COP 15 … Incipit BPSDB
Copenhagen marks a beginning, but of what?
Is it to be an era of unprecedented international cooperation to deal with a global threat? That seems unlikely at this point. The last decade can only be described as the Triumph of Ignorance.
So are we then to descend into the kind of world described in the video? Make no mistake, one thing that has already emerged from Copenhagen is The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Climate Science Report, and it’s bad. More on this later, but for those who want a quick run down here is a good one .
As Dr. Edward Miles of the University of Washington says in the film “A Sea Change“, “Are we screwed? Yeah, to a considerable extent. A world of 500 parts per million is a world of enormous environmental destruction. We ought to recognize that and say it.”
Is catastrophic climate change inevitable? Is that what Copenhagen begins?
Hey I’m dancing down the streets
Only if we let it. To avoid it Copenhagen will have to mark the beginning of a new level of militant non-violent struggle.
Getting world leaders to move from rhetoric to action on climate change will require peaceful civil disobedience “on a scale that we have not seen before,”
“on a scale that we have not seen before” is exactly right. What we must now contemplate must dwarf the struggles to win women’s suffrage, to free India, to emancipate people of colour, to organize labour.
If ignorance and greed have triumphed it has been because we let them. Climate change can scarcely be the defining struggle of this generation if it is not the defining struggle of each of us individually. We cannot be part of something greater if we do not become something greater ourselves.
“If, after all, men cannot always make history have a meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one.“
Almost every movement has struggled with the issue of “passing”, the practice of being the protester on Saturday and the compliant citizen on Monday morning. For example, the long hair of the 1960s was adopted initially as an anti-war statement. Everyone could leave the protest signs at home after the rally, but long hair was on display 24/7. The same is true for various iconic looks of various movements of resistance, from the lesbian buzz cut to the black afro.
Fate of Planet Rests on Mass Movement for Climate Justice: Naomi Klein
In that spirit we have to start self identifying as climate justice activists first. Not as a student or bricklayer who is concerned about climate issues, but as climate activists who happen to be students and brick layers. Our primary identity must become that of moral individuals committed to justice first, foremost and always.
“Go with what is most terrifying… Always choose love over safety, if you can tell the difference.”
“Our hopes must not rest on those in power, but on the common people whose servants they are.“
Pick up the cry
Look what’s happening out in the streets
Got a revolution got to revolutionHey I’m dancing down the streets
Got a revolution got to revolutionAin’t it amazing all the people I meet
Got a revolution got to revolutionOne generation got old
One generation got soulThis generation got no destination to hold
Pick up the cryHey now it’s time for you and me
Got a revolution got to revolutionCome on now we’re marching to the sea
got a revolution got to revolutionWho will take it from you
We will and who are we
If you live in the Ottawa area (Canada) please support the CJF by attending the Dec 12th Day of Action and the Dec 18th First Supper (Detail here)
Wherever you live, participate in the Dec 12th Day of Action
“It is time for every rabble rousing, child-loving, planet protecting person to get clear that we will not be okay unless we disrupt business as usual.”
Betsy Taylor: Why civil disobedience may be necessary on climate change
If you don’t know about the Climate Justice Fast hunger strike you can learn all about it here and in these posts (most recent first):
- CJF Hunger strike day 33, days of hardship
- CJF, climate change hunger strike day 27
- CJF, climate change, food and equity
- CJF Hunger Strike, Day 20
- Hunger Strike Day 13, retrospectives and reflections
- Days of doubts and fears
- The Climate Justice Fast Six
- Climate Justice Fast, ripples and waves
- Climate Justice Fast – Change is now!
- Climate Justice Fast is to be … indefinite
- Climate Justice Fast begins Nov 6th, how will you be helping?
“Over the 20th century, ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic main development region warmed during peak hurricane season, with the most pronounced warming occurring over the last four decades.” Earth GaugeWe give our consent every moment that we do not resist.
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“Our hopes must not rest on those in power, but on the common people whose servants they are.“
Greenfyre's 
At this point, it seems so arbitrary — Copenhagen is a juncture that either prevents or brings about catastrophe. It is probably more difficult than preventing nuclear disaster, and that threat is also amplified since a severely damaged biosphere means that whole populations will be desperate.
Of course it isn’t arbitrary: it’s a clear choice. Slow death, murdered by the bomb, or the longterm cause of the planet.
What — what in the HELL — so severely distorts estimates of facts and chances? It’s the size of the short-term (very short-term) prize. Averting disaster interferes with interests. The chosen few will stand on the corpses of many.
The truth is what inspires. Keep communicating the facts.
The many — not the few — can prevail.
Dec 12 in solidarity
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🙂
“Let us suppose that certain individuals resolve that they will consistently oppose to power the force of example; to authority, exhortation; to insult, friendly reasoning; to trickery, simple honour. Let us suppose they refuse all the advantages of present-day society and accept only the duties and obligations which bind them to other men. Let us suppose they devote themselves to orienting education, the press and public opinion toward the principles outlined here. Then I say that such men would be acting not as Utopians but as honest realists. They would be preparing the future and at the same time knocking down a few of the walls which imprison us today. If realism be the art of taking into account both the present and the future, of gaining the most while sacrificing the least, then who can fail to see the positively dazzling realism of such behaviour?”
Camus, from ‘neither victims nor executioners’. Thought I wouldn’t stick [sic] in for each ‘men’, apologies. More of that quote here:
http://www.coveredinbees.org/v1/node/34