View Full Version : Global Climate Action - THIS WEEKEND - what are you doing?
Many of you may already be tuned in to the flurry of communication happening around a crucial and momentous event this week: the People's Climate March in NYC on September 21. Whether you're in NYC or at home this coming weekend, I personally encourage you to participate in the biggest day of climate action to date in world history.
I will be in an electric-vehicle convoy going up to the Peace Arch cross-border rally on Saturday; a kick-off, of sorts, to an historic treaty to be signed on Tuesday by a Washington/British Columbia/Alaska 'Sacred Trust' alliance of Coast Salish tribes (there are ~48 tribes in this area!), and joined by communities all around the region, focusing primarily on fossil fuel transport/export issues and protecting our inland sea. My cross-continent train trip this summer exposed me to the myriad ways in which this fossil fuel extraction & export is hurting our infrastructure for all other purposes, as well as the communities from which it's being extracted and those it's passing through -- not to mention the climate effects of every aspect of the operation and end use.
Are you joining in this very important weekend, in whatever way and on whatever issue calls to you? (Staying home and writing/calling in to your political representatives would be a really great way to participate! You can find a list of such crucially important from-home actions on 350.org's site.) It's up to all of US to choose our specific role - there is no choice but to transition from fossil fuels, it's just a question of WHEN. There are myriad ways to co-create a vibrant future:
* help our officials recognize the massive cost to our communities of weather catastrophes, climate refugees, and the geopolitical crises that stem from drought, flooding, and food system disruption
* create and expand businesses that promote healthy communities and protect the environment for future generations
* create and only accept jobs that pay living wages and allow families to live with dignity
* ensure there is a fair transition for those workers whose jobs are replaced by a new energy economy
Are you going to the People's Climate March, or another solidarity event? Report back here what you see/hear/do - and what inspires you!
-Rose
What if the goal of the economy was sustainable human well-being, in a healthy environment? Imagine that!
I do not have special plans for the event or the weekend, but hope it gets decent publicity. I have only seen very brief coverage in the mainstream news. Reducing my carbon footprint is an ongoing project with me and have practiced "staycations", this year limiting pleasure or recreational travel to close by locations. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Occupy wall street is little more than a dim memory for most and seemed to have practically no positive effect that I can see. I hope this one goes better.
One of the benefits of living in New Jersey is that NYC is only a train or bus ride away! Yes, I've been planning on this for months--and I'm looking forward to going!
ETA: BTW, my permaculture teacher posted his own view of the 350.org efforts to make climate change an issue, which he has stated before, and I think he has a great point. While these efforts by 350.org are great, they tend to devolve into a debate on "is climate change real or not?" while what IS real is that the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are not being enforced at all.. and this is where our efforts should start.
But a huge global climate change march can't hurt.
This is my teacher's post on Facebook:
The real deal is that climate change is an obfuscation agenda promulgated by the coporatacracy to distract the people of this country from dealing with much more grievous issues i.e. lead,mercury,radioactive isotopes,bioacummulative substances like dioxins.These all far outstrip carbon in their deadliness to human beings and all life on earth.The earth has been warming for the last ten thousand years that is nothing new.For instance the worst year for hurricanes was 1780.Climate chaos is unsubstantiated and uninspiring.
We have been failing to enforce the clean air act and the clean water act, let's heighten our critical thinking skills to see through the bull*** and cut to the quick of enforcing these rudimentary laws that at least somewhat address the more serious toxins and eventually implementing precautionary laws that do not allow for the release of these pernicious pollutants on the unsuspecting American people and our brothers and sisters in the web of life! I hope you all can appreciate my perspective, this whole climate denier rhetoric is a further division created by cointelpro to splinter and distract the people's movement from within. Meanwhile corporations and government officials run away together laughing all the way to the bank at our collective stupidity.
Gardenarian
9-20-14, 4:33pm
Yay catherine! Good for you - can't wait to hear about it!
I'm freaking out about having my cabin go on the market and the Open House tomorrow. Not a spare minute for anything.
We're in the process of downsizing and moving to a place where we will drive a whole lot less and live smaller.
Were I closer to NYC, I'd certainly take part.
Skyping to say hello to my one child.
Skyping to say hello to my one child.
OK.. I get the hidden meaning there...
This is my teacher's post on Facebook:...
Catherine, I could take issue with several of the points your teacher makes, but the general direction is interesting. Anymore it seems that environmentalism has come to be synonymous to climate change. We tend to ignore a lot of other important issues or they are overshadowed by global warming. Or alternately, without dealing with climate change, all the other issues may be irrelevant. I'm almost done reading The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. It's an excellent read, but puts many of the earth and climate changes over many millennium or millions of years into good perspective. A very worthy read.
ApatheticNoMore
9-20-14, 9:26pm
Also if you are in or near New York look into "Flood Wall Street" this Monday #FloodWallStreet. Oh I do participate but not in New York as I'm not in or near New York (there may be some action going on local to you).
Anymore it seems that environmentalism has come to be synonymous to climate change. We tend to ignore a lot of other important issues or they are overshadowed by global warming. Or alternately, without dealing with climate change, all the other issues may be irrelevant.
there's a fairly decent anti-fracking movement, but anti-fracking is climate change? Yea, it can be with the methane and so on, but it's also usable water which may well be more urgent!
Extinction symbol for the 6th great extinction:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/extinctionsymbol/
I'm back from New York. It was great! I went alone, and unaffiliated with any group. But I wasn't alone at all--I met so many awesome people. I got off the train at Penn Station and at the subway there as a long line of people getting their fare, and so a bunch of random people started talking and it turns out all 5 of us were headed to the march, and we represented 5 different states! The first five people I met were from VA, ME, NY, MA, and of course I represented NJ. I was surprised at how many people my age and older were there. There were people walking with walkers and canes. Amazing. Obviously there were people of all ages there, and many families and kids/babies in strollers. Truly a diverse, universal event. Everyone was so friendly.
Supposedly there were 310,000 people. It certainly seemed that way.
I never saw it on the news. I guess there were lots more important things going on. :devil:
I never saw it on the news. I guess there were lots more important things going on. :devil:
Yeah, well, we know who controls the media, and they aren't tree-huggers.
I spent almost the entire day at the Sustainable Living Fair in a nearby town; riding bikes about 25 miles round-trip. So maybe that counts? Glad you had a great time! Sometimes I wonder if the social media stuff actually does make a bigger difference than sometime protests seem to; though the two can be complementary.
ApatheticNoMore
9-22-14, 2:45am
I never saw it on the news. I guess there were lots more important things going on.
well after the fact (well they are certainly not doing pre-publicity) I saw the NYC action ......
On the local Faux station tonight (really, maybe you'd be better off watching Faux! :) )
although yes there's some truth about who controls the media, of course!
Sometimes I wonder if the social media stuff actually does make a bigger difference than sometime protests seem to; though the two can be complementary.
I feel social media does nothing but scream at me, ok I learned a little from it for awhile, but I mostly decided I hates it. And I've mostly ignored it nearly entirely ever since. And social media seems to be more often horizontal in it's campaigns (in it's attacks might be a far more accurate terminology) rather than taking on the major holders of power (government officials, government, corporations). And one may as well keep in mind who OWNS social media if they are going to talk about who owns the media, as it's corporations for whom the end user isn't even the customer (advertisers are). The end user probably doesn't even know the algorithms they're using which determines what is shown or at least what trends.
I'd like to think protesting indicates a bit, if only a bit, more commitment to an issue than hitting retweet but .... maybe it's not interpreted that way. Though I think in some sense it is, I think the "likes" that protestors get come from deeper. Social media may reach a wider audience.
I participated locally like I said.
Effectiveness? You can scale right up the level of radicalism in tactics (and no I'm not including violence against persons - so no "becoming the unibomber") and it's the level of risk (and some would say of effectiveness):
1) complaining about stuff on the web has the false appearance of COMPLETE safety if near complete impotence, but everything is being stored for heaven knows what future use
2) approved of protest (people's climate march), not much risk
3) non-approved protest, depends on who your protesting, is it obama or the mayor?
4) non approved sit in, civil disobedience (flood wall street #floodwallstreet), some risk of arrest mostly possibly more (actually some of the participants who choose to will "allow" themselves to be arrested probably)
5) until your slowing the machinery building pipelines by putting your body in front of them, this has/is of course happening. Native Americans and others are engaged in this.
Our local news had a short blurb on the evening news last night, but it was pretty quick and basic. PBS's Democracy now had a special three hour live coverage yesterday and also some longer news coverage. I didn't see much of it, but I suspect Amy Goodman gave her usual dour but enlightening interviews and commentary. I suspect Democracy Now has a limited audience and is pretty much singing to the choir. Every little bit helps.
Wow. I just checked the Monday morning on-line "front pages" of the THREE New York newspapers. 400,000 descended on the City, including celebrities and politicians and the biggest environmental spokespeople around, and what did we get?
New York Times: Nothing on my daily e-mail feel. My NYT skimmer did have an article, but it was far from the lead story.
NY Daily News: Couldn't find a word as I scrolled down.
NY Post: OK there WAS an article--about the hypocrisy of the marchers:
http://nypost.com/2014/09/22/climate-change-skeptics-call-out-marchers-hypocrisies/
Hippies joined forces with gentrifying hipsters to decry what they called devastating man-made climate change.
One guy sported a witch hat and psychedelic pants while holding a sign that said, “Goodbye Earth People.”
Modal Trigger
A man with a sign that reads: “Goodbye Earth People.”
Photo: Reuters
The resulting traffic snarls irritated taxi drivers to no end, as marchers strolled from Columbus Circle to 11th Avenue and 34th Street.
“It’s a mess,” said hard-working hack Gamal Abovelwafa, 60.
He said the worst traffic was at the end of the march and around Central Park.
“Where are we going to go?” he angrily asked.
The whole article totally mischaracterized the march which was extremely diverse (not just "hippies" dressed in psychedelic costumes), and it was totally peaceful. Not one arrest.
Edited: Well, after looking a little further, I guess then paper versions of the papers were more positive, as were some of the expected websites like HuffPo. Here's what the People's Climate March website posted to show all the positive response in the press.
http://peoplesclimate.org/400000-strong-and-thats-not-counting-the-press-who-showed-up/
iris lilies
9-22-14, 11:01am
catherine, I think that your guru is smart to remind all that earth stewardship takes many forms, that just because water shortage and pollution isn't the issue du jour doesn't mean it's not a problem. I continue to side-eye all of those developments out in the desert and wonder where, exactly, they are gonna get water in 20 years. But then, that just fits with my personal animus to desert--I intensely dislike the brown parts of the country, I must have green! So I'm not exactly objective about development in no-man's land.
Our local newspaper devoted half a page to the protest in NYC along with a big colored photo of a parade and a friendly summary. I can assure you that our local liberal rag, while owned by corporate media interests, won't tone down their liberal slant.
catherine
9-22-14, 11:12am
catherine, I think that your guru is smart to remind all that earth stewardship takes many forms, that just because water shortage and pollution isn't the issue du jour doesn't mean it's not a problem. I continue to side-eye all of those developments out in the desert and wonder where, exactly, they are gonna get water in 20 years. But then, that just fits with my personal animus to desert--I intensely dislike the brown parts of the country, I must have green! So I'm not exactly objective about development in no-man's land.
Our local newspaper devoted half a page to the protest in NYC along with a big colored photo of a parade and a friendly summary. I can assure you that our local liberal rag, while owned by corporate media interests, won't tone down their liberal slant.
Interesting--thanks for the feedback. Yes, environmental problems comes in all shapes and sizes. I found your thoughts about water in the desert interesting on two levels--first of all, after having read Derrick Jensen, I'm much more in touch with the environmental impact of dams, which of course has facilitated irrigation and the ability for cities in the desert to spring up. So I agree with you--choosing to live in a desert--maybe not the most eco-friendly choice at a very high level.
When you talked about the "brown" vs. "green" in deserts, I thought immediately of one of the people I read about a while back who, to me, is an environmental hero: Valer Austin, who moved from the NE to the SW and literally has brought back acres and acres of desert to life, with her own hands. I think you'd enjoy this article: http://www.oprah.com/world/Valer-Austin-Transforming-Dead-Land-in-Mexico
ApatheticNoMore
9-22-14, 12:18pm
PBS's Democracy now had a special three hour live coverage yesterday and also some longer news coverage. I didn't see much of it, but I suspect Amy Goodman gave her usual dour but enlightening interviews and commentary. I suspect Democracy Now has a limited audience and is pretty much singing to the choir. Every little bit helps.
I question how much good constant dourness does for any cause
NY Post: OK there WAS an article--about the hypocrisy of the marchers:
people may as well just embrace their hypocrisy, one lives in this world afterall (no on a private level one does not go out of their way to be a hypocrite or anything - but one may as well embrace some hypocrisy will exist - so hypocrisy is a charge without sting baby, a charge without sting). And yes it inconveniences a few people like the cab drivers, ok they may just hate the cause but if not, how they imagine anything will change for the better without a bit of minor inconvenience one wonders - it's not a very mature perspective.
what IS real is that the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are not being enforced at all As a former "enforcer" of the Clean Water Act (amongst other government regulations) I'll beg to differ on this. But even if environmental laws are enforced, there is so much that gets thru illegally and ways to game the system legally, that making the public aware is a good thing IMHO.
As a former "enforcer" of the Clean Water Act (amongst other government regulations) I'll beg to differ on this. But even if environmental laws are enforced, there is so much that gets thru illegally and ways to game the system legally, that making the public aware is a good thing IMHO.
I stand corrected, Spartana, and thanks so much for your efforts to keep our water and air clean! However, I'm sure that, as you say, things are falling through the cracks. I guess in my "perfect world" mind, I'm thinking it would be great to be able to simply drink water right out of the Hudson River like they probably did in the 15th century, but I guess that's a real pipe dream at this point. Kind of a shame that we take it for granted our waterways are just too polluted to swim in, or wash with, or drink from, without intervention.
I stand corrected, Spartana, and thanks so much for your efforts to keep our water and air clean! However, I'm sure that, as you say, things are falling through the cracks. I guess in my "perfect world" mind, I'm thinking it would be great to be able to simply drink water right out of the Hudson River like they probably did in the 15th century, but I guess that's a real pipe dream at this point. Kind of a shame that we take it for granted our waterways are just too polluted to swim in, or wash with, or drink from, without intervention.Well I only commented because I wanted to use the word "Enforcer" or maybe "Regulator" like an old timey government gun slinger :-)!
But yes, things do fall between the cracks and even if they didn't it's often hard to enforce/regulate illegal activity by big corporations in a large scale way. It can be done but court action and injunctions, etc... take time, regulations change mid way, and changes are slow to happen. Water was probably never safe to drink (think of all those millions of herds of buffalo and other animals doing what they do when nature calls) all that stuff goes down river and the methane goes into the air. But industrial pollutants (my forte) has become a huge problem. It's much better then it was back in the 60's and 70's and 80's but I don't think you'll ever be able to put a complete halt to it. Too many people (also doing what they do when nature calls), watering their fertilized lawns, draining their chlorinated pools, washing their various cleaning chemicals and prescription drugs urine, their food wastes, etc... into the sewer system, The list goes on and on and on. Add to that too much industry and their wastes, agriculture and livestock production and it's wastes, and not enough fresh water supplies or treatment plants, and ..well... here we are. Like I said, it IS much better then it was thanks to more regulations, but it'll never be great.
ApatheticNoMore
9-23-14, 1:36am
Some say the climate march should be not the end but the beginning of a movement. The UN will meet, maybe more people will protest (the flood wall street and so on - good for them). I have no great optimism about the UN meeting (because the U.S. and very much under this administration as well, has sabotaged MANY a climate treaty, that's what it does). It will decide whatever, not much I can do about that really :~) It may be really depressing, but heck if I know what to do about UN decisions.
But 300k people in New York alone could really build a movement. No it's not that noone is doing anything for environmental issues at all already, of course PLENTY of people are (perhaps sometimes confused about what to do but), some spend their whole lives on environmental issues (others only part :)). It's just more thinking about how could 300k be used as a catalyst to jump start more. Offered as food for thought.
I will continue my efforts to advance my studied opinion of the havoc endless industrial complex subsidies wreak on our environment, our society, our children and our future.
I was there. It was exhilarating and inspiring. Democracy Now DID offer the best coverage. It also covered the "Flood Wall St." demo on Monday.
Both programs should still be available for streaming.
Amy wasn't one bit "dour." She looked pretty happy interviewing Bill McKibben and other enviromental activists.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.