Global warming: Is it an inconvenient truth or an opportunity to transition towards a more sustainable, just, and prosperous future?
Many of us agree that it is both, but the positive message of future opportunities is often drowned out by messaging that is fear driven – melting glaciers, species extinction, water wars, displaced island/coastal peoples, etc. Our environmental groups have been towing the line on this message for decades, and where has it gotten us policy-wise?
The time is ripe for a new message, a positive vision of the future. We need the “I Have A Dream” speech for global warming. And Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, agrees. Our message is trickling up!
After much rigmarole and compromise, Congress passed the energy bill and President Bush signed it this morning. Pelosi gave a statement yesterday afternoon on this victory,
“With one stroke of the pen, America can be on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 25 percent of what we need to do to save the planet. With one stroke of the pen, we set America on a path to produce $22 billion in annual savings to our consumers. With one stroke of the pen, we take America down a path to create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs and train 3 million workers for new green jobs.”
Indeed, this is the same woman who spoke to us at Power Shift as we chanted “GREEN JOBS, NOT JAILS” and “WE WANT MORE!” If she had tossed in a reference to limiting energy generated by coal, the above statement would directly reflect the 1 Sky platform which we all used to lobby our legislators last November: 1) Green Jobs, 2) Cut global warming pollution, 3) No new coal. Later in the statement she refers to her motivations as a grandmother to be working on this issue and establishing a new direction for America.
And that’s exactly what the country needs – a new direction.
I’m not talking about the same new direction that Nancy is — a Democratic direction. I’m talking about an undivided effort to address climate change and its root causes. And this new direction will be catalyzed by a new message, a message driven by an urgent sense of hope and opportunity.
This message is already being championed by many, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is only the most recent VIP member of the new cool club.
Don’t get me wrong, fear and awareness of catastrophic consequences to global warming can be an extremely powerful organizing tool. However, most folks already know these consequences. We don’t need to run a global warming public education campaign in the same way that was required a few years ago.
Thanks Al, you did your job well, but it’s time to turn to the next phase of public outreach.
We need to run a campaign to build excitement around solving this problem. No one is going to jump on the solution bandwagon if it’s headed inevitably for species extinction and social hysteria. You better believe that motivates me, but the way to build a movement is a positive vision.
We, the youth of this nation, have a dream (and an accompanying message). We communicated it with Nancy Pelosi loud and strong. And as we continue to inspire, our messaging for a positive vision for a sustainable, just, and prosperous future will keep trickling up!
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I am glad our messaging is trickling up! I also want our solutions to trickle up, not just be put in second place to nuclear, coal, and corn ethanol.
I may be a messenger, but there is a word for those who embrace a message but not the substance. It isn’t very polite.
I quite agree that we need to see more action by more people on the issue of global warming, but it is incredibly difficult to actually mobilise people, governments and businesses to actually do something about it, however much you tell them about the horrific consequences. I’m slowly converting to the Global Cool campaign, having had dinner with the CEO a few months ago, which is pushing people to cut their own personal carbon footprint whilst also encouraging businesses through things like the carbon credit system to become greener. What role do you think organisations like this have as opposed to governments and political parties?
Well said Jenny! An urgent vision of hope and the possibilities of a better future are what will motivate broad-based action for climate solutions. The youth movement has done a tremendous job articulating this vision, and we will continue to hone and develop it as we go along. And at the same time, it’s trickling upward and outward, “infecting” the minds and infiltrating the speeches of politicians - from Hillary Clinton to Nancy Pelosi, John Edwards to Jay Inslee.
Pelosi’s messaging is great. Of course the substance that she is talking about - the stripped down energy bill that finally passed - isn’t quite as great. What was signed by President Bush today was merely the first small step on a very long path to a sustainable, just, and prosperous future. Pelosi and the gang - including many big enviro groups - have been quick to laud this bill as a “historic victory.”
This is from DailyGrist today: “Nevertheless, legislators weren’t shy about talking up the bill’s significance. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared the bill “groundbreaking in what it will do.” And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, “This legislation is a historic turning point in energy policy.”
Groundbreaking? Historic turning point?
The bill Pelosi passed out of her chamber looked a lot more like an historic turning point - it set us on a more efficient path forward in electricity and transportation, and just as critically, it would have begun the reprioritization of our public support for energy away from the dirty and depleting energy sources of the 19th and 20th centuries - coal, oil, nuclear - and re-invested in the clean energy solutions that will form the cornerstone of a sustainable, just, and prosperous 21st century.
But as what was passed and signed was an incremental victory in what must be a truly transformational effort.
This quote sums it up pretty well: “This is a problem of economic transformation, not environmental regulation,” said Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. “The transformation needed will require far more than just passing one law or signing one treaty. It will require the same level of focus and initiative that the Bush administration is devoting to the war on terror. No political leader in the U.S. is approaching this issue yet with anywhere near the seriousness required.”
So let’s make a pact: we’ll let Pelosi and the Dems celebrate their victory. But we in the youth climate movement know what’s truly at stake - for it is our very future on the line - and we will not be fooled into complacency by incremental victories and we will not rest, will not let our leaders off the hook, nor will we declare “mission accomplished” until we complete the truly transformational Power Shift towards a sustainable, just, and prosperous future we desperately need!
Dear sirs,
But the question remains: will the tendency develop for curtailing the CO2 emmissions by the changes of the labour cpmmotment to consumer demands? Yes, the government needs to arrange the wealth to self-relization in production sustainment along the lines of labour unions deciding many of the goals, BEFORE they meet with some of the major companies such as the car com[anies.
kris Krajewski
Newt Gingrich recently co-wrote a book with Terry L. Maple called “A Contract with the Earth.” He touches on how doom-and-gloom the message of leftist environmentalists has been historically, and charges that conservatives need to jump on the green bandwagon because they have “…confidence that humanity, against all odds, can and will prevail.”
I agree that it is important to frame our message in terms of what we’re fighting to protect and create, not the worst-case scenarios we’re trying to prevent. We must make sure that optimism presents a vision of a brighter future contingent on substantial changes in the decisions we make collectively (policy) and our whole cultural paradigm with respect to consumption.
Word.
Alex, well said my friend. We mean here “optimism” in the sense that we are confident we can tackle the monumental challenges ahead and seize our moment of opportunity to build something better - through hard work, keen vision and unwavering commitment today, we will build a sustainable, just, and prosperous tomorrow.
We definitely do not mean “optimism” in the sense that we’re optimistic it’ll all just work itself out, that “Technology” or “the Market” will simply fix our woes while we sit on the couch and watch reality TV…
Robin, there is certainly merit in encouraging businesses and individuals to reduce their carbon impacts. However, our time frame to address this problem is [frighteningly] short. We need big change as soon as possible in a way that only policy historically can bring about. And the enviro community by itself is not winning. We must recruit from other sectors. And this positive message can be a useful recruitment tool too. Kris, labor can be a big part of this movement. We should be collaborating on how green jobs can be created. As Alex said, if we shift the way we talk about this problem to incorporate the positives (what we’re fighting for and the benefits of these solutions), then we are also shifting more effectively into coalition building.
And Richard, indeed, you’ve got to walk the talk and pretty messaging must be backed up with content. At this point, the Dems aren’t backing up their peppy messaging. However, despite the fact that Pelosi’s content verges on fibbing in this press statement, as Jesse alluded to, it’s what she chooses to fib about that got me thinking to write this post. She used 1 Sky-esque messaging to mask a weakened bill, suggesting that she and her leadership team liked the positive vision. She’s chomped down on the bait, we now need to hold her to it.