ON THE NO-ENERGY BILL, 1

We’re Hot as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take It Any More; Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming
Bill McKibben, August 4, 2010 (TomDispatch)

"Try to fit these facts together…According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record…[A] study from Canadian researchers has shown that warmer seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, by 40% since 1950…Nine nations have so far set their all-time temperature records in 2010, including Russia (111 degrees), Niger (118), Sudan (121), Saudi Arabia and Iraq (126 apiece), and Pakistan, which also set the new all-time Asia record in May: a hair under 130 degrees. I can turn my oven to 130 degrees.

"…And then, in late July, the U.S. Senate decided to do exactly nothing about climate change. They didn’t do less than they could have -- they did nothing, preserving a perfect two-decade bipartisan record of no action…I’m a mild-mannered guy, a Methodist Sunday School teacher. Not quick to anger. So what I want to say is: this is fucked up. The time has come to get mad, and then to get busy."

click thru for more on the movement

"For many years, the lobbying fight for climate legislation on Capitol Hill has been led by a collection of the most corporate and moderate environmental groups, outfits like the Environmental Defense Fund. We owe them a great debt, and not just for their hard work. We owe them a debt because they did everything the way you’re supposed to: they wore nice clothes, lobbied tirelessly, and compromised at every turn…[T]hat was not enough…[N]ow we know what we didn’t before: making nice doesn’t work…

"…I was at a session convened by the White House early in the Obama administration where some polling guru solemnly explained that “green jobs” polled better than “cutting carbon.”…In the end, though, all these focus-group favorites are secondary. The task at hand is keeping the planet from melting. We need everyone -- beginning with the president -- to start explaining that basic fact at every turn…Energy independence is nice, but you need a planet to be energy independent on…Mysteriously enough, this seems to be a particularly hard point for smart people to grasp…"

click thru for more on the day of action

"…If we’re going to slow global warming in the very short time available to us, then we don’t actually need an incredibly complicated legislative scheme…[and if] we’re going to get any of this done, we’re going to need a movement, the one thing we haven’t had. For 20 years environmentalists have operated on the notion that we’d get action if we simply had scientists explain to politicians and CEOs that our current ways…[don’t work]…That turns out, quite conclusively, not to work.We need to be able to explain that their current ways will end something they actually care about, i.e. their careers. And since we’ll never have the cash to compete with Exxon, we better work in the currencies we can muster: bodies, spirit, passion…

"The big environmental groups are starting to wake up, too. The Sierra Club…[is] working hard with stalwarts like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth…Churches are getting involved, as well as mosques and synagogues. Kids are leading the fight, all over the world -- they have to live on this planet for another 70 years or so, and they have every right to be pissed off…But no one will come out to fight for watered down and weak legislation…We may need to get arrested. We definitely need art, and music, and disciplined, nonviolent, but very real anger…Mostly, we need to tell the truth, resolutely and constantly. Fossil fuel is wrecking the one earth we’ve got. It’s not going to go away because we ask politely. If we want a world that works, we’re going to have to raise our voices."