Rebecca Solnit, wonderful 350 writer, has a brilliant piece up on the HuffingtonPost, Judgment Days in Copenhagen, where she draws comparisons on the movie, Terminator 2, with how the global climate crisis unfolded in Copenhagen.
Solnit points out that in both Terminator 2 and Copenhagen, man-man technologies threaten to destroy our world. In Terminator 2, it was intelligent cyborgs who sought to wipe out humanity. In our lives, it’s the cumulative effects of idiotic machines that pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere way beyond the safety line of 350ppm. In the movie, we waited for a superhero to save the day. In reality, Solnit concludes that "there are no superheroes but us."
"Really, though, if there’s going to be a superhero in our world, a friendly Terminator to go up against the villains in suits and ties, it will be civil society. Even for the betterment of humankind, civil society won’t get to shoot anyone or drive a truck through a wall. Instead, it’ll organize, educate, build, and pressure, while working to create models and alternatives."
We can’t do the piece justice with just this one excerpt — go check it out for yourself!
Most 350 team members are now on their way out of Copenhagen, headed back to homes as far flung from each other as Ecuador, Malaysia and Burundi. Some much needed rest and time to reflect on how to evolve the movement next is definitely in order. As we dive deep into our ideas for evolving the movement, and carefully reflect on each idea among the hundreds of ideas you’ve sent to the 350 team inbox — Solnit helps us envision what will surely be key to all of our evolution as movement builders: we are already and must grow as superheroes to save our world.