So at some point this year the President is going to ask us to step up to support his push to do something about climate DISRUPTION.  And we gotta be ready when that happens! 

Currently this movement follows only a couple leaders, and apparently  they don’t have the resources to drum up actions more than a couple times a year.  SO, we all need to use our own creativity, resources, and friends to step in and come up with our own Nonviolent Actions.   So you’re gonna need to know all the nonviolent weapons at your disposal!

In Gene Sharp’s book The Methods of Nonviolent Action, he outlines 198 different methods.
Here’s the list.  Good lord!  Those are just a bunch of words!  Just reading that list is kind of a useless exercise for nonviolent activists.

That’s why Sharp included 300 pages worth of examples of each and every one of them, which gives you a much more tangible feel of how these things work…and a lot of them could work for the climate movement!

Today, we’ll look at Method #1: Public Speeches.

Now, lots of times public speeches are lame!  The Serbian resistance movement Otpor decided right from the get-go that their movement wasn’t gonna do speeches! 

But they can work.  It depends on who’s giving the speech and when and where. 

For instance, if you stand on a street corner and give a speech about climate change, it’s not likely to be effective.

BUT, if you’re, President Obama, and you go on at length about climate change in your 2nd inauguration speech, that would qualify as surprising and therefore effective. 

I mean, everyone was like “Holy crap, he talked more about climate change than anything else!  My God, he really means to do something about it!”

It was also big news when mayor Bloomberg endorsed Obama after Hurricane Sandy hit his city.  It depended on the moment!

One of the guys Gene Sharp talks about was a Catholic Priest in Nazi Germany named Bernard Lictenberg who told his congregation that he wished to share the fate of the Jews who were being sent off to concentration camps.  That was brave.  And the Nazis did send him off to Dachau, and he did share their fate.  But thousands and thousands of people were dying, and he did the only thing he could.

Now, no minister in America is gonna get killed if they speak to their congregations for action on climate change, but a lot of people in those congregations do NOT believe in it and do NOT want to hear about it.  So it would be a great moral stand for a member of the clergy to do that.

Also, Republican politicians would be really brave and would have an eye-opening impact if they stood up in favor of action.  You know they can’t ALL believe climate change is just a hoax. 

I mean they got kids and grandkids and they need to do the right thing for them.  They don’t want those grandkids to one day say “Yeah, grampa was a senator but I don’t want to talk about him”
“Why not?”
“He was a climate denier dirtbag!” 
“Oh, that’s horrible!  Now America is a dried up wasteland”.
“I KNOW!  Stupid grandpa!”

Seriously that’s how they’re gonna be remembered.  (Polar bears already talk about ‘em like that.  It’s brutal!)

So public speeches can work depending on who gives the speech and when and where. 

Tomorrow we’ll talk about Method Number 2: Letters of Opposition or Support.

“Oh wow!  He’s gonna talk about correspondence!  Can’t wait!”

Well tune in anyway, we all need to learn all these methods.


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Why Does it Take a Catastrophe for Needed Action to Take Place?

I was moved to tears by President Obama's address to the grieving people of Newtown, Connecticut tonight, and impressed by his resolve to use the powers of his office to end the cycle.  "We can't tolerate this anymore," the President said. "These tragedies must end, and to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and it is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this."

Why does it take a catastrophe to make government take necessary action?  Aren't we smart enough to see that something must be done or the unthinkable will happen?  Maybe we are, but those in opposition say we're overreacting and nothing gets done until, well, something comes along like what happened Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

You hear it all the time from people who care deeply about the unravelling climate: the needed changes won't happen until a catastrophic event takes place, then we'll act.  Of course then it will be too late. 

Because if fires in Colorado, devastating heat across the nation, drought in the farm belt, and then the ginormous wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy didn't count as catastrophes, what on Earth will?  

The event that will finally make people realize how serious this is will have to be so big that it will surely go hand-in-hand with permanent change setting in.  Greenland melting rapidly and Florida vanishing under ever rising sea levels.  Something like that.  Then it will be too late to stop this.

So every one who cares about the climate has to realize that he and she has to demand change.  They have to read Gene Sharp's books and educate themselves on nonviolence, and take it upon themselves to make the difference.  Don't just give to a climate organization, don't just wait for their next action.  Find people who share your concern in your community and start pushing your leaders, the media, your neighbors.  It's a thankless job, but at some point critical mass will happen, as it did with the Civil Rights movement.  Remember, the leaders are powerless without us.  We have to lead them.  Don't wait for the catastrophe.  Please.

CH


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The Most Effective Climate Activist, by Far, Keeps Ramping it Up

Just read an article about how a group of professors from Columbia University are urging immediate political action on climate change in the next 6-12 months because "Memory fades very fast".

I agree.  I was appalled by how, after the brutal, unprecedented heat of the summer, climate change again fell completely off the map during the campaign season.

And urgent action is critical, but not because people will soon forget about hurricane Sandy (which they more or less will, as they did with Katrina), it's critical because if we don't stop climate change in a hurry it could well become too late to undo it (which of course it might already be, but we don't know that, so let's push for urgent action).

But the thing I'm coming to understand is, Mother Nature will not be backing off anytime soon.  After the unbelievably warm winter and spring we had last year, it was pretty obvious to me we were about to have a ridiculously hot summer, and of course we did.  Then, of course, that was followed by the Frankenstorm Sandy.

And with all these events, more and more people believe in climate change, more and more political will is built up.

The climate movement did next-to-nothing during the campaign season.  We Pissed-Off Polar Bears were determined to make it a major issue in the election, so we protested at both political conventions and all three presidential debates, but were shocked that the movement at large wasn't there with us to force the issue.  The media wouldn't cover it, the politicians wouldn't talk about it, and as the campaign wound down it became more and more apparent that this election would be a lost opportunity.

But then Mother Nature, the greatest climate activist of all, made her voice heard yet again.  Hurricane Sandy put climate change on the map days before the election.  Climate change was the October Surprise.

With the heat and drought and fires, Mother Nature did more for climate awareness than anyone in the movement last summer.  Then she stepped it up again with Hurricane Sandy.  I think the Columbia professors are underestimating her.  People may "forget" Sandy's impact over the coming months, but catastrophic weather isn't going to end with Sandy.  Not by a long shot.  Mother Nature is going to remind us and remind us and remind us again.  The public will not have the luxury of forgetting about climate change.


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