We went to the Republican National Convention in Tampa and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte and were disappointed to find no other climate activists in either town. (Turns out Whit Jones of the Energy Action Coalition was in Charlotte leading a push to get Duke Energy to dump ALEC, which is fantastic and we applaud him for it, but where was the rest of the movement?)
If global warming is indeed the greatest crisis to ever face humanity, what the hell are the climate organizations spending their time doing? Raising funds? Writing websites? Doing speaking engagements? Organizing one big action every six months and then occasionally standing up to the Keystone pipeline? (We don’t mean to minimize the hugeness of stopping the pipeline—stopping it for now anyway—but we do intend to push the movement to nut-up and start acting like this crisis is as urgent as it truly is!)
The American political system will play a HUGE part in solving this. The rest of the world cannot do it if the USA doesn’t lift a finger, and unfortunately one political party (talking to YOU Republicans!) is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen.
So this election is enormous. Mother Nature gave America a huge wake-up call with the dreadful heat, drought, and wildfires this summer, BUT THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT HAS NOT ACTED UPON IT. NONE of them, as far as I can tell anyway, are looking to influence the American elections.
WHY THE HELL NOT?
We still have 50 days to have an impact before these elections. The measure of our success will be dependent upon the commitment of everyone, INCLUDING the climate movement during those 50 days. We are surrounded by a HUGE OPPORTUNITY: Pre-gathered crowds at political rallies. We can and must go to those rallies with smart, funny, NONVIOLENT actions to recruit and win the sympathy of the American public. (Humor is an incredibly effective tactic, it disarms people; and people who take themselves very seriously are defenseless against it.)
We Pissed-Off Polar Bears spent the first half of this year studying Gene Sharp’s books on Nonviolent Struggle, and we’re CERTAIN that with a disciplined nonviolent strategy, we can create huge shifts in public opinion in a very short time. (By the way, “nonviolent” does not mean “passive” – which is completely LAME and it will NOT get the job done. It also doesn’t mean simply “peaceful”, because, in fact, Nonviolent Struggle is a very CONFRONTATIONAL technique that should put its opponents in a serious bind.)
At Democratic rallies we will push to recruit activists who understand that THIS IS THE MOVEMENT OF OUR TIME (Actually, of ALL TIME).
At Republican rallies we will push to win over the media, the police, the family-members – the reasonable people - bystanders mostly - who know something’s seriously amiss with the weather. Sure we’ll be confronted by bellicose deniers, but with patience and calm towards those who are attacking us, we hope to reach the others nearby.
So we’re calling on people to STEP UP AND JOIN THE FRAY! This is no less than a Call to Adventure to save all life on this planet. We’ll show you how to do it by organizing “meetups” in your town to create groups to go to the rallies and start vibrant, active campaigns in your area. We have precious little time, but our cause couldn’t be more awesome.
So f***ing JOIN US!!! Go to our website (PissedOffPolarBears.com) and see how to start a MeetUp in your town. Donate funds so we can take our actions to senate rallies nationwide!
We need your help. We need your involvement. We need it now. Contact us directly to become part of our well-planned strategy!
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