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In getting certain world leaders to be responsive to the increasingly obvious, we can't seem to get past legacy issues (e.g. George W. Bush ignoring Kyoto because it would "cost jobs.") What should the average person, or at least the citizen change agent, be doing at this point to support both mitigation and adaptation?
I don't want to be a big cynic about this, but really, at this point, who WANTS George W Bush to get all interested in climate change? Sooner or later, that guy poisons everything he touches. He'd probably start a highly secretive and utterly disorganized "Department of Greenhouse Security," where Bechtel apparatchiks took over abandoned army bases to install leaky nuclear power plants in dead of night with extraordinarily-rendered, off-the-books, union-busting labor. Would that help? If he fought the Greenhouse in utter sincerity and with all his might, would he win?
George Bush doesn't care about Kyoto and "jobs." The American right's loathing for Kyoto is strictly a nationalist, anti-globalist, unilateralist power issue. They don't want Kyoto inspectors dropping by to double-check Exxon-Mobil's emissions; they figure they'd show up in black helicopters, with handcuffs and guns. Because that's exactly how they themselves would behave, if they had the chance.
I don't believe in "average people" doing anything. People ought to support mitigation and adaptation within their own line of work, no matter how un-average that is. I mean: if you're butcher, baker, ballerina, banker, or a plumber, envision yourself as the post-fossil-fuel version of yourself, and get right after it. We'd be best off struggling to create some kind of Solidarnosc-style entirely alternate society, for a 1989-sized across-the-board upheaval. So, just, well, stop co-operating with the status quo. Stop collaborating. Stop being afraid and stop feeling helpless. Just stop all that and start living by entirely other means.
Be glad for any scrap of choice you're offered. The UN expects 50 million people to have their lives entirely uprooted by environmental mayhem -- EVERY YEAR. That could be you or me. You're worried that a hybrid car costs more money? People in Key West are standing on the roofs of drowned cars.
Our best hope is to "collapse upwards."
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Man, you out-cynical'd me.
Posted by: odograph at October 27, 2005 11:11 AMamen!
Posted by: Tones at October 27, 2005 11:13 AMMy backpack has two solar lights on it - flashing red and steady white LEDS - right next to my home-made "Solar Is Civil Defense" and mail order "Impeach Bush" buttons. Once in a while, somebody asks me about them and I demonstrate solar technology on the street level.
Been calling around to the state and city officials and local utility to get speakers for a forum on the prospects for the coming heating season and emergency planning in case of a blizzard. The forum is part of the monthly activities of the local solar association (http://www.basea.org). It's been surprisingly hard even to get a call back from such people. I have one city emergency planner and will continue to try to get a state and utility person but don't expect much now. In any case, I keep on trying.
Lastly, I've been distributing WWII-era posters to friends and associates. The information on them is the best I've ever seen and the images are strong. These guys got it. Go to http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/collections/wwii-posters/ and search on "fuel" to see what I mean. Could be very useful, again on the street level.
Yes, Solidarity organizing. Do it yourself to save your own money and life. Help your neighbors and friends do the same. Don't wait for the government or the major media. Enough people do it themselves and they'll follow, loudly proclaiming their "leadership."
BTW, Lech Walesa was once asked how Solidarity started. He answered, "By talking loud at the bus stops."
Posted by: gmoke at October 27, 2005 12:35 PM"By talking loud at the bus stops."
[Funny, but not a joke]
Posted by: Stefan Jones at October 27, 2005 04:20 PMAh. No wonder the right wing hates public transportation.
[/Funny, but not a joke]
Is it me or are more and more people actually going into this "collapse upwards" lifestyle? Is it all hype about voluntary simplicity, new urbanism, green is chic, take-one-for-the-team thing?
We all roll our eyes as governments and corporations stumble, pontificate and spin and then we quietly get back to getting ready for the new world.
--Buying used furniture, buying bicycles, buying solar powered anything, buying hybrid vehicles, telecommuting, insulating our homes, having fewer or no kids, read the scientific press for more news, and on and on. In these small ways, the world over, we'll muddle through. If we make it through this, it will definitely be through bottom-up change.
I've noticed this among my friends, maybe it's spreading.
Posted by: Pace Arko at October 27, 2005 09:28 PMI can see how having less children might help the situation in many thirld world countries, provided the change came gradually. A quick drop of the number of children born might prove disastrous down the road, as the entire population gets older and less able to work etc.
In europe, the US and Canada however, I dont really see the need. Here in Sweden for example we already have problems with a larger and larger part of our population in retirement. At the same time less children are being born. So in the end less people are supporting more people. This problem cannot be solved by having even less children. What is needed is imigration of workforce and more children being born.
Some things that would make a far greater differece would be taking away the subsidies on european farms. Stoping the dumping of grain on third world markets. Taking away import tolls between the west and the rest of the world.
This would allow ordinary people owning farms etc. to support themselves and in the end their countries on their work. Sure, our own farmers might have some difficulty in the beginning. But they should be able to pull through. After all only about 2% of the western workforce is employed in agricuture.
We have to stop protecting ourselves against the developing coutries and instead see the great opportunities they present.
--I just wish there was some clear easy way to get this into politicians and companyowners heads.
Posted by: Michael Dundee at October 28, 2005 03:41 AM