SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
#WhyIMarch: Naomi Klein on 'Sacred Duty' of Participating in #ClimateMarch
'This a mission. It is a generational mission...We have to march'
Apr 25, 2017
Author and activist Naomi Klein on Tuesday released a video explaining why she is taking part in the global Peoples Climate March on Saturday, calling the event "a sacred duty."
The march on April 29 comes as the Trump administration considers withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, despite record after record showing each new year hotter than the last. Meanwhile, a new analysis by the consultancy group Climate Advisers estimates that President Donald Trump's planned climate change policies could bring about an extra 500 million tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2025.
If the administration is successful in repealing former President Barack Obama's landmark Clean Power Plan (CPP) and other regulations, carbon emissions will begin to increase by 2020, the analysis found, while the CPP pledged to lower slash emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by that time.
Those dire possibilities were a clear driving force behind Saturday's march.
"I march because we can do so much better," Klein says in her video. "Climate change is a message. It's telling us we need to evolve."
"This is a moment," she says. "This a mission. It is a generational mission. It is a sacred duty. We have to march."
Similar messages abounded this week.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) also produced a video, stating, "This is the right time for a climate march. This is the right time for people to get out there and fight. Politicians see the light when they feel the heat."
Playwright and activist Eve Ensler wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian on Monday:
Humanity is struggling to determine whether we will accept living and dying in a world where 0.1 percent of the people reign over our Earth, our bodies, our rights in service of their own interests and profit or whether we collectively rise and fight to transform this predatory paradigm.
[...] Every struggle we have--women's liberation,racial justice, economic inequality, immigration rights, gender rights, disability rights--happens on the Earth, because of the Earth.
So that's why I am rising on April 29 with the climate march. Let our passion and fight for our mother be the energy and trajectory that fuels us and binds us to a larger struggle to end and transform this deadly and exploitative mindset.
And a Twitter feed under the hashtag #WhyIMarch displayed a vast range of voices expressing their reason for joining in the global event, from immigration to justice for frontline and communities of color.
"We have a responsibility that when fighting for black and brown liberation, it also includes access to clean air, to clean water, to green spaces, and diverse food options," said Layel Camargo of the artist collective CultureStrike.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Author and activist Naomi Klein on Tuesday released a video explaining why she is taking part in the global Peoples Climate March on Saturday, calling the event "a sacred duty."
The march on April 29 comes as the Trump administration considers withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, despite record after record showing each new year hotter than the last. Meanwhile, a new analysis by the consultancy group Climate Advisers estimates that President Donald Trump's planned climate change policies could bring about an extra 500 million tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2025.
If the administration is successful in repealing former President Barack Obama's landmark Clean Power Plan (CPP) and other regulations, carbon emissions will begin to increase by 2020, the analysis found, while the CPP pledged to lower slash emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by that time.
Those dire possibilities were a clear driving force behind Saturday's march.
"I march because we can do so much better," Klein says in her video. "Climate change is a message. It's telling us we need to evolve."
"This is a moment," she says. "This a mission. It is a generational mission. It is a sacred duty. We have to march."
Similar messages abounded this week.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) also produced a video, stating, "This is the right time for a climate march. This is the right time for people to get out there and fight. Politicians see the light when they feel the heat."
Playwright and activist Eve Ensler wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian on Monday:
Humanity is struggling to determine whether we will accept living and dying in a world where 0.1 percent of the people reign over our Earth, our bodies, our rights in service of their own interests and profit or whether we collectively rise and fight to transform this predatory paradigm.
[...] Every struggle we have--women's liberation,racial justice, economic inequality, immigration rights, gender rights, disability rights--happens on the Earth, because of the Earth.
So that's why I am rising on April 29 with the climate march. Let our passion and fight for our mother be the energy and trajectory that fuels us and binds us to a larger struggle to end and transform this deadly and exploitative mindset.
And a Twitter feed under the hashtag #WhyIMarch displayed a vast range of voices expressing their reason for joining in the global event, from immigration to justice for frontline and communities of color.
"We have a responsibility that when fighting for black and brown liberation, it also includes access to clean air, to clean water, to green spaces, and diverse food options," said Layel Camargo of the artist collective CultureStrike.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Author and activist Naomi Klein on Tuesday released a video explaining why she is taking part in the global Peoples Climate March on Saturday, calling the event "a sacred duty."
The march on April 29 comes as the Trump administration considers withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, despite record after record showing each new year hotter than the last. Meanwhile, a new analysis by the consultancy group Climate Advisers estimates that President Donald Trump's planned climate change policies could bring about an extra 500 million tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2025.
If the administration is successful in repealing former President Barack Obama's landmark Clean Power Plan (CPP) and other regulations, carbon emissions will begin to increase by 2020, the analysis found, while the CPP pledged to lower slash emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by that time.
Those dire possibilities were a clear driving force behind Saturday's march.
"I march because we can do so much better," Klein says in her video. "Climate change is a message. It's telling us we need to evolve."
"This is a moment," she says. "This a mission. It is a generational mission. It is a sacred duty. We have to march."
Similar messages abounded this week.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) also produced a video, stating, "This is the right time for a climate march. This is the right time for people to get out there and fight. Politicians see the light when they feel the heat."
Playwright and activist Eve Ensler wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian on Monday:
Humanity is struggling to determine whether we will accept living and dying in a world where 0.1 percent of the people reign over our Earth, our bodies, our rights in service of their own interests and profit or whether we collectively rise and fight to transform this predatory paradigm.
[...] Every struggle we have--women's liberation,racial justice, economic inequality, immigration rights, gender rights, disability rights--happens on the Earth, because of the Earth.
So that's why I am rising on April 29 with the climate march. Let our passion and fight for our mother be the energy and trajectory that fuels us and binds us to a larger struggle to end and transform this deadly and exploitative mindset.
And a Twitter feed under the hashtag #WhyIMarch displayed a vast range of voices expressing their reason for joining in the global event, from immigration to justice for frontline and communities of color.
"We have a responsibility that when fighting for black and brown liberation, it also includes access to clean air, to clean water, to green spaces, and diverse food options," said Layel Camargo of the artist collective CultureStrike.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy