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 the Mobilization 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.
