How do you change the world?

BPSDB

The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Climate Science Report

We only have months, not years, to save civilisation from climate change

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CJF Hunger Strike, Day 20

Michael, Day 20 BPSDB

Michael talks about various aspects of the Fast, such as

• the stages he has been experiencing
• the risks involved
• where the determination comes from (the “why”)

Very useful if you are planning to fast for Copenhagen Dec 6th – 18th.

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):

• 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?

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Political action I: how it actually works

BPSDB

“The politicians won’t care.“

How often have we heard that with reference to some action we are taking? How often has it proved to be true?

Why does anyone think that it matters?

The problem isn’t the tools that we have available for political action don’t work. The problem is that generally we have no idea what it is we are actually trying to do. I do not mean that in terms of our ultimate goals as they relate to a particular issue, but in terms of what we are trying to achieve with a specific action. As a result we do not know how to effectively use the tools we do have.

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Hunger Strike Day 13, retrospectives and reflections

PSDB Climate Justice Fast hunger striker Anna Keenan takes some time to reflect about where she has been for her last three birthdays, aspects of the UNFCCC process, COP 14 in Poznan, Poland, 350.org, the rise in civil disobedience and climate camps, the future of the movement and where it needs to go at COP 15 and beyond.

Note that climate Trolls Canada and Harper get special mention:

“I am myself and what is around me. If I do not save it, it shall not save me.” … Gassett

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Days of doubts and fears

BPSDB

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

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It is out of this admiration that I am joining a small group of people who will be participating in a rotational solidarity fast for the length of the Climate Change Justice hunger strike. ” Jess

Genuine political action is deeply personal and transformative. There is something awry if the external struggle with power and injustice is not matched by an equally intense internal struggle. The Climate Justice Fast is no exception.

Laura

I sit in front of my computer, contemplating my own hunger strike – a measly 48 foodless hours. I have just watched Anna Keenan and Sara Svensson speaking about their indefinite hunger strike, a notion which is not for the faint of heart.

As I listen to their inspired words, and the conviction in their voices, I think to myself: ‘Has it really come to this?’ Acts of sheer desperation, wrought from the learned hearts of those who care so much – truly, this should be perceived as a bad omen.

Climate change is a complex problem indeed; an issue worthy of thought, actions and solutions if ever there was one. It takes just the tiniest bit of awareness with a smidgen of foresight for each one

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The Climate Justice Fast Seven

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BPSDB These are the six inspiring activists who have committed to a

water only Fast (hunger strike)

until there is a Just Settlement in Copenhagen,

at least 43 days, and possibly beyond…

.t

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Anna Keenan

Anna began fasting on November 6 at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, along with Sara Svensson, and will continue fasting throughout and perhaps beyond the Copenhagen climate talks, with a presence inside the conference, with Sara, Diane and Daniel

“I am 23 years old, from Brisbane, Australia, and I am a youth climate change activist, a 1940’s jitterbug swing dancer and a former circus acrobat.

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Climate Justice Fast, ripples and waves

A drop of water blood BPSDB
Mother
Are you crying?
Forgive us our sins
For we know not what we have done

Forgive me
So I can give the last drop to my brother
Horizontal
Because he is your son
And I am not your daughter.

Maybe I forgot
Your daughters feed the world.
They say I am
Mother, how did it happen
Your wounds?

Martha, participant

CJF Solidarity Rolling Fast

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Die Mauer (Berlin Wall), the CJF and climate action

BPSDB

What does the fall of the ‘die Berliner Mauer‘ (the Berlin Wall) on Nov 9, 1989 and the end of the Cold War got to do with the Climate Justice Fast (CJF)?

What can the Wall teach us about the effectiveness of political action in general, and a hunger strike in particular?

Everything!

The reason lies in the intersection between these quotes:

“What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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Climate Justice Fast – Change is now!

Change is now, change is now BPSDB
Things that seemed to be solid are not
All is now, all is now
The time that we have to live

Williams College Joins Worldwide Climate Hunger Strike

“At Williams College we have 45 students signed up for a relay fast.”

Jen Rowe

Canberra, Day 3

Truth is real, truth is real
That which is not real does not exist
In and out roundabout
Dance to the day when fear it is gone

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Climate Justice Fast is to be … indefinite

BPSDB This morning two amazing women, Anna Keenan and Sara Svensson, gave a press conference in Barcelona about the Climate Justice Fast. Nothing I might say could compare to their words and actions. I can’t embed the webcast, so please click the link below and hear why they are putting their health and lives on the line, as well as the statement by Agnes who puts the Fast in it’s proper context.

Climate Justice Fast! Barcelona Link –
taking climate activism to the next level

Here is Paul Connor again, talking about Day 1.

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Climate Justice Fast begins Nov 6th, how will you be helping?

BPSDB

True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it.

Gandhi

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On Nov 6th activists will be beginning a 40 day fast for climate justice, including people in India, the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Bhutan, The Philippines, Germany, France, Honduras and inside the Copenhagen conference itself.

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Scary Monsters (And superfreakonomics)

“When I looked in her eyes they were blue,

but nobody home”BPSDB

I thought I was done with this particular tar baby and would just leave it to Brian to keep track of the ongoing discussion of Superfreakonomics, but like others (eg here and here) I just can’t seem to shake it off. Actually there are some good reasons to revisit it, so please bear with me … or jump right to “what you can do.”

• He’s right

• It’s bad, seriously bad

• Popular sentiment

• Why it matters

• What you can do

He’s right

An interesting exchange took that took place on a forum a couple of days ago raised an important question generally, but with reference to Superfreaknonomics specifically. As is too often the case the more general discussion will have to wait while we deal with the Superfreaks.

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Zen and the art of planetary maintenance II: Impossible love

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

BPSDB

One of the great challenges in any social justice activism is that the ultimate goal is, practically speaking, impossible.  Whether we are talking about ending poverty or human trafficking, stopping climate change or saving the whales, any sort of realistic analysis says that they are unattainable goals that are beyond ridiculous.

Needless to say contemplating the obvious futility of one’s efforts is not the most uplifting way to spend time. Indeed it often very quickly leads to despair and apathy.

In considering whether to participate in the International Day of Climate Action tomorrow, there are plenty of reasons to consider doing nothing. The Day of Action is mean to build momentum towards the Copenhagen meetings, but isn’t that more or less a lost cause? There are certainly plenty of good reasons to think so.

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Talkin’ bout a revolution

BPSDB Today is the mass civil disobedience coinciding with Powershift’09 in Washington DC. (live coverage at Capital Climate Action and Greenpeace).

The nonviolent resistance and the reasons for it, from the political “Climate Code Red”  to the personal  “See you in jail: It’s not symbolism when you live in D.C.”, Why civil disobedience may be necessary on climate change have been covered, so I won’t be repeating that.

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Inhofe’s “Mauvais Blague”

BPSDB

• The Inhofe files
• More corpses
• Changing Planet
• It takes a cyber-village

The Inhofe Files

(in this instance “files” being an anagram of “F’ Lies”)

Beau Geste is a classic story about French Foreign Legionnaires who successfully defend a fort by propping corpses and dummies up in the parapets to make the enemy believe the fort is fully manned.

Inhofe’s mauvais blague is trying to attack climate science with dummy scientists and the corpses of ideas. The blogosphere has responded quickly to the assault and as far as I have been able to tell, been reasonably successful at containing the pestilence.

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Each one teach one

BPSDB

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• This blogs for you
• What do you want to see?
• It’s a tool
• Be a part of it

This blogs for you

Well, yes and no. In trying to address the huge amount of misinformation being spread by the Deniers I kept a collection of links, then created a small wiki, and then this blog.  So it’s a tool to help educate about the facts when responding to Denierism, but a tool anyone and everyone can use.

Seriously – what topics should I cover? Bearing in mind that the goal of this blog is to educate about the misinformation that has gotten popular circulation, are there particular topics you would find useful to have covered? either because you are uncertain about the science, or you would just like a place you can link people to for explanations.

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Pandas, Polar Bears, and Penguins

There is no question that people are very interested in and concerned about species such as pandas, polar bears, penguins and similar species under threat from anthropogenic climate change.

Watching various social networking sites you can see articles about these species quickly become ‘popular’ as they are variously noted, dugg, hugged, buzzed, stumbled, etc (ie voted for by other members). At the same time articles about climate science, educating about climate change, and climate policy generally languish with little attention paid to them.

See the disconnect?

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… and it comes to us highly recommended

“It was called direct action, and it comes to us highly recommended”

Utah Phillips

UPDATE: Fools seldom differ dept – Blockading Global Warming

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Climate Change and Civil Resistance: Time for the people to lead?

The blog I meant to write has already been written, so I will throw you a teaser, link it, and then append a little commentary:

“Does Al Gore think he’s too old for civil disobedience?: Leaving aside whether breaking the law is ever justified, it seems odd that Gore doesn’t seem to include himself in the category of the “young people” he thinks should risk jail to halt global warming. After all, at age 71, Ghandi was arrested and served two years in prison. The US labor organizer Mother Jones was still facing charges of sedition in her 80s. Even TV president Martin Sheen, who is eight years older than Gore, managed to get himself arrested at an antinuclear action in Nevada last year, for what he says is the 65th time.” Read the rest …

Meanwhile, over at Climate Progress: Gore calls for civil disobedience to stop coal. But will he lead like Gandhi and King?

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