The Self Express project is a grassroots effort launched by youth organizers based at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon who have a vision for a better future.  Traveling across the US in an essentially carbon-neutral vehicle, they plan to create a real-life example of community-oriented living.  The group intends to connect with local nonprofits and charities in locations they visit across the United States, performing service and volunteer work that gives back to the community.  They will also travel to and participate in key events in the US climate movement happening over the next few months. 

“I’m really interested to see what’s going on in our country,” says Katie Kann, a recent graduate of Linfield College who will be setting out on the Self Express later this month.  “I’m tired of only hearing about the negative stuff in the news, stuff that makes me sad. I want to see the good things that fellow citizens are doing to help people and improve quality of life across our country.”

In this way the Self Express project connects the hands-on solutions work needed to jumpstart a transition to a clean economy with the political organizing and activism that’s essential to building the sustained movement that will get us off fossil fuels for good.  Considering the scale of the challenge we’re facing, it’s neither logical nor useful to argue about whether climate activists should be addressing problems or building solutions.  We urgently need to do both these, things, which is why youth organizers aboard the Self Express will be connecting with community solutions projects while also facilitating communication between grassroots groups fighting fossil fuel infrastructure.

At the same time, the Self Express serves as a microcosm for the kind of future we need to create.  The Linfield students and alumni will be harnessing social media to track the progress of their mission, and will post frequent updates as the bus makes its journey cross-country.  To follow them on their journey (and get a glimpse of the vast amount of work that’s already gone into preparing the bus), visit and like the Self Express Facebook page.  Once the journey begins on June 20th, the group will also be posting on a separate web site.

For all those who engage with students on the bus in communities they visit, or who decide to follow their progress online, the Self Express project should serve as an inspiration, and a reminder of the initiative it takes to build a better future.  Six youth activists in Oregon have found a way to use their summer to create positive change while putting their ideals into practice.  How will you do the same?

The awesome.

Yeah, flashmobs, pranks, swiftly organized warroom tweetups, late-night dance parties of 15,000. Remember that rebellious side of us, that “we won’t take the past for an answer” side of us? Remember that “join us because this is awesome and you’re invited” side of us?

Politics is personal identity built into popular movements. The Tea Party is powerful because it ready-makes an identity for those who feel left behind by the 21st Century. It’s a safe space in a post-9/11, post financial collapse, peak-global-hegemony America. And the Tea Party’s done well wiping up a messy identity crisis by defining what they’re afraid of.

We’re also proud to define ourselves as what we’re not: we are cooler than the fossil forces of the past. They rail on chalkboards; we rally with giant puppets in the streets. They are talking heads for septuagenarians; we are sneaking into shareholder meetings and embarrassing giant fossil fuel companies. They are snarking about crosshairs on Facebook from defensive compounds in Wasilla. We are 10,000 lithe young people fighting for our future while a crotchety old pitbull like Tom Donohue screams to get off of his front yard at the US Chamber of Commerce. We are in the West Wing interrupting the President of the United States of America to remind him that energy shouldn’t kill.

But the past is where we leave the comparison. Those fearful forces haven’t got much vision for the future, and we sure do: we are identity awesome. We are the people not afraid to build something better than the assumptions handed to us.

Other American generations have staked their identities on propositions equally grand – rebelling from tyranny, beating back fascism, defending the world from communism. Our generation is staking its identity as the people responsible enough to face climate science for what it means, and political corruption for what it is. To build a cleaner, leaner, more durable and more prosperous way of life on our full tide of vibrant energy. The people smart enough to put our moral muscle to work.

But we need to remember how to have a blast doing it. Where’s the rebelliousness, the youthful energy pulling more pranks to call out our opposition? Remember when the Yes Men and the Avaaz Action Factory staged a mock press conference on the US Chamber’s “sudden” climate action? Remember when Tim DeChristopher tied on his bandanna and marched into the fray of a corrupt shareholder process? Remember when young people lay down on the train tracks against tremendous new coal facilities? (That hasn’t happened yet, but it should.)

We mustn’t abandon tried-and-true organizing tactics, nor our hard-earned insider game. And if we do rebel our way into a better world, we do so on the shoulders of giants: after all, we’re now defending the Clean Air Act that our foremothers first passed, celebrating Earth Day last week because our forefathers founded the first four decades ago. And we need the scientific white papers still, because after all, we’re fighting for a political reality that keeps pace with the chemical reality of the atmosphere. This is a movement of the young and young at heart – if you are awesome, you are in.

Crossposted from The Wonk Room,  WeArePowerShift.org, Climate Progress and Climate Solutions.

Overall, they found that 54 percent of American teens believe that global warming is happening, but many do not understand why. In this assessment, only 6 percent of teens have knowledge equivalent to an A or B, 41 percent would receive a C or D, and 54 percent would get an F. Overall, teens know about the same or less about climate change than adults. The study also found important gaps in knowledge and common misconceptions about climate change and the earth system. These misconceptions lead some teens to doubt that global warming is happening or that human activities are a major contributor, to misunderstand the causes and therefore the solutions, and to be unaware of the risks. Thus many teens lack some of the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about climate change both now and in the future as students, workers, consumers, homeowners, and citizens. For example, only:

•  54% of teens say that global warming is happening, compared to 63% of adults;
• 35% of teens understand that most scientists think global warming is happening, compared to 39% of adults;
• 46% of teens understand that emissions from cars and trucks substantially contribute to global warming, compared to 49% of adults;
• 17-18% have heard of coral bleaching or ocean acidification, compared to 25% of adults.

However, American teens have a better understanding than adults on a few important measures. For example:

•  57% of teens understand that global warming is caused mostly by human activities, compared to 50% of adults;
• 77% of teens understand that the greenhouse effect refers to gases in the atmosphere that trap heat, compared to 66% of adults;
• 52% of teens understand that carbon dioxide traps heat from the Earth’s surface, compared to 45% of adults;
• 71% of teens understand that carbon dioxide is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, compared to 67% of adults.

Meanwhile, like adults, large majorities of teens incorrectly think that the hole in the ozone layer and aerosol spray cans contribute to global warming, leading many to incorrectly conclude that banning aerosol spray cans or stopping rockets from punching holes in the ozone layer are viable solutions. However, many teens, like adults, do understand that switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy is an important way to reduce global warming.

Only 29 percent of teens say they have thought “a lot” or “some” about global warming, compared to 52 percent of adults. Likewise, only 19 percent of teens say that global warming is extremely or very important to them personally, compared to 27 percent of adults.

American teens also recognize their limited understanding of the issue. Fewer than 1 in 5 say they are “very well informed” about how the climate system works or the different causes, consequences, or potential solutions to global warming, and only 27 percent say they have learned “a lot” about the issue in school.

Importantly, 70 percent of teens say they would like to know more about global warming. Likewise, 75 percent say that schools should teach our children about climate change. Finally, teens are much more likely than adults to visit zoos, aquariums, natural history, science or technology museums than adults, suggesting that informal education venues are important places for teens (and adults) to learn about complex issues like climate change.

This November, 350.org is hosting the first planetary scale art show to try and get a new perspective on one of our first truly planetary challenges: global warming. Check out the new website here:

http://earth.350.org

I’ve pasted a piece by Bill McKibben that introduces the project below, but I’m curious to hear from all of you. What role does art play in social change? What good “climate art” do you see out there? What’s the best chant or song you’ve heard, the best poster you’ve ever seen, the short film that got you moving?

The Globe as a Canvas
by Bill McKibben

The idea behind EARTH is simple—we wanted to remind everyone that we are dealing with the first truly global problem we’ve ever faced. What better way than to use that globe as a canvas, for the first truly planet-scale piece of art?

Sometimes we forget that we live on a planet. Venus is a planet, Jupiter is a planet—but earth? That’s our cozy, familiar home. But in fact our fate is just as determined by the gaseous composition of our atmosphere as Mars or Saturn. Right now, by burning coal and gas and oil, we’re pumping that atmosphere full of carbon dioxide. Scientists told us the bottom line three years ago this fall: any amount of carbon greater than 350 parts per million is not “compatible with the planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.” We’re already too high—our air is now 390 ppm CO₂—and we’re already feeling the effects. Just ask the people flooded out of their homes this summer in Pakistan, or suffering as dengue fever spreads around the planet. Just ask the myriad species chased from their habitats by record temperatures. Nineteen nations set new all-time temperature records this year alone—how much longer are we going to wait to take action.

At 350.org we’ve already coordinated what CNN called the ‘most widespread day of political activity in the planet’s history,’ with 5200 demonstrations in 181 countries last fall. And this autumn we topped that—we pulled together practical minded people in 188 countries who staged 7400 ‘work parties,’ putting up solar panels or digging community gardens. But the practical and the political are not the only ways humans understand the world. We also respond to art, which is why we’ve always stressed creativity. And never more than in the week leading up to the next UN conference in November 2010.

This EARTH project is designed to spread a warning, around the globe. It’s designed to spread a message of hope, too—if we rise to our potential as humans, we’ll be able to cope with the most dangerous problem we’ve ever faced, and begin to work our way towards a clean, renewable future. All we know for sure is that it’s going to be big—thanks to our friends at DigitalGlobe, big enough to be seen from outer space.

In fact, it’s kind of fun to imagine some other intelligence peering down through their telescopes at our blue-white orb, trying to make sense of these giant images suddenly spreading across snowfield and desert and lagoon. What they’d seeing is the planet’s immune system coming alive—conscious, alert human beings doing their best to help safeguard the future. Art can’t do this job by itself—we need science and engineering and economics and all the functions of the right brain fully engaged. But humans have deep spirit too, and we’re counting on that to help.

We don’t know if we’ll win the fight against climate change—the day is late and the fossil fuel industry is a powerful opponent. We don’t have much money. But we do have beauty and meaning and passion, all of which will be on full display as November comes to a close. Thank you for helping

Ever since I was a kid music and activism have both been driving forces in my life.  The sounds of the Beatles and Nirvana in my elementary school classrooms inspired me to start playing guitar, and my uncle’s tireless campaigning around environmental justice issues in India, such as dams in the Narmada River valley and the Bhopal gas disaster, ultimately moved me to become part of the youth climate movement here in the U.S. For a long time I dreamt of merging these two passions to create a driving force for change.  I thought about starting a singer/songwriter type project, singing ballads about struggles for justice and freedom.  I even had a name for the project: “Narmada Bhopal,” in tribute to the battles my uncle fought in India, and that many continue to fight to this day.  But even though I had the concept figured out, I wasn’t sure how to get it off the ground.

Then during the summer of 2004, I figured it out.  While on a retreat with a group of youth climate activists in New York City, I caught an evening of slam poetry and spoken word at the Nuyorican Poets Café on the Lower East Side.  I had never heard anything like it before, and I was amazed.  Here were people on stage without any instruments, speaking directly from the heart, twisting the English language inside out on itself (with some forays into Spanish for good measure) to tell their stories!  I thought to myself, “Hey, maybe I can do that!”

And so I did, and Narmada Bhopal was born, and the poems below became part of that project.

I have been blessed to share these poems with many friends and colleagues in the youth climate movement over the years, bridging the gap between poetry and performance, and now I am excited to share them with you.  Enjoy!

“The Earth Grows” (written in April 2005 for Fossil Fools Day)

The Earth grows warm as our hearts grow cold
And lies are traded and bought and sold
We can no longer accept what we are told
We need a new vision, something bold
To transcend false reality and learn to breathe free
And create a world based around you and me
Not corporations and politicians repressing liberty
We need to speak together as one community
Because global warming’s looming as a threat every day
CO2 makes our world hot and melts it away
And we the people suffer and choke on the ashes
Of the toxic fumes and the greenhouse gases

But in Washington DC they’re denying the facts
As the government and coal companies sign business pacts
And as they try to keep the black rock flowing fast
They show just how much they are stuck in the past

And the Senate keeps trying to drill offshore
The latest chapter in our never-ending war
On our environment, destroyed devastated degraded
The assault on our land continues blind and unabated
Poisoned atmosphere, we have much to fear
As global warming’s effects become more and more clear
The diagnosis is in, Mother Nature is sick
The time for action’s now, we’ve gotta move quick so

Know that another future is possible
One based on solar and wind and renewable
Energy, the key to setting us free
From corrupt politicians and corporate hegemony

We need to start demanding these alternatives
So that we our world and its creatures may live
Start locally, in your community
And ask yourself, what do I want for me?

To live in a world sick and choked by heat
Where insecurity manifests itself on the street
Where the world’s oppressed peoples cry out in vain
Because we have all become numb to their pain?

Or to live in a world where we all come together
Enjoying a stable climate and weather
Preserving our environment as a natural treasure
And rediscovering our lives and spirits and pleasure?

We’re at a crossroads and the choice is ours
In this hour of darkness we’ve got the power
The Earth grows warm as our hearts grow cold
When will we warm up to the Earth?

-

“One World at a Time” (written in August 2006 at the Sierra Student Coalition retreat in New Hampshire)

One campus at a time
One city at a time
One state at a time
One country at a time
One world at a time

One world at a time when we are standing on the edge of a new beginning
One world at a time when we are rising to the challenge of a generation

I can feel this movement coursing through my veins
As I gaze into the eyes of my brothers and sisters
Knowing that we are all in this together
Knowing that the bonds of solidarity will connect us forever

One campus at a time
One city at a time
One state at a time
One country at a time
One world at a time
We are making change and reclaiming our future

And we will continue to transform minds
One world at a time

It’s Getting Hot In Here: Create Our Climate is a month-long series to feature the creative work of the youth climate movement.  Through poetry, prose, visual and performance art, we aim to use these different media to communicate the passion, struggle and imperative of our work tackling climate and energy issues.  Please join youth leaders for posts on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout April.

Art (spoken, visual, musical) communicates the emotion and passion and values behind the work that we do in a way that sticks in our memory.  On a daily basis organizers in our movement face the weight of global problems, widespread injustice and a system tilted against us, yet we persevere in large part through support and encouragement of this community. Sometimes that is best communicated through art.

Recognizing the importance of creative expression in our movement, It’s Getting Hot In Here is hosting a month-long series called “Create Our Climate,” which will feature video, poetry, prose, visual art and music from this community.  If you have already created such a piece and want to share it, sign up!  If you want to specifically create a piece for this series, sign up!

Even if you’ve never posted anything before, we want your contribution.  We are all artists and have something to share.

*To this day I still can’t find the video of that performance.  If anyone knows where I can find it, please share!

In recent weeks James Cameron himself has been calling Avatar a catalyst for environmental action saying he now wants to “use the spotlight that’s been put on him by Avatar’s success to bring attention to environmental causes“. This caught the eye of Rainforest Action Network’s Becky Tarbotton. On yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle website Tarbotton started a call to Mr. Cameron to help expose the “real-life Avatar” that Chevron continues to enable in Ecuador.

In the article Tarbotton asks:

“What if in his acceptance speech James Cameron mentioned the real-life Indigenous Ecuadorean heroes who are battling the real-life evil oil corporation Chevron?

She then continues:

If Director James Cameron accepts an Academy Award next month, he should let his faithful fans know that while Pandora is fictional, what is happening to communities in Ecuador because of Chevron’s actions is as real as it gets.”

Now THIS seems like something worth watching on Oscar night, help us spread word on Facebook and Twitter (where it’s already gaining) by retweeting and posting “I want Avatar director James Cameron to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against #Chevron at #Oscars: bit.ly/9Rvut8 #realavatar RT Please”.

My personal two cents is that, after taking his narrative from the all-to-familiar struggles of indigenous communities and their fights against resource extraction, colonialism, and the corporations that perpetuate the destruction of these communities, James Cameron has a responsibility to use the global venue of the Oscars to highlight communities that are more real than any 3d glasses.

Last month Josh Schrei wrote a great piece on how Avatar’s dialog mimics the rhetoric of so many corporate hacks and unfortunately there are all too many real-life Avatar plots, from India to Peru. However the case against Chevron resonates with me for two reasons. One is has the potential to share some commonalities with the films ending in the very near future. Chevron and CEO John Watson are facing a potential guilty verdict in the next 6 months for their dump and run in the Ecuadorean Rainforest. Granted this battle will not be won with majestic trees, or flying dragons; it will be won with a communities unending will for survival, and a global rally for justice. While the means may be different, the result will be the same in that one of the world’s most powerful corporations (Chevron) will be held accountable to their crimes. Which leads to my second reason to why the Chevron/Avatar connection resonates with me.

The Chevron case is already sending ripples through the oil industry on how they are operating in communities, don’t get me wrong they are still destroying communities for the black gold but they have taken notice. Now we need these corporations to move beyond “taking notice”. As the Chevron case builds to a crescendo, and if Chevron is found guilty of the over $27 billion in damages, oil corporations worldwide will be forced to take measures to rethink their operations and their consequences, and communities will have an unprecedented momentum to fight back against the likes of John Watson who enable some of the most atrocious operations and crimes in the world.

This trial is a legal catalyst and Avatar has the potential to be the pop-culture catalyst. Something as simple a mentioning the ongoing fight in the Ecuadorian Amazon would be an enormous act of solidarity with communities that inspire his narrative, and bring the real-life stories of corporate corruption and colonization to an entirely new audience waiting to take action after being inspired by Avatar.

Help ask James Cameron:
Repost this blog, the SF Chronicle, or better yet write your own blog and post on Facebook.
Help spread the word about this group
Retweet “Avatar director James Cameron should mention real struggle of Amazonians against #Chevron at #Oscars http://tinyurl.com/ybd6d72 #realavatar” on Twitter.

Additionally, Public Radio International traveled with indigenous communities in Ecuador as they bused to Quito to see Avatar. Here is there reaction to James Cameron’s film.
You can find the full PRI article here.

Over the next week, the tour will swing through 5 states, bringing together leaders from the faith, business, and climate communities alongside entertainers and prominent figures, including DJ Biz Markie, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, actress Gloria Reuben, performer D. Woods and many others.

There are some amazing events planned as the bus makes its way from New Orleans to DC. Make sure to check back on this blog for updates during the week, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep track of the tour in real-time.

This is an incredible project, bringing together diverse constituencies to call for clean energy with one voice. Some might be surprised to see environmental groups working alongside civil rights leaders, youth activists, communities of color, and prominent figures from the faith, business and entertainment communities. However, reading the words of some of the tour participants, it’s clear that the issues of energy, climate, and environmental justice run so deep that this partnership is not only natural, but inevitable.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Lennox Yearwood (“Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham…Earth”):

Our country, and the world, faces the duel crisis of a failed American economy and climate change that threatens life on this planet as we know it.

Poor people and people of color are feeling the adverse impacts of climate change first and worst, from rising energy prices, to increases in heat-related illnesses. Ultimately, however, the destruction resulting from our planet’s rising temperature will not be discerning of national borders, a family’s yearly income, or the hue of one’s skin.

Actress Gloria Reuben (“A Bus Ride for Clean Energy”):

When dirty, old-fashioned energy sources pollute our air and water, it becomes a blatant public health problem — one that is especially burdensome for low income and minority groups. When a community doesn’t have strong financial resources or political clout, the people who live there are often victims of environmental injustice. Corporations are poisoning our air and water, while at the same time lining the pockets of elected officials with political contributions.

Meanwhile, our communities are in dire economic straits. During this difficult financial time, the demographic hit the hardest is people with an annual household income of $12,499 or less. In this group, the recent unemployment rate is 30%.

We have to stop this madness. This is not America as it should be.

That’s why the clean energy movement is about empowering these communities. It’s about giving them a voice.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (“Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Tour Hits the Road”):

The clean energy choices we make today will have a profound impact on the environment of our young people and communities of color — the very people this tour is bringing together and the voices we need to hear. We’re going out and meeting people where they live, work and learn to talk about how we create clean energy jobs, protect our planet, and break our dependence on foreign oil.

Dear Friends,

The epic fight to ward off global warming and transform the energy system that is at the core of our planet’s economy takes many forms: huge global days of action, giant international conferences like the one that just failed in Copenhagen, small gestures in the homes of countless people.

But there are a few signal moments, and one comes next month, when the federal government puts Tim DeChristopher on trial in Salt Lake City. Tim—“Bidder 70”– pulled off one of the most creative protests against our runaway energy policy in years: he bid for the oil and gas leases on several parcels of federal land even though he had no money to pay for them, thus upending the auction. The government calls that “violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act” and thinks he should spend ten years in jail for the crime; we call it a noble act, a profound gesture made on behalf of all of us and of the future.

Tim’s action drew national attention to the fact that the Bush Administration spent its dying days in office handing out a last round of favors to the oil and gas industry. After investigating irregularities in the auction, the Obama Administration took many of the leases off the table, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar criticizing the process as “a headlong rush.” And yet that same Administration is choosing to prosecute the young man who blew the whistle on this corrupt process.

We cannot let this stand. When Tim disrupted the auction, he did so in the fine tradition of non-violent civil disobedience that changed so many unjust laws in this country’s past. Tim’s upcoming trial is an occasion to raise the alarm once more about the peril our planet faces. The situation is still fluid—the trial date has just been set, and local supporters are making plans for how to mark the three-day proceedings. But they are asking people around the country to flood into Salt Lake City in mid-March. If you come, there will be ample opportunity for both legal protest and civil disobedience. For example:

#Outside the courthouse, there will be a mock trial, with experts like NASA’s Jim Hansen providing the facts that should be heard inside the chambers. We don’t want Tim on trial—we want global warming on the stand.

#Demonstrators will be using the time-honored tactics of civil disobedience to make their voices heard outside the courthouse in an effort to prevent “business as usual”—it’s business as usual that’s wrecking the earth.

#There will be evening concerts and gatherings, including a “mini-summit” to share ideas on how the climate movement should proceed in the years ahead. This is a people’s movement that draws power from around the globe; for a few days its headquarters will be Salt Lake City.

You can get the most up-to-date news at climatetrial.com, including schedules for non-violence training, and information about legal representation. If you’re coming, bring not only your passion but also your creativity—we need lots of art and music to help make the point that we won’t sit idly by while the government tries to scare the environmental movement into meek cooperation. This kind of trial is nothing but intimidation—and the best answers to intimidation are joy and resolve. That’s what we’ll need in Utah.

We know it’s short notice. Some of us won’t be able to make it to Utah because we have other commitments or are limiting travel, and if you’re in the same situation, climatetrial.com will also have details of solidarity actions in other parts of the country. If you can contribute money to help make the week’s events possible, click here. But more than your money we need your body, your brains, and your heart. In a landscape of little water, where redrock canyons rise upward like praying hands, we can offer our solidarity to the wild:  wild lands and wild hearts.  Tim DeChristopher deserves and needs our physical and spiritual support in the name of a just and vibrant community.

Thank you for standing with us,

Naomi Klein,

Bill McKibben,

Terry Tempest Williams,

Dr. James Hansen

Introduction
In August 2007, I participated in the Sierra Student Coalition’s annual leadership gathering, Shindig. At Shindig, I connected with dozens of inspiring youth leaders from around the nation. Leaving that week I saw myself as one person in a network of groups and individuals leading the way to a carbon-free future. I knew that by organizing our fellow students and communities to demand clean energy from the powers-that-be we could secure a sustainable and prosperous future. It was with this conviction that I returned to Michigan and threw myself into my new role as student coordinator of the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition on the eve of Power Shift 2007.

On an unusually warm November 5, 2007 afternoon I stood with thousands of young people on the capitol lawn in Washington DC. Proudly, we wore prop green hardhats and waved “no new coal” signs as we listened raptly to the rousing speeches of Carol Browner, Edward Markey, Van Jones and others. Following the rally, the hundreds-strong Michigan contingent marched to the office of the aging John Dingell, who’s chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was identified as a barrier to progressive climate legislation. One-hundred-and-fifty of us packed a room with his staff and voiced the urgent need for climate solutions and investments in greening Michigan’s decrepit industrial infrastructure. Despite the energetic optimism of the day, I boarded the bus back to Michigan asking myself “what if all of the organizing effort channeled into creating that weekend had been channeled into transforming our communities?” and was troubled by a thought I was unable to articulate at the time: by organizing Power Shift 2007, our movement invested more energy in projecting the image of young people demanding change, than it did in actually creating change. I was entirely complicit.

A period of burnout followed. Thankfully, with burnout comes questioning and reflection. As I learned more about climate change and the physical and social infrastructure at its root, my old assumptions crumbled, making room for the emergence of new understandings. My definition of the crisis our movement must address expanded to the ecological crisis, of which climate change is one intensifying variable. The ecological crisis, however, is facilitated by the exploitative flow of power within society and the greater biosphere. These power dynamics emerge from cultural relationships of alienation, which in turn stem from consciously-and-unconsciously-held collective metaphysical assumptions about the nature of ourselves, our fellow humans, and our biosphere. Together, these construct the foundation of systemic exploitation between humans and of the biosphere.

This introduction has presented glimpses of catalyzing moments and ideas that led to the formation of the backdrop upon which I work today. In the following section I ask: if this is the crisis we face, where does it point us? What are practical considerations for the path ahead? In answering these questions, I will discuss the operation of cultural relationships and collective metaphysical assumptions and strategies for changing them. This however will bring us to a dilemma: cultural relationships and metaphysical assumptions change over a long timescale, while averting the worst of the climate and ecological crisis requires swift action. I will attempt to resolve this dilemma by forwarding a new approach to movement strategy which emphasizes tactics that halt destruction of the biosphere and  reshape the flow of power in society.

A Primer on Collective Metaphysical Assumptions, Cultural Relationships, and Flows of Power
An example of a metaphysical assumption is “I am separate from the biosphere.” Whether or not it is consciously articulated, such an assumption is reinforced on a daily basis – chasing success in an office building, finding pleasure on a TV screen, and enjoying “nature” because it exists apart from the “real world” of modern life. When such an assumption is commonly held, it becomes a collective metaphysical assumption: “We are separate from the biosphere.”

Cultural relationships reflect collective metaphysical assumptions. The alienating collective metaphysical assumption of separation from the biosphere is reflected in our cultural relationship to the biosphere – exploitation and domination. In turn, this is manifested by the flow of power between society and the rest of the biosphere: systemic physical degradation and liquidation of ecosystems for resources. This is not to say that all members of our culture seek to dominate the biosphere, but that on the whole our culture exploits the biosphere because of alienated collective metaphysical assumptions.

Cultural relationships and collective metaphysical assumptions form and change in response to persistent conditions. Our culture creates its own persistent conditions, such as a constant electricity supply, which shape and produce new collective metaphysical assumptions. Thus, collective metaphysical assumptions and cultural relationships reinforce one another as they co-evolve.

It is also important to think of interactions between assumptions, culture, and power in terms of race, gender, class, and other oppressive expressions of hierarchy.

The Conundrum of Transforming Cultural Relationships and Metaphysical Assumptions
The purpose of transforming cultural relationships and metaphysical assumptions is to create a world in which the wrongs of the past are unimaginable. Many political movements have stated cultural change as a goal; some have created it. The abolition, feminist, and civil rights movements all achieved measures of equality, but have not fundamentally altered the flow of power in society. Branches of the environmental movement seek to foster cultural changes such as increasing conservation, or environmental awareness. While noble goals, these too fall short of transforming cultural relationships or the metaphysical assumptions that facilitate systemic destruction of the biosphere. I have seen calls for deep cultural transformation in our movement, but few discussions of how to bring it about.

Perhaps the sparsity of “how to”s on cultural transformation is indicative of the cultural transformation conundrum: there is no recipe for the cultural transformation we seek. If someone tells you there is one, don’t trust them. The best we can strive for is to create conditions from which non-alienating metaphysical assumptions can emerge to create cultural relationships that shape mutually empowering flows of power in society. It is up to us to imagine the conditions under which such a transformation could occur.

Attempts to transform culture without altering the persistent conditions that create and reinforce metaphysical assumptions will fail. Such is the fate of utopian movements. The hippie movement sought to bring about a cultural revolution of peace and harmony, but aside from its persistent drug use, did not employ tactics to alter the persistent conditions that shape people’s lives. The daily experience of reality is a far stronger force than the idealistic messages, whether from the mouths of hippies or youth climate activists.

To begin the conversation of what conditions could spur the emergence of non-alienating metaphysical assumptions, I’ll offer two ideas. First, the most important units of social organization could be federated neighborhood-sized communities. The cultivation and preparation of food is a part of every person’s daily routine. Both of these ideas would emerge not from a movement’s utopian ideals but as adaptive strategies to changing conditions; in this case the adaptations would be in response to the decline of nation-states and industrial food production.

The Urgent Long Term Change Dilemma
Clearly, creating the conditions for the emergence of non-alienating collective metaphysical assumptions is a long term endeavor – perhaps measured in centuries – but climate change and  ecological collapse are happening now. We are in a dilemma. By focusing solely on long term transformation we will miss our window of opportunity to avert the worst of the ecological crisis. By focusing on short term mitigation, we will only slow the ecological crisis and fail to address the flow of power in society. As a movement, we must adopt tactics that directly halt destruction of the biosphere and create momentum towards reshaping the flow of power in society.

Three Critiques
Such a focus would entail a radical departure from our current movement strategy. Our movement has three fatal flaws in our strategy for bringing about sustainability. Each merits in depth discussion, but at this juncture I will only identify them.

1. Our movement has focused on mobilizing a small constituency of socially conscious people with privilege (like me) for whom the status quo promises shelter from the worst of the ecological crisis. There is no urgent impetus for them to affect revolutionary change.

2. Alchemy, a predecessor of the scientific method, was a medieval practice in which people tried impossible feat of transmuting common materials into valuable minerals, such as led into gold. Our movement structures its strategy around alchemical assumptions about the interaction of advocacy and power. For example, if our goal is an ambitious and binding climate treaty and we gather 25 million petition signatures, generate 5 million phone calls, thousands of press hits, hold citizen lobby weeks, wine and dine key climate champion senators, publicize studies on green jobs, release green job video advertisements, and hold photogenic citizen day of action, there is still no reason to think it will produce the desired result. A leap of faith stands between our tactics and our goals.

3. The dominant economic and political institutions create the ecological crisis. Yet our tactics, such as legislative advocacy, consistently legitimize the institutions, flows of power and assumptions that produce the problem in the first place! Even if by chance our alchemical metaphysical assumptions proved true, and we brought about the creation of an ambitious and binding climate treaty, the result would be the mere slowing of climate change and the ecological crisis. We base our tactics on utopian dreams of what the state and economy could be rather than holistic assessments of what they are and how they act in the world.

Each of these flaws will prevent us from reaching our near term goals of mitigating climate change and staving off the worst of the ecological collapse and fail to put us on the path to long term transformation.

Suggestions
As a movement, we must develop adaptable long term strategies to halt destruction of the biosphere and reshape the flow of power in society by exploiting vulnerabilities in the physical and cultural infrastructure that maintains the status quo. I hope that this essay can spark discussion on what such a strategy would entail. Lets start with direct action.

The term direct action is often misunderstood as illegal actions. While direct action can at times fall outside of the realm of state-sanctioned actions – such as a blockading access roads for equipment on strip mines – but what distinguishes direct action from indirect action is the way in which the action uses power. Direct action is when an individual or group uses its own power to affect their desired change. Indirect action is when an individual or group tries to influence power they do not control (such as activists trying to influence state power) to affect the change they want. One can ask their grocery store to carry organic foods (indirect) or one can grow their own (direct).

Direct action strategies can combine economic development projects that increase a community’s capacity to meet its needs with its own resources and power with actions that physically reduce dominant political and economic institutions’ capacity to expand the exploitative flow of power and destruction of the biosphere. If effectively employed and proliferated such a direct action strategy has the potential to profoundly alter the flow of power in society.

It is important to note that our movement is not necessarily the most powerful engine of change in the time ahead. Indeed, today we are a blip on the political radar. We make it look sort of democratic. Don’t get me wrong, I love us, but with love comes honesty. From the Tea Party Movement to the World Trade Organization, many are actively planning the world of the future. In addition to these institutional forces, we know that the centuries ahead will be characterized by increasing climatic variability and geopolitical destabilization. In developing strategies for bringing about favorable conditions for non-alienating metaphysical assumptions, we must consider the dynamic interplay of state and non-state actors seeking to expand or maintain power in the face of an increasingly inhospitable world. The shifting terrain ahead will bring challenges and opportunities for direct action interventions and our movement and we must be poised to make the most of them.

A Caveat
To abandon all indirect action strategies would be FOOLHEARDY in the extreme. Current strategies to end mountaintop removal, which combine direct and indirect action tactics, seem to be gaining ground and moving dominant institutions towards a ban on mountaintop removal. However, strategies such as those employed by the mountaintop removal abolition movement must be better oriented towards building momentum towards our ultimate goals, otherwise, we’ll find that the draglines are right back at it come the next political cycle.

Risk Inversion: A Cogintive Barrier
I use the term risk inversion to convey the following observation. It feels safer to use ineffective  tactics that  keep us on track towards ecological collapse than it does to use tactics that have the potential to reshape the flow of power or directly halt destruction of the biosphere. Guaranteed loss feels safer than taking a chance at victory. In order to create and employ a direct action strategy, we must dismantle this cognitive barrier. Lets start a conversation on where this barrier comes from, how it operates to persistently disempower change agents, and how we can incorporate practices for overcoming it in our organizing.

Conclusion?
There is much more to be said and considered about each of the topics discussed in the post. Please join the conversation, online here, or email me anromu@gmail.com.