it works both ways

A public address delivered to those gathered at the 350 International Day of Action in New Bedford, Massachusetts on October 24th, 2009

picture from 350.org, New Zealand

Last night, on the other side of the planet, a conscious group of individuals gathered in the mountains of New Zealand to greet the first rays of sunlight to hit the earth on this arbitrary calendar day, October 24th, 2009. They gathered with a very specific intent: to be the first ripple in a wave of heightened awareness to spread across the globe on this day.

Today, people 181 countries are coming together for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. At over 5200 events around the world, people are gathering to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis.

Thank you for being part of this amazing event!

Science tells us that we must immediately begin to reduce global atmospheric CO2 to below 350 ppm in order "to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted. " Currently, we’re at 390, and climbing by 2 ppm each year. Most of the economically and politically “feasible” action proposals put forth by world governments consider 450 or even 550 ppm to be acceptable.

The last time the Earth was at 450 ppm, the oceans were 75 meters higher. A coastal city, like New Bedford, would be completely under water. Is that acceptable?

Our global greenhouse gas emissions have been on an exponential curve for decades. Science tells us that our yearly emissions must not only decrease, but they must peak by 2014, and then drop rapidly in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.

It is clearly an amazing, and daunting challenge, and there’s no simple answer. The only thing I know for sure, is that we’re all in this together. And that the only way past this global challenge is to come together as a global family.

Because climate change is about more than just carbon in the atmosphere. It is perhaps the most visible and immediately threatening symptom of a much larger disease. And yet this crisis may be exactly what we need to wake up to this fact. Perhaps we’re ready to realize that at the root of all our problems is a defective and fatal world view.

This idea of kill-or-be-killed,
Of competition over cooperation,
Of systematic oppression and exploitation of people and planet,
the mechanistic worldview of Empire is finally being exposed as the short-sighted failure that it is.

Many of us have heard about the maxim represented by Chinese character for Crisis and Opportunity. The climate crisis gives us an incredible opportunity: an opportunity to reweave the very fabric of our culture, to lay the framework for a truly just and sustainable global society, to redefine the way we relate to each other and the planet.

But the opportunity also works both ways.

Those in power want to remain in power, and are using this crisis towards their own advantage,
They are breeding a new form of colonialism, where rights to pollute our common atmosphere are bought and sold. They’ve fabricated a variety of thinly-veiled programs to maintain the status quo:
Carbon capture and sequestration,
agro-fuels,
bogus carbon-offsets and carbon markets,
and of course “clean coal”

But as Einstein put it: “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

So quite simply, how can we entrust our very survival as a civilization to the same “free market” forces that brought us to this precipice? (we can’t)

We know that Empire is unsustainable, but they can see nothing beyond their own world view, and seem to be ready to go down with the ship.

But we won’t let them take us with them.

We are here today to demand meaningful action from our so-called “world leaders.” This December in Copenhagen, they must reach an international climate agreement that is Ambitious, fair and binding, that is in line with what Science is telling us, and that prioritizes the interests of people over the interests of the corporations.

But we clearly can’t put all our eggs in this one basket.

We must realize that our future is ultimately in our own hands. And we are writing our future story right now.

In our own communities, we must each cultivate climate solutions which are
decentralized, locally-controlled, bioregionally appropriate and socially just.

We must work to build community resilience, both to mitigate the causes and to adapt to the changing face of our feverish Mother Earth.

And we must work intimately with each other, and within ourselves to heal the initial trauma, the disconnection that brought us here in the first place.

I have an incredible sense of excitement and anticipation for this time which we have entered. We are here for the birthing of new society, the next step in our collective evolution. Don’t get me wrong: things are going to get MUCH worse before they get better. But we are carefully planting many seeds around the world. And like a forest fire, which disturbs the established system of hierarchy and order, our seeds are being activated and given space to grow.

Thank you for being here, for being part of this, and for being ready to brave the coming storm with clarity of purpose, and positive intent.