By Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew
This coming Sunday, September 21st, is the People’s Climate March in New York City, here in San Diego, and elsewhere around the world.
The organizers hope that it will be “an unprecedented citizen mobilization” occurring “[a]s world leaders meet at the United Nations climate change summit” while marchers demand “the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities. . . . Other marches will take place around the world as we collectively call on our leaders to act on climate change.”
More specifically, according to the organizers in San Diego, the march is happening to “call for solutions that work for people and the planet – a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewables and energy efficiency, and a just and sustainable economy. We will press our elected leaders to implement a strong Climate Action Plan for San Diego; develop sustainable water policies; build affordable mass transit and facilitate healthy communities; and support green jobs and clean energy.”
That’s a tall order and it might be easy to greet it with a resigned sigh. Indeed, in an era of environmental crisis the problems we face can seem overwhelming. Scientists are warning of a “sixth extinction” and we are barraged with stories about historic drought conditions, catastrophic fires, rising seas, ocean acidification, and more.
When you read article after article with scientist after scientist warning that we may be approaching the “tipping point” with regard to climate change, it can seem dire indeed. In fact, it’s hard not to let the pessimism of one’s intellect overwhelm the optimism of the will.
With that in mind, we were recently invited to give a talk at a forum sponsored by San Diego350 on the history of activism and its implications for the movement to address climate change, a task that put this very challenge to us quite directly.
Our response to this challenge was to note how improbable many of the goals of past struggles must have seemed before they were accomplished: abolishing slavery and upending the core of the American economy; achieving full citizenship for freed slaves; granting full economic and political rights for women; legalizing gay marriage; bringing American workers from a place where they had absolutely no rights in the workplace and no voice whatsoever in politics to the heights of the New Deal era. The list goes on and on.
The seemingly impossible has been accomplished many times by people with very little power.
When people have accomplished what was once seen as impossible it has usually not been the result of a thoroughly planned, gradualist agenda put forth by some organization or the noblesse oblige of the powerful. Rather, it has, as scholar Dan Clawson argues, usually been the product of an upsurge of unexpected activism from below—when a spark ignites a larger fire that consumes the historic moment.
What can we learn from past victories by labor, civil rights, and other activists?
The neoliberal gospel that the market is the only thing that truly matters in human existence is a central obstacle to achieving economic and environmental justice.
1) You need an adequate map of power in order to diagnose the problem and work to end it. As W.E.B. Du Bois once observed, you need to properly analyze your burden. That means engaging in a clear-sighted analysis of existing power relations and honestly assessing the terrain—how does the system work and who are your allies and adversaries? For a successful movement against climate change this means understanding the root causes of the crisis we face.
2) You need to realize that, as Fredric Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without demand.” Oppressed people were never given anything out of the goodness of the hearts of the powerful. The history of political liberation and progressive change is a history of struggle. Conciliation does not work without pressure. This does not necessarily mean violence, but rather a principled insistence on speaking the truth to power and disrupting the system in order to create space for change.
And there will always be pushback.
For instance, in both the labor and environmental movements, the neoliberal gospel that the market is the only thing that truly matters in human existence is a central obstacle to achieving economic and environmental justice.
The notion that consumption is the answer to all human needs is a core ideological justification of the system that treats both people and the natural world as nothing more than resources or commodities.
Add to this the fact that there is a multi-billion dollar corporate network that serves both as a propaganda mechanism and a political machine. To give an example: the Koch brothers aren’t interested in having a reasonable chat about our issues; they and their allies are bent on preserving and expanding their power.
And it’s not always going to be easy to know who is really on our side. According to a first-of-its-kind report on corporate funders of climate change denying politicians, many publicly “greenwashed” corporations are saying one thing in their PR statements and doing another with their money:
According to the report, climate change deniers have received more than $641 million in campaign contributions from U.S. businesses and their employees since 2008, with 90 percent coming from sources outside the fossil fuel industry. UPS has donated nearly $2 million, while Microsoft has kicked in $1.07 million. Other million-plus donors include AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Citigroup, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Pricewaterhouse & Coopers, WalMart, Verizon and Wells Fargo, all of whom have publicly embraced the reality of climate change, environmentally responsible policies and the need to reduce emissions.
In addition to right-wing billionaires publicly championing climate change denial and green-washed corporations funding politicians who do the same, there is an equally dangerous tendency in neoliberal Democratic circles to fall for the easy corporate-friendly techno fix to climate change that fails to address the root of the problem.
This is nicely exemplified in a recent Business Week piece hailing California’s efforts to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gasses, which noted our state’s efforts and gushed that, “California’s progress didn’t require technology breakthroughs, massive paradigm shifts, or onerous consumer sacrifice. Most of the reduction in carbon pollution has been achieved through energy efficiency.” Hence, the piece goes on to argue, changes in consumption and growth are not necessary. We can continue business as usual if we are just more “efficient.”
Without letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, it should be pointed out that this is a dangerous notion to put forth at a time when we are breaking records for greenhouse gas levels and scientists are telling us that “we are running out of time.” In sum, half measures, however well meaning, just won’t do the trick.
Which leads to the third main point.
3) Any successful movement to address the looming threat of ecocide must also involve an accompanying revolution in values (a “paradigm shift” to use the phrase Business Week would like us to think is unnecessary). As Naomi Klein put it when speaking to one of Canada’s largest labor unions last year:
The case I want to make to you is that climate change—when its full economic and moral implications are understood—is the most powerful weapon progressives have ever had in the fight for equality and social justice.
But first, we have to stop running away from the climate crisis, stop leaving it to the environmentalist, and look at it. Let ourselves absorb the fact that the industrial revolution that led to our society’s prosperity is now destabilizing the natural systems on which all of life depends.
So we really do need to change the game and start moving in a radically different direction if we want to save the future. Klein more thoroughly elaborates on our present situation in a recent piece in The Nation where she observes that:
Our problem is that the climate crisis hatched in our laps at a moment in history when political and social conditions were uniquely hostile to a problem of this nature and magnitude—that moment being the tail end of the go-go ’80s, the blastoff point for the crusade to spread deregulated capitalism around the world. Climate change is a collective problem demanding collective action the likes of which humanity has never actually accomplished. Yet it entered mainstream consciousness in the midst of an ideological war being waged on the very idea of the collective sphere.
This deeply unfortunate mistiming has created all sorts of barriers to our ability to respond effectively to this crisis. It has meant that corporate power was ascendant at the very moment when we needed to exert unprecedented controls over corporate behavior in order to protect life on earth. It has meant that regulation was a dirty word just when we needed those powers most. It has meant that we are ruled by a class of politicians who know only how to dismantle and starve public institutions, just when they most need to be fortified and reimagined. And it has meant that we are saddled with an apparatus of “free trade” deals that tie the hands of policy-makers just when they need maximum flexibility to achieve a massive energy transition.
Confronting these various structural barriers to the next economy is the critical work of any serious climate movement. But it’s not the only task at hand. We also have to confront how the mismatch between climate change and market domination has created barriers within our very selves, making it harder to look at this most pressing of humanitarian crises with anything more than furtive, terrified glances. Because of the way our daily lives have been altered by both market and technological triumphalism, we lack many of the observational tools necessary to convince ourselves that climate change is real—let alone the confidence to believe that a different way of living is possible.
Thus we need to reinvigorate the collective spirit, rebuild effective public institutions, and challenge the prevailing market fundamentalism of our age. We need to rethink the progress narrative, address over-consumption, slow down enough to observe the natural world, act locally—be where we are physically and psychologically–and come to realize that we are now in a world where there is no “away” for us to put the pollutants that are killing the planet—and us.
A central part of this revolution in values is a real love of nature based in a rootedness in place and a deeper understanding of our interrelationship with all that is. As Thich Nhat Hanh puts it in his recent book Love Letter to the Earth:
Many of us are lost. We work too hard, our lives are too busy; we lose ourselves in consumption and distraction of all kinds and have become increasingly lost, lonely, and sick . . . This alienation is a kind of illness that has become an epidemic . . . [O]ur addiction to consumerism, to buying and consuming things we don’t need, is causing so much stress so much suffering, both to ourselves and the Earth . . . Only love can show us how to live in harmony with nature and with each other and save us from the devastating effects of environmental destruction and climate change.
This kind of revolution of values combined with a movement that looks to have hard conversations, builds alliances across interests, finds fertile intersections where environmental and economic justice meet, and uses a toolbox approach toward tactics—both reformist and radical, electoral work and direct action—is the answer.
Central to this task is taking the time to build real community that is more transformational than transactional. This means challenging ourselves to live more simply and gracefully on the earth and developing a sense of self that is large enough to include animals and the natural world. It means consuming less and loving where you are more. It’s a big job, but to quote Walt Whitman, “Long enough have you dreamed contemptible dreams/Now I wash the Gum from your eyes/You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.”
The People’s Climate March San Diego will be on Sunday, September 21, 2014. Folks will gather at City Hall at 12:30 to call for a strong Climate Action Plan, stop at the American Plaza / Santa Fe Station to highlight transportation alternatives, and end at the County Administration Building Park, where marchers will hear from local leaders. For more information, go to San Diego350.
Kelly Mayhew is a co-author of Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See and co-editor of Mamas and Papas: On the Sublime and Heartbreaking Art of Parenting. She teaches English at San Diego City College and lives in Golden Hill with husband Jim Miller and their son Walter.
Jim Miller
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This should be our first step in the Climate March!
“As environmental science has advanced, it has become apparent that the human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future: deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.” Worldwatch Institute, “Is Meat Sustainable?”
http://meatonomics.com/
“If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains… the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.” Environmental Defense Fund
“A 1% reduction in world-wide meat intake has the same benefit as a three trillion-dollar investment in solar energy.” ~ Chris Mentzel, CEO of Clean Energy
If Al Gore can do it, you can too! I did it 26 years ago and consider it one of the best decisions of my life.
Step by Step Guide: How to Transition to a Vegan Diet http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/step-by-step-guide-how-to-transition-to-vegan-diet/
Excellent article. Inspirational. I’m an activist, involved with planning for the People’s Climate March, and I still feel a kind “kick in the pants”. We all need to check our “business as usual” thinking, even if we think we’re on the “right side” of the problem.
This is all a day late and a dollar short. The reality is that on several major fronts the ability to recover has been lost. Climate change is just one issue and it isn’t even the major issue which is going to effectively end the human experiment on this planet. The end of humanity started at Trinity, New Mexico. The day of the first explosion of a nuclear bomb. The beginning of the nuclear age and ….our end. Back ground radiation has been raised 350% to the next safe level. What you didn’t know? The name of the end is Fukushima. The amount of radiation loosed into our world has effectively ended our existence. So have a nice march and while you walk for the corporations who are sponsoring this none event, remember they have killed you and everyone you know. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself and be honest. Oppenheimer hit the nail on the head when he said, he had become death to worlds… He knew then what some are just now reading in this rant. Go live your life, because it is coming to and end. Love one another, hug your children and grand children. Love your enemies. Buy a Geiger counter, it might add a few years to your life, if you learn how to use it. After all are you going to stop driving your car or turning on the lights? No you aren’t. We are all responsible for our end. End the hypocrisy. The reality is it is you and I who have created these extinction events. Enjoy the ride but don’t take it too serious. After all, it is done.
Jeez. Why do you bother getting out of bed in the morning?
Over consuming is one of the biggest contributors to global warming and climate change. 70% of US GDP is consumption. Yet if we stop consuming, the American economy will go into recession. This is a major contradiction that points out the fact that the US economy is based on false premises. We need an economy that responds positively to underconsumption. That would mean fewer cars on the road and more mass transit. Gross National Happiness should replace Gross Domestic Production. We need an economy which provides for a good basic standard of living for all people as opposed to one that provides luxury goods for the ultra rich and is not averse to large numbers living in poverty. The measurements that are striven for need to be ones that are beneficial to the planet and to all living things.
Why do you?
Same reason habit. Routines Doug.
People aren’t going to stop consumption. Most of the people coming to the climate march will arrive by car or bus or train or plane. Do you see anyone who is disconnecting from their power sources? We need to have the economy collapse completely. The earth needs to have a die off of billions. People always talk about this or that. But what is really needed is a new kind of people. Thousands of years ago when we were a hunter gathering populations it was in harmony with the earths ability to provide. Then came the ability to grow food and stay in one place. Then someone thought to sell the seed and another created a business. A corporation from the Hudson’s Bay Company funded in a market and capitalism was born. Now we have a corptocracy top down establishment. It runs our government and it runs us. You want to save the planet then disconnect. You want to end Monsanto? Stop buying food and grow your own. Anything short of that is just more of the same. Walk or ride a bike. Grow your own food. Make your own electricity or go without. anyone up for that? The answer is NO. So what is all this protest about? Just another way to add more hydrocarbons to the air? Sponsored by the same corporations who are messing things up. The Koch brothers? I mean really people.
Hey Criticizer Guy,
I’m not much of an hunter gatherer myself. I have trouble hunting the organic beer at Trader Joe’s.
I don’t know about this idea of a total catastrophe before we benefit. That’s a rather tough tonic to shallow, don’t you think?
I think its bunk. The article speaks for itself.
I believe we can live in harmony with the environment, technologies, economies and each other. No doubt, changes need to be made and we have to act.
By the way, Where did the electricity come from for your email?
Your response reminded me of Gillian on the Island peddling a bamboo bicycle with coconut shell electrodes.
Just keep asking yourself, ” Does this global warming make my ozone hole look bigger?”
Yeah of course you believe that. Most people do I suppose. But look at the reality rather than your fantasy. The reason for the march is because the climate isn’t working, it’s killing people instead. We aren’t living in harmony with the environment and never have, what’s gonna change? The economies are a failure. Inequality is the measure of any society now. I’m not saying I am any different, but to believe the lie that people are going to suddenly figure it out and stop all of their daily routines is delusional. I use gasoline every day just like you. I use power and leave the lights on, just like everyone else. I buy stuff I don’t need all the time, like everyone. I eat Monsanto rather than buy my own. I vote when I know it doesn’t work. It is called a habit. We all have it and no one is going to change and save anything. I do save beer bottles for the deposit.
Why attack me?
We are no longer going to benefit. Those days are over. Now we have pay back coming that’s what all the noise is about. People are losing their homes and many are on the streets, look around your town or city. We have houselessness, not homelessness. We have millions down and out in the fairness of the American nightmare, lol. We had a revolution already and the good people lost. We allowed our nation to do massive harm in the world and did nothing to stop it. What goes round comes round. The Pacific ocean is a heaping radioactive garbage dump. Sea life is going away everywhere in it. What is marching around going to do? I see the angst but protesting in America is a spectator sport. Non violent protest is against the law. But you guys have all the permits right? Just stay in line and don’t even think of going anywhere near the UN and you can all go home at the end of the parade and tell others you were a part of ‘it’. Don’t do anything out of line and all will be fine. It’s the new and improved corporate march for change remember?
Here’s an interesting NPR article on one professors perspective on how not to teach climate change. Basically not using fear. Not saying it’s right or wrong, just interesting. http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/09/15/348629576/how-not-to-teach-climate-change?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140915
@Steve
While I’m inclined to agree with you that it may be too late for humans, we cannot give up on our non-human friends who still have a fighting chance. These non-human friends from polar bears to douglas firs to turkey tail mushrooms make our existence possible.
I am in love with them and when you’re beloved is under attack you do absolutely everything you can to protect your beloved. If you don’t act to protect them, then you cannot claim love.
Don’t say that there aren’t humans willing to give up civilized comforts for a truly sustainable existence. Too many people have been murdered, too many cultures are extinct because they resisted the madness that is the dominant culture. Too many people are being murdered RIGHT NOW in resistance.
Finally, I do think we should all live as simply as possible, but instead of criticizing individuals for using electricity criticize the corporations raping the land for the coal that makes that electricity possible, criticize the governments who for centuries have worked to deprive people of their ability to support themselves on their own land bases.
There are many of us who rely on civilization for things like medication who are still actively working to bring this shitshow to an end. Some of us will die when we cannot get those medications, but it’s ridiculous to accuse them of hypocrisy when forces outside their control created their dependency on this system.
And, in the end, if the Master leaves his tools laying around, then we should use them to dismantle his house. Never forget that Sitting Bull shot at American troops with American-made rifles. Does not make him a hypocrite.
What I’m talking about is increasing back ground radiation levels world wide. Here on the west coast of California we are currently reaping the whirlwind of Fukushima, for that matter all of the northern tier as well. Within days of the Fukushima melt downs (on going) the EPA in it’s infinite wisdom decided to turn off all of our radiation counters as wave after wave of hot particles descended over California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The EPA kind of pulled a fast one by allowing those readings to go unaccountable. See no evil thing. Have no comment. Since then it has only gotten more critical while a general blackout on the news concerning these events continues. Sure you can find all kinds of information on the net, but not on main stream. A few specials maybe but not the information needed to help people make meaningful changes in their lives to lessen the impacts. I guess this is my point. Low level radiation is speeding up to such a degree the evolutionary process in DNA mutations, that all life forms, plants, animals, oceans, lands and everything living in or on them is going to change much, much faster than normal. So fast that many will not survive at all, but simple die out as species. The nuke industry knows all of this and has taken great pains to lie and confuse the public. It’s probably one reason why the vast majority of us simply don’t even understand the terms. The dose rates. The meanings of terms in the measurement of ionizing radiation. How much do you know? Do you know what is a dangerous reading? What the biological uptakes are for say cesium 137 or Iodine I131? No. You most likely don’t and it’s not your fault. We simply were never told. The events currently ongoing in Fukushima are biblical in their ramifications for all life on the planet, it is dying. Some say it is over and only a matter of time before that become obvious to all. I suspect that is the correct explanation given the incredible, astronomical amounts of radiation going into the atmosphere and the Pacific ocean 24/7. A couple of years ago Fukushima had already released more radiation into our world than all the nuclear bombs ever tested, or leaked from reactors routinely when they change fuel. Oh you didn’t know? When they depressurize the reactors to refuel they have to vent the pressure outside into the atmosphere. They have been doing this for over 50 years, they just never told anyone. We have about 100 reactors in the country and over 400 world wide, all venting routinely high level radiation. It’s why children are dying of childhood leukemia’s, Thyroid cancers, lung cancers, all kinds of cancers thanks to made man radiation sources. It never goes away. It just keeps building higher and higher in the myth of safe levels for ionizing radiation of which there is no such thing. Didn’t know that? This is the situation. So people are going to march against big oil while the whole thing is funded by it. I’m sorry but I don’t get it. Global warming is not the problem. Fukushima is.