Via Upworthy.com (thanks Curtis) comes this powerful speech from a man known for his humbleness; President José Mujica of Uruguay gave this speech at the Rio+20 summit this past June. It’s so unusual because here we see a political leader speaking the truth about our current situation; would that more of this truth-telling would happen!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3cQgONgTupo]
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This is just cool – a “permaculture” house:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l8b80dXMgME]
Learn more at Simondale.net
I’m looking out the window of my home office today, rejoicing at the sprinkling of snow on the ground. Yesterday rain fell outside, while a confused fly that should have been hibernating buzzed around inside. Both are examples, along with the temperature that has been 8 – 10 degrees Celcius above normal, of the growing climate destabilization we humans have brought on with our unrestrained pollution of the atmosphere. So while the snow outside doesn’t change that long term reality, it still allows me to feel that maybe things aren’t as bad as they are, which I haven’t been able to over the last weeks of unseasonably warm weather. This is northern Ontario, and we should be experiencing winter by now!
There’s been a lot going on in the world besides the warm weather in my corner of it. Saturday was “Move Your Money” day, a day for people “invest in main street, not wall street” by placing their money in local credit unions or small banks rather than large Wall (or Bay) Street banks. I already have an account with a credit union (although this has become more difficult since they closed their local branch – the closest branch is now an hour down the road). Our family’s experience with credit unions has always been more positive than with banks, so if you haven’t considered doing this before, please do so now. For more information, check out MoveYourMoney.org or find the Move Your Money project on Facebook.
On Sunday in Washington, there was a historic gathering of 10,000+ people who made a human chain three rows deep around the White house to send President Obama a message that it’s time he lived up to his campaign promise to act on climate change, and say no to the Keystone XL pipeline. The controversial pipeline, which is to carry tar sands oil from Alberta to Texas, is to be built across the American heartland, including the Ogalala aquifer which supplies drinking water to millions. Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo gave an impassioned and well-informed interview on CBC television yesterday. Here’s some of what he had to say, but please follow the link at the bottom to hear the interview. It gave me chills. If only every parent was inspired to take action like Mr. Ruffalo!
On why he is involved in protesting the pipeline:
“The days are gone when we could stick a straw in the earth and pull up beautiful concentrated carbon-based fuel. We’ve entered a time of “extreme energy”…all of which are accelerating our demise by climate change.”
These people [the fossil fuel industry] throughout our history have lied to us..When the system is gamed as much as these people have gamed it, why would should we decide to trust them now?
To the limitations of current renewable energy technology:
...When they mobilized for World War II, they did things very fast. Climate change is happening faster than any scientist imagined it. It is happening here. It is happening in the United States. We are seeing the extreme weather. It is time for us to stand up and start to make make these changes. We can do this by 2030. I’ve talked to Professor Mark Jacobson from the Stanford. He has the plan. This is easily do-able. We can be completely off carbon-based fuels in the next 40 years.
We just need to do it. Mainlining toxic polluting oil from Canada down to the Gulf coast so it can be put on boats and be sent overseas is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to start calling ourselves off of these extractive methods that are extreme and poisonous and accelerating climate change. We have to be responsible about this. This is an serious issue. For us to keep throwing out this idea like “we can’t get there”, “how are we going to get there?”, whining about having to take responsibility so our children can actually live in the world that is safe for them.
On “ethical” oil:
If you want to start talking about ethical, let’s just talk about the poor people in the world who are being made to suffer already immediately. In Pakistan 500,000 people have lost their homes because of the flooding there. You want to talk about ethics? The real ethical thing right now is to start Canada, all the western countries, to start stemming off their use of oil. Last year, we jumped 6% in our use of carbon-based fuels – 3% was the U.S. and 3% was China. If we are serious about being a world leader, we need to be a leader in this…Those indigenous people who are being displaced, talk to them about “ethical” oil. You cannot use that particular term, because it is not ethical, what is happening.”
On the economics of the pipeline and the jobs the oil companies say it will create:
There’s 10,000 people descending on the White House today to give Obama the “hug of support” that he needs to stop this. A huge contingency from Nebraska, from the Midwest, huge contingency from Texas.
TransCanada started with 250,000 jobs, now they’ve whittled that down with the pressure of people looking into their “jobs program”..Now it’s only 6,000 jobs. Let me put this into perspective for you. In New York state alone the solar jobs bill would put 22,000 people to work alone. That is in one state…For some reason, we have accepted the oil and gas industry’s constant talking points as truth. It’s insanity, it’s time that we start questioning these economics. 100 billion dollars these corporations are going to make, and we’re still subsidizing them at six billion dollars a year.
On what it is that motivates him:
My kids, my neighbours’ kids. Have we gone completely gone insane? Do we not see the writing on the wall? I mean, its happening. I live in upstate New York, we’ve had the 50 year flood, the 100 year flood, the 250 year flood, and the 500 year flood in FIVE years. We have tornadoes here in places that don’t have tornadoes. We have hurricanes in places that don’t historically have hurricanes. It is happening. I look at my kids and I say I cannot betray them.
Watch the full interview on CBC.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7tcxuQ6dII]
All Hallow’s Eve is over for this year and tomorrow, in many countries, is the Day of the Dead or All Souls’ Day. So today might be a good day to focus on what is really alarming: the Climate Zombies that hang around year-round in Washington and Ottawa, and the Corporate Dementors that feed these Zombies with money. Dementors, if you haven’t read your Harry Potter lately, are:
“… among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them… Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself…soulless and evil. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.“
Think I’m exaggerating? Check out these stories:
From the BBC News, regarding an upcoming climate conference to be held at the British Medical Association’s headquarters, where doctors, academics and military experts will gather to discuss climate change:
Officers in the UK military warned that the price of goods such as fuel is likely to rise as conflict provoked by climate change increases.
A statement from the meeting adds that humanitarian disasters will put more and more strain on military resources.
It asks governments to adopt ambitious targets for curbing greenhouse gases. Read the full story Climate Change “Grave Threat” To Security and Health.
Meanwhile, Occupy-related arrests are soaring in the U.S., with often-violent police raids on the public sites in the dark of night. The arrests now number close to 3,000. Here’s a report from the Daily Kos:
A series of evictions of Occupy encampments this weekend has pushed the total number of arrests associated with the movement to nearly 3,000. The evictions occurred in a geographically diverse range of cities around the country…
According to Occupy Arrests, 2,963 protesters associated with the movement have been arrested since Sept. 17. That is an average of 66 per day. Click here to get the details on the police raids.
Apparently governments haven’t realized that the people who are putting their lives on hold to make a statement about corporate greed and the lack of representation of the concerns and needs of the majority aren’t “camping”, and they aren’t going to go away until this injustice is addressed. As the slogan goes, “System change not climate change”.
In a classic example of Corporate Dementors at work, there’s a hearing in a Virginia courtoom this week that could have implications for the privacy rights of scientists at colleges and universities across the country. A special investigation by Facing South has found that this current attack on climate scientists is being orchestrated by an astroturf group well-funded by fossil fuel interests who want to obscure the truth of our warming world and the part their industry is playing in it:
It’s part of a lawsuit brought by the American Tradition Institute, a free-market think tank that wants the public to believe human-caused global warming is a scientific fraud. Filed against the University of Virginia, the suit seeks emails and other documents related to former professor Michael Mann, an award-winning climate scientist who has become a focus of the climate-denial movement because of his research documenting the recent spike in earth’s temperature.
By suing the university, the American Tradition Institute wants to make public Mann’s correspondence in an effort to find out whether he manipulated data to receive government grants, a violation of the state’s Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.
But a Facing South investigation has found that the Colorado-based American Tradition Institute is part of a broader network of groups with close ties to energy interests that have long fought greenhouse gas regulation. Our investigation also finds that ATI has connections with the Koch brothers, Art Pope and other conservative donors seeking to expand their political influence. Read the full story here.
There are defenses against Dementors. According to the Harry Potter Wiki:
Dementors hold no true loyalty, except to whomever can provide them with the most people to feed off. They cannot be destroyed, though their numbers can be limited if the conditions in which they multiply are reduced, implying that they do die off eventually.
The time has come for the 99% to demand change to our system in which corporate greed has multiplied like a cancer and sucked all common sense as well as the commitment to the common good out of our elected representatives. Occupy!!
More links:
David Suzuki was interviewed at the Occupy Montreal event last Saturday:
“We’ve got to take back our country, and take back our democracy..Stop serving the corporate agenda. It seems that money is everything that determines what our priorities are right now…The economy by itself is nothing. We use the economy for something else – do we want justice, do we want greater equity, do we want environmental protection?..This is about the future for these young people, that is being sacrificed for the sake of the corporate agenda right now…What are corporations for? They exist for one reason, and one reason only. They may be doing things that we need that are really useful, but their only reason for existence is to make money, and the faster they make the money, the better it is. And that is not an acceptable way to run the world. What about people? What about the future, and jobs for young people?”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUTDxUicSmo]
More links:
David Suzuki Foundation: Occupy Wall Street Reflects Increasing Frustration
I happened to be in Winnipeg this past weekend, and so was fortunate enough to be able to participate in the initial Occupy Canada events in that city. The turnout for the Saturday march was 300+, which was great, but it’s the folks who have brought their sleeping bags and tents to Memorial Park that really impressed me. Winnipeg isn’t known for its gentle weather, and a cold & bitter Stephen Harper-like wind was blowing tents over on both Sunday and Monday. This morning Environment Canada says the temperature is minus 5 degrees Celcius, and the wind is set to increase again later on. So a big shout out to the “Occupying” folks everywhere, but especially those who are Occupying Winnipeg. These people are using their bodies as well as their voices to send a message for all of the 99% of us, that radical change is necessary; the corporate state isn’t capable of making decisions that are good for us as citizens or for our children’s future. And let me tell you, it is not comfortable to be doing this in Winnipeg’s Memorial Park in the later part of October, so they need our support. If you, like me, can’t camp overnight, but you are in a community where an Occupation is happening, please take some time to go down and give them the support of your presence. Donations of food, money, and other supplies are appreciated, too. We are all in this together, but right now they are on the front lines for the rest of us. Thank you, miigwich, you who are standing up for the rest of us. You are heroes!
What I found each time I spent time in Memorial Park this weekend were people of all ages who were articulating an unhappiness with the status quo, and a longing for a fairer, more equitable community where everyone has a place. Graham Murray, who traveled from rural Manitoba to participate in this movement, told me the last straw for him was hearing about the English-only, gold-ink-embossed business cards our current Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, had printed for himself with our taxpayer dollars (see “Opposition Slams Baird Over Golden Business Cards for more). Another participant, who joked that as a computer programmer he “read everything on the internet”, said he was in Memorial Park for the long term because of the injustice he saw in our current system. These are the 99% – they are not there because they don’t have a job, they are there because they are standing up for the universal right to have a job with a decent salary, without exploitation. For example, in the United States last year, corporate profits grew 38.8 percent in 2010, but while CEOs earned an average of 20 percent more last year, many ordinary people continued to lose their jobs and benefits.
More links:
Chris Hedges: A Movement Too Big To Fail
10 CEOs Who Got Rich By Squeezing Workers
Think Progress is providing excellent ongoing coverage of the “99%Movement”. Rabble.ca is providing a Canadian perspective.
Yesterday the Occupy Wall Street movement, sparked by a call from the Vancouver-based Ad Busters magazine, started sparking occupations in Canada. From five thousand people in Vancouver, to three hundred in Halifax, and dozens of other “occupations” in between, Canadians expressed their disatisfaction with the status quo. I was able to participate in some of the Occupy Winnipeg event, where three hundred+ of us showed up and walked and chanted our way from the Manitoba Legislature to the TD Bank building on Portage Avenue, and back. It was inspiring and fun, and I hope it signals a sea-change in our political and economic system. Because if we continue down the road we are on, we are heading towards economic and planetary disaster.
Here’s filmmaker Velcrow Ripper speaking at the Occupy Saskatoon yesterday:
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/30601459]
Those who wish to play a meaningful role in influencing public policy or changing its institutional base must begin with honest inquiry, in community with others if it is to be effective. Whether one sees oneself as dedicated to reform or revolution, the first steps are education of oneself and others. There will be little hope for further progress unless the means to carry out these first steps are preserved and enhanced: networks of local organizations, media and publishers who do not bend to state and private power, and so on. These first steps interact: the organizations will not function without access to information and analysis, independent media and publishing will not survive without the participation and intellectual and financial contributions of popular organizations that grow and develop on the basis of shared concerns, optimally based in the community, workplace, or other points of social interaction. To the extent that such a basis exists, a range of possible actions become available: political pressure within the system, community organizing, civil disobedience, constructive efforts to create wholly new institutions such as worker-managed industry, and much else. As activity undertaken in such domains, including conventional political action, extends in scale, effectiveness, and popular engagement, it may well evoke state violence, one sign that it is becoming truly significant.
There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change – and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future.
– Noam Chomsky
All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet.
It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it’s the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet — at least everybody who seems to be concerned about the fate of the world, the fate of this planet.”
-Wangari Maathai
Wangari Mathaai proved that we can all make a difference in saving the planet, and that Africa would lead the way.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw]
RIP, Wangari Muta Maathai (1940-2011)
Mother, Relative, Co-worker, Colleague, Role model, Heroine, and Hummingbird
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Monday, September 26, 2001: Ottawa Tar Sands Action
There comes a time when you need to take a stand. When sending letters and signing petitions isn’t enough. When together we must say, “enough is enough — not on our watch”.
That time is now. We must act together for the health of our planet, our air, our water, our climate, and our children.
