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Hungry in Copenhagen
A day of fasting isn't the only reason why activists in Copenhagen are hungry today.
I'm sitting here in the crowded but wonderful 350.org office near Copenhagen's Central Square, surrounded by young people from America, New Zealand, India, Ecuador, Mexico, Fiji—all hunched over laptops, busy organizing. (International youth culture: Gmail). We're fighting to the last minute of this crazy conference, and then beyond.
The mood may be a touch more subdued than usual, both because the conference is going badly (more on that in a minute) and because none of us are eating today—we're taking part in a symbolic one day fast, with people from around the world. The enthusiasm for this gesture overwhelmed us—when we sent out news on our website last night that a small group of fasters who had been going without food for 40 days were asking for others to join them today, it didn't take long before more than 1,100 people had signed up. They've been sending in thoughts and reflections all day to the 350.org website:
- Mike Grenville: Everything makes a difference. We are all more connected than is obvious from the surface. As your stomach growls send your thoughts to those making decisions that represent your country.
- Chloe Phalan: I will fast with you on Thursday. It is a pittance compared to what so many of you are doing, but if nothing else it will focus my compassion towards those whose hunger is not a choice. Fight on!
- Mohammed Yahia: I just had a little daughter and right now she's 55 days old. I want her to grow up in a world where she doesn't have to fight for her very existence. I want her to be able to grow up and live a happy, fruitful life like I did. And I want to see her grandchildren, and make sure they have a good fulfilling life too. That is why I'm fasting today.
I wish I could say that words like these were penetrating the conference six miles away at the Bella Center. (By this point, almost every NGO representative has been kicked out of the conference, which among other things deprives the poorer countries of the volunteer staff they need to help make their case). A few heads of state are saying similar things: about an hour ago, the prime minister of Tuvalu ended his remarks like this: "We just have to prepare ourselves for the worst. We have no where to run to. We must prepare ourselves individually, family wise, so that they know what to do when a cyclone comes or the hurricane blows. There is no mountain we can climb up. We just have to face it. And that's why we're making noises around the world."
It got some applause, but the powers that be—the United States, especially—are busying themselves pressuring one country after another to agree to a truly terrible treaty. How do we know it's terrible? Because we're paying attention to numbers, not rhetoric. Two floors up from our office the amazing folks at Climate Interactive are using their nifty software program to constantly recalculate the promises one country after another keeps making. They're using the scientific target as a reference—by now, everyone including the U.N. 's chief climate scientist has agreed that we need to head towards 350 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to have a chance of staving off truly devastating climate change. Currently, the proposal under negotiation would yield a world that in 2100 would have 770 parts per million CO2—which would be a working definition of hell.
So on we fight. Clearly we won't get what we need out of this conference, and the battle will have to continue. We have a lot of folks willing to make sure that happens. They're hungry today—hungry for justice, hungry for survival, hungry for a future.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllNothing will get done until the United States is put on a fast.
The people of the world CAN do this: just stop buying 'American', and we'll 'get it' soon enough. If you have any appreciation for the American midriff, you understand that fasting is not something we do well.
But until then, symbolic gestures don't move us, more NOW than in the recent past. Because NOW we're in a deep economic funk. We're contemplating the symbolism of our OWN gesture, our fall from grace into debt and want. We're not going to be watching someone in Copen-friggen-haggen starve themselves.
If you care about 350, hit us now where it hurts. A few years ago and it WOULDN'T have hurt. That's the difference a few Bush-years will make. We need your foreign currency: don't provide it. And don't be shy about telling us why. That, and ONLY that, will make us 'see the light'.
Sioux Rose
There's a parallel at work here. The earth Mother is ill and the powerbrokers, led by US corporatists, could care less about effective treatment.
Note that within the "land of the free," many persons are ill and the powerbrokers, led by US corporatists, could care less about effective treatment, too. The same reprobate determinations are on full display both in Copenhagen and in our domestic "health care reform" political circus act.
In both instances millions of persons will be directly impacted by decisions that cut them out of their own right to self-determination. It's a fact that the US in its profligate use of resources is directly contributing to a form of climate destabilization that is causing waterways to dry up, ancient ways of subsistence living to come under immediate threat. Millions with nothing left to lose will mobilize and act when they realize the road to justice is blocked.
My point is that I think a groundswell is being reached as persons do care about their ultimate well-being, and when they see so plainly that so-called leaders are ready, willing, and able to sign off on their safety, security, and capacity to survive... that rings lots of internal bells.
We share our fury and frustration in this forum, and try to brainstorm strategies that might make a difference. It dawns on me that the change we await must become a global one. The US is definitely leading the world to calamitous ruin and selling out on its own people. This fact is so glaring and so uncompromising in its lethal implications that it will and is forcing mobilization.
I believe the next revolution will be a global one as the world's workers throw off the chains of those few corporations that have managed to use their ersatz wealth to buy political clout and bend law to their own advantages. With war so casually determined and its casualties treated like ink on a balance sheet, despicable acts of trespass have been allowed too long.
When those empowered do nothing to heal what threatens the existence of so many, the numbers will come together to show them where true power lies. This is the beginning of the rumbling... armed guards cannot stop an earthquake.
Unfortunately, there is also a LOT of firepower ready to put down such a thing. That the US armed forced havent completely refused to fight at this point says a lot. A lot of them have to realize they have been totally used by the elite rulers.
How many of them would refuse to shoot down American citizens and how many would not? I dont know. Then again the elites will come to more and more rely on Blachwater-type private mercenary armies.
Sioux Rose
KITAJ: What I am seeing is something like Rosa Parks just spontaneously deciding NOT to sit at the back of the bus one day. Some kind of moment where ONE person snaps and then (kind of like the "200th Monkey concept") lots more just get pulled into the wave. It's the way a single spark can start a brushfire that takes acres into its burn. There are TOO many injustices going unredressed, and so-called leaders are so obviously enjoying obscene privileges while they sell out those they are employed to represent. The list is of course much longer than these two examples. I just think it's going to be organic and spontaneous, and military powers are far better when they have game plans and established targets. This is a new animal in some respeects, plus I see the phenomenon as worldwide...
*******************My Fantasy*******************
My fantasy is that one day I will be going through my day and everywhere I go people will be talking about all of the injustices and insanities perpetrated by the elites and how all of this bullshit just cannot go on anymore for one more second.
At work, in the library, in coffee shops, the park and EVERYWHERE I go, people are talking, and planning and sharing information, and all of the usual banal, superificial conversation about the usual trivialities has been banished and replaced with profundity and an unswerving allegiance to truth.
I have concluded, Sioux Rose, that my fantasy is real...on an alternative earth, not this one ;~)
If it's just a fantasy, you are being too practical and pragmatic! Why not fast forward and think back, talking about how bad things were, what kind of injustices and insanities were there, and how we all moved on to a new way of thinking and acting...
How about this for a fantasy? All women decide that they would choose only men who care about a sustainable and equitable world and would do something about it - whatever is possible at their levels - and want to make sure that the man earned his wealth through fair-play before committing to a relationship? When the elite and the rich men find out that all their wealth cannot get them a decent woman, I think they'll change their ways fast - some of them, at least. Some others might join the Taliban? Can't be sure...Also, I *know* that the "elite and the rich" is not limited to men alone. I guess I'm not that good at fantasizing on such matters.
What I am seeing is something like Rosa Parks just spontaneously deciding NOT to sit at the back of the bus one day. Some kind of moment where ONE person snaps and then (kind of like the "200th Monkey concept") lots more just get pulled into the wave.
---------------------------------
Sioux Rose, Rosa Parks didn't "just spontaneously" decide to do anything. It was completely planned and choreographed. The "spontaneously" and "tired seamstress" bits were propaganda. It's well-documented.
And the "100th monkey" stuff is a cynically concocted fable. It didn't happen. It's a story.
We desperately need to get things done, but I truly can't see how relying on false stories will help. It's too much like the poor bastards who died in droves because they believed their shamans and thought they were now bulletproof. The shamans apparently didn't realise that physics wasn't going to cooperate.
I like to think so too. My only hope is that sanity and sense prevail among the elite and the transition to a more sustainable, equitable world comes about through peaceful means - through a realization that any sort of violent change is not worth the outcome, and not sustainable. Everyone is beginning to see through their games - so they can stop being too clever.
The Climate Scoreboard (http://climateinteractive.org) is great stuff. Just one more example of the commitment and passion of countless number of faceless volunteers and activists working with experts from different backgrounds. Contrast this with the approach of the naysayers. I saw this kind of a passion during last year's elections. Countless number of faceless volunteers worked for electing Barack Obama. (To a lesser extent, I saw similar enthusiasm and organization for Ron Paul - during a fund-rasing drive). Since the outcome from Copenhagen looks less than encouraging, I hope all these activists and experts find a way to keep the spirit alive, and come up with something more creative and more effective than what the "official" talking heads could do.
TO THE ACTIVISTS and organizers and delegates trying their best to stand up for the Mother Earth and Decency and people everywhere against the powers-that-be....
THANK YOU.
There really isn't that much 'Made in Amerikan' stuff left to Boycott. The problem is that most of the ownership 'Rich elite' has moved off shore. The only light worth being seen will be shimmer of the morning dew in your Greenhouse. That is if your are lucky enough to have a water supply. It is the Malthusian population explosion that must be controlled. If people can't do it, mother nature has and will again.
RAMP IT UP -
the mantra:
I WILL NOT BE ONE OF PABLOB'S DAWGS !
(pab -pablum, lob-lobotomized, dawg- you get the drift)
if its the only available tool that links me with COP 15 starving Guarani child - BRING IT ON!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen
13 MILLION SO FAR CAN'T BE WRONG
There are a surprising number of "progressive" people who think that the human race can keep driving cars and eating excessive meat and solve climate change. No so. But what path to take? First make public transit free. You don't need world leaders for that. It is being done locally. Then as the town center revives and the big box stores lose their parking advantage and suburbs lose their cheap transport advantage, they can be plowed under for [local] organic vegetable farms. FreePublicTransit [google it]
"we're taking part in a symbolic one day fast.." Bill McKibben
Bill, why not make a permanent change in eating habits?
When the UN Chair on climate change points to reducing meat-eating as an immediate action to impact climate change, are you all vegans?
I hope you are not just doing the "symbolic" fast, but also contributing to real change by eliminating meat and dairy from your diets.
98% of soy crops and 756 million tons of grain and corn per year are fed to farm animals.
Why are we not feeding the world of people with this food?
Meat-eaters contribute 7 times more to greenhouse gases than do vegans.
If we progressives really want to do more than just "symbolic" gestures, can we not let go of our old habits and let go of the cheeseburger?
Bill, spend your days in Copenhagen eating plant-based, whole foods if you want to make an actual impact.
And then, make this productive change permanent and set an example for the rest of us progressives and environmentalists to do the same.
Not everyone can be a vegan, Sue. I've happily been a veg for most of my life, but I now *need* eggs and dairy because otherwise I can't get enough protein. A pound block of doufu provides 40g, but that's not enough for tissue repair (as I discovered!)
Mairead,
Beans and almost every plant contain protein.
It is very difficult to develop a protein deficiency; have you ever heard of Kwashiorkor?
That's the clinical term for protein deficiency and is VERY rare.
Gorillas are very strong and are herbivores, for example. They eat a few bugs but get their bulk protein from plants.
You may be getting some misinformation? What is the tissue repair concern?
I love beans and rice, particularly the red-bean Cajun and black-bean Cuban dishes. I used to eat them at least once a week.
But no more, because carbohydrates are (literally) death to people with diabetes. And, unfortunately, my age and slightly-Asiatic genetics have afflicted me with T2 diabetes.
Lucky for me, I *love* Asian food and have a number of good cookbooks from those traditions, so I can make doufu or eggplant every day and never repeat a recipe unless I want to. I wish I could still eat corn, because I also like Norteño cookery (enchiladas de queso *moan*), and I *really* regret not being able to eat rice. I won't even mention how much I miss baking a round of scones for my tea. But the big problem is that I can't eat enough doufu to get the protein I need.
When my hair falls out and my kitchen cuts don't heal, I know I've forgotten to eat enough protein. When I start paying attention to protein, the problems go away. That seems like a good working definition of deficiency.
I discovered that ca. 30 years ago when I stumbled and took the hide off my knee on the pavement. A month later it was still oozy and dripping, which was scary. But I researched the problem and discovered that protein is the key to tissue repair, so I started drinking rehydrated whey and presto, the knee healed up (though I still have a web of ugly fire-like scarring from what was originally a trivial injury).
If I were willing to sacrifice the lives of mammals and/or birds, I'd have no problems. But I'm not. On the other hand, I'm not willing (nor do I see any reason why I should be) to sacrifice myself either. So I eat eggs and dairy to supplement my doufu and veggies, and stay healthy.
I don't think fasting makes any difference. Consider how many Americans routinely (involuntarily) fast since Clinton enacted welfare "reform," yet most Americans are oblivious to the poor here in the US (unless they're still the more fortunate "working poor"). The point is, Americans really don't care.
What do you expect to accomplish by fasting, other than maybe losing a few extra pounds? You could take your normal daily allotment of food for a day or a week, put it in a grocery bag and take it to the nearest food pantry; this would accomplish something substantial. Fasting won't change policy. Fasting won't draw the public's attention to your cause. If you fast for the purpose of raising your own consciousness, well good -- now go do something about those who are truly in need.