18:19
Lush landscapes of green coat the once barren asphalt streets, communal neighborhood dinner tables bring bountiful local harvests to any who are hungry, wintery wonderlands of solar panels and wind turbines churn out abundant energy filling every home with light and heat, and kids play in parks, gigglling with laughter alongside their caretakers- many of whom work just 20 hours a week, free to live a fulfilling and relaxing life. This is the future of true abundance. A future not of oppression, but of deep connection with community and the natural world. This future could be at our fingertips, but snap back to the here and now,
and our reality today seems worlds away from that one. So, then, how do we get from here to there? How do we build a world of true abundance, one of plenty, both in the material and spiritual sense? For that, we need to look to the visions of solarpunk, ecosocialism, and degrowth, political tendencies that might just paint paths away from the horrors of capitalism and towards a rich and fulfilling future where everyone and everything can enjoy a good life. And speaking of the good life, I have some very exciting news. I'm now officially on MeansTV,
and I just released next month's video on degrowth as well as an exclusive bonus video on capitalist scarcity on there to celebrate the launch! This has been in the works for a while, and I'm so fricken excited that I can finally tell you all! If you aren't familiar with Means, it's a cooperative anticapitalist streaming service that is completely worker-owned. But this isn't just an ad-free version of leftist YouTube. Yes, Means is home to Second Thought, Revolutionary Thot, and Black Green Red, who are putting up awesome exclusive bonus content like Second Thought's After Dark debrief series that unpacks their latest videos, or over 25 of my own exclusive bonus videos,
including this month's extra video digging down into why capitalism needs scarcity. But Means is more than that. It's home to an anticapitalist news show, Means Morning News, which I've been waking up watching on the daily, as well as some honestly world-class documentaries like Cuba After Castro and Gaza Fights for Freedom by Abby Martin of the Empire Files. I know I've already said this, but I'm so excited to join this platform because everyone from the workers to the creators is busting their ass to make Means a valuable resource for
all of you viewers and also to ensure socialist filmmaking can be financially viable. And to me, this has been crucial, as YouTube monetization and ad revenue have plummeted and the financial fate of Our Changing Climate feels like it's hanging in the balance on the daily. OCC is pretty much only supported by viewers like you at this point. So when you sign up to MeansTV your supporting not only Means but the important anticapitalist filmmaking work happening across the world. And the way it works is simple. Every creator has a unique code; mine is OCC, and the link can be found in the description below. But if
you really want to support Black Green Red or Revolutionary Thot, use their code instead! And then, after you put your information in, I or whatever creator code or link you used, gets a chunk of revenue from your subscription, month in month out until you cancel. The rest of the money goes directly to the workers and to building MeansTV into a place where anticapitalist creators can say it like it is, and not cower in fear at the threat of the algorithm or demonitization. As a thank you for supporting Our Changing Climate, if you sign up using the link
below or use the OCC code at checkout you'll get 20% off your first month, or if you choose the annual plan, 20% off a full year. If you've made it this far into the shameless plug, thanks so much for watching and supporting. I love you, and enjoy the rest of the video. Defining Abundance: Visions of the future are crucial to the struggle in the here and now. They light a fire under us, inspire us, and give us something to fight for, not just against. Imagining better worlds has increasingly become a radical act under capitalism, where the deadly missiles
of imperialism and the energy-sucking code of A.I. erode our creativity and agency. When we are run ragged from work, from fleeing settler colonial genocide, from our art getting stolen by corporate, imagining a world outside of the confines of capitalism becomes harder and harder. The classic saying, "it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism," becomes more and more true every day. So, it's crucial then to imagine what the future could look like without fossil fuels, without the smothering grip of endless growth and profit seeking of
capitalism, of endless wars, of racial oppression. Not just to fill our cup in dark times, but as a As Troy Vettese, co-author of Half-Earth Socialism explains ["having this utopia, this end goal, is very useful that actually glues together your coalition. That actually binds you together."] Or as The Conscious Lee argues: ["capitalism has cornered the market on our imagination to making where a lot of us feel like we are only limited to imagine a world that history already gave us.]
Imagining radical, anti-capitalist futures, then, gives us direction and claws back some form of agency under the all-consuming maw of capitalism. And within all of those radical anti-capitalist futures, for me, lies abundance. But what exactly does that mean? Abundance of what and where? If you're keyed into political conversations these days, the word "Abundance" might send a shiver down your spine, or if you're an Ezra Klein-loving liberal, perhaps a cry of ecstasy. But sorry, Klein-loving liberals, the abundance I imagine, and many others on the ecosocialist left envision,
is not the same Abundance t Ezra Klein is hoping will hatch into existence. For me, abundance means organizing our global economy and social systems so that everyone has not just the bare minimum, but all they need to live a rich, fulfilling life in both material and spiritual senses. Notably, this must happen in such a way that allows for the flourishing of the natural world. I would hope this future is pretty uncontroversial. If you do somehow find grievance with everyone living a good life and planetary life flourishing, please smash that unsubscribe button. But
that future vision of abundance is of course very vague. It doesn't include how we get there and what socioeconomic systems will foster that abundance. And it's here that visions of abundance on the wide world of left politics begin to split apart. A split that I'm going to simplify into two general camps: liberal abundance and radical abundance. Liberal Abundance: Flip through the pages of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's 2025 book Abundance, and you'll find a running theme throughout: there's too much red tape and bureaucracy holding back innovation, housing construction,
renewable energy, and, to a larger extent, a future of abundance I just described. This is, ultimately, an ecomodernist argument, that hopes that scientific discovery and technological innovation spurred on by efficient government will drag us out of the ecological destruction we're living through. The authors write, ["The only way for humanity to limit climate change while fighting poverty is to invent our way to clean energy that is plentiful and cheap and then spend enough to deploy it."] Liberal abundance then, can be seen as an abundance built on capitalist growth. One that funnels public dollars into private hands, through a muscular governing body, to spur more construction, more scientific discovery, and more technological advancement.
Klein and Thompson see the problem holding back abundance not as capitalism itself, but the way in which the state currently interacts with capitalism. In a much broader sense, their liberal abundance is driven by more and more growth under capitalism. ["Sometimes it has to take a central role, creating markets or organizing resources for risky technologies that do not yet exist]. Klein and Thompson narrow in on America and look at its hulking mass of government, and says that it needs to slim down in order to be a better governing body for the people. Less regulation, fewer audits for scientists,
less red tape for environmental rail. They ultimately want a government that builds… seemingly by unleashing the private sector in some arenas and directly building others. To me, these two are neoliberals cosplaying as woke authors for the people. Trying to couch what is, at its core, trickle-down economics in the language of "everyone will get a piece." I genuinely do think they are interested in fixing the American system to work for all people, but I think the problem is not a broken gear here and a clogged pipe there. The problem is
the American system itself. The problem is a capitalist economy whose foundation is built on the endless exploitation of humans and the planet for the enrichment of the few. An economy that rewards destruction and plunder. Because In the pursuit of profit and ultimately more and more capital, corporations rip minerals, fuel, and organic matter from the earth, and then extract the labor of billions of people through dismal wages, in order to lower costs and turn a profit. In doing so, they offload the waste of their production, the emissions, the toxic runoff,
the pollution onto surrounding sacrifice zones, further destroying the land and the very people they exploit to build their wealth. So, if this is the foundation of capitalism, why should we hope to find abundance by tinkering around the edges? How can we live in abundance if we still grind under the precarity of wages? Where the endless growth of capitalism will always seek to gobble up the finite resources of the planet, and the wealthy abundance of the few is built on the scarcity of the many. So, if not liberal abundance, what would true abundance look like?
Radical Abundance: In the imaginaries of so many talented artists, true abundance comes alive. From my standpoint, these are not glimpses into a future of trickle-down capitalist abundance, but instead something else. Collected under the umbrella of Solarpunk, art like this, or this, describes to our eyes a world of radical abundance. An abundance that discards the capitalist "bullshit abundance" and manufactured scarcity, and instead embraces the communal, the natural, and the joyful. Solarpunk is a full-throated embrace of a world that prioritizes human beings and the planet they live on over profit.
But right now, we live in a world of a different kind of abundance. An abundance of smartphones pile up in landfills as planned obsolescence and megacorporations churn out new models every year. An abundance of microplastics permeates our waterways, our bloodstreams, and our food. An abundance of traffic, an abundance of consumption, and an abundance of fossil fuels are turning our entire planet into an oven. I'll say it again because I feel this is important: liberal abundance will not solve these ills. These are not problems that can be solved by tinkering around the edges of capitalism with smart policy or technofixes. They must be solved by directly hacking at the root. And
that root is capitalism. Our imaginations, then, must stretch beyond the shackles of capitalism. Reform is not enough. As Kali Okuno, founder of Cooperation Jackson, argues: ["we need to be clear that we need to be organizing building for revolution not reform and crisis avoidance"] Because the bullshit abundance of capitalism comes hand in hand with manufactured scarcity. Capitalism's enclosure of almost every common good, whether that be land, food, shelter, transportation, music, or entertainment, means that we now need to work for a wage in order
to live. Leaving your job or getting fired from your workplace immediately puts you on the path towards precarity. We no longer have a connection to the means we need to live. Food is sequestered in corporate grocery stores, and landlords make us pay obscene amounts just to guarantee a roof over our heads. Meanwhile, the capitalist class enjoys an abundance of ever-accumulating riches at our expense. As Karl Marx wrote over 150 years ago, the "accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time, accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance,
brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole." So, to build that solarpunk future, to build radical abundance, we need a world, and specifically an economic and social model that looks a whole lot different than capitalism, and yes, that includes the liberal capitalist reform of Ezra Klein's Abundance. In my mind, this requires radical transformation towards an anti-capitalist model, which, more specifically for me, means ecosocialist degrowth. I've made many a video about ecosocialism, but to lay out once again, ecosocialism imagines a
worker-controlled economic system that emphasizes a democratically planned economy based on social and ecological constraints. Ecosocialism does away with a system of production based on profit and instead reprioritizes what is made and distributed based on use and need. Importantly, ecosocialism is a transitional stage away from capitalism. It's the first step towards the ultimate goal of a stateless, classless, abundant world based on mutual respect for each other and the planet. Ecosocialism revolts against the chaos of capitalist markets, which blindly hope that
a techno-fix will save us or that oil barons will have some spiritual epiphany and shut down their planet-destroying activities. Instead, ecosocialism asks the question: what if workers and you and your neighbors, not some fat cat fossil fuel capitalist on his 40,000 acre montana ranch, decide what gets made and how. AND ALSO, those products are then accessible to you and your neighbor. The workers, the communities, the people decide, not a boardroom of executives thousands of miles away. The way in which this could happen is manifold. The authors of Radical Abundance point
towards power of public-common partnerships as one answer to build democratically planned worker and community power right now. This is an insurgent economic and social structure that can be built within capitalism as a means to construct not only worker power, but also the first kernels of a system that could replace capitalism. In its most simple form, a public-common partnership can be thought of as a juiced-up co-op that goes beyond the workplace. If a regular capitalist company takes the surplus workers create and puts it in the hands of shareholders and owners, who
then control and decide the course of the company, a co-op spreads the surplus amongst the workers, and it's the workers who decide the direction of the company. Public-common partnerships take the vision of the co-op one step further. Instead of disseminating the surplus amongst workers, public-common partnerships put some of that surplus into the hands of what the authors of Radical Abundance call a "Common Association," which is a democratically run group of community members. This body then decides where that surplus goes to better the community as whole. As the
authors explain, this structure recognizes that "work, and the surpluses generated through it, is never done by employees alone. It depends on a whole network of people and systems - from carers raising children, to neighbours maintaining community life, to public roads, schools, and health services. PCPs direct resources back into this wider network, so that everyone who contributes to creating social wealth can share in its benefits." And this is not just a theoretical framework; there are real-world examples already out there, building power and abundance under capitalism. In Barcelona, workers and community members
took control of a dilapidated 13,000 square meter factory, and transformed into a Solarpunk vision in real life. With 30 projects employing around 400 workers servicing 50,000 people, Can Battló has grown to have very real local impact. Through community gardens, food banks, breweries, publishing cooperatives, makers spaces intermingled with public gyms, a community-run library, and even a co-housing cooperative, the people of Barcelona have transformed the rotting husk of industrial capitalism into a communally operated, vibrant public space. Notably, each
worker-owned enterprise within the space, whether that be a brewery or an urban farm has to provide weekly instances of "'social return', namely wider social benefits and public services for the larger Can Batlló umbrella project and neighbourhood, in the form of assistance or other available resources." And all of this is organized through "a coordination committee and a weekly general assembly open to anyone from the neighbourhood." Essentially, Can Battló is building co-operative and communal planning in the here and now, and in the process, they're carving out a space of joy,
play, community, and ecological harmony under the oppressive forces of capitalism. Meanwhile, the authors of Half-Earth Socialism envision a more centralized, linear-programming approach. Where broad goals like cutting emissions by 10% a year or rewilding 50% of the planet by 2050 can be decided on at a national or international level, and then a planning algorithm could spit out a variety of coarse plans that might get the world to those goals, ranging from more lenient energy quotas but faster uptake of vegetarian or vegan production and consumption. Or perhaps more aggressive rewilding and afforestation instead,
or a more rapid increase in renewable production. These plans could be disseminated, tweaked, and retooled from the international to the local level to mesh with local contexts. Ultimately with all of these different ways of democratically planning, the goal is to bring back agency to everyday people, put another way by authors of Radical Abundance, the radical abundance of ecosocialism seeks "a shift from a culture in which citizens beg the state to solve their problems to a culture where citizens implement, control, and manage things themselves." This is the core of a democratically planned ecosocialism, and one of many strategies on the left that could bring about radical abundance.
But to bring abundance to all, globally, we need to embrace a politics of degrowth as well. Abundant degrowth? Surely that's an oxymoron. Well, in my eyes it's not. Of course, my eyes could be wrong, so feel free to go and roast me in the comments. But degrowth doesn't and should never mean reverting to the Stone Age. So if someone tells you it does, go roast them in their comments. A good way to think about this is that planning should mean a reprioritization of what we need and what we want. Which ultimately implies a shift of production. An abundant solarpunk
where we don't need to work just to have a roof over our head and food on the table, where a landlord or your capitalist boss no longer decides your fate, requires a world where we no longer produce goods for profit. We wouldn't need a bunch of new phone models every single year, or a new season of clothes every month. Overproduction for overproduction's sake would be unnecessary. Instead, production will be guided by two principles: providing the things people need to live a fulfilling life, and doing so in an ecological way. This is where the tendrils
of degrowth tie in. Instead of burning hundreds of tons of manufacturing everything from guns to fast fashion, economies will shift towards building just the right amount of zero-carbon housing, renewable energy farms, and public transit systems. Ecosocialist degrowth solarpunk must embody swords to plowshares if it is to ever find abundance. Degrowth means degrowing imperialist violence, fossil fuels, and the carceral state. This requires repairing the generations of colonial and imperial plunder of the periphery through the building out of locally
appropriate technologies, knowledge sharing, and direct reparation payments. Funneling wealth that the imperial core has enjoyed at the expense of the periphery back to where it belongs. This requires right-sizing the lives of people in the imperial core, especially in the United States, where highways, McMansions, pickup trucks, and guns flow like water. Guzzling material resources and land at the cost of the planet and other humans cannot and should not exist in a world of radical abundance. But right-sizing, and degrowth for that matter, doesn't mean living in caves. It
means reorienting the economy so that dense, free, electric, and accessible public transit networks permeate every town and every city. It means ecological communal living and townhome housing complexes that leave no one on the street while simultaneously shrinking everyone's emissions. Perhaps it means less stuff, but in lieu of that fleeting consumerist abundance comes a more meaningful abundance of play, of connection, of learning, and leisure. I don't know about you, but I'd gladly downsize my life to have more space and time to enjoy the people and the
places I love. But of course, if you love to LIVE BIG, then hit me with that ROAST in the comments. Because, at the end of the day, abundant degrowth means letting go of what is yours and instead, as fellow YouTuber Andrewism, explains, embracing a library economy. Where, much like a book at your local library, that tool you might need, or that random piece of clothing you need once a year, or an electric van you need to transport some wood for a DIY project, is all under one roof for you to borrow at your leisure. In the process, a library of everything would mean we would need
to producer a lot less stuff, which means fewer emissions, and less waste, and less work. Of course, this would require planning. But luckily we have supercomputers in our pockets and cloud-based spreadsheets and planning programs already at our fingertips. We don't have to start from square one. Massive multiantinational corporations already plan and organize hundreds of thousands of workers across the globe. Not to mention that there are historical precedents for streamlining planning processes through a computerized network, like Cybersyn in 1970s chile under socialist leader Salvador Allende.
Ultimately, building towards radical abundance necessitates not only a shift in economics but a shift in worldview as well. A future of degrowth of ecosocialist planning will not feel the same as the world we live in right now. Those in the imperial core may have to give up some of the convenience they've enjoyed. But if we understand that this convenience is always predicated on the inconvenience and oppression of someone else, whether that be a delivery driver, a Amazon fulfilment worker, or an artisanal miner staring down death every day in a cobalt mine in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, convenience seems like a worthy thing to give up. But, let me be clear, the future I hope for is not a future of misery and sacrifice. It means doing away with delivery drones flying shit to our front door every day, because we will have the time and space in our lives to actually walk down to the library or corner canteen on a beautiful sunny afternoon and pick it up. The convenience of Amazon becomes unnecessary when you're not being ground down by the precarity of work under capitalism, and instead are working 20 hours
a week at the local farm or solar panel factory that's just a 10-minute walk away from your home. Capitalism individualizes us. It silos our mind, our creativity, or environments, our economies, our households, so that the only thing we can rely on is the dollar to survive. 39 years ago, the queen of capitalist depravity, Margaret Thatcher, drove that point home in an interview when she argued, "there is no such thing [as society,] there is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families." Of course, Maggie Thatcher was hated- for her
austerity politics, imperialist warmongering, and especially by this Scottish woman: [Newscaster: Do you think she did any good? Scottish Woman: Not a bit. Not a bit of good. I'd put a stake through her heart, and garlic around her neck to make sure she never come back. Newscaster: That's a pretty horrible thing to say when her funeral is going on right now. Scottish Woman: Too bad] So, we must break free from ideologies of capitalism, of individualism, of scarcity, towards a new paradigm of community and a deep relationship with the natural world.
Towards a relationship of reciprocity and regeneration, not plunder. This necessarily requires a cultural shift, and perhaps one the ways in which we begin to shift our current capitalist culture of ever striving to accumulate more, is through art. Specifically envisioning the beautiful worlds of abundance that could be if we build the power, struggle, organize, and win a beautiful future. That art is epitomized in Solarpunk. An abundant solarpunk future: In the visions of Becca Bolin or of Taylor Seamount we can catch glimpses of a future of radical abundance. A world that is so much richer and more fulfilling than one we currently trudge through. Here,
surveillance cameras and heavy traffic give way to lush parks, and communal gardens. There the onslaught of ads, billboards, and mall parking lots dissolves into urban orchards, libraries, and repair cafes. These are the imaginings that can bring warmth to us on those cold nights of the soul. On those days when capitalist exploitation and destruction feel totalizing. This is the art that can guide us out of the dark and teach us that abundance, true abundance, is out there; we just have to have the courage to band together and struggle for it.
But the scarcity of capitalism is constantly preventing us from doing just that. So, if you're sad the video is over, or just want to learn more about the insidious nature of scarcity under capitalism, consider heading over to MeansTv with the link in the description where I have a little bonus companion video all about capitalist scarcity. Or you can just watch my early release of next month's video on Degrowth. Or just continue on your way, and have an amazing day, and I'll see you in a month!
