At CSD-15, the youth delegation has been lobbying countries to strengthen the language of the final document to reflect the urgency of the climate crisis. For us, it’s much more a learning experience than anything else, but it’s also the realization that despite the clarity of Greenland sliding into the ocean if we don’t cut emissions on the order of 60% globally by 2030, the U.S. and its fossil fuel lobby will simply do anything to ensure that “fossil fuels are an important component of the energy future,” and it seems that they’re getting away with it even with Democrats. So, at this moment, when the movement is growing fast, we must make sure we’re clear on what we want.
I’m not much of a person to rant about what I really think about issues in our movement, but here’s the case where I feel compelled to do so regardless of the consequences of my criticisms. Today, a Dominican city was ravaged by a tornado that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed several people. Well-known to continental North America, tornadoes had never been known to the Dominican Republic (see here). But the story goes on beyond this country, in Bangladesh (flooding), Brazil (weird hurricane), small islands (such as Tuvalu), African countries (drought, desertification) and many other countries that clearly did not ask for this and did not deserve this.
In my country of origin, we are losing cloud forest, droughts are becoming more severe, and major cities, large aquifers, and important tourist areas will all be lost if Greenland and West Antarctica were to slide into the ocean (see map here). Are presidential candidates addressing these issues? Do their plans include how the US will lead internationally through adaptation finance, clean energy deployment, and more? Will their plans actually prevent the big pieces of ice sliding into the ocean? Perhaps we should focus on making sure we’re all clear on our big ask (60% global cuts by 2030, I strongly urge) rather than playing around with presidential candidates who just want to get elected.
As the climate movement grows, we need to make sure our demand is serious enough and that it addresses more than just carbon emissions. Strong US action will not be enough; we will need the US to act internationally. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of taking strategies that will risk ourselves not achieving necessary goals (yes, those business-friendly mechanisms). We need to make sure that we demand international, equitable action with vision and teeth that will address consequences of global warming, injustice, interest-controlled government, and all the issues that are strongly attached to this climate crisis (see here). I wonder whether we will risk having the two big pieces of ice slide into the ocean, or whether we will get serious about what it is we truly want to see.
Carlos,
I am with you. But the U.S. Presidential Candidates don’t even have to look far afield, what with the tornadoes that just devastated Kansas. Al Qaeda would love to be able to inflict the damage that these storms are racking up.
AP Source
After the destruction of a major U.S. city, the devastation of other towns, and the coming threats of drought and a second dust bowl…when will the candidates just start looking out the damn window?
right on carlos -
there’s a plenty too many too ready to settle, to concede away power and possibilities for the sake of having and holding and becoming (or more often – remaining) some small piece of the existing power structure. I’m personally pretty tired of pretending I respect the government, or being diplomatic about discussing offsets, biofuels, presidential candidates or “market-based solutions” (and just to make myself perfectly clear on all these things – i’m against them). Why support presidential candidates who won’t fix the problem? Why support “solutions” designed to sort-of address the situation in such a way as to present as little distrubance as possible to those running the world and killing everything. Why put soooooo much of our precious organizing energy and scarce resources into big events, projects and campaigns that “ask” for something. To ask is to concede the power of action to the other party. To demand is to fully engage the power that you yourself do indeed have, as much as an awful lot of entities (media, school, religion, government – all with some exceptions) don’t want you to know that you have. So why do we do this? Why do we even play games with Barack “most pork-barrelled coal, nukes and ethanol” Obama? Why does Focus the Nation and Step It Up move to the very tip-top of everyone’s to-do list when seeking out and supporting the struggles of communities directly-affected right now by climate change remain an abstract notion?
Now I’m not intending to condemn paid activists (i currently am one) or Step It Up or an Inconvenient Truth (though i don’t have no reverence for Al Gore like he’s the mesiah of environmentalism). Convincing capitalists to give you money to be an activist (which is where grants come from by the way), non-confrontational rallies and educational events are all great tactics when used properly to build power. I’m just kind of screaming from within this mold. Conceding the continuity of the corporate-government power structure will not work! “asking” these people for salvation will not save us. You do not owe the government any respect, I don’t care how flowery and pretty the constitution was written (by slave-holding, genocidal patriarchs). Friends we need to make demands and we need to push! Let us build power! And at no point should we deem that power enough to then toss it in to support some politician or capitalist who says they’ve got the answer.
Am I alone here? Is anyone else fed up with pretending that we can change a policy or two and call it victory? Is anyone else ready to do deep down and difficult grassroots organizing? how about direct action – an instant power grab on the side of the people? Who’s ready for that? show of hands (clenched into fists)…
We need some serious revisioning.
willie
this rant didn’t start as a plug for Rising Tide. I swear. But if anyone else is interested in breaking the mold and fighting to win – http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org.
Carlos, its great to see another Dominican person interested, defend and shed light on issues pertaining to all, but sadly falling on deaf ears. You are the setting the stage for a critical and progressive view on the matter, just know that this will not go unnoticed, especially in the community you represent by just being you. This is where your passion can make an amaizing diffference. keep up the great work!
Part of the issue is the definition of the problem. If the problem is keeping the same standard of living without suffering global warming the solutions are different if the problem is considered one of societal reorganization. I would offer that the general public appears to view it as the first. If BP and Mobil-Exxon switch to low-carbon energy while remaining large profitable companies and the world averts the worst of the global warming effects, many will consider that a sufficient resolution.
Willie,
While I totally agree with you that politicians are often slow, misguided, hyped, or all three, I don’t think we can dismiss policy out of hand. Right you are that legislative victories don’t mean that much unless we reach deep into the grassroots and start changing minds on the ground, but we won’t have solutions (or at least beginnings) to point to unless policy is there. There’s only so much people can do in their own communities and with their own lives, and climate change is the most global problem there is. In my view, policy helps with three things:
1. It provides a base from which we can move forward.
2. It educates people.
3. It regulates and standardizes so that those who don’t care (i.e. energy corps) can’t get off scot-free.
I’m sure that’s an incomplete list, but I think it gives us an idea why we should shoot to get policy passed. Obviously it won’t solve anything, but I think we can, in fact, celebrate when a politician (or presidential candidate) really begins to understand the issue and feels the responsibility to do something about it.
Hey all,
I totally agree with what you are all saying. We are in a incredibly pivotal time in our history. Since the industrial revolution we have been pursuing a market capitalist based economic theory. While I can’t deny that there have been improvements in the standard of life for some, this system has also resulted in rapid environmental degredation, as I am sure you are all aware. Now corporate driven globalization has become the new mantra of our society, resulting in continued oppression of the third world and accelerated environmental degradation. Now we are finally realizing the effects of our actions are manifesting in global climate change. Even corporations are realizing this. But instead of realizing that our current economic theology has caused this, and that we need to shift to a new economics and a new way of thinking, corporate power players are proposing “market-based solutions.” There can be no market base d solutions because the market has CAUSED these problems. Its clear that the dominant power players are unwilling to give up their death grip on the peoples of the world, clear in the “solutions” that are being proposed, like monoculture GM biofuels and “clean coal” technology. Check out this article http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=57&ItemID=12771 .
These won’t work. Unless we radically change the way we think, act and behave on a systemic level we will not avoid environmental collapse. We have stressed the planet almost beyond the point of return, and unless we start looking for solutions with a different mindset then that which caused the problems, we won’t ever be able to create a sustainable future. And we can’t let corporate bastards get away with this greenwashing. It’s sickening to see the NRDC join the U.S. Climate Action Partnership with the likes of Duke Energy. So what are we going to do? Accept half solutions and feeble compromises that retain the dominant power structures? Or, now that the follies of our current path have been abundantly exposed will we take this chance to shift our society away from a global corporate dominated world to a just, people powered future? We need true, systemic change and we can’t accept anything less. Can it be done? I don’t know. But we need to start joining in solidarity with social justice movements and oppressed communities, because in the end we are all fighting against the same cultural mindset. Its our responsibilty to fight for the just, clean and sustainable future we know is possible.
much love to you all
I checked the Zmag link. I wonder if it missed the point. The science can tell you about the causes and extent of global warming and engineering can give you an array of options for solution. However, science and engineering alone cannot say what are the best moral or socially acceptable choices. For example, would a carbon-free world with the windmills and solar panels all reading BP or Shell represent an acceptable solution for many climate activists?
Carlos. This is a great piece. Thank you for writing it. Every four years I am frustrated by the incredible amount of resources that are channeled into Presidential campaigns and election organizing at the expense of other more long-term efforts. I am not against political organizing in general. However I do feel like the organizing in this country around the Presidential elections has become so removed from the matters of everyday people and so dominated by the national media that we often give up our power and are forced to compromise what we really want while engaging in it.
I love willie’s point about having demands rather than asks. With the power that corporations control in our society, it is critical that we have laws and policy to use as citizens and organizations as tools for sustainability and economic and social justice. However, these policies are meaningless without implementation mechanisms and enforcement. Revolutionizing our energy systems to a scale that will make a dent in the problem of climate change will require a major amount of work from millions of people. I am truly excited to see some candidates come out in favor of 80% by 2050. I do feel like that step does something to rally the country behind the goal of deeply shifting our economy away from fossil fuels. However, I am under no delusions that this goal alone will solve the problem. I am also very concerned of that perception.
With major corporations like GM and Duke Energy getting behind carbon caps and “action on global warming” it is essential that there are loud voices out there standing up for what the world truly needs and countering the notion that current systems and ways of doing business are sustainable. We are NOT all on the same team, however, we ARE all on the same boat. As youth activists I believe it is our responsibility to demand the solutions that will help us create the world that we want to live in. I believe it is also our responsibility to show our elected leaders, unelected leaders, our peers, and ourselves what that future might look like with our actions. We need to both put our bodies on the line to stand in solidarity with communities being ravaged by dirty energy and work like hell to implement sustainable solutions in our own homes, communities and institutions.
my opposition to Shell and BP, to keep up with the prior mentioned examples, are not a matter of personal pride. I’ll answer margolis’ question straightforward – if the world ran on a carbon-free grid and this was controlled by (and the profits went to) Shell and BP I would be sooooo happy. I would seriously party. seriously. Now my vision, my morals, my goals are deeper than this type of reform. I want to balance out power which neccisitates the deconstruction of capitalism. but let’s say a carbon-free run by Shell and BP was my goal. (which is a great objective – it’s just not end-game or anything) The most affective way to pressure these entities to shift towards such operations would be to threaten their power (death-grip as my fellow southerner Amy put it). If our whole tone is always in asking, in paying credence to capitalism and state and all this and asking for something, they’re going to know that they have the power in the situation. We must demand. “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.” said Frederick Douglas. Shell and BP are going to have to be worried that if they don’t clean up their act, they’re going to be facing a constant ruckus by disruptive direct action.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
Willie, said we should demand instead of ask. Precisely because I agree that we need to go deeper, I’m going to challenge that distinction.
Whether we demand or ask, we assume that someone else will change the world. We’re telling (or asking) someone else to take responsibility. We can’t afford that. This challenge is going to take rebuilding our cities, reforming global agriculture, restructuring the electrical grid. None of this is going to happen unless we start doing it. The politics of global warming will not reach the critical tipping point unless we challenge the assumption of the citizen as the recipient rather than the actor. Policy solutions that change society as fundamentally as we need don’t work unless people want them – unless we first decide that we’re actually going to take them on.
It’s time to build a network – our network. One where we’re actually making the changes – efficient homes, reinventing transit networks in our communities, developing local economies. It’s your next door neighbor, and the local business, and your workplace, your school, your church. And not just getting your neighbors to accept your CFLs – we have to get them to lead.
More on this process later.
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh MY.
Yes, Global Warming is Real and we and our children and ther future are in Deep POOP!
Time to star Building Massive Ships to take all of our people from Krypton to the Planet Earth..
Oh wait, we are on Earth, Damn!
okay, WaterWorld hear we come…….
I do my share right now, i ride my bike more to work!