Türkiye Sausages, Part I

"From Climate Week in New York to COP 31 in Antalya is farther than it seems" 

I’ve been thinking lately about whether it is possible to save humans from the hotter climate that is advancing so quickly now. I see it entering that corner of the “J” curve—sometimes called the hockey stick—and knowing what I do about exponents, it is a scary moment. One thing I do know: if we do nothing, the worst will arrive. Doing whatever we can is required.

I have spent a fair chunk of my one wild and precious life sitting in windowless rooms in Bonn, Geneva and New York, badge dangling from a lanyard around my neck, watching grown adults in expensive suits argue about the precise position of a comma. Sometimes I was even Head of U.N. Delegation, which sounds impressive until you realize it mostly means you’re the one who gets the least sleep (I wrote a whole book about this — The Paris Agreement). Here is what I’ve learned: the United Nations is a lot like democracy, marriage, and composting. It is inefficient, it is best for our children, and something smells a little funny—but it is nevertheless all we have to stop everybody just doing whatever they want with weapons, sex trafficking, and forever chemicals.

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We are not going to solve our way out of climate chaos one nation at a time, or one virtuous vegan at a time. Following the same primate behavioral programming that got us into this, our species is on track to bequeath to Earth a Hothouse Epoch that could last a million years. The “carbon budget” concept is a comforting fiction. We blew through that before most of the people reading this were born. Our remaining time is the only currency that matters now, and we are spending it like a drunk sailor at a titty bar.

It took two world wars and an atomic bomb to convince fifty-one proud, battered, well-armed, deeply suspicious nations that surrendering a sliver of their sovereignty might, on balance, beat vaporizing each other. That’s the UN’s origin story — not a triumph of idealism, but the diplomatic equivalent of two guys agreeing to stop fighting only after both have already lost an eye but are holding pistols to the other’s forehead. For seventy-five-plus years, this awkward arrangement has nudged the world toward settling some, not all, disputes with words instead of violence, which is, historically, not nothing. A quarter million souls with blue badges deliver vaccine jabs and food to starving, displaced people, every day.

I know it’s fashionable, especially among people who’ve never stood in a UNGA credentials line, to declare the whole enterprise ridiculous — a glorified debate club with some very old and decaying rules. And sure, it can look that way. Diplomacy is imperfect. I adore Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future, in which a plucky new UN body basically saves civilization through sheer competence and the occasional act of eco-terrorism. It’s a wonderful novel. It is also, notably, fiction.

We still have a chance to turn towards a safer, sustainable future. The impacts of breached Planetary Boundaries are already all around us, and they will continue to become more severe. But today, we still have a narrow window of opportunity. If we manage to bend the curves within this decade, we can put our societies on a course towards a safer, more just future. We have the tools, and we have taken steps in this direction, but our current efforts are far from sufficient. Only by pursuing urgent, ambitious, and decisive action across all sectors of our societies can we return to living within the Safe Operating Space on a healthy Planet.

—Planetary Health Check 2026

About those design flaws. Take the Security Council veto — one permanent member, one “no,” and the whole resolution goes up in smoke, no matter how the other fourteen voted. The Council’s actual job is to spot trouble somewhere on the planet and defuse it with mediation, sanctions, or — failing that — armed “peacekeepers.” Instead, five countries—the permanent members— hold a key that lets any one of them lock out the other 192.

This isn’t theoretical. Between late 2023 and mid-2025, the Joe Biden and Donald Trump delegations vetoed six separate resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, then vetoed a resolution — backed by 143 member states and every other seat on the Council — that would have opened a path to UN membership for Palestine. One nation, one thumb, one downward gesture, and 143 votes evaporate. Russia has done the same trick for Ukraine, single-handedly blocking every resolution that dared use the word “condemn.” Russia and China have tag-teamed to shield North Korea’s missile program from international monitoring. And in a personal favorite bit of villain-monologue material, Russia vetoed a 2021 resolution that simply proposed formally classifying climate change as a threat to peace and security — as if naming the fire were the dangerous part.

Because amending the UN Charter itself requires the consent of all five permanent members, abolishing the veto is not just politically unlikely — it is insurmountable. It’s like giving the arsonist control of the fire exits. 

Naomi Klein: And so, [Stephen] Miller is saying, “We live in a world where the rules, the laws, don’t apply, right? Force, strength, brutality. That’s reality, right?” It’s very classic fascist in that sense.

Chris Hayes: But there’s so much in there, too. I mean, it’s this idea of being so superior that the normal rules of the game don’t apply. And also, in there is a recognition that should those rules apply, that you would be subject to them, right?

Naomi Klein: And it’s like, the more you break international law, the more you have to destroy international law so it doesn’t come for you, right? The more corruption you engage in, the more you have to ensure that the domestic rule of law is as broken as possible.

Then there’s the matter of decorum, or the ongoing absence of it. Exhibit B: Every year, Grandpa Simpson dons his diapers and takes to the podium at UNGA, and every year I feel less amused and more like I need a shower. This year he used the platform to casually commit what any competent international lawyer would recognize as a war crime — a threat to kill civilians, made with the intent to terrorize a population, which is illegal under the law of virtually every nation on Earth, including, on paper, ours (18 U.S.C. § 2441, for the record — go ahead and look it up, it’s a real statute with real prison time and, in the worst cases, a real needle or electroshock). This threat came from the guy that left the UN café owing the establishment $4.3 billion, as if it were one of his many bankrupted construction contractors.

Grandpa knows his Teflon. John Roberts’ Trump v. United States (2024) decision grants the Don near-total immunity for anything classifiable as an “official act.” Giving a UN speech qualifies, war crimes and all. In theory, the International Criminal Court exists precisely for moments like this — the Rome Statute’s Article 27 says explicitly that it applies to heads of state, no exceptions. In practice, the United States isn’t a treaty party and considers the ICC a terrorist group. Iran is also a non-party to the Rome Statute. Referring scofflaws like these to the Court requires a Security Council vote, which, if you were paying attention a few paragraphs ago, means it gets vetoed. It’s a beautifully engineered Catch-22, built by generations of careful career criminals diplomats — sorry, my mistake, the pen slipped.

My point isn’t that these are fatal flaws. They’re not fatal. They’re just really, really inconvenient.

Next week: Choosing the new Secretary General and setting the table.

References

 

Bates A. (2015), The Paris Agreement: the best chance we have to save the one planet we’ve got. Global Village Institute.

Caesar, L., et al. (2026). Planetary Health Check 2026: A Scientific Assessment of the State of the Planet.

Hayes, C. (2026). “End Times Fascism with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor,” Why is this Happening: The Chris Hayes Podcast, Sep 15, 2026.

Robinson, K. S. (2020). The Ministry for the Future. Orbit.

Roisman, S. G. (2025). Trump v. United States and the separation of powers. U. Pa. L. Rev. Online, 173, 33.

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Gaza, still being bombed, September 2026

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#RestorationGeneration.

Even when humans are locked in a cage, the Earth remains beautiful. So the lesson is that human beings are not necessary. The air, soil, sky and water are still beautiful without you. So, when you step out of the cage, please remember that you are guests of the Earth, not its hosts.

Thanks for reading The Great Change!
This post is public, so feel free to share it.

We have a complete solution. We can restore whales to the ocean and bison to the plains. We can recover all the tremendous old-growth forests. We possess the knowledge and tools to rebuild savannah and wetland ecosystems. Coral reefs rebuilt with biorock build beaches faster than the seas are rising. It is not too late. All of these great works of nature are recoverable. We can have a human population sized to harmonize rather than destabilize. We can have an atmosphere that heats and cools just the right amount, is easy on our lungs and sweet to our nostrils with the scent of ten thousand flowers. All of that beckons. All of that is within reach.

These bumper stickers should be on every porta-potty at Burning Man! We now have our own merchandise store on Redbubble. Swing on in for the latest wearables and chachkas….

 

 

Thanks for reading! Everything expressed in this article is my opinion.