Concerned citizens of the San Francisco Bay area gather at City Hall on Dec 11th 2009
With the collapse of Copenhagen and the failure on the part of the heaviest polluters to bring anything to the table that showed their commitment to a cleaner planet we have been given a clear message. When it comes to the planet and the welfare of the majority, big business and corporate profits will continue to be the priority. Obama’s pre election promises of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 have now fallen by the wayside. The deal that was hoped to be brokered in Copenhagen is now widely believed to have been derailed by the two biggest emitters China and the US. The non-binding accord contains NO targets or date to end global emissions growth. This together with the ramping up of a war in the middle east and the environmental costs of that taken into consideration, I’m beginning to see where Obama’s real sense of urgency lies. I voted for him. It’s now my responsibility to keep my eye on him, to ensure he’s keeping his promises on the platform that meant that he got the X beside his name on MY ballot paper. He managed to seriously disappoint me in Copenhagen with his rhetoric and the echo of empty promises. What I’ve realized is that when it comes to the change we wish to see in the world, that change will not be affected by politicians. It will be affected by ordinary people in the street paying attention, learning how to live more sustainably, demanding justice and system change.
The following video is from a series of actions in the Bay Area recently that sought to draw attention to some of the biggest corporations that are actively participating in a blockade to environmental policy change. Bank of America is the third largest financier of oil, gas, and coal in the world, and is heavily involved in financing mountaintop removal coal mining. On Nov 30th Rainforest Action Network, West Counties Toxics Coalition, Greenpeace, Urban Habitat, Center for Biological Diversity and the Mobilization for Climate Justice West to name a few voiced their discontent at a rally held outside B of A headquarters in San Francisco. On Dec 7th many of these same groups made their way to Chevron headquarters in San Ramon California to voice their opposition to Chevron’s continued expansion of crude oil refinement and pollution causing severe health problems for the communities nearby. Incidentally the Chevron Richmond refinery is also California’s leading greenhouse gas polluter. Photos from these events can be found here at my Photoshelter pagehttp://www.photoshelter.com/c/michellemccarron
The mainstream media would like us all to believe that the movement for climate justice and responsibility is a fractured one made up of few people. 100,000 people in Copenhagen demanding clean energy policy and environmental protection for the earth, it’s people and it’s animals is hardly a few. The individuals who managed to make it there for the Conference were the representatives for the fastest growing grass roots movement alive today. When you actively participate with them this becomes much more evident.
Perhaps for 2010 we could all pledge to support an organization in our localities that is fighting to protect the planet, ourselves and the animals we share it with. Participation in the process of the government of our country and it’s policies doesn’t end when the polling booths close. For a better, fairer, safer world we vote everyday in the actions and decisions we make when we shop, when we eat and when we pay attention.
If you make any news years resolutions this year make it one that means a real investment in the future of our children and the earth. There are hundreds of groups out there that are active in the fight, highlighting local issues that have global significance. Pick one in your community and pledge to participate in continuing to make your voice heard. Also remember that in how you choose to live and consume everyday is the strongest vote that you can make for a greener future and a more balanced world.
Some organisations that need your support and involvement here in the Bay Area and internationally :
The topic of climate change is not anything new. It’s been around for a while. Well if you consider the brief period of time we’ve been on the planet since the industrial revolution a while. That’s how long it’s taken us to make our defining mark. Yet really in the big scheme of things, in this case the history of the universe, this period of time could be referred to as a ‘blip’. Unfortunately its seems like a blip was all we needed for the biggest brains to make the biggest mistakes.
Activists at Bank of America headquarters in San Francisco, Nov 09 protesting B of A's funding of companies who participate in mountain top removal coal mining.
In fact not only is climate change not new, it seems like nowadays, climate change is everywhere. It’s been co-opted by every corporation, every ad agency, all the newspapers are writing about it and plenty of us are talking and blogging about it. All of us are living it. However most of all climate change has been co-opted by our governments who’s inadequate action on the issue threatens stability around the world and unless something is done sounds the death knell (and already has) for thousands of species including our own.
According to popular jargon you’re either a ‘climate denier’, or you’re a ‘climate activist’. Sometimes you’re ‘climate youth’ or ‘Nazi youth’. It doesn’t matter what label they give you because the outcome for us all will eventually be the same. The only difference being that it will come sooner and harder for some. By some this means the poor. What we tried to achieve in Copenhagen was some semblance of justice and balance. Instead the sorry conclusion reached there, which can only be termed a travesty of justice and a betrayal of citizens by their leaders, left the world to watch while the superpowers offered their blatant lies as pathetic truths.
The effects of climate change aren’t something exclusive to the people facing water shortages in the remote villages of the Himalaya or the citizens of the Solomon islands who will simply see their lives drown in rising waters. It’s not just something happening far way in the Antarctic ice sheet. Right here in California where I currently live we’re into our third year of drought. Here the central valley produces almost 8% of America’s fresh food. However, the valley which is being referred to as California’s dust bowl, is witnessing the complete collapse of whole agricultural communities and lives. The town of Mendota at it’s center has the highest unemployment rate in the state at a staggering 41%.
The cycle of change doesn’t end with the culmination of what was the greatest marketing plan ever that got a president elected to the whitehouse. Nor does it stop when we finish chanting the cleverly catchy slogan ‘Yes We Can’ or pin our pop-art screenprints and stickers of HOPE to our walls and car bumpers. Real change is not an idea that is fashionable and trendy for you to catch on to during a campaign because everyone else is doing it in your neighborhood. It’s not something you consume like the coffee that is your ‘ritual’ every morning. No. It has much more depth than that. The sort of change that is required requires a more active awareness and involvement. Because what has become obvious in our world is that when it comes down to it no rockstar icon will save us. No politician. No religious leader. Only ourselves helping each other.
Here where I live in the SF Bay Area a bastion of liberalism and eco consciousness, there is no shortage of NGOs or environmental advocacy groups that need support and who are all hard at work. These are the people that try and keep the system in balance so that all future generations are left a fair, balanced clean and natural world. In recent weeks I’ve spent time with theMobilization for Climate Justice West, the West Counties Toxics Coalition,Rainforest Action Network,350.org, and the Center for Biological Diversity. These groups are currently working on a variety of issues right here in the Bay Area one of the most important being trying to curb carbon pollution and urge senators to push for acts with legally binding commitments that will do so. Their campaigns aren’t designed by media whiz kids or high profile artists. They don’t state fancy fleeting slogans of high promise and little substance. In the world of activism and climate justice all must be cold hard fact Fought on meager budgets with no corporation funding and by people who have little to gain personally outside of the common good.
Activist sticker from the Rainforest Action Network and their campaign against mountain top removal coal mining.
In recent years I’ve been called a ‘hippy’ by some friends, whatever that means. I’ve also been called a ’spoilt capitalist’ by another who later apologized for that one. Most recently I was called an ‘anarchist’ by my liberal uncle a member of Ireland’s Green Party . A hippy loving spoilt capitalist anarchist. I was stumped. I got branded the altogether small minded title of anarchist after I expressed my belief that what needed to happen was a shift towards more community based oil free living as well as some sort of population control as a major step towards balance. So that’s what you think anarchy is? I’d like to think it’s common sense. But perhaps it’s just my idea of it. Einstein said : “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.’ If that’s the case I had them. At 15 years old (1988) I along with a few other teenagers raised some cash and had the town’s first bottle and can recycling bank installed. If that’s an anarchist then one was born that day. I spent my time liking school, reading National Geographic, riding my bike, playing basketball and dreaming of a life in the bigger world making visual documentaries. I got riled up a lot by Maggy Thatcher and Rainbow Warriors. I hadn’t lived in Northern California or read No Logo, yet.
I recently returned from the longest stretch of time at home in Ireland since I left in 1993. In the 2 months I was there I witnessed Ireland at one of the most crucial periods in it’s history. I never left Ireland because economics pushed me out. I left because I was curious for other things and places. I wanted to know what the world could teach and show me. Little did I know that 1994 would mark the beginning of the period in Ireland’s economic history which later became known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’. They were boom years like no one had ever known and Ireland bought and spent like never before. For the first time in it’s history it began to experience what was perceived and packaged as economic freedom.
In an economy driven by credit which was encouraged by the government and driven by the banks Ireland became one of the wealthiest countries in the EEC and living standards were calculated to be one of the highest in the world. The Irish who had been forced to emmigrate in the 70’s and 80’s came back in droves, immigrants flooded into the country, housing prices went through the roof, waiting lists for BMWs and Land Rovers bulged with 25 year olds with more money than sense. People borrowed and consumed and the culture and fabric of the country changed profoundly. To steal from Yeats, a Terrible Beauty was born.
Over the years on brief visits home I was quietly shocked at the changes I saw take place. Ireland was becoming a country not unlike the United States in it’s appetite for consumerism. In this respect it was quite apparent what was going on. Scandals and tribunals of government and business corruption abounded and were allowed to. When the downturn came here it was going to hurt and it was going to hurt very very bad.
In what was Ireland’s equivalent to the Enron debacle, Anglo Irish bank was nationalised in Jan 2009 after it was discovered that it’s chairman hadn’t disclosed details to the inland revenue of some €87 million in loans (ie: taxpayer money) he received. After all what is €87 millions amongst friends? Ireland was now firmly entrenched in it’s recession which many say is actually a depression. The banks have been bailed out to the tune of €54 billion. Sound familiar? Welcome to the band aid to neo liberal free market economics.
Multi national corporations that were lured here in the 80’s with low corporate tax rates are now leaving. The eastern european immigrants are going with them back home to the countries where these same companies are now setting up shop. Unemployment is soaring at 12.5% in a country of only 4 million. Joblessness is affecting a wide demographic of people and many are leaving. And on top of all this CEOs are still getting bonuses in the millions.
Despite all this and what I think was a feeling of helplessness amongst people there is a resilience there. Nov 6th I followed 20,000 public sector workers marching through the center of Dublin. Strikes are becoming more widespread and increasing in numbers. On Nov 26th last a staggering number of 250,000 workers striked across the country against the public sector wage cuts planned by the government.
Today is the eve of what will be the most dreaded state budget ever. During the boom when budgets were announced no one paid attention. There was no need to. The country was awash in money. Tomorrow’s will be very different.
If Ireland is to recover it has to seize the opportunities that recession presents and seize them now. The key element being to realize that the old way of doing things cannot continue. How Irish people position themselves now to deal with this and a new way of living and doing business, whilst living in a rapidly changing world, will be the deciding factor in the future of generations to come. Fortunately the majority now realize this.
Ireland’s future is not in it’s current government. It’s future lies in redistributing wealth and bringing equality back into the equation. It lies in innovation and entrepreneurs with their eyes on sustainability at all levels. Oh and an awful lot of resolve to see wrong made right.
In this sense Ireland’s choices are not that different from the ones most of us must make.
