Flashback: Pete Calls for Activists to Join Us in Boca!

A message from Pete the Pissed-Off Polar Bear:

Dear Humans,

     I couldn't help noticing that YET AGAIN no one asked a question about climate change in the debate.

     Moderator Candy Crowley, in her infinite so-called wisdom, decided that since most people were concerned about economic questions she'd just have to ignore climate change.

     Oh!  Right!  People aren't concerned about THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR LIFE-SUPPORT SYSTEM!

     Sage choice, Cand!

     Anyway, before I go all "Siegfried and Roy's rogue tiger" on Candy, let's consider another culprit, someone YOU actually have control over....

     They don't ask questions about global warming because you humans aren't out on the streets protesting!

     We polar bears would do it if we could, but when we tried it last year in Churchill, Manitoba, HUMANS shot us with tranquilizer darts and put us in giant nets and then helicoptered us hundreds of miles away.  And that was on our home turf, can you imagine what they'd do to us in Boca Raton?!

     The Pissed-Off Polar Bears, a team of dedicated polar bears AND humans, were protesting at the debate in Denver and at Hofstra.  At DU there was a little group from 350.org and Energy Action Coalition, and at Hofstra the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action were there.  But at each debate it was only, like, 20 people.  WHERE THE HELL WAS EVERYONE ELSE?!

     "Oh, let's fight something that will literally cause the destruction of civilization with, like, 20 people.  That'll get a lot of press!  That'll scare the crap out of the politicians!"

     Where ARE you people?  Come to Boca, dudes!  Bring a polar bear hat.  Start making some noise and turning up the pressure.

     If you don't, one day you'll regret it, and if last summer's weather was any indication, that day will come a lot sooner than humans think!

Sorry to push you, but we've got a world to save!

Pete

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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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McKibben Leads Group of Keystone XL Protesters on March Around White House

Environmental activists protest against the Keystone XL pipeline on 18 November 2012. Photograph: 350.org

Yesterday Bill McKibben's 350.org led a group of marchers around the White House, hoping to renew pressure on President Obama to block the Keystone pipeline.  The Guardian wrote this piece about the protest.

I was most impressed by the fact that the march was only planned ten days ago.  Probably they needed to see who would be president before they could plan it.  But they didn't let the timeline stop them.  I've met organizers who insist that it takes six months to plan an event, which is fine, and I'm sure if 350.org had been calling for this since May they would have had more than 3,000 people at yesterday's event.  But, hey, they had 3,000 people at yesterday's event!  That's awesome.

McKibben is always writing about how amazed he gets at the response he gets to his initiatives.  I'm not.  PEOPLE WANT TO SAVE THE WORLD ALREADY!  For awhile it seemed like whenever McKibben said "Jump", people would respond "How high?" and he'd put his index finger and thumb about an inch apart and say "This high".  Clearly that's changing, but I still wish he'd push harder.

I think people would do a LOT more if he asked.  I think we could have had a huge impact on the November elections, and certainly could have forced the crisis into the discussion during the presidential debates.

Those of us who get how serious this crisis is know how little time we have.  We all should ramp up our sense of urgency.

Still, though, major kudos to Bill McKibben and the 350 team!

CH

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Boca Raton Flashback: How Humor Works in a Protest

Here's a good example of the effectiveness of using humor in your protests.  When I arrived at this street corner there was one young woman there holding an Obama sign, and she was being showered with a lot of really nasty dehumanizing insults.  Everyone else on that corner were Tea Partiers (and knowing Florida's now-infamous law it's possible that some of them were carrying concealed weapons).

So I walked into the fray with Pete the Pissed-Off Polar Bear, and, as you can see, they were basically good-natured toward me.  You can tell in the video that I'm not looking them in the eye, I'm forcing them to deal with a puppet!  And they can't help but laugh at the absurdity of their predicament.  It's hard to argue with a puppet!

CH

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Let's Make the Climate Movement a Mighty Beast!

Rachel, Pete, and Curtis protesting outside the second presidential debate at Hempstead, NY

We're The Pissed-Off Polar Bears, and we intend to do everything imaginable to help the climate movement become a mighty beast that cannot be vanquished!

We were the ONLY climate protesters that were present at the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention, and all three presidential debates.  (Where WAS everybody?  For all the movement caterwauled about climate change not being mentioned in the debates--aside from us--only Whit Jones of the Energy Action Coalition showed up at multiple events!)  (Whit RULES!)

We spent the first half of this year reading up on successful nonviolent movements of the past, and are convinced that the political stranglehold of dirty energy will only be broken if the entire movement utilizes an aggressive and brilliant nonviolent strategy.  ("Nonviolent strategy", by the way, does not just mean being "peaceful", and "nice", and it certainly does not mean being "passive".  Nonviolence done right is provocative and fearless, and it requires intimate knowledge of the history, tactics, and principles of nonviolent struggle.  We will be posting continually about the indispensable lessons of nonviolent action.)

This is an entirely "winnable" contest!  The fossil fuel industry is putting every kid in the world at risk, including their own. They are basically destroying the planet for every other person, and every other business, in every nation on Earth.  And even their own employees will not be able to escape the catastrophe that's coming.  We intend to rally the entire business community, as well as dirty energy's own workforce, and their families, to take a stand to stop the insanity and save our life support system!

Finally, we intend to have a little fun, because, according to Otpor (the movement that overthrew a dictator in Serbia), humor is the ultimate weapon!  Our cohort Pete the Pissed-Off Polar Bear will give regular blogs, podcasts, and videos for you entertainment.

So let's take it to another level--WE'VE GOT A PLANET TO SAVE!

--Curtis Hannum


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Denver Post Picture of our Protest outside the First Debate!

For whatever it's worth, we made the Denver Post:

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Jim Lehrer Ignores Global Warming with Debate Topics

Oh look!  Jim Lehrer today announced the topics for the 6 questions at the first presidential debate in Denver October 3rd, and Gol 'Gee, none of them have anything to do with global warming:  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/jim-lehrer-first-presidential-debate-topics_n_1897882.html?utm_hp_ref=media

Allow me to present a basic underpinning of how Nonviolent Struggle works, the struggle group must REMOVE THEIR CONSENT from their opponents.  In other words, it is no longer willing to sit passively by as the same ol' same ol' keeps getting shoved down their throats.  

We'll make the announcement more official tomorrow, but suffice to say we're going to push to get Jim Lehrer's mail box flooded with letters and postcards from kids all over the country over the next two weeks.  Jim Lehrer might not think global warming is all that important, but nothing will be more important to the future of all those kids if we don't do something to stop it.  

Join the Pissed-Off Polar Bears!  Start a MeetUp.com polar bear den in your area and/or help us with a donation:

PissedOffPolarBears.com

Thanks!!!