What will it take for us to collectively wake up on a global scale?
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On January 15th, five activists in Washington who blocked BNSF Railway tracks were were found not guilty of obstructing or trying to delay trains carrying fossil fuels. Their protest was to harness attention to the dangers of such trains crossing the state. According to the Seattle Times, “The testimony was intended to buttress the legal case for what’s known as a “necessity defense.” That means that defendants had largely exhausted all legal means of protest, and that civil disobedience was necessary to address the much greater harms posed by climate change and oil trains. In other words, the very system that continues to destroy the planet threw the populous a bone in our ever increasing uphill battle against ecocide.
Tim DeChristopher who co-founded the Climate Disobedience Center attended the trial with others from the center to support the activists known as the Delta 5. DeChristopher who appeared on Democracy Now said, “So we’re here just to get their back, first and foremost, but also because we see this case as really significant in terms of the broader public narrative around climate change.” Will the general public use this opportunity as momentum for a movement that still lacks numbers or will we continue to sit in a state of apathy?
In order to answer the question we have to look at the dominant cultural narrative of our industrialized existence. We continually fail to collectively look in the mirror. Instead we produce techno fantasies that only further enhance our global predicament because they do not address the here and now. The Delta 5, DeChristopher and countless unnamed others have been raging against the machine for sometime now. It seems doubtful to me that business as usual will be challenged anytime soon.
Currently our narrative has us pursuing alternative fuel sources without considering our intent. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources does little to address the elephant in the room. If we simply attempt to replace energy sources without curbing our consumption then what’s the point? We are addicted to mass consumption and all we really want to do is continue along the path of infinite growth by using other sources of energy. We call it sustainability or the new economy, but all it really represents is more of our insane behavior. It ignores the truth of the situation we our in. Replacing fossil fuels ignores the enormous scale of such an undertaking. Remember, the mechanisms and equipment used to generate these energy sources are manufactured and maintained by fossil fuel energy.
As the world burns let us use this landmark decision to support the five who attempted to temporarily halt, in some capacity, our deadly pursuit of progress at all costs. Let us support the growing number of those who are joining the ranks daily. Let us remember and support those countless who have come before the Delta 5 and those who are still fighting in the shadows of mainstream media coverage. Let us take this opportunity to do something, anything to resist the status quo.
If all we are going to do is wait for others or wait for legal permission from an immoral system then we have sealed our legacy. Fighting for justice when there is little to no hope matters because we have a moral imperative to do so. We have a personal responsibility to take action in any way shape or form. Like it or not we are complicit. We also have unrealized, untapped power.
In the end, we can be individuals who preferred the flashing spectacle of instant gratification or a community who had the wisdom to be present during sunset. I’m wondering what it will take for us to collectively wake up on a global scale? Im afraid I don’t have an answer so I’m going to continue to listen to those who have never fallen asleep to the white noise of perceived progress. It is there that the silence of our inaction is most deafening.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Exaggerating vague science makes us all rednecks and now Occupy no longer even mentions CO2 in it’s list of demands.
Move on.
35 MORE years of debate and climate action failure is certain and unstoppable. as long as science is 99% certain of a CO2 Armageddon instead of agreeing it’s as real as they agree smoking causes cancer.
Are they also only 99% certain the planet isn’t flat?