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The Climate Youth Will Lead
AL Gore deserves to be commended, but activists must go to next level of direct action with or without him
"At stake is the survival of our civilization and the habitability of the Earth... The climate crisis offers us the chance to experience what very few generations in history have had the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; ... a shared and unifying cause; ... the opportunity to rise." - Al Gore, from An Inconvenient Truth
This weekend, Al Gore had a magnificent opportunity completely laid in his lap to lead the young generation into claiming such a mission. Tragically, Gore himself failed to muster the moral strength to "rise" to the occasion. Although every indicator points to a historic necessity for the climate movement to seize the moral high ground and invoke the power of nonviolent resistance, it is now clear that this kind of visionary leadership and empowerment will need to come from ordinary people and activists at the grassroots level. To the good folks attending Power Shift and also those in the wider movement working hard for the paradigm shift that can protect life on earth: We are the ones we have been waiting for and We must seize the moment.
Gore has done a commendable and vital job in creating public awareness about the immense threat presented by climate disruption. No one has achieved more in translating the science into a form that large numbers of people can comprehend. The current disconnect, however, lies in his reluctance to challenge the political status quo and declare without apology that our society is now at a juncture where we must call upon a higher moral power. He is not looking at the danger of this moment and seeing it like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King would see it. Despite many heroic efforts he still inhabits the calculated landscape of a politician and rejects the opportunity to ascend to high moral leadership.
Gore is speaking the words of urgency but he is not matching those with the actions of urgency. On Friday night, before the gathered youth climate movemem in Washington, he once again acknowledged that "you cannot negotiate with the laws of physics". He certainly understands that frightening tipping points of no return move closer and closer, and that a catastrophic level of climate disruption is on the brink of spinning out of control. He also understands that the governmental process for dealing with this has essentially been "paralyzed" (his own word) by the tremendous financial clout of the very industry which is driving the disruption.
In an emergency of this magnitude, it is simply not sufficient to ask young people to repeat what they have already done before to no avail - i.e. simply talk to their elected representatives. It is also not enough to vaguely tell young people that they need to fight against the inordinate power of these vested interests and the government that has capitulated to it. Gore could have once again acknowledged the need for civil resistance and declare that people need to put their bodies on the line and risk arrest in the name of preventing a crime against humanity from going forward.
What did he do instead? He drew an analogy to the civil rights movement, but only to bring up a point about young people questioning their parents about racism. He completely avoided any mention of the nonviolent civil disobedience that was at the heart of that movement. More predictably, yet equally disturbing he could not bring himself to say even one critical word about how the Obama administration has failed to lead on the climate crisis.
Gore's words on the science are still important. But for a model on the actions that are now necessary, young people must look to those who have championed the power of nonviolence such as Gandhi and MLK. Gandhi said: "Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless or, which is the same thing, corrupt.... Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of humankind." It is clear we have reached the time when we must act on this "sacred duty" and tap into this "greatest force".
The home page of the Power Shift site announces that this is the gathering that will launch "the next wave" of the movement. For the sake of our planet, may it recognize what now needs to happen and draw upon the wisdom and courage to implement it. May the Power Shift generation "rise" to the occasion and claim its place in history.
13 Comments so far
Show AllTo me, environmental issues -- and global warming is only a part of a much larger uglier picture -- are important and far reaching enough to deserve to be considered a crisis. It's not being experienced as an emergency yet because not enough people are feeling the pain directly. It's a crisis that, so far, you mostly have to know about unless you live near a superfund site or have to breathe observably filthy air. What worries me is that by the time it becomes sufficiently apparent to make a majority of people feel that something has got to be done immediately, it will be too late.
The focus on non-violence is vital and needs to be constant.
Every time we use petroleum and/or coal, we are participating in the use of violence.
We Viol-ate ecologically and we use military violence to ensure that we can continue to violate ecologically. The creation of the Pentagon and its rampant and escalating GLOBAL environmental degradation is strongly supported by Gore and his ilk.
On a related issue, I use rainwater for most of my gardening, and now, I find myself wondering (and feeling impotent about a remedy for it) how I am increasing the radiation (from Japan - in the atmosphere) within the habitat I provide for other creatures and within what I harvest in my supposedly "organic" garden here in the so-called Midwest. Simultaneously, I feel violated and I know that I am living a life of privilege.
Do we deserve anything?
Our only hope is to simplify our lives and this seems anathematic to the human nature.
We Humans appear more and more to be poisonous dilettantes to me.
Anyone associated with Washington DC. and Wall Street seems hell-bent to escalate this assessment.
I can't "give up" and I have no reason to hope.
I will continue to try to reduce my toxic effects on the earth because I am thankful for the magnificent and minuscule wonders within this existence.
I must tend my garden.
Powershift's choice of Al Gore as their keynote speaker speaks volumes! Last year, they rejected Mike Roselle, founder of Climate Ground Zero, co-founder of Earth First, RAN etc. as a keynote in NC! This group can only redeem themselves by closing down DC, Monday, 4/18/11...There are thousands of young folk there that I KNOW would put their asses on the line, just ask them!
Yes, Gore's "leadership" of the anti GW movement is an ongoing travesty.
Of course he won't call for massive civil disobedience. He didn't do so when W was stealing the Presidency and he won't do so now.
Gore is the scion of one of Ameria's original elite families. He doesn't rouse the rabble. He is a capitalist neo-imperialist of the 1st order.
He has proven that he will lead the people exactly nowhere.
You're right DJH. The man doesn't stand up when it counts. Another spineless/gutless Liberal Playa.
A majority? I imagine it will take about 90% of the Amerikan people to wake up before anything much gets done. And that likely puts us well past the tipping point.
But tomorrow is another day I hope to see. We think we can shape the Earth to our liking, therefore we are stupid, therefore nature is going to kick our ass. So be it.
Maybe we should do like the conservatives that turn to frequent mantra-like repetition of their lies so people will internalize them, but tell the truth instead:
"A healthy economy needs a healthy environment".
These repug thugs tells us we have to make these hard budget cuts and deficit reduction immediately (cut off our nose to spite our face, how stupid) to save the future for kids and grandkids. Well, how about the planet Mr./Mrs. repug thug? Your ideology of big business and profits first at all cost to air and water and chemical pollutants leaving the cost of clean up to the taxpayers. Well, we can't just keep cleaning it up, we did back in 60's and 70's and then came Reagan in 80's and it stopped. We were never able to clean up all the raping and pillaging that goes on. It has had a cumulative effect. So what kind of environment/planet do you think you are leaving your kids, what kind of costs will they have to bear to clean up the messes made by lack of regulations on industries who pollute our air/water and food.
and that is only if their is much of a planet left for our grandchildren.
Right next to this article is one that says "No End in Sight for Nuclear Catastrophe in Japan." Shows the situation is every bit as serious as I say -- I'm not quite as much of a crackpot as I feel like. And that's just one small pixel of the big picture. Hope the young people are up to it.
This Powershift organization is on the right track: no one stands to lose more than our youth. Indeed, not just with climate change, but our financial system has become one ginormous anvil of debt positioned over the heads of anyone under 30, something like 50 trillion dollars, most of it fake money invented by the WallStreet gang who have Washington's guns at their beck and call should anyone object to what a joke this has made of our currency, or the very notion of 'fair value'. The older generation of Americans, of which I am one, owes the younger a profound apology for, really, destroying the country. Starting with Reagan, we gave the country away to the richest and most power-mad individuals in the country and they proceded to do what they do, gut it from the inside out. 30 years later, we're broke (at least, in 'dollars', which WallStreet tells us is the currency we must use to determine 'value', despite the fact they manipulated the dollar practically out of existence), our infrastructure is falling apart, we're running out of oil, massive tax dollars are spent enforcing 'democracy' abroad, and we're ill-prepared to deal with the snowballing effects of climate change.
I hope PowerShift broadens its focus to include the economy. Climate change is the greater catastrophe, decades away. But within 5 years, I believe, the joke our economy has become will manifest itself, and that anvil will begin crushing the young everywhere. There will be much more than climate change to be nonviolently resistant towards and the older generation are busy trying to get out altogether, or have that 'deer in the headlights' look of complete shock at the destruction of their world.
It's most likely too late to do anything that will even begin to reverse the horror we've unleashed on the planet, but it wouldn't hurt to at least make an effort. But how is that going to happen when the very industries that have caused global warming, the fossil fuel producers and burners (which does include all of us who drive cars, trucks or other internal cumbustion vehicles), have countless lobbyists in Washington bribing our misrepresentatives every day to ignore the problem, deny it exists, or serve up empty platitudes about what they're going to do, all the while committed to doing precisely NOTHING?
Young people by the millions can object, learn from Gore and then proceed to "do the work that must be done," but they are powerless against these monstrous greed-driven industries. It is government collusion with industry that determines where any of this leads, not young or old people protesting non-violently or violently. They can ignore us exactly as they've been doing for decades, on this and every other issue of importance, like war.
If we keep this system, we have no voice, and nothing we do will matter. Get rid of capitalism or watch the whole world die before our powerless eyes, as we die with it.
Al Gore is first and foremost a politician, gutless and priveleged like big O. It is indeed The Road.