Rising Tide North America is pleased to announce the release of our latest publication:
Long Live the Climate Movement
In the aftermath of the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, the inability of the Big Greens, governments, and market approaches to find genuine and sustainable solutions to climate change is undeniable. As author Naomi Klein so aptly observed at the end of COP15 talks, “A particular model of dealing with climate change is dying.”
In the same uncompromising spirit as Rising Tide publications such as Deal or No Deal, and Hoodwinked in the Hothouse, CMID:LLCM delivers a timely critique of the failures of this “particular model” as exemplified by the mainstream NGOs who have grown all too cozy with corporations and the political establishment. It explores the ways in which “green” capitalism,electoral politics, and market mechanisms, far from solving the climate crisis, are some of the climate movement’s biggest obstacles.
Not content with mere polemic, CMID:LLCM charts a course that diverges from the dominant discourse of the mainstream climate movement. The essay lays out a strategy of supporting and escalating frontline struggles againstdirty energy while building a new global climate movement from the ground up, based around core principles of climate justice, grassroots power, solidarity, and direct action.
The Climate Movement Is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement is a must-read for anyone left disenchanted by the mainstream climate movement, and all who are ready to step it up and fight for climate justice.
You can download a digital copy to view online or print yourself.
Or send us an email to contact (at) risingtidenorthamerica (dot) org with your name, address, and how many copies you would like to receive. We are happy to provide this publication for free but as an all volunteer collective we greatly appreciate donations. Also consider joining in our print run collaboration:
Rising Tide North America is excited to announce a “Print-Run Collaboration” project for CMID:LLCM. Local groups and allies can help us raise the funds necessary for an initial print-run of several thousand copies, and in return, receive a big stack “hot-off-the-presses” at approximately the cost of printing (cheaper than photocopies!).
Please email us with “Print-Run Collaboration” in the subject line for more information!
the links above didn’t help me find the pdf, so here is a static link:
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/lifedeath.pdf
One minor nit: in the discussion of community controlled energy sources, I often hear this from climate activists, but when questioned on reliability or storage I will then be told that energy can be gathered over large distances and then transmitted hundreds or thousands of miles. There seems to be a dichtomy within the climate movement over offgrid vs supergrid. Just something to keep in mind.
This is great. Its about time this level of systemic analysis gained some ground in the climate movement. I’ve actually found myself getting into more heated arguments with “mainstream” environmentalists about the futility of certain efforts than with deniers and the like.
You can also join the Climate Movement is Dead…. Long Live the Climate Movement event on Facebook– http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=325403502754&ref=mf
We’ll be sending out updates on how to get to printed copies through it.
I gave the PDF a quick read and I agree with a lot of what’s in there, but I do have one beef. Y’all take on the big greens a lot and I agree they have problems, but they also do things well. The Sierra Club (now helmed by one of your own, eh?) shuts down coal plants very, very effectively. Maybe they’re too weak on other fronts, but I think you’d be better off faulting them when necessary, but also giving them credit where necessary. We don’t all need to be against everything the other camp is doing. Our criticism should be strategic and helpful, not a blanket statement.
Hi JP – that’s for the feedback!
While there has been good efforts from Sierra and others, there has been just as much pulling the rug out from under communities. Case in point, *is* the new directer there – check out this unbelievable, embarrassingly pro-fossil fuel (Natural Gas) interview Mike Brune did on Mad Money! A perfect demonstration of the problem with the big NGOs is you have to walk the new “green” corporate line – for funding, political influence, media coverage, etc.
if my embed doesn’t work it’s at:
http://connect.sierraclub.org/post/Groups/Welcome_Michael_Brune/blog/watch_brune_on_cnbcs_mad_money_with_jim_cramer.html?cons_id=&ts=1266305549&signature=24d37333bbf1950f1177012f5d9abf00
meant to say “thanks for the feedback”
Re the story on page 15:
Just think, if all those environmental activists in the USA hadn’t dogged Al Gore’s 2000 campaign because his father owned stock in Occidental Petroleum (sold after he died), Gore would have won the presidential election and we wouldn’t be in the climate emergency we’re in today, which is due to Bush’s deadly procrastination. Unintended consequences, eh? Yikes.
To rephrase what is written on the next page, what we choose to fight is just as important as the way we choose to fight. I’m not sure the Greens and other greenies in the USA will ever be forgiven for handing the rest of us eight years of Bush on a platter.
GreenHearted – I don’t think your statements on the anti-gore campaign are accurate.
1st, it was started as a human rights campaign – not really an environmental campaign.
2nd, the campaign existed well before the prez. campaign.
3rd, it wasn’t that Gore’s dad had some stock, it was that Gore himself had stock and moreover that the Clinton administration generally had huge ties and gave big support to this company.
4th, what are you trying to say here? that we shouldn’t (fairly and accurately!) expose a democratic party politician just because it might have unintended consequences? That seems like a deeply cynical and defeatist approach to organizing – how can we hope to change in our society if we are scared from holding people accountable for their actions because it might have “unintended consequences”?
Anyhow, check out the article in The Nation that exposed the issue – http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000522/silverstein
it’s by Ken Silverstein, DC editor for Harpers, and a former LA Times Columnist. Again, hard to marginalize this as a “greenie” issue.
Yeah, I can’t believe those protesters would harass poor Al Gore just to prevent an act of genocide against the U’wa.