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Climate change is happening right now and it is only going to get worse unless we take drastic steps immediately. Yesterday was the bad news portion of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything. Today is the small ray of hope.
It is entirely possible to make the switch to 100% renewable energy for the entire world by as early as 2030. We have the technology to do this, what is lacking is the will and the money. The free market as it currently functions will not get us there nor will our politicians. What needs to happen, Klein says is a mass social movement. She believes it is the only thing that will save us now. There are precedents, remember the Arab Spring? The US Civil Rights Movement? The Women’s Movement? Granted, none of these brought about a complete revolution, but they made an impact and perhaps a world-wide social movement could take hold and save us all.
There are places where it is already beginning. Klein calls the movement “Blockadia.” Currently much of it exists in areas where people are trying to protect land from being fracked. In the United States and Canada there are arising coalitions between indigenous peoples and their traditional opposition: ranchers, hunters, large farming operations. There is also a growing movement begun in Totnes, UK called Transition Town. It is a community led project to build resilient, sustainable communities.
Then there is the divestment movement that seems to be growing rapidly especially among universities. Divestment is about large institutions getting rid of their investments in fossil fuels. Yes, someone else buys the shares when they are sold, however, the more places that divest, the more public awareness it gets, the more unacceptable it becomes to make money from fossil fuels.
The bad news is there is nothing we can do alone that will make a difference. The good news is that together we can make change happen. Klein understands the difficulty in this:
For most of us living in postindustrial societies, when we see the crackling black-and-white footage of general strikes in the 1930s, victory gardens in the 1940s, and Freedom Rides in the 1960s, we simply cannot imagine being part of any mobilization of that depth and scale. That kind of thing was fine for them but surely not us — with our eyes glued to smart phones, attention spans scattered by click bait, loyalties split by the burdens of debt and insecurities of contract work. Where would we organize? Who would we trust enough to lead us? Who, moreover, is ‘we’?
The key to it all is a change of mindset. We much let go of our extractivist thinking that allows us to believe we can take and take and take, that we can control and dominate nature. There must, as Klein says, be a “fundamental shift in power relations between humanity and the natural world.” We must give up taking and dominating and become caretakers focused on renewal and regeneration.
It won’t be easy, if it were, we would have changed our ways already. But it isn’t impossible and we shouldn’t give up. One of the great things about a mass movement is when you start to feel overwhelmed and like your work isn’t making a difference, you are surrounded by people who can help bolster and renew your spirit. So find a local group already active in your area, or if there isn’t one, start one. Talk to your neighbors, your friends, they probably feel the same way you do and are just waiting for someone to light the fire. You could be the spark that gets it going.
The answer lays in drastically lifting the renewable energy targets, and replacing much of the fossil energy as soon as possible.
The key to achieving this is to cut the link between the mega polluting companies and the government.
As a picture is worth a thousand words, this cartoon depicts a very simple pollution solution . . . . .
https://cartoonmick.wordpress.com/editorial-political/#jp-carousel-917
Cheers
Mick
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Mick, most definitely! I love the cartoon! Yes, the answer does lay in a drastic change to renewables and Klein agrees with that. However, it isn’t happening because as the cartoon points out and state, there is that link between polluting companies and government. Follow the money, right? That’s why Klein advocates a mass social movement. She thinks that is the only way to break the link between the extraction companies and politicians and jumpstart the shift to renewables. I beleibe things are starting to happen at community and city levels, I see it in my own city, so hopefully it all start bubbling soon!
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Well, this is a little bit cheering! And there are a lot of grassroots movements these days, which the internet makes it easier to access. We can pester our politicians more easily and more directly too, which is nice.
But to be honest, I’m not very cheered. We don’t have much time, and look how long it took just to convince people that there is indeed a problem. I felt that when the recession struck, there was a real moment for us in the West to reassess our economies and rampant consumerism and start changing, but it didn’t happen.
I think I’ll have to read this book anyway, and thank you Stefanie for your excellent discussion of it.
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I am just about reaching the end of this book. It is an excellent work of journalism/political economy. I think Klein is honest about the daunting situation that we face but insists that despair is a luxury we cannot afford. Some of the material is so desperate – the awful story of Nauru and its final use as a brutal dumping ground for refugees shows how the deepening crisis is a brutalizing force.
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Ian, wow, you are zipping through the book! Isn’t the story of Nauru terrible? You are right, wringing our hands in despair is a luxury we cannot afford but I think there are a lot of people doing that right now because they have no idea where or how to begin. When the government doesn’t step up and do what is right and necessary it is hard for people to come together and fill the void. Hopefully we can do it!
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Helen, I know how you feel, it is cheering but the task seems so monumental and impossible. I seriously doubt we will be able to move fast enough to hold warming to 2C, most scientists are now talking about 4C, which will be very very bad but not completely civilization destroying. So while we will probably miss the first target I don’t want everyone to give up and think it is not worth still trying. In book Klein says that if we use all the fossil fuels in the ground that we currently know about, the earth will warm as much as 16F/9C. I agree we missed a great opportunity during the “Great Recession” and I thought the Occupy movement would get us going in the right direction but that fizzled and now things are back to business as usual. Klein’s is a very good book and I hope you get a chance to read it!
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Nice read….I just started yesterday..
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Clive, thanks. I hope you find the book as well written as I did 🙂
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My kids learn about and spread all kinds of energy-saving methods at college. About the only thing they don’t do is fuss at me about driving to pick them up.
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Jeanne, how wonderful that they are such good advocates!
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This is a bit off topic, but I think this relates to what you’re talking about with this book. I’m reading a book (slowly) called How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott Sampson (of Dinosaur Train fame, for those of you who have preschoolers.) He says that introducing kids to nature, letting them explore it and know it and come to love it, is the hope for the future of our planet. Not only good for the kid, who gets fresh air and knowledge and a sense of empowerment, but also good for the planet, because kids who fall in love with nature will grow into adults who care enough about the natural world to DO something to protect it.
I love this idea, especially since I have an almost 4 year old child. I’m doing everything I can to make him aware of the natural world, starting in our own backyard – the animals, our garden, the trees and flowers. There is such a disconnect between industrialized world humans and nature – that we don’t NEED nature, that we’re not a part of it. We won’t work to save what we don’t feel a connection to.
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Laila, I definitely agree that giving kids frequent experiences with nature makes a huge difference. I was so lucky to have grown up in a house where family vacation meant camping, chores often meant weeding the gardening, and family TV time was generally watching nature shows. You are doing well by your child 🙂
You are right, Sadly there is a huge disconnect in the industrialized world that nature is something out there and somewhere else to be subjected to or will. But nature is everywhere and we are part of it and always have been.
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I’m glad to know there is some good news, even just a sliver of it. Where do I sign…?
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Great article.
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Actually when someone doesn’t understand then its up to other viewers that they will help,
so here it happens.
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It’s hard to come by knowledgeable people about this subject, however, you sound like you know what
you’re talking about! Thanks
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