The Climate Movement is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement

8/8/2019 The Climate Movement is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement

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he sooner we realize that poli-ticians and corporations will notsolve the climate crisis, the soonerwe can get to the real work o build-ing a strong grassroots peoplesmovement our only hope orsurvival. In that regard, the ail-

ure in o the December 2009 UNclimate meetings in Copenhagenmay be a great opportunity. Teinability o world leaders to coop-erate rather than compete, to puta livable planet ahead o their owneconomic interests, is the death otheir legitimacy.

When rich nations drat a secretagreement that commits ourplanet to warming another 3 de-grees Celsius, we can eel the noosetightening. When Obama comes

to the table with a pledge to cutemissions by 4 percent, we knowthis spells genocide or island na-tions. When civil society groupsare banned rom the climate talks,but corporate lobbyists are allowedto remain, it is obvious where the

politicians loyalties lie.

It is not just the politicians andCEOs who are walking us down thegangplank. Many in the climatemovement have grown all too cozywith the status quo. Te bold ac-tion they call or will result in theprivatization o the air, to be di-vided up by mega-polluters. Teirdemands or carbon neutralityseek to oset our problems ontopoor countries while the rich keepburning and consuming. Teir

A particular model o dealing with climate change is dying. Itis revealing itsel beore the world as nothing more than a nalscramble or the remaining resources o a planet in peril.Naomi Klein


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vision o a clean energy uture would perpetuate the corporatecontrol o our energy and o theEarth itsel. Meanwhile hyper-consumerism, corporate power, war-mongering and global domi-nance by wealthy countries theroots o the climate crisis remainside issues skirted around as ithey were not the central pillars othe high-carbon economy.

Tose who still cling to the oldclimate movement have commit-ted themselves to a sinking ship.Fortunately, just as the legitimacyo their approach is dying, a newmovement is alive and kicking.

As world leaders jockeyed or theirpiece o the atmosphere in Co-penhagen, hundreds o thousandswere taking the streets worldwideghting or real climate solutions.Hundreds o delegates braved po-lice truncheons as they attempted

to walk out o the UN climate talksto meet the thousands already as-sembled to create a peoples climateassembly. In the United Kingdom200 activists occupied raalgarSquare to set up a climate camp. InAustralia, orty people blocked the worlds largest coal export termi-nal. Canadian activists repeatedlyoccupied government oces. Sub-sistence armers rom around theworld took the streets to demandcommunity control o sustainableood systems.

Te US saw a massive day o coor-dinated direct actions leading upto the COP15 talks on November30, the 10 year anniversary o theprotests that shutdown the WOmeetings in Seattle. Earth First!and Rising ide blocked the ship-ment o the generator destined orthe Cliside Coal plant in NC.Te Mobilization or Climate Jus-tice shut down the San Francisco

headquarters o Bank o America,while Seattle activists locked downinside Chase and Bank o Americabranches or their unding o ossiluels. Activists in Chicago lockeddown in ront o the ChicagoClimate Exchange, the largest car-bon trading institution in North America, shutting down part othe citys nancial district. Protes-tors in Washington, DC took overK Street to conront corporate lob-byists. In New York City activistsoccupied the lobby o Natural Re-source Deense Council to protest

their cozy relationship with majorpolluters.

As it becomes increasingly clearour leaders will not protect us,people are taking matters intotheir own hands. Not only are theyghting back against the corpo-rate assault on our planet, theyare actively creating the solutionsthat will usher in a truly just andsustainable world.


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The corporate approach:

green capitalism

he story told by the politicaland corporate establishment is that

climate change is all our ault andthat as individuals we are to blameor the current ecological meltdown.Tis story presumes that we havehad some sort o agency over thesocio-economic system, commonlyknown as ree market capitalism,into which we were born, and

conveniently absolves those thatbuilt and aggressively maintain it oany responsibility. Te outcome othis logic, that individuals, not theexisting system, are responsible hasorwarded the idea that only atom-ized consumers can ght and stop

climate change.

Tis individualist mindset diverts usrom collective action that challengesthe status quo in avor o consumeraction, or better yet, green capital-ism. Every carton o soy milk pro-duced with wind power is a victoryor the climate. Every new Prius isa blow against big oil. Corporate America has staged a massive coupon the public consciousness by mak-ing the question What can I do?synonymous with what can I buy?

Wall Street is happy to accommodatesome minor changes, as long as westill line up at their cash registers.

Te reincarnation o capitalism intoa clean, green, global warming-ght-ing-machine is a two-pronged assaulton movements ghting or climatejustice. First, green capitalism divertsus rom ghting or deeper structuralchange. Instead o questioning carculture as a whole, we are told that all

we need to do is buy cars with bettergas mileage. Instead o questioningone o the largest drivers o overcon-sumption, we are to laud Wal-Martor being the largest distributor ocompact uorescent lightbulbs.Never are we to think about thelands destroyed, the waters poisoned,the people displaced, the sweatshopsbuilt and the emissions created in themaking o all this new green crap.

Make no mistake, we do need tochange our ways o consumptionand production, but the change that

is necessary is a collective change oour society, not one o individual-ized purchasing habits. Tat is greencapitalisms second angle o attack. As long as we remain separated asindividual consumers, voting withour dollars, we are not a threat

DEATH


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to the system. It is when we cometogether or collective action that we are dangerous. Green capitalismdenies us our collective power while

maintaining our dependence on aunda-mentally unsustainable soci-ety.

Carbon markets,

the nal frontierInstead o recognizing climate change

as the ultimate warning that our cur-rent systems o organization, energyuse, production and consumptionare not working, governments andcorporations are seizing on climatechange as an excuse to embark on yetanother round o capital accumula-tion. Te creation o carbon markets

which justiy urther global inequal-ity and resource grabs is the solutionthey give us.

Using the logic o cost eectivenessand creating a win-win situation,corporate America tells us to have

aith in the markets, that our onlyoption is to allow polluters to buyand sell their way to a better tomor-row through carbon trading. It isdisturbing enough that cost eective-ness is given the same considerationas averting a climate meltdown. Wemight be able to choke down that

bitter pill i carbon markets hadany promise o actually reducingemissions, but they do not. Both theKyoto Protocol and the

European Union Emissions rading

System have utterly ailed in that

regard. o make matters worse someenvironmental groups are the loud-est cheerleaders or carbon markets.ransorming the undamentalelements o lie into economiccommodities serves only to urtherconcentrate power in the hands ocorporate elites, while derailing real

solutions to the climate crisis. A justclimate uture can never be let to themarketplace.

The NGO approach

We believe thatcapitalism can work

or the planet...By combining corpo-rate leadership with

policy and product

innovation, we convert to-days marketplace ailuresinto tomorrows solutions orthe planet.

Natural Resource Deense Council

Danish police attack climate activists


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Te approach o the main-stream climate groups is nearly asdisastrous as the corporate approach.In act the lines have been blurredbetween the two so much it is otenhard to distinguish them. Gap Inc.director Robert Fisher sits on the

board o the Natural ResourcesDeense Council; J.P. Morganexecutive John Rosenwald and or-mer managing director o MorganStanley Kirsten Feldman are trusteesor Environmental Deense Fund.Beore leaving his job Sierra Clubexecutive director Carl Pope went soar as to publicly advocate or naturalgas alongside CEO o ChesapeakeEnergy Aubrey McClendon.

Tese groups, ostensibly ghtingon our behal, have chosen to allythemselves with the very system that

we must dismantle in order to avertclimate chaos, showing a glaringlyshallow analysis o the climate crisis.

Te undamental message comingrom mainstream groups is: All wehave to do is switch our current so-ciety rom carbon intensive uels tolow carbon uel sources andimplement energy efciency measures. We dont have to undamen-

tally change our liestyles, or thiseconomic system, we just need tochange the energy inputs. Indeedhuge corporations can even makemoney and grow their businesses while reducing emissions. Its thateasy.

From solar power to

corporate power[Te global elite] are committedto one thing and one thing only: thecontinued success and long-termstability o capitalism as a worldsystem. Van Jones refecting onhis experience at the World Eco-nomic Forum.

Mainstream climate groups viewcorporations as allies in the ghtagainst climate change. Tey pub-licly applaud companies or creating

carbon principles and hiring ChieEnvironmental Ofcers. Tey enterinto public partnerships with majorpolluters. Te Energy Action Coali-tions 2009 Powershit Conerencewas even sponsored by Te Walmart

Not content with mere metaphor, Sierra

Club takes greenwashing to a whole new level

by partnering with notorious polluter Clorox

to market eco cleaning products.

By working with WWF, you and the climate canbenet in a number o ways: reduce energy costs, pre-

pare or new legislation, explore new business opportu-nities and markets. World Wildlie Fund


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Foundation (youth more astute thanthe Powershit leadership ortunatelydeaced and removed the banner).

Demanding a clean energy uture without dismantling corporate

power is like putting lipstick on acorpse. Contrary to the claims o themainstream, ghting climate changeis not a protable endeavor. o re-duce emissions wrote in the globalNorth must drastically reduce ourconsumption o energy and other

resources. Corporate prot requireswe do otherwise, and they will do ev-erything in their power to maintainthe status quo.

A corporate clean energy uturewill only maintain the structures oexploitation that are at the root o

the climate crisis, disregarding theact that it is our economic systemo ever-expanding production andconsumption o the Earths resourcesthat has gotten us into this mess. Tesame corporate logic that blows upmountains or coal will cover poor

Saharan countries in solar panels topower Europes cities. It will turnNorth Dakota into a wind colony orCaliornia. Let to its own devices,capitalism, regardless o its energysupply, will continue to devour theEarths remaining resources until we

exceed the Earths carrying capacity.Innite growth will ultimately wearout its welcome on a nite planet.

The world is made of more

than carbon

Mainstream environmental groupsxate on reducing carbon emissionsabove all environmental and socialissues, predictably paving the way orthe onslaught o alse solutions wend ourselves up against. Tis shal-low line o thinking is what has givenbirth to the nuclear renaissance,osetting, agrouels, geo-engineeringand other destructive technologies.Most major environmental groupshave at their best remained silent onthese issues, and at worst have been

their chie advocates.

Productivity and the growth o productivity mustbe the rst economic consideration at all times, notthe last. -William E. Simon, ormer US Secretaryo reasury


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No, were not all

in this together

Governments, NGOs, and corpora-tions alike promote the idea that weare all in this together as i rich andpoor share equal responsibility orthe climate crisis and ace equal con-sequences. It conveniently redistrib-utes the blame rom the rich, where itbelongs, onto all people o the world.And it also promotes the notion thatwe will all suer rom climate changeequally, which we know to not betrue. Tis o course has allowed richnations to conveniently deny theirdominant role in perpetuating theclimate crisis, while reusing to do

anything until poor countries reducetheir emissions.

Te Global North is responsible orthe lions share o historical emis-sions, and responsibility alls on

our shoulders to make the deep cutsneeded and pay or the damages wehave caused. Poor communities, in-digenous peoples, subsistence arm-ers, and all those ghting or climatejustice do not share the same interestsor responsibilities o the global elite.Climate change will aect us all, butwe are not all in this together.

Politicians, the other false

solution to climate change

Large, primarily DC based environ-mental groups obsessions with elec-toral politics and lobbying has beendetrimental to building grassrootsmovements or climate justice. Our

political system has been corruptedbeyond repair by corporate interests.Tere is hardly a politician in DC whois not in the pocket o one industry oranother. When push comes to shove,politicians will side with their corpo-rate donors, and it is those corpora-

tions who are killing the planet. Yetdespite all evidence to the contrary,mainstream groups tell us i we justvote or the right candidate and keepwriting our representatives, they willeventually listen.

in 08, we volun-

teered or campaigns,lled polling booth lines,and rocked the politicalestablishment.

Energy Action Coalition


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Are we really rocking the politicalestablishment by inviting politicianslike Nancy Pelosi to speak at our con-erences or begging Obama to go to

Copenhagen, knowing ull well hismandate is so weak the rest o the world would laugh i theclimate crisis were not sodeadly serious? Are cam-paigns like Powervotebuilding our movement,or the Democratic Party?

Look at what a sel-described pro-gressive president, with the largestDemocratic majority in congress in ageneration have gotten us: Te war inIraq continues. Te war in Aghanistanis escalating. Healthcare reorm is a

giant handout to the private insuranceindustry. Deportation raids on immi-grant communities continue. Te Waron error is bleeding into Pakistan and Yemen. Did we mention that SenateDemocratic leaders have stated theywont even try to bring climate changelegislation to a vote in 2010?

We are supposed to drop grassrootscampaigning every time there is anelection to achieve this!? A movementlocked in orbit around election cycles is

doomed to start rom scratch every 2-4years. Social movements should not bebeholden to the pendulumswings o electoral politicsand instead should ocuson building a movementpowerul enough to achievethe gains we need no matter

who is in power.

Instead o building an oppositionmovement many NGOs have chosento curry avor with politicians in ex-change or a ew crumbs o inuence.

Far rom challenging the politicalsystem these NGOs have by andlarge become an appendage o it.


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he totality o the climatecrisis is what makes it so ut-

terly terriying yet also whatgives us hope. Never has itbeen so clear that we cannotsettle or hal measures andpetty reorms. I we do notstop burning ossil uels anddestroying ecosystems, much

o humanity and millionso other species will perish.Politicians can oer 10 per-cent cuts here, a ew a billiondollars there, but we all knowthese oers are our deathsentences. Averting ecologicalmeltdown demands uncom-

promising action.

Te change we need will notcome rom those who seekto represent us: politicians,corporations, and top-downNGOs. We will only avert cata-

strophic climate change whenpeople stand together and ghtback. Tis means getting orga-nized in our communities todirectly disrupt the corporateassault on our planet as well ascreating sustainable lieways.

It is time to match our ac-tions with the severity o the

climate crisis. Te climatemovement needs to shitgears rom what has been alargely symbolic movementto one that is directly dis-rupting destructive indus-tries. Symbolic actions haveand will continue to play an

important role in gettingour message out and shit-ing the terms o the debate.But we cannot win with agrassroots public relationscampaign alone. Te clockis ticking.

We cant block a coal plantor a couple hours and handourselves over to the policeonce we are satised thatthe media has picked up thestory. Our movement needsto judge its progress not by

how many media hits ouraction got nor how manypeople read our blogs, butby how many power plants weve put out o businessand how many people get

LIFEYou can cut all the owers but you cannot keep springrom coming.-Pablo Neruda


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their ood rom neighborhoodgardens instead o grocery stores.

o achieve this we need a global

movement o movements basedaround core principles o climatejustice, building power rom below,direct action and solidarity.

Death by a thousand cuts

Te degree to which youresist is the degree to whichyou are ree. -Utah Philips

oo many climate groups ghtclimate change in the same way atraditional military approaches war,

putting all their energyinto combating central-ized seats o power. Webelieve the opposite isnecessary. We proposean asymmetrical as-sault on the ossil uel

industry. Stop ocusing on the DCbeltway and giant UN meetings. Temost promising struggles are comingout o communities rom Alberta toAppalachia who reuse to step downuntil their homes are ree rom dirtyenergy. While mainstream groupsspend millions ailing to pass even

the most meager and inadequate cli-mate legislation, rontline communi-ties around the world are activelystemming the tide o new ossil uelinrastructure.

One o our primary strategies toreduce emissions should be to sup-port and escalate rontline strugglesagainst the ossil uel industry. Fights

against ossil uel extraction are par-ticularly strategic. By disrupting thepoints o extraction we can preventthose ossil uels rom being burntand increase the costs (both politicaland economic) o production, whileprotecting the carbon-absorbingecosystems standing above them. Te

majority o ossil uel extraction takesplace in wilderness areas, indigenouspeoples lands, and rural communi-ties where people still depend on theland or at least a portion o theirsustenance.

Stopping extraction helps maintainthese low-carbon cultures by protect-ing healthy ecosystems that providecommunities with ood, water, medi-cine and shelter.

Earth First! blocks a natural gas powerplant under construction in Florida.


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While our most immediate task isstopping new ossil uel inrastruc-ture, we must not lose sight o the actthat to reign in emissions, we must

ultimately shut down all existingossil uel plants. We cannot remainsimply an anti-coal movement onlyto become a de acto pro-natural gasmovement. We cannot ght ossiluels only to have them replaced bynuclear power and ethanol.

Our task is to make it too expensive,too difcult, and too controversial orthe dirty energy industry to continue.Wherever they meet we will disrupttheir meetings. Wherever they mine we will occupy their machines.Wherever their CEOs live there will

be protests in their ront yards. Wher-ever their ofces are, their doors willbe blocked. Whoever unds themwill be given hell.

No war, no warming

A notable missing link within our climatemovement, even in circles that are moreconcerned with social justice issues, is aconnection with the anti-war movement.

Not only is the US military the biggest

consumer o ossil uels in the world, itis oten the preerred tool to secure en-ergy supplies or the US. Te war in Iraq,military aid to Colombia, saber-rattlingagainst Iran and Venezuela, the recentestablishment o a military command postknown as AFRICOM to oversee Western

Aricas oil reserves --the common threadthrough all o these military maneuvers isthat these countries sit on large stocks ooil. We must resist these acts o aggressionand conquest as strongly as we resist dirtyenergy projects in our own backyards.

Direct action, direct resultsOn November 28, 2008 a singleactivist breached the security oone o the most heavily guard-

ed coal power plants in Britain,climbed two 10-oot electriedrazor wire ences, and disableda 500 MW turbine - enough topower an entire city. Te un-known person let a calling cardreading no new coal and letthe same way they came. Britishpapers say that or the our hoursthe plant was shut down, Britainsclimate change emissions were de-creased by about 2 percent. Tisis a ne example o direct actiongoing beyond symbolic gesturesto actually reducing emissions.

UK activists breach the fence during amass action at the Kingsnorth coal plant


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No Borders: Immigration

and climate justice

Climate change is creating and willcontinue to create massive displace-ments o peoples rom their com-munities and countries. Te US hasalready seen the large-scale displace-ment o people within its borders inthe atermath o Hurricane Katrina.Te response to human migration

rom governments is to build walls,militarize borders, and declare entirepopulations o people illegal.

Te climate movement must stand insolidarity with peoples displaced bythe impacts o rich nations emissionsand alse solutions. Tis means activeopposition to racist anti-immigrantpolicies while joining in struggle andbuilding solidarity with communities

displaced by pollution and economicpolicies. We need to be especiallyvigilant in ghting right-wing at-tempts to push their racist agenda in

the name o saving the environment.

Against Empire

In the shadows o these wars betweennation states there are low-intensityconicts and civil wars ought everyday between people deending their

communities and the orces o globalcapital exploiting them or energy ex-traction and other resources. Whilenearly every country under the thumbo the old European empires threwo the yoke o colonialism years ago,ew have escaped the grip o economicimperialism. Free trade agreements,

International Monetary Fund struc-tural adjustments programs, WorldBank loans and even development aid

play a major role in ensur-ing that poor countriesare open or businessto rich countries and

corporations. Tese days,economic policies are justas important as war (i notmore so) in opening newcorners o the world toexploitation by multina-tional corporations.

Tere is a climate crisis around and no amount o reetrade, capital or technology will eliminate the roots o thiscrisis. You orget that the crisis has emanated rom the way

your society is structured - an edice based on an unending

desire or resources and a way o lie that sees nature as anobject o exploitation and extraction.-National Forum oForest Peoples and Forest Workers, India


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A clear example is the US-Peru ree

trade agreement passed last year. Teagreement stipulated that in exchangeor preerential trade treatment Perumust open up the Amazon to oilextraction. Upon implementationindigenous communities shut downmuch o the countrys inrastructurein protest o their lands being sold to

oreign oil companies. Te Peruvianmilitary killed over 100 protesters. Inthe end the Peruvian Congress reversedits decision to open up indigenouslands to oil drilling, but it remains tobe seen how long this reversal will last.

Fighting these brutal economic poli-cies is a necessary component o anymovement which takes a holistic ap-proach to climate justice. We can havereal and lasting impacts protectingecosystems, keeping ossil uels in theground, and deending subsistence cul-

tures by cutting o global capitalsaccess to those parts o the world thathave thus ar escaped it.

Solidarity As one movement among manyghting or a just uture, we mustalways remember that our strugglesare connected. Poor amilies resistingevictions are ghting the same corpo-rations responsible or unding ossiluel extraction. Our struggle againstliqueed natural gas terminals in theUS is connected to the struggle o theOgoni people or autonomy in theNiger Delta. Wherever possible weneed to nd common cause with othermovements and extend our solidarityto them.

For those o us not living on the ront-lines there are still many ways to sup-port rontline struggles. Organizingundraisers, educational events, andsolidarity protests can make a worldo dierence or communities ght-ing on the rontlines by providingtangible support as well as breakingthe isolation.

International human rights solidarityaround ossil uel exploitation whichis all but absent in the current climate

Road blockades in Peru

Te same power that maniests itsel as resourceextraction in the countryside, maniests itsel asracism, classism, and human exploitation in thecity. Te ecology movement must recognize thatwe are just one ront in a long, proud, history oresistance. -Judi Bari


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movement unites causes that shouldnot be separated. We can learn rommovements like the Students or aFree ibet whose direct actions have

targeted embassies, consulates, andprominent international gatherings.Te last thing any government wantsis their internal problems to unoldon the international stage. Oten timesa simple demonstration at an embassycan mean the dierence between lieand death or activists acing repres-

sion in other countries.

Uwa vs. Occidental Petroleum

In the late 90s Occidental Petroleum (OXY) announced its intention to drillor oil on the Uwa tribes traditional land within Colombia. Te Uwa consid-er oil to be the blood o Mother Earth and were militantly opposed to OXYsattempt to exploit their lands. Tey gained international attention when theentire tribe threatened to commit mass suicide i the company continued itseorts.

An international solidarity campaign was soon launched to support the Uwasstruggle. While the Uwa held o incursions into their territory with block-ades, activists around the world used direct action against Fidelity Investmentsand other major OXY investors. In 2000, US activists disrupted over 100 o AlGores presidential campaign appearances due to his inconvenient stock hold-ings and personal ties with OXY.

By 2002, with grassroots action showing no sign o letting up, OXY an-

nounced they were withdrawing all operations rom Uwa territory. Whilethe Uwa continue to prevent oil extraction on their reservation, oil companiesstill threaten parts o their traditional territory not recognized by the Colom-bian government. Te climate movement has much to learn rom the Uwasstruggle and other international solidarity campaigns to deend the Earth.


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Climate JusticeMost in the climate movement ac-knowledge that those least responsibleor the climate crisis are the ones who

are suering rom it the most. Whilemany groups have raised the banner oclimate justice, not all live up to it.Climate justice has its roots in grass-roots social movements rom aroundthe world. It is the recognition that

the historical responsibility or the vastmajority o greenhouse gas emissionslies with the industrialized countrieso the global north. It is the under-standing that peasants, indigenouspeoples, sher-olk, women, peopleo color and poor communities havebeen disproportionately aected by

climate change, as well as by the ossiluel industry and by alse solutions toclimate change, such as tree planta-tions, genetically modied organismslike crops, large scale hydro projectsand agrouels.

Climate justice recognizes that insteado market-based solutions, the sustain-able practices o these peoples andcommunities oer the real solutions toclimate change. Climate justice is theundamental knowledge that cli-mate change cannot be addressed

through corporations and the marketas these are the entities that caused theproblem in the rst place.

Climate justice must not be dumbeddown into just another catch phraseor a photo-op, or watered down tomean nothing more than do some-thing or the climate, nor can it besponsored by carbon oset companiessuch as ckckcks timeorclimate-

justice.org.

Climate justice must be a guidingprinciple o the climate movement, which means that how we go aboutaverting the climate crisis is just asimportant as stopping it. Climate justice demands that we go beyond

vague calls or bold legislation andchallenge the systemic root causes othis crisis.

Te way we ght is vjust as important as what we ght. Te climate movement needs to be a move-ment that destroys power rom above while build-

ing it rom below. We need to take action in a waythat empowers, inspires, and grows our movement.

Mobilization for Climate Justice occupies

an intersection in San Francisco


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Organizing for

community power

Mainstream environmental groupshave more oten then not reduced theconcept o community organizing tocanvassing to raise money or their DCofces, signing petitions, and runningshadow campaigns or the DemocraticParty. Tese eorts do nothing to buildpower within our communities andserve to divert our movements rommore meaningul eorts.

Eective community organizingbuilds the power o communitiesto ght back as well as implementsustainable solutions on their ownterms. It breaks individuals outo their isolation and bring them

together or collective action. Com-munity organizing must providepeople with the tools and skill sets toorganize themselves.

Take Back the LandIn response to ongoing gentrication and the lack o aordable housing inMiami, a group called ake Back the Land (BL) occupied an abandonedlot that had been vacant or 8 years in order to provide housing or the citys

homeless. Rather than ask the city to build aordable housing, BL decidedto take direct action and create housing themselves.

Once they secured the land, tents and wooden shacks went up to provide shel-ter. Within months Umoja Village housed over 50 people. Residents ran theVillage, voting on what to build, how to distribute donations, move in newresidents and planting a community garden. Umoja Village was able to holdo eviction or several months due to widespread community support, andthe embarrassing position the city o Miami would be in or destroying poorpeoples homes.

Just as Umoja Village was gearing up to celebrate its 6 month anniversaryby building more permanent structures and digging a community well, amysterious re burnt the Village to the ground. Police used the opportunity toarrest several residents and proceeded to erect a barbed wire ence around the

property.

Despite this setback BL continues its eorts to empower homelessand low-income residents to nd housing. Teir most recent campaigninvolves moving amilies into abandoned and oreclosed homes as well ashelping people resist evictions.


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A successul movement empowers peo-ple to take an active and equal part inthe struggle by organizing in egalitar-ian ways. Many groups already oper-ate in this manner by using consensus

decision making and structuring them-selves as a collective team where everyparticipants voice is important and thegoals o actions are to increase every-ones skills and abilities as organizers.

Alongside our eorts in non-hierarchi-

cal organizing, we need to put seriouseort into combating classism, racism,sexism, ageism and the many otherorces o domination within our move-ment. Focusing on anti-oppressionis difcult but essential to building abroad movement or climate justice.

Democratizingdirect actionTe proessionalization (perceivedor otherwise) o direct actionskills is a real obstacle to build-ing a vibrant direct action move-ment and is a great place or rapidchange in our organizing culture.

Lets be clear, you need not a mas-ters degree rom the Greenpeace (orRising ide) School o Civil Disobe-

dience in order to organize eectiveand empowering direct actions! Sexybanner drops o o Mt. Rushmoreare no doubt impressive and havetheir place in our toolkit. But themoney and technical skills requiredor such actions are largely out oreach or most o us who are readyand willing to take direct action.

Climate campsOne tactic that our movement should con-tinue to utilize as we seek to build a cul-ture o resistance is the Climate Camp (orConvergence) model. Climate Camps areradically dierent rom the standard con-erence. Tey are a participant-created, temporary community that comestogether to share skills and inormation, network, strategize, and take action.Tese gatherings provide newcomers with valuable trainings, allow or thecross-pollination o a multitude o local struggles, and most importantlycreate the type o camaraderie and unity that oster a strong direct actionoriented movement.

Te climate camp tradition o ending each gathering with a direct actioncreates a unique opportunity or mass participation in creating empoweringactions, breaking down the myth o dont try this at home. Newcomers areable to participate at a level they might not eel comortable with withoutthe more experienced activists on hand. More experienced activists are ableto pass their knowledge on to newer ones, allowing or these newcomers tobring their skills back to their communities.


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Tere is an unortunate notion thatdirect action is something that thosepeople do. You do not need to be asuperhero, or have years o training

to engage in direct action. Direct ac-tion has and always will be a tool ograssroots movements. All you needis your body and the courage to standup to those destroying our planet.We believe it is a responsibility o allgroups engaged in direct action to

share their skills and create oppor-tunities to grow the movement. Forevery action Greenpeace spends tythousand dollars on, they might con-sider supporting ty community ac-tivist groups with a thousand dollarsto organize their own actions!

As grassroots activists, we need toensure that our actions are open andinclusive to those not accustomedto direct action. Our actions shouldserve as training or less experiencedactivists, to give them the skills andexperience to carry out such actions

themselves in the uture. Grassrootsgroups have successully shut downpower plants, blocked roads, and oc-cupied ofces on a budget rangingrom zero to a ew hundred dollarsraised rom benet concerts and spa-ghetti dinners.

Disaster ResponseOn December 22, 2008, the ruralcommunity o Harriman, N wasburied under 1.1 billion gallons

o y ash sludge that broke looserom the nearby Kingston coalplant operated by the ennesseeValley Authority. Houses were de-stroyed, drinking water poisoned,lives ruined. VA reacted in typicalashion, denying the toxicity o thepoisonous sludge, telling residentstheir water was sae to drink, andpreventing journalists rom enter-ing the disaster zone.

Within days, activists with UnitedMountain Deense, aided by thebroader Mountain Justice network,

were on the ground to support thecommunity o Harriman. Despiteharassment and arrests by VA po-lice seeking to cover up the disaster,UMD was able to distribute cleandrinking water, provide water tests,raise $15,000 to pay or medicaltests, and help residents organizecommunity meetings. Activists alsoocused on media, ensuring thatthe disaster received national at-tention, and organized protests atVAs headquarters.

More disasters rom hurricanes to

oil spills are inevitable. Te climatemovement should prepare itsel orthese rapid response situationsand be ready to provide physicalsupport and political solidarity toimpacted communities.

the system


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Growing local

food systems We can make signicant cuts inemissions by localizing our ood sys-tems and implementing sustainableagricultural practices. According to

Via Campesina, when the entire lie-cycle o our globalized ood system istaken into account it is responsibleor between 44 and 57 percent ototal greenhouse gas emissions. Tismakes ood a very logical place tostart. Small, diversied arms are ca-pable o producing more calories per

acre than large-scale monocultures.Tey are more resilient to climaticchanges, and are ar less energy and water intensive. When done cor-rectly, organic agriculture actuallysequesters signicant amounts ocarbon into the soil.

What is most promising about creat-ing local and sustainable ood systemsis that the means are readily availableto us. New expensive technologiesare not required and the necessaryskills are easy to learn and pass on.

Te main impediment to creatingsustainable ood systems is access toland, possibly the longest running

source o conict betweenrich and poor. Convertingour lawns and the occasionalabandoned lot to gardens is a

good start but will only get usso ar. Part o our work in grow-ing local ood systems is ensur-ing that communities have ac-cess to the land needed to growood whether it be through landtrusts or land occupations.

Fighting is not enough. While we attack the roots causes o climatechange, steadily chipping away at its oundations, we must also beplanting the seeds o the new world in the cracks and ssures we cre-ate. Te solutions to the climate crisis will come rom people joiningtogether and creating sustainable systems in their own communities.

Tere is no silver bullet that will save us all. Tere is no one solutionthat can be imposed rom aar by governments or charity groups tousher in this new world.

What works in the Sonoran Desert does not necessarily make senseor Appalachia. Every bioregion has the resources or our survival. Itis how we choose to engage with our human and natural communi-ties that will determine whether we can inhabit a livable planet orconsume our way to our own demise.

Real solutions to the climate crisis are local in nature, easily repro-ducible on a community scale, democratically controlled and acces-sible to everyone, not just an eco-bourgeoisie that can aford a greenliestyle. What ollows are a ew, o many, starting points or commu-nities to begin the transition.


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Ecosystem RestorationHealthy ecosystems are essentialto stabilizing the climate, main-taining biodiversity, clean drink-

ing water, and many other things we take or granted. We canimprove the well-being o ourcommunities and help maintainthe web o lie by restoring theecosystems we live in. Tis can beas easy as letting a eld grow backto its natural state or as complex

as removing a dam to restore the natu-ral ow o a river. Planting native treesto stop erosion, restoring wetlands,propagating endangered plants, andripping up concrete on abandonedlots are all low tech projects that wecan implement in our communities to

help the Earth in the slow process ohealing.

Transition Townsransition owns are a globalmovement o communities that areorganizing themselves to create thetransition rom ossil uels withintheir towns and cities. ransitionowns examine the needs o their

community such as ood, water, and

transportation and implement waysto meet those needs in a sustainablemanner. In some cases transitiontowns are an inormal group opeople working to make their com-munities more sustainable. In othercases local governments have com-

mitted themselves to being a transi-tion town.

Te ransition own model o com-munities taking the initiative toimplement holistic solutions to ourecological crisis, rather than waitingor others to do it or them, is one

o many ways we can begin creatingpositive change.


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Community controlled

power productionWhat energy sources we use and how we use them is perhaps the most

difcult question to answer. Even wind and solar require metals thatare more oten than not obtainedthrough mining practices that are just as destructive as mountaintopremoval coal mining. Large-scale en-ergy grids are highly inefcient andkeep us dependent on corporate andgovernment power monopolies.

Community controlled power pro-duction, as dened by Scott Kelloggand Stacey Pettigrew o the RhizomeCollective, may be our best chance atproducing energy in a clean and just

manner:It is in the interest o sustainablecommunities to develop autono-mous energy. Autonomous energycomes rom sources where the meanso extraction, development, mainte-nance, and disposal can be managedcompletely on the scale o a village-sized community, or by an equiva-lently sized neighborhood in a city.Te energy source must be renew-able and non-polluting in nature,decentralized in structure, and mostimportantly, give total control o its

processes to the people who are us-ing it.

The End

A wealth of great shorter analysis onclimate movement strategy can befound at these websites:

-climateactioncae.wordpress.com-turbulence.org.uk-www.redpepper.org.uk/-Green-pepper-thechangeagency.org

Books and longer pieces on move-

ments and strategy:Critical Currents no. 6: Contourso Climate Justice Ideas or shap-ing new climate and energy politics

Stop Global WarmingChange theWorld By Jonathan Neale

Horizontalism: Voices o PopularPower in Argentinaby MarinaSitrin

Globalize Liberation, How to Up-root the System and Build a Better

World by David Solnit

Direct Action: An EthnographybyDavid Graeber

Books on sustainability:oolkit or Sustainable City Liv-

ing, Kellog & Pettigrew

Gaias Garden, oby Hemenway

Te New Organic Grower, Coleman


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Rising Tide is an international all-volunteer grassroots network o groups andindividuals who promote local, community -based solutions to the climate

crisis and take direct action to conront the root causes o climate change.

Rising Tide was born out o the conviction that corporate-riendly solutions

to climate change will not save us and that most government eorts are hal-

measures at best. We organize through decentralized local groups that support

one another through shared resources, ideas, undraising and training.

The international Rising Tide network now spans countries on our conti-

nents. We know that whatever we achieve in our local struggles is amplifed by

the energy o the growing global movement or climate justice.

Feel ree to reprint and distribute this text. Digital copy available at ourwebsite, or contact us i you would like us to send you more:

PO Box 3928

Oakland, CA 94609

[email protected]

www.risingtidenorthamerica.org


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If you know you must do

something and you do not do

it you are not free.- David Pratt, South African imprisoned for resisting Apartheid

Documents

The Climate Movement is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement