| Eye on the Prize |
[Nov. 17th, 2004|12:28 am] |
It seems every week James Inhofe, the US Senate’s foremost global warming critic, has to add another respected global leader to his hit list. First it was NASA. Then it was a body of the most respected climate scientists in the world. Now it is Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, and the Pentagon. Inhofe dismisses them all as “alarmists” using scare tactics without any basis for their claims. One thing he is right about, what these people are saying is getting downright freaky. Consider a few of the most recent statements on global warming:
"Arctic temperatures are rising at almost twice the global average and could leap 4-7 Celsius (7-13 Fahrenheit) by 2100, roughly twice the global average projected by UN reports. Siberia and Alaska have already warmed by 2-3 C since the 1950s." - Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) Report
"Imagine melting polar icecaps and rising sea levels, threatening beloved and highly developed coastal areas such as Cape Cod with erosion and storm surges. Imagine a warmer and wetter world in which infectious diseases such as malaria and yellow fever spread more easily. This is not some distant, worst-case scenario. It is tomorrow's forecast." - UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan
"Abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies." - The Pentagon
But, wait a minute. These are not left-wing fringe voices sounding the alarm. These are meticulous, calculating scientific bodies that are coming to a near perfect consensus about an incredibly complicated global issue. These are foreign leaders that have sucked up to the United States on Iraq despite a lack of public support, who are now growing a backbone on an environmental issue. These are Republican Senators and the flippin’ Pentagon sticking their necks out!
Forget about the end of the world. It’s not about that. What the experts and diplomats are telling us is that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they have a chance of getting better. And the scale of damage is largely dependent on what we do now to change our systems. Every day we delay a unified international response to global warming, we are dooming ourselves to far more global instability, far more habitat loss, and a far more expensive and divisive global solution than the alternative.
Okay. Ya. We know this stuff. Global warming is going to make life suck and it's all our fault. Everyone is on board with that concept except for a few nut scientists, some evil corporations, James Inhofe, and the most powerful governing body in the world, the Bush administration. Oh, right. Bush. I guess we're screwed. Let's just ride bikes more and savor every small change we get on the local level until we get a new president.
Nah ah. Oh no. We’re not going down like that. Think ahead thirty years… Intense heat waves and draughts have sunk the world's poor countries into a perpetual cycle of civil war and starvation. The developed countries are in debt and slipping further and further into recession. Fewer and fewer corporations are clinging to smaller stockpiles of natural capital. We can't look back in thirty years to 2004 and say, "well, at least we got our school to buy wind credits." We have to aim at the prize.
The United States must ratify the UN Global Warming Treaty. That’s it. Everything else we are trying to do will be made easier when that happens. Not only will the fight be made easier by accomplishing this goal. It will be made easier through the process of achieving it.
The only obstacle remaining in our path to taking on this challenge is fear. I firmly believe that we cannot achieve justice without engaging critically in the point of view of those to which we are most directly opposed. Bush is wrong. The ideology he stands for that gives the reasons why we shouldn’t respond urgently and abruptly to global warming is wrong. It is tragically wrong. Unlike the ideology that propped up racism, Nazism, or the flat earth theory, Bush’s ideology isn’t widely supported.
We have the brute squad. There’s John McCain, the scientists, half of corporate America, 150 cities, the insurance industry, public sentiment, and the leaders of nearly every country in the entire world. It’s time to get busy.
Let’s bird-dog politicians until they flip on global warming. Let’s flock to the UN with placards of hope from every city, state, and university that has committed to Kyoto in Bush’s absence. Let’s hold regional summits in the spring to plan a national carpool caravan march on Washington and build a dike around the White House and the Capitol. Let’s hold a tent-city for a month in DC with lobby days and press conferences on global warming every day leading up to the G8 summit.
First, let’s listen to Kofi Annan one more time.
“We do not face a choice between economy and ecology. In fact,” he said, “the opposite is true: Unless we protect resources and the earth's natural capital, we shall not be able to sustain economic growth. We must stop being so economically defensive, and start being more politically courageous.”
Now let’s get it together, get courageous, and make our country sign that damn treaty. And like it. |
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| Moving forward |
[Oct. 30th, 2004|03:53 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  hee hee hoo hoo | ] |
We've done a lot in the last week and a half since Energy Independence
Day. Billy will soon be on Air America radio talking about the movement
and Energy Action for the second time. The new images coming in from
local actions are great. This turbine picture that's now on our front
page is my favorite.
In the Greenpeace office, we've received over 6,000 signatures by fax
and mail since the DOA. We've entered about 2,000 into excel files to
be put into the website. It's been great getting personal notes from
people thanking us for putting on this Day of Action. One guy from a
small school in Plattesville, Wisconsin said he was sure there wouldn't
be much response to the Declaration because his campus was so
apathetic. However, the response was great and they got over 100
signatures. He's now starting a new Green Campus group that is the
first environmental group on their campus in 6 years!! I've gotten lots
of messages like that from people in places you'd never expect. We got
almost 100 signatures from a school in Panama bijesus!
In other news, we've gotten commitments from 3 companies so far (3
Phases, Sterling Planet, and Community Energy) for 150,000 kwh of wind
and solar tags each to be given to the 10 winners of the Race to End
Dirty Energy. It's a fairly expensive amount of Renewable Energy
Certificates being donated by them. Probably costs them between $1,500
and $8,000 per company depending on where they source it. The main
issues still to figure out with this are whether we're gonna accept
donations from Native Energy, since their tags aren't certified Green-e
(but are supported in a letter by the Green-e president), and how much
we're going to give to the top two winners versus the rest of the top
10. Robin is helping to facilitate figuring that out.
This weekend, lots of us will be calling people through
www.votercall.org to remind them to vote. Some, including our friend
Dan Firger at RAN, will be traveling to swing states to get out the
vote. We really gotta lead by example and using our organizing skills
these last couple days. www.electionmatch.org is a good site for
finding the most appropriate volunteer opportunities near you. |
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