By now I shouldn’t have to tell you that climate change is real and that taking action to end greenhouse gas emissions is urgent. But after a while these warnings seem to fade into the background, lost in the sea of terrible news that is seemingly everywhere. It’s not like most people consciously dismiss these warnings, we kinda just move past them and onto more visible and immediate problems.
And it’s easy to see why people do this; climate change can seem like a distant and abstract problem that someone else will fix. We look to politicians or hope for a technological miracle. We know that it’s getting worse but don’t believe that it could be as bad as the scientists say. Like a blockbuster film with a last minute miracle save, we just don’t believe that this could have anything but a happy ending.
But there is no silver bullet and there is no saviour. There is only us and we need to act right now.
I work with 350.org, a global group dedicated to building a movement to solve the climate crisis. And as someone who campaigns for climate action every single day, I know that to overwhelm you with bad news will only drive you to despair, when what we need is for you to take action. But I spend a lot more time looking at climate reports and reading stories from the front lines of climate impacts than the average person, and I have to tell you that it’s scary. When you really take the time to look and to take in the reality of what some of the observations and the predictions mean, it can be truly overwhelming. When I visit a new place now it’s hard for me not to look at it through the lens of climate impacts. I imagine it underwater, or scorched from unbearable heat; I feel the grief of the people dislocated as record storms destroy homes and livelihoods. And I can’t help but feel that when I travel I am saying my goodbyes to a world which I hardly know, and is about to change in ways nobody can fully comprehend.
I tell you this not because I want you to share my fear and anxiety. I tell you because I want you to understand the urgency of action. It is not too late to avoid catastrophic climate change, but we need to act now and we need to act with purpose. We can no longer kick the can down the road and expect someone else to deal with it. The whole world is at stake and it’s too important to leave to someone else.
you have been kicking this can for too long
I know more than most how overwhelming the climate crisis can feel. We can feel powerless because it just seems so big, so abstract and so distant. But when you break it down and get to work you will see that we do have the power to solve the climate crisis. So let me break it down for you.
Start with the cause
Before you can solve any problem you need to understand what’s causing it, and climate change is no different. Right now rather than asking how we can stop climate change, we need to be asking how do we stop the cause of climate change?
Carbon dioxide isn’t just accumulating in the atmosphere, it’s being put there. And the vast majority of it is being put there by the fossil fuel industry. In fact, just 90 fossil fuel companies are responsible for two thirds of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
To say that climate change is caused by fossil fuel companies might seem obvious, but listening to the way that politicians talk about climate change in the passive voice shows that either they don’t understand the cause of climate change, or that they don’t want us to look. Nothing illustrated this cognitive dissonance quite so starkly as when Barack Obama defended his decision to let Shell drill for oil in the Arctic as he toured Alaska to highlight climate impacts and the need for action. Thankfully Shell were forced to abandon their Arctic plans after a strong community campaign against the project, but the fact that Obama could approve the search for new oil reserves in the extremes of the Arctic while at the same time touting his plan for climate action shows just how divorced from reality the debate can get if you don’t accurately talk about the source of the problem.
So let’s talk about the source of the problem. The fossil fuel industry already has fives times more coal, oil and gas in their reserves than even the most optimistic climate scientist considers safe to burn. And that’s just what they have in known reserves and existing projects, fossil fuel companies are still spending billions of dollars a year looking for more. And they are doing it with our help, G20 countries subsidise fossil fuel exploration to the tune of US$88 billion a year.
Action on climate change is simple. We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. But instead of making plans to phase out fossil fuels, governments are spending billions of dollars that could be used to finance the transition to renewable energy on helping the fossil fuel companies look for more oil, coal and gas.
Students and academics across Australia called on their campuses to divest as part of a national day of action in April.
Taking on the power of the fossil fuel industry
In less than a month the heads of state from governments around the world are going to arrive in Paris for the most hyped climate talks since the now infamous failed Copenhagen talks in 2009. The UN climate change negotiations, now in their 21st year, have consistently failed in the only way that really counts and despite some growing optimism it’s hard to imagine that that these talks in Paris will result in an outcome that comes anywhere close to the kind of ambition that the science clearly demands.
And as long as the fossil fuel industry is allowed to dictate the terms, no deal will ever do enough to address climate change. That’s why we need to take on the power off the fossil fuel industry directly. We need to remove their social licence, curb their political power and stand in the way of their infrastructure. We need to build a movement of people around the world who are standing up for clean energy against powerful fossil fuel interests.
And that’s what we’re doing at 350.org. We are building a movement to demand action. We believe that governments and corporations won’t take action to reduce the impact of climate change unless they are pushed. And we believe that the only thing that will push the world into taking action is a large, diverse and committed movement of people. People who are organising in their communities, taking to the streets and taking direct action against the fossil fuel infrastructure which is being used to cause climate change.
The New York People’s Climate March in September last year was the biggest mobilisation for climate action in history. Over 300,000 people marched through the streets on New York calling on leaders to act.
We are the ones we have been waiting for
Here’s the thing, no one else is going to solve climate change for you. Far too often people feel powerless when they look at a problem at the scale of climate change, and I am here to tell you that far from being powerless, you are the only hope we have. Yes, you. Why not you?
Simply believing that it’s real is not enough to create change. Voting in elections for politicians with a plan for climate action is good, but alone it’s not enough. Politicians are simply a weathervane and social movements are the wind. We need to blow strongly in the direction of action so that all politicians must follow.
Photo: Jeff Tan – a group of young Pacific Islanders called the Pacific Climate Warriors came to Australia last year to highlight fight for the survival of their homes against the fossil fuel industry. Using traditionally made canoes, they blockaded the world’s largest coal export terminal in Newcastle.
There are a lot of ways that you can get involved and start to make a real impact. Here are a strong few:
1. Start or join a divestment campaign in your community
If it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage — that’s the idea that drives the fossil fuel divestment movement. It started on college campuses in the United States but has quickly spread across the world, calling on institutions such as universities, local governments, businesses and foundations around the world to take a stand and divest their portfolios from the companies that are causing climate change. By naming the fossil fuel industry’s singularly destructive influence you are helping to break the hold that the fossil fuel industry has on our economy and our governments.
The divestment movement is made up of hundreds of campaigns around the world run by people from all walks of life. These campaigns are often run by volunteers and many of them have never run a campaign before. You can search for a divestment campaign in your community here. If you see a campaign that you want to be part of, sign on and contact the person who created the petition through the mail icon next to their name. The more people a campaign has involved the more likely it is to succeed. If you don’t see a campaign in your community you can start one here. 350.org has a whole bunch of resources to help you get started with your campaign and are around to help out if you get stuck. Organising in your community is the best thing you could do, and divestment is the easiest way to do it.
2. Join the Global Climate March
2015 is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history, and this December, hundreds of world governments will meet in Paris to try to strike a global climate agreement. With climate change in the global spotlight, this is our chance to show the size and diversity of the global climate movement and raise our voices as one for climate action. There will be marches in all Australian capital cities as well as in cities across the world.
Marches alone aren’t going to be enough. But by coming together for a single day of action we can see the movement’s size and energy. There is an opportunity to meet more people, to hear more ideas for action and to be inspired for more action in your community.
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3. Get ready to be bold
Any agreement that comes out of Paris only exists on paper. We know that international agreements won’t mean anything if there isn’t a large movement applying sustained pressure to national governments demanding an end to the fossil fuel age. That’s why early next year we will mobilise in a global wave of action unlike any we’ve seen before. Not one big march in one city, not a scattering of local actions — but rather a wave of historic national and continent-wide mobilisations targeting the fossil fuel projects that must be kept in the ground, and backing the energy solutions that will take their place.
We’re still working out the details, but here is the gist of what we mean: We plan to team up with allied groups in many of the key places around the world fighting fossil fuels and pushing for a renewable revolution. During a set period of time, we’ll jointly prepare coordinated and bold mass actions – non-violent and appropriate to each local context – that escalate the local struggles and increase the momentum to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Because that’s what it’s going to take to solve this. It is not going to be easy and there are powerful interests who want us to fail. We need to build momentum, we need to grow our networks and our movement. Then we need to stand up and be counted, and show that we are serious about standing up for a liveable planet.
Because in the end that is what it comes down to. Saving the places we love that give us life, love and hope from an industry that is willing to literally burn it all for their own profit. We have the solutions, we know what needs to be done. No one is coming to save us, it’s time for us to get organised, get active and get it done.
We are the ones that we have been waiting for.
To find out more about plans for next year, sign up to 350.org’s mailing list.
To highlight Tony Abbott’s climate denial, people in Sydney put their heads in the sand at Bondi Beach.
you’ve got this you can do it
We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For To Fix Climate Change – Here’s How You Can Do It appeared first on The Vocal.