Taking Action to End the Climate Emergency
I recently led a workshop with Elvin Csizmadia (the International Liberation Reference Person for Young People) on the climate emergency. It was for people under age thirty-five. We had four days together, facing how serious the climate emergency is, discharging to get more connected, leaving behind some of our fears, and getting more solid in our commitment to end the crisis. The following is some of what I said in the last class.
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE IS TO DO NOTHING
I’ve heard people say that they are hesitant to act because they are worried about making a mistake or not doing the right thing.
We are facing a huge problem. We don’t have a lot of time to make big changes, and we will inevitably make mistakes. But the biggest mistake is to do nothing. We will learn important things from whatever action we take, and with discharge we will figure out the next thing to do. We will keep getting smarter, and our work will be more and more effective. We don’t learn anything when we don’t try things.
Maybe it helps to keep in mind that the reason the situation is so urgent, requiring action now, is that large corporations have made the biggest mistake in human history and spent decades covering it up and denying it. And they aren’t acknowledging their mistake or taking action to clean it up; they are busy creating new ways to confuse people so they can keep on selling fossil fuels. If we want a livable world for our future, we must take charge of the situation. How could any of us make a mistake that is even a millionth of the size of theirs?
WE NEED TO TAKE OURSELVES SERIOUSLY
Our overall goal is to shut down the fossil fuel industry and big industrial agriculture, and quickly. Our activism poses a huge threat to “business as usual.” We are going to cost the capitalists trillions of dollars in profit. It would be good if we could take ourselves seriously as extremely powerful world changers.
WE NEED BIG CHANGES ON ALL LEVELS
We are calling for the transformation of our society because climate change can’t be ended in a capitalist system. The drive for profit sanctions exploitation and doesn’t let people think about their common interests. We will need change on all levels—who’s in charge, how wealth is distributed, and more—all while ending oppression and exploitation.
WE CAN'T STAY SEPARATE
Changes as big as we need are only going to come from large numbers of people taking power and being loud and persistent in their demands. We don’t have enough people with us yet. Too many have been lied to and are confused about the climate situation. But they are increasingly seeing that things are not as they have been told.
Many people would be with us if they knew that we wanted them, that we valued their thinking, that we were working for their interests along with our own. This means that we can’t stay separate. We must move toward people, including those we are uncomfortable with. We will have to have Co-Counseling sessions to do this, but we can do it.
WE HAVE TO BE BIG AND VISIBLE
We’ll have to put out our best thinking and stand big, bold, and visible against the irrational policies that have caused the climate emergency. People need to hear about a program that makes sense to them, something they can join. We need to articulate that program and put it into action. We will get to face our fears about being big and visible and attacked for the positions we take and the actions we are part of. What scares us about taking visible public stands and engaging in radical actions?
OUR SAFETY LIES IN NOT STAYING SILENT
A lot of us have early hurts that have left us feeling that when things feel dangerous or scary to us, we should go silent and pull back. “Hide until the danger has passed!” In the climate emergency, our safety is not in staying silent, in pulling back, in waiting to feel safe. Our safety lies in coming together, thinking together about what to do, and taking action—loud, public, bold action—together. Going silent is dangerous, for us and for the future.
LET'S PREPARE OURSELVES FOR ATTACKS
We are going to be attacked for challenging the fossil fuel industry and threatening trillions of dollars in profit. Re-evaluation Counseling is going to be attacked for taking on [doing something about] the many anti-human and anti-liberation issues. We are positioned to be targets—we show our caring, we listen to people, we are increasingly visible and public and say what we think, and our views are often considered radical. Also, as more and more people are upset about the situation that keeps getting worse, they will more and more lash out without thought, and we will get swiped [hit]. We can’t doubt ourselves just because we are attacked. Let’s prepare for the attacks by working on the early material [distress] that makes us vulnerable. We can’t have the world we want without moving in that direction. We can handle the attacks and use the opportunities they present to strengthen ourselves for even bolder thinking and action.
Shoreline, Washington, USA
(Present Time 205, October 2021)