Movements without leaders
The history we grow up with shapes our sense of reality -- it’s hard to shake. If you were young during the fight against Nazism, war seems a different, more virtuous animal than if you came of age during Vietnam. I was born in 1960, and so the first great political character of my life was Martin Luther King, Jr. I had a shadowy, child’s sense of him when he was still alive, and then a mythic one as his legend grew; after all, he had a national holiday. As a result, I think, I imagined that he set the template for how great movements worked. They had a leader, capital L.
As time went on, I learned enough about the civil rights movement to know it was much more than Dr. King. There were other great figures, from Ella Baker and Medgar Evers to Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Malcolm X, and there were tens of thousands more whom history doesn’t remember but who deserve great credit. And yet one’s early sense is hard to dislodge: the civil rights movement had his face on it; Gandhi carried the fight against empire; Susan B. Anthony, the battle for suffrage.
Which is why it’s a little disconcerting to look around and realize that most of the movements of the moment -- even highly successful ones like the fight for gay marriage or immigrant’s rights -- don’t really have easily discernible leaders. I know that there are highly capable people who have worked overtime for decades to make these movements succeed, and that they are well known to those within the struggle, but there aren’t particular people that the public at large identifies as the face of the fight. The world has changed in this way, and for the better.
It’s true, too, in the battle where I’ve spent most of my life: the fight to slow climate change and hence give the planet some margin for survival. We actually had a charismatic leader in Al Gore, but he was almost the exception that proved the rule. For one thing, a politician makes a problematic leader for a grassroots movement because boldness is hard when you still envision higher office; for another, even as he won the Nobel Prize for his remarkable work in spreading climate science, the other side used every trick and every dollar at their disposal to bring him down. He remains a vital figure in the rest of the world (partly because there he is perceived less as a politician than as a prophet), but at home his power to shape the fight has been diminished.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the movement is diminished. In fact, it’s never been stronger. In the last few years, it has blocked the construction of dozens of coal-fired power plants, fought the oil industry to a draw on the Keystone pipeline, convinced a wide swath of American institutions to divest themselves of their fossil fuel stocks, and challenged practices like mountaintop-removal coal mining and fracking for natural gas. It may not be winning the way gay marriage has won, but the movement itself continues to grow quickly, and it’s starting to claim some victories.
That’s not despite its lack of clearly identifiable leaders, I think. It’s because of it.
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Draw the Line: The Next Step to stop Keystone XL
Friends,
Here at 350.org, we believe, above all, in people power -- and there is no better example of that than our work against Keystone XL and the tar sands.
From the summer of 2011, when 1,253 people were arrested in civil disobedience at the White House to stop the pipeline, to earlier this year when we were part of the largest climate rally in US history, to the ongoing pressure of Keystone demonstrations at Obama Administration events -- taking action together has turned what was once a done deal into a defining test for the President's climate legacy.
In the past few weeks, President Obama has said that he's willing to stop the pipeline if he thinks it ‘significantly contribute[s]’ to climate change -- and so it's time for us to take action together once more. Today’s announcement that he is putting solar on the White House makes his choice even clearer: it makes no sense for him to put solar in his back yard and a tar sands pipeline in ours.
On September 21st, I'd like to invite you to join 350.org and allies across the country to put people power to work again. That’s when we’ll be taking action against Keystone and the tar sands in communities coast-to-coast, and telling President Obama that there is no turning back -- to keep his climate promises, he must reject Keystone XL.
We’re calling it Draw the Line, to show that our commitment to defending our communities and stopping the tar sands is non-negotiable.
Some of us will draw a line showing where sea levels threaten to rise, others of us may link arms in front of refineries or tar sands industry targets to stop business as usual, still others may march with giant pipelines through the streets -- but together we will draw lines that send an unmistakable message that the tar sands are a climate disaster and President Obama must stop the pipeline.
If you think you’re ready to lead a Draw the Line action in your community, click here to register your action and get started: act.350.org/event/draw_the_line/create/
President Obama is Putting Solar on the White House Roof!
Exciting news: the Obama Administration just announced that they are at work installing solar panels on the White House roof! This is a victory for a multi-year campaign by 350.org and many allies to get the White House to go solar. Many thanks to the tens of thousands of you who called on the President to take action -- and a special thanks to everyone who helped with our "Put Solar On It!" Roadtrip back in 2010. Our press release about the announcement is below.
350.org’s Bill McKibben Applauds Decision to Put Solar on the White House
Fighting Australian coal from India
Organisers in Hyderabad, India protested outside the annual general body meeting (AGM) of the infrastrucutre company, GVK on August 12th. GVK is making a terrible investment choice and planning the 10 billion USD Alpha coal project. The project constitutes a coal mine in the Galilee basin of central Queensland that if burnt will eat away 6% of the global carbon budget, a port to export coal to India and other North Asian countries that falls within the Great barrier reef heritage area and railway lines that cut through some of the most beautiful farms and landscapes in Australia.
Even economically, the project has been thrashed as highly dubious and investors were warned not to make such a risky financing. Activists in Hyderabad gathered to protest outside the company AGM with messages from Indians and Australians alike to stop this dangerous project. The protest was quelled by the local police and the organisers detained for a couple of hours. Below is a slideshow of images with messages from friends in Australia who are ready to fight GVK, images from the action in Hyderabad and the action video.
Please share the story and these images with your networks as we hope to escalate pressure to stop the project.
Joyful, unyielding.
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My wife Sue and I criss-crossed America these past few weeks -- from the Mackinac Straits of Michigan where they want to run tar sands oil through aging pipes beneath the Great Lakes, to the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California where they'd like to turn tar sands into gasoline. We saw coal plants, fracking wells and stretches of Pacific coast they'd like to turn into carbon ports.
But mostly we saw people -- the beautiful face of a movement that's growing, learning, coming together.
It's incredibly diverse, as one would expect -- people in Maine are from people in Moab, Utah are different from people in Trumbull County, Ohio. But no matter our differences, everywhere we share an adversary: a fossil fuel industry so focused on greed that they're willing to rip apart the planet and its communities.
We've put up a slideshow with photos and reportbacks from Summer Heat events -- it's a small glimpse of the power and beauty shown across the country in the past few weeks. Click here to see it: 350.org/en/about/blogs/what-happens-when-climate-movement-decides-summer-isnt-hot-enough
Everywhere I went, people also shared a spirit: firm, joyful, unyielding. I particularly liked the banner that hung from the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River: "Coal, Oil, Gas: None Shall Pass." It all has to stay under ground.
For a few weeks we took the hottest stretch of the summer and turned it politically hot as well. A lot of people felt the pinch of handcuffs -- myself included -- but they felt the embrace of the rest of the movement too. Everywhere people were embracing the power of the local climate justice movement, in all its forms.
If this was a movement of a few big organizations or a few leaders, then the industry wouldn't need to worry so much. But instead there are thousands of local leaders, and hundreds of local organizations -- and they're linked together in new, exciting ways that spell trouble for the fossil fuel barons, and hope for a troubled earth.
So many thanks to everyone who raised the heat. Let's keep going,
Bill McKibben
This is what happens when the climate movement decides summer isn’t hot enough.
Featuring...
Richmond Summer Heat – Bay Area
President Obama — Keep your Promises – DC
Flotilla to keep New England tar sands free – Maine
2013 Walk for our Grandchildren – Maryland
Shut Down Brayton Point – Massachusetts
Oil and Water Don’t Mix: A Rally for the Great Lakes – Michigan
Rally at the Rio! – New Mexico
Don't Frack Ohio 2.o – Ohio
Pacific Northwest stands up to fossil fuel exports – Portland, OR
Utah Tar Sands Action Camp – Utah
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350 Vietnam presents in Saigon
This post is written by Katharina Mengede, one of our 350 Vietnam volunteers.
On Tuesday 350 Vietnam had the great pleasure to present our work and our recent efforts at an event called Green Drinks. Green Drinks is a monthly, informal session, which provides individuals, young NGOs and established organizations in the green field the occasion to share their visions and ideas.
Why 847 is an important number for India
In India, climate change is not a mainstream issue. For a vibrant democracy of 1.2 billion people, a sound scientific community and a hyper active media, one would imagine an issue that threatens the lives of a majority of Indians would be discussed, but it isn't! And we are asking public personalities in India to help change this and elevate global warming to the national discourse. Sign this petition and urge them to speak out!
In June, the northern state of Uttarakhand experienced one of its worst floods in recent history. A state that nestles within it, piligrimage sites that attract millions of people from around the globe. The image below is poignant and scary in which we see the idol of Lord Shiva (the bringer of destruction) drowning in the flood waters.
Unrestricted contruction of buildings on river basins, unchecked tourism, reckless growth of dams and poor policy lead to devastating impacts on human and animal life and the economic costs of dealing with the floods is billed at $ 1.2 billion. Whilst the above reasons made the floods worse, the fact remains that the state received 847% excess rainfall between 13-19th June 2013. The melting Himalayas added to the intensity of the floods which is now dubbed as a "Himalayan Tsunami".
We are asking everyone to sign this petition and urge public personalities in India to raise the profile of the issue. As simple as a tweet from some of them (who have millions of online followers) can spark off a much needed discussion on global warming in India. Help create the new discource on climate change in India!
This West Sussex community has spoken: thou shalt not frack
I often ask myself: how much longer can the rogue forces of the fossil fuel industry continue wrecking our planet with impunity? Today I was reminded of our movement’s recurring answer to that question: not for long, if we can help it.
In the early hours of the morning, anti-fracking activists and community members in Balcombe, Sussex, UK, successfully halted the first day of explorations for a new shale oil development by famed (infamous, rather) fracking company Cuadrilla. Over 250 people united in a powerful, peaceful, joyful blockade -- that eventually convinced the trucks containing the initial fracking equipment to abandon the site.
Photo credit: Frack Off
This is community power at its best. Campaigners in Balcombe, just like those in frontline communities around the world (in the US, Indonesia, Argentina, and elsewhere) had been calling attention to the dangers of fracking for over a year. This week, when Cuadrilla’s license for exploration and development was approved, activists quickly mobilized to organize a Great Gas Gala, inviting people in Sussex and neighboring areas to converge on Balcombe and oppose Cuadrilla’s efforts.
Today’s protests are set in the context of a recent announcement by the UK government proposing a 50% tax cut for companies involved in shale gas extraction, the most generous tax regime for fracking in the whole world. The proposal is very much in line with the dreaded “dash for gas” that the Chancellor, George Osborne, announced at last year’s unveiling of the budget.
It is in opposition to these efforts that groups like Frack Off, No Dash for Gas, and many of our partners and allies around the country, are mobilizing public awareness and opposition, in a genuine effort to shift the power in our energy systems and put our communities and their people back in charge. The Global Power Shift UK team will be working in the upcoming months on helping build that large, inclusive movement -- one that represents community interests, leverages our diversity, and builds on our shared vision of a people-powered future that solves the climate crisis once and for all.
The fight in Balcombe is not over yet. Today’s exploratory fracking attempt (make sure to check out the amazing pictures) was the closest to London to date, where a lot of the finance for these operations comes from and where the tangled webs of power and influence are carefully threaded between consenting politicians and short-term profit oriented fossil fuel corporate executives. Impunity for them and their climate-wrecking efforts? No longer. Real resistance is brewing in their backyard.
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UPDATE: The situation is in continuous development. For latest news, follow Frack Off and the Great Gas Gala websites.
CORRECTION: The post initially referred to shale gas -- the Balcombe fracking site is believed to contain shale oil instead.