This weekend marks the 9th anniversary of the “battle in Seattle,” three days of rage that put the anti-globalisation movement on the map. Rather than simply commemorating the event, Mass Climate Justice is ratcheting up resistance to those who refuse to take climate change seriously–that would mean nearly all of your elected leaders with their miserable excuses for meaningful policy–by staging a rally and demonstration on Sunday and Monday 11/29-11/30. Which will include civil disobedience and the usual consequences thereof. If you can make it, please do.
You’re not required nor even encouraged to to participate in any illegal actions. It may be worth considering that even Al Gore recognizes the need for a more ardent response than we’ve been providing–this month, he declared that “”Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play. And I expect that it will increase, no question about it.”
The only way to turn down the heat is to turn it up.
If you cant’ make it, MCG’s letter to Senator John Kerry is truly worth reading and digesting in its entirely. It serves as a valuable, genuinely ecological manifesto in that ties together the raft of social, cultural, economic, and political changes necessary for survival–much less prosperity–in an era of ongoing climate change and imminent resource scarcity. The letter is reprinted in full below:
To the Honorable Senator Kerry and colleagues in the US Senate and Congress,
As you may know, climate scientists continue to escalate their dire warnings. Recent reports now predict that the widely-accepted 2oC threshold for dangerous warming will be reach as soon as 2030,11 and that the climate could warm as much as a 7oC (10.8oF) by the end of century, along with meters of sea level rise1,2. With climate on the verge of spiraling out of control, it must be recognized that all humanity – as well as our global and local economies – depend on maintaining the life support systems of the planet. Our fate is bound together, rich and poor, to each other and to the Earth. Any proposed climate solutions must be based not only on science, but also on shared values of fairness and justice. The welfare of humanity and posterity, that currently hangs in the balance, must be paramount.
Thus we urge you to abandon the deeply flawed Kerry-Boxer climate bill and write a new bill based on the fundamental scientific and humanitarian necessity of reducing atmospheric CO2 below 350 parts-per-million (ppm). Further, the urgency for achieving 350 ppm must be that of a wartime mobilization. The threat to our security and survival is no less critical and acute.
Failing to urgently return below 350 parts-per-million atmospheric CO2 flies in the face of current science, and spells disastrous consequences for ecosystems and our economy that depends on them. The proposed US climate bill, unfortunately, fails to meet this test of scientific feasibility. As stated in the 2007 IPCC report, emissions must be reduced by 25-40% relative to 1990 levels by 2020 in order to stabilize even at 450 ppm. Yet the current Kerry-Boxer bill caps US emissions at a level that is only 3% below 1990 levels by 20207. And even this reduction will be obliterated due to “offsets” and discounted emissions (biomass and others) that create much higher effective emissions rates.
To the argument that “we need to accept political reality, and negotiate the best deal we can get”, we say3: “political feasibility” is a moving target, highly dependent on the public conversation – and that public conversation is rapidly changing. Political feasibility will follow naturally once politicians start to speak the WHOLE TRUTH about how climate change will soon impact the public’s lives, forever, including their very survival, and about the magnitude of change that is truly required. Political feasibility also depends on being honest about the strength (or lack thereof) of proposed climate legislation in averting climate catastrophe. In fact, all the climate bills in the world combined, including the pending US bill, even if perfectly executed, will still bring us to way above the 2oC catastrophic warming, and 6 feet of sea level rise, THIS CENTURY, with much worse impacts still in the centuries to come2.
In any event, however, the climate is indifferent to political feasibility. The real test of any climate deal must ultimately be scientific and ecological feasibility of the proposed solutions.
It is no secret that the US climate bill has fingerprints of lobbyists for the worst polluters and the Wall Street all over it10. In addition, the US Chamber of Commerce, a long-standing, unabashed opponent of even the weakest provisions in climate policies, has now been asked to help write the US climate legislation.
It is deeply troubling that both the US climate bill and the international negotiations are serving to use climate change as a pretext to expand the ownership and control of special interests over the public commons – in this case the atmosphere and climate. These special interests include big coal, oil, nuclear, agribusiness, and Wall Street, many of whom are at the root of the crisis to start with. The further consolidation of power and profit into their hands leads to an increasingly unjust world where the public bears the costs and impacts while the rich makes profits, often by further worsening the climate emergency that these “solutions” are supposed to help resolve. Examples of this phenomenon, referred to by Naomi Klein as “disaster capitalism” include:
• The use of “cap and trade” schemes for pricing carbon, an artificial and unpredictable ”market” approach vulnerable to the same speculators, day traders and bank executives who brought us the current financial crisis, and who stand to profit handsomely from a multi-trillion dollar carbon trading/speculation market. Cap and trade has been repeatedly proven ineffective in reducing pollution, is extremely complex, non-transparent, slow to implement, prone to fraud, special interest influences, and perverse incentives, and stuffed with polluter giveaways and protections at the expense of the climate and the environment.
• The heavy subsidies for coal and the so called “Carbon Capture & Sequestration” technology (or CCS), – a false solution because it is extremely expensive and won’t be available for many years (if at all), and because there is no real safe storage for the captured, highly compressed CO2. Underground storage is prone to leakage through geological faults, injection wells or abandoned wells, and even a trivial fraction of leakage will undo climate mitigation over a period of time. In addition, the escape of even a small fraction of the gas to the surface endangers humans, animals, and plants, and will acidify soil and aquatic ecosystems4. The enshrinement of coal in the US climate bill also condemns communities that have long suffered the environmental devastation from coal mining and coal ash disposal, to continued injustice.
• The incentives for biomass incineration, and the promotion of biofuels, based on the faulty assumption of their carbon neutrality, not only threaten to decimate our forests to satisfy our hunger for energy, but also, by burning biomaterial instead of allowing it to return to the soil, further exacerbate soil nutrient loss, soil degradation and erosion, leading to more soil carbon emissions. By not counting biomass incineration emissions, the US climate bill also renders any proclaimed emission reduction targets meaningless, as far as the atmosphere is concerned.
• Expanding offshore drilling, and nuclear power plants, as a formula for “energy independence”. While this may reduce fossil fuel imports to a small extent years down the road, drilling and burning more fossil fuel (including tar sand and oil shale) worsens the climate crisis, and contributes to further environmental destruction. More subsidies for the hugely expensive nuclear industry diverts badly needed funding for investment in truly clean renewable technologies, while committing to the huge upfront carbon emissions from nuclear power plant construction, and continued environmental destruction and pollution from nuclear material mining and processing, all without even achieving real “energy independence” since much of the nuclear material will be imported from abroad.
We call for policies that effect an immediate, deep mobilization akin to a war-time effort, for the peaceful purpose of common survival. This requires truly respecting science-based greenhouse gas targets, currently recognized as no more than 350 ppm, instead of paying only lip service. This also requires the implementation of real solutions to achieve it, including:
• Direct, rule based regulations to drastically and purposefully contract and conserve the use of energy and other key resources, and curtail excessive, unsustainable consumption. Regulations must also aim to redirect our economic activities into energy efficiency improvements, truly clean and green renewable energy, public transportation, re-localization of agriculture and production that minimizes transportation needs, waste reduction, etc. This means keeping fossil fuels in the ground, shifting rapidly away from incineration technologies including biomass burning, and phasing out nuclear power as quickly as possible.
• Supplementing these direct rules with a simple, revenue-neutral carbon fee coupled with equal-share dividend return or reduced income tax in an equitable manner, that provides a strong price incentive for a rapid shift to a low carbon economy, while ensuring low and medium income families are protected (even advantaged) from price hikes due to the carbon fee. Unlike cap and trade, which does not achieve additive emission reductions in conjunction with rule-based policies or technology innovation, this carbon fee approach is fully additive to the emission reductions achieved by other causes, and is transparent, easy to implement and audit, much less prone to fraud, doesn’t create perverse incentives. Where politicians have had the courage and wisdom to inform the public about it, has already been implemented in a number of countries and regions in the world, without costing politicians their political careers!8,9
• Using regulatory rules to phase out unsustainable agricultural and forestry practices (including clear-cutting forests, “conventional”, chemical-intensive farming practices, and factory feedlots, etc.), and switch to sustainable, organic agriculture and holistic soil management practices. This will stop the large emissions from the agricultural/forestry sector, and instead draw down CO2 from the atmosphere by as much as tens of parts-per-million globally5. None of these practices should be allowed to be sold as “offsets”, which completely undo their effects by trading them for the right of more emissions by other polluters.
• Providing generous funding for ending global deforestation, and for maximum ecosystem restoration. These projects must address root causes of deforestation, including demand side drivers (from wealthier nations), and must protect indigenous people’s rights, and recognize the immeasurable value of their intimate knowledge on the maintenance of their natural environment. Clear distinction must be made between natural, old growth forests and monoculture plantations, to protect against the conversion of the former to the latter. Again, none of these projects should be allowed to be sold as “offsets”.
• Providing generous funding and technology transfer to enable the developing world to take a low-carbon path of development (before they lock into a high carbon path), and to adapt to the effects of climate change for which they are hardest hit yet least responsible for causing. The US is by far the largest historical emitter and still among the highest per capita emitters of the world. We must take up our undeniable responsibility in solving this global problem.
• Providing generous funding for promoting global population contraction. We have already stretched our planet’s carrying capacity. To have any hopes of improving the living standards for all persons on earth, and avoiding a planetary collapse, we must first acknowledge the primary responsibility developed world has in causing most of the stress to Earth’s environment through our uncontrolled overconsumption, and fund generously programs and policies that focus on human development and ecosystem restoration worldwide, that improve the livelihoods of all people, and that will bring an end to uncontrolled population growth.
• Redirecting at least part of our disproportionately large military spending to provide the above needed funding (and still with plenty left to spare for health care, education, etc.!). Half of our income tax goes to pay for military related expenses, much of it to secure fossil fuel access. We cannot win global cooperation and succeed in global climate mobilization, or achieve real national security, when our country’s military budget is 42% of the entire world’s6!
• Implementing a true public campaign financing system, and an Instant Runoff Voting (ranked choice voting) system. These and other election reforms are needed for a fundamental change to bring about real democracy, and get corporate money out of politics and climate policies. We need system change, not climate change!
The state of Massachusetts should take a leadership role by adopting the proposal of The Leadership Campaign, to re-power Massachusetts with 100% clean electricity by 2020. We call on Senator Kerry to sign the letter from some state legislators urging Governor Patrick to introduce this measure, and to introduce such ambitious measures in the federal climate bill. We note this will bring him strong credibility at both the national and international negotiation tables.
Equity and justice are the basis for reaching an agreement on and successfully implementing any real solutions. This includes justice at all levels.
• Internationally, the developed world must repay its climate debt to the developing world for the devastating effects of its past high carbon, environmentally destructive “development”.
• Domestically and beyond, we must recognize that the sooner we transition away from dirty energy and other unsustainable practices, the sooner we can stop the direct assault on the surrounding communities that are inevitably most impacted and often devastated, which tend to be poor communities, people of color, and indigenous peoples who suffer disproportionately for our carbon addictions.
• When transitioning to a low carbon economy, we must protect the rights of workers, displaced peoples, and others affected by the transition, by providing worker retraining and financial assistance among other measures.
• We further note that sustainability and relocalization of food production, manufacturing, financial services, and to the extent possible, renewable energy production, are key foundations of a vibrant, low carbon economy, and represent major economic justice opportunities, providing a source of local, green jobs for those who need them most. In addition, the local small businesses and cooperatives that provide these services keep resources in the community, and multiply the community-building power of every dollar several fold, as it re-circulates within the community.
• Finally, generational justice, as well as our moral obligation to protect the web of life of which we are a part, all demand that each of us do the right thing, and that we demand our politicians to do the right thing!
Therefore, we call on Senator Kerry and all other politicians to do the right thing, and work honestly to ensure a livable planet for all of us and our children.
