Potholer54 climate videos, new and some less so

BPSDB Regulars will know that I have been a huge fan of Potholer54 who has done some excellent climate science videos:

• • • 1. Climate Change — the scientific debate
    • 2. Climate Change — the objections
    • Climate Change — Those hacked e-mails
    • Climate Change — isn’t it natural?
    • Climate Change anatomy of a myth

I was not at all pleased with his fourth, “Climate Change — Gore vs. Durkin” where he looks at both “The Swindle” and “An Inconvenient Truth.” Potholer seems to have fallen into a trap of attempting to seem even handed, not favouring one side of the issue or the other, see ‘Very disappointing‘ for the discussion.

I found his most recent one also somewhat disappointing even though it is mostly pretty good.  “11. Climate Change — Hurricanes, atolls and coral” was also released as “Climate Change Are we all going to drown?”

Read Full Post »

CJF Hunger Strike day 42, Incipit

YouTube – Day 42 Message to fasters BPSDB

Bringing Moral Force to COP15

by Anna Keenan

DEC 17 – Copenhagen

1000 people will join fasters who have reached the 42nd day of a hunger strike for climate justice, in a Candlelight Vigil for Survival.

We will gather in the Øksnehallen space for a solemn and powerful event recognising the urgency and gravity of the moment–and urging leaders to rise to the world’s call to action.

Read Full Post »

CJF Day 40, Hunger for Survival

Humanity is Hungry for Survival

BPSDB The Climate Justice Fast activists have been on hunger strike for 40 days in support of climate justice. Now in the closing days of the Copenhagen Conference they are calling on all of us to Fast for one day …

Dear Friends,

by Anna Keenan

This week an unprecedented 115 world leaders will converge in Copenhagen to forge a global agreement on climate change. It is thanks to the efforts everyone concerned about climate change that these decision makers will all be in the same room. However we, together as a global community, need to ensure they make the right decisions.

The bad news is that with only one week left, the international climate negotiations are still deadlocked. The good news is that this is our opportunity to step things up.

The science is clear, and the technological and social tools to reduce carbon pollution are ready and waiting.  Our movement has the moral high ground.  Now, we must unite and make the moral declaration that nothing short of an equitable science-based treaty is acceptable. Humanity is hungry for survival.

We are therefore calling for all people across the world, to join a single global day of fasting – voluntarily going without food, drinking only water – on Thursday 17th December.

Read Full Post »

CJF hunger strike day 37, streets of Copenhagen

BPSDB CJF Press Conference in Copenhagen – Tuesday 8th Dec

Only Day 6 for me and I am shocked at how lethargic and dull I have become. Is this a passing phase in the bodies response? or does it reflect underlying health conditions? (there is some diabetes in the family history, so maybe?).  Regardless, Anna and Sara seem a lot more energetic and sharp than I currently feel, which I am very glad to see (Sara struggles with her English a bit, but that was true a month ago).

Read Full Post »

CJF Hunger strike day 33, days of hardship and discipline

COP 15 Begins BPSDB

Call to action for the 12th

by Anna Keenan

It has now reached the end of my 28th day of fasting. Four complete weeks without food.

It is perhaps the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life, but then, it has also been incredibly rewarding and eye-opening. A grand test of my self-discipline.

Read Full Post »

CJF, climate change hunger strike day 27

BPSDBDiane discusses the power of hunger strikes and the impact they have on people.

Read Full Post »

CJF, climate change, food and equity

by Anna Keenan (CJF Hunger Strike, Day 21) BPSDB

It’s been a little while since I’ve written – been very busy preparing for COP, moving houses in Copenhagen, and so on. But with all this ‘not eating’, it’s encouraged me to reflect on diets and their contribution to the climate problem.

In truth, the indulgent eating habits of many in the over-developed, over-consuming world are amongst our most inequitable daily habits. They are probably also amongst the easiest of our habits to change.

Unlike those other low-carbon lifestyle changes, like ‘stop driving your car and catch the bus instead’ – where the alternatives simply may not exist, or may be really really inconvenient, due to poor government services (get to work lobbying them, people!) – the alternatives to our high-impact western diet are very readily available: just choose the vegetarian option!

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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?

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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

.

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

Read Full Post »

The Climate Justice Fast Seven

.

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

.

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.

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

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

.

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.

Read Full Post »