activist strategies, with large funding from foundations and a biased mainstream media, have been mostly unsuccessful in their anti-capitalist campaigns to destroy Western prosperity. With stifling policies and zealous regulations coming out of Washington and Brussels, we came close to losing the benefits of a century of scientific innovations and economic advancements. But the future looks much brighter today than it did two years ago.
1 - The Climate / COP activists have been forced to retreat
The UN COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan had hoped to raise $1.3 trillion per year by 2030 for climate financing (although a self-appointed group of high-level climate finance experts put the needs for a “just transition” closer to $8.1 trillion). After two weeks of acrimony, the rich nations offered a paltry $300 billion, but without any details. The main conclusion of this 29th chapter of the COP climate circus was that the UNFCCC needs to change how they organize their events.
2 - Mainstream media groups are declining in influence
The Firebreak has been demonstrating how the large media networks have been corrupted by foundation funding, bias and an inability to listen to their readers. Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, acknowledged that the mainstream media has lost the public trust. In analyzing his letter, the Firebreak noted how Bezos lacked the humility to understand what that actually meant.
3 - The Cancel Culture obsession with censorship is in decline
In 2020, following the Black Lives Matter outrage, there was a global censorship campaign, with revisionists removing historical monuments, banning contrarians from social media sites, and an activist minority acting with tyrannical zeal on those who would dare question them. Politicians would declare a scientific consensus (something the scientific method stands against) on everything from climate change to the source of the COVID-19 virus and banish any open debate. By 2024, there was a strong backlash against this “woke” imposition, perhaps best seen with the reaction and outcry against the tasteless opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The incoming Trump administration intends to outlaw censorship on social media (and there seems to be little reaction from the loud activist minority).
4 - Global markets are booming and wealth creation is spreading
Following the US elections, most global markets have been booming in expectation of deregulation and more growth-oriented policies. There is little talk of a global recession (except maybe in green, graying Germany) and interest rates are on a downward trend. Cryptocurrencies are at or near all time highs as financial innovations are no longer constrained by precautionary, post-capitalist restrictive policies. Thanksgiving turkey was served with an extra dollop of deregulation sauce and wealth effect gravy.
5 - Elections in Europe have roundly rejected Green political parties
After months of farmers protesting in European capitals, public backlashes against the high food and energy prices and a tepid response to calls for further climate action, Europeans have seen a political decimation of the Green Parties in elections across the continent. Just today, the Irish Green Party was almost completely obliterated in their national elections. The new European Commission has responded to the votes by abandoning many of their Green Deal ambitions and taking a larger focus on competition issues following the stark realities voiced in the Draghi Report.
6 - Scientific American’s Editor Resigned
Scientific American was once a leading voice of scientific discoveries, research revelations and innovative breakthroughs. But during the time of the dictatorial leadership of Laura Helmuth, SciAm became the source of woke scientific ideology from a far-left fringe of the research community. Its obsession with the science behind identity and diversity politics became too much for many of their columnists. After a series of post-election social media rage posts, the controversial firebrand editor was forced to resign. Maybe Bloomberg Philanthropies will give her a job.
7 - The UN Global Plastics Treaty Conference Collapses
After one week of divisive splits between unrealistic ideologues and pragmatic producing countries, the UN Global Plastics Treaty conference (officially called: “Intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment”) in Busan, Republic of Korea, collapsed in disagreement and disarray. The activists wanted to use the occasion to ban all plastics while the UN’s goal was to find an agreement on limiting plastic pollution in the environment. This is the third global UN conference to have ended in failure (after the biodiversity and climate meetings) in the last two months.
8 - The Trump administration will slow the environmentalist initiatives
The climate crisis campaign hysteria was well past its zenith by the time Donald Trump was elected president, and most campaigners, I expect, have accepted that the overblown fearmongering was no longer registering in a population more concerned about inflation and the economy. Global activists like Greta Thunberg have shifted from climate campaigns to political human rights activism while die-hard campaigners will need to go into a rethink hibernation.
9 - There is a more reasonable balance between conservation and development
Beyond the “Drill Baby Drill” shift, the environmental debate is becoming less adversarial. Nuclear energy projects are becoming more widely accepted, forestry industry conservation approaches are now mainstream and the business world is moving from ESG extremism to a more dialogue-driven strategy. The post-capitalist, degrowth activists will be confined to their university campuses where they can do limited harm to the economy and people’s prosperity. The dark horse in the evolution of American business development is the position of Robert F Kennedy Jr at the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. One can only hope that the agency politics will keep his hands tied until he resigns in a cloud of frustration and controversy.
10 - The Firebreak has been growing rapidly
The Firebreak is less than 18 months old and we have been steadily increasing our pool of writers, subscribers and influence. Our articles are frequently reprinted and amplified, translated into other languages and cited in articles where previously few voices were heard. We have several projects in the works for the coming year and our initial achievements in a noisy world are certainly something to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving.