From 12000 years ago until about 1800 the standard of living of the average person remained unchanged. A Roman or Chinese peasant 2000 years ago and a Russian or French peasant in 1800 had essentially the same income. 90% of GDP came from human or animal muscle power. Essentially, for all of human history for the average peasant, nothing happened. Then humans discovered fossil fuels, first coal, then oil and gas, and we had industrial takeoff. As always in human history, yesterday's solution is tomorrow's problem. Now, the probability that tomorrow's solution might come from the BRICS is a very simple number: zero (with the exception of Lula's B in the BRICS). Authoritarian kleptocrats like Putin, Modi and Xi don't solve problems. They live off them. If there is a solution to climate change and shrinking biodiversity, it will come from Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia or New Zealand. Solutions come only from governance systems where state power is limited and held accountable, constitutionally and electorally. https://medium.com/illumination/how-the-dutch-invented-the-modern-world-895ae234fd44

Ecologically, the so-called Global South is no better than the toxic Stalinist East was. India and China are building coal-fired power plants faster than the West is closing them.

Biden's IRA is a much bigger deal on climate change investment than anything India and China are doing.

Watch GMO founder Jeremy Grantham on the race of our lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVbCyrBQVg

9 minutes.