What does hope have to do with anything? FFs are the foundation of everything we do and no degree of protest makes it more likely they can be "ended". Governments are fully committed to maintaining our FF dependant economy no matter the human & planetary costs, regardless of growing public concern or the cries of alarm from scientists.
Did you see where he said keeping HOPE alive? Right now, for those who believe in human-caused climate change and want to prevent the worst effects, cynicism and fatalism are self-imposed impediments.
And yet the Earth System breakdown now driving more climate disruption and rapid heating is a reality we can do nothing about. We are headed for 3C and higher temps that won't be coming down. Long predicted thresholds have been crossed and techno–fixes are no remedy. There is no cynicism in my voice, just a lack of faith that government will, or even can, do anything significant.
In case you missed it, this week the United Nations is holding the Climate Ambition Summit, and world’s climate activists are holding rallies every day this week in support of the phase out of fossil fuels. That’s right, not the phase down, but the phase out. Big difference.
The fossil fuel industry will spend hundreds of millions this year in disinformation campaigns to discredit the efforts of the United Nations and the world’s climate activists. Maybe you should attend the summit, and let the world know that the United States is 100% in support of the phase out of fossil fuels. It certainly couldn’t hurt your polling numbers.
Very nice photos, a good looking crowd! I just hope Cornel West has given up his stupid idea of taking votes from President Biden. I'm very disappointed in him, as well as in my neighbor, for helping him, who may have helped give the '16 election to the ugly orange candy corn man.
Nice to hear that AOC was there. Keep up the good work, Bill.
Thank you these excellent and inspiring photos and words. Everyday, including tomorrow wewill keep working to end burning of fossil fuels and deforestation of our Earth. We will work for a circular economy, no more plastic pollution and justice for all.
Abundant hope! Beautiful to see the diversity of marchers - from Third Act to Moms Out Front - accompanied by children and grandchildren - to Peace and Disarmament coalitions ☮️ Also delighted to see the faith groups represented - from the Justice Coalition of Religious to farm folks from PA to Franciscan priests to ecumenical urban ministries. Just a sampling of the wondrous array of humans who marched today 🩵🩵 Alleluia!🌍
"No one, of course, thought this day had solved anything; it was more like an announcement of resolve to resume the fight. Which, of course, comes with a time limit."
Bill, your phrasing these last few years tells me you know as I do that this is not a "fight" that can be won, no matter how many ordinary people and luminaries show up. And then return home to FF enabled lives. When I organized on campus for Earth Day/Week 1970 our surging environmental movement, focused on pollution, had popular & bipartisan congressional support. Finger in the wind, Nixon signed the clean water & clean air acts, the endangered species act, and the EPA was created. It appeared that we had political influence & felt encouraged about people power. Not so today.
You must already know there will be no voluntary government or industry led "transition away from FFs." When do you/we pull the plug on this dearly embraced, entirely delusional assumption and shift gears to face the collapse of society and the end of Nature as best we can. There is a lot of planning & preparation that needs to happen at every level of community, globally, if we are to minimize the expected chaos and suffering. This is not on the table, not a message anyone wants to hear. But the longer we delay preparation, clinging to the false promise of renewables, is time wasted. Virtually all the legacy enviro/climate organizations, 350 included, are still hypeing a "100% clean energy future", ignoring the full-on commitment by governments to maintain and expand the global FF economy regardless of the costs.
If the movement we have can't repurpose itself to meet reality head on, there will be much regret not far down the path. A vast network of activists is in place. Imagine what it could do to assist local community preparation & survival if that were the focus. It can't happen soon enough, and probably won't.
I’m so proud of the thousands and thousands of people who’ve seen the light and showed up to fight for our future - stop burning fossil fuels before it’s too late!
Thanks so much for the report; I’d hoped to go (with powerful memories of NYC September 2014 dancing in my head): we had a hometown RoshHaShana Water is Life Tashlich gathering by the oceans edge yesterday where we expressed solidarity with you all, and where I met a fifth grade teacher who is responding to her kids’ universal climate concerns by helping them launch a climate advocates’ group; I’m sharing your report with them… as well as capecool.org’s archive of climate Justice music and art… all suggestions welcome!
I see three ways to go as a teacher or parent. 1. Bury or minimize the subject for the very young so as not to burden children with a fearful predicament they can do nothing about. (Don't scare them) 2. Once the subject is breached, put positive spin on their future, including the idea that the adult world is doing everything to protect them and their world. (Project hope, no matter what). 3. Level with children about the seriousness of climate impacts and the possibility of hardships to come, but emphasize important ways they can help their families, communities and Nature, whether in good times or bad, e.g. growing food, preserving food, using less water & electricity, always showing kindness & helpfulness to others, planting trees, raising bees & butterflies... (give them real things to accomplish.)
More likely it will be a blend of approaches depending on age. But I feel strongly we must lean toward truthfulness (it IS a crisis) and give children tangible roles to play – as opposed to just inviting them to be advocates who march or do reports; those things raise awareness but leave nothing for the hands to do.
perhaps there are as many ways to go as there are different ages, abilities and interests.
One climate educator discussed the possibility of talking to even very young children, in the context of experiencing the beauty and wonders of the beach or the woods, about how much Nature gives us and asking ourselves what we can give back.
if we could transform the unfathomable reality of 8 billion human earthlings into the slightly less unfathomable possibility of, let's say, a billion groups of 8, we might begin to imagine how we could organize and mobilize. Can we imagine each group tackling one facet of a just energy transition, one piece of the global climate/ environmental justice puzzle? I would love to have at least one or two children in my group...
I'd be curious to learn more about what this teacher and her students have in mind; for one thing, she expressed her classes openness to visitors; I believe we can sometimes learn a lot more from kids about next steps, than we can teach... There are such powerful examples now, including the kids who recrently won their climate lawsuit.
Thank you for keeping hope alive...
What does hope have to do with anything? FFs are the foundation of everything we do and no degree of protest makes it more likely they can be "ended". Governments are fully committed to maintaining our FF dependant economy no matter the human & planetary costs, regardless of growing public concern or the cries of alarm from scientists.
Did you see where he said keeping HOPE alive? Right now, for those who believe in human-caused climate change and want to prevent the worst effects, cynicism and fatalism are self-imposed impediments.
And yet the Earth System breakdown now driving more climate disruption and rapid heating is a reality we can do nothing about. We are headed for 3C and higher temps that won't be coming down. Long predicted thresholds have been crossed and techno–fixes are no remedy. There is no cynicism in my voice, just a lack of faith that government will, or even can, do anything significant.
Dear Mr. President,
In case you missed it, this week the United Nations is holding the Climate Ambition Summit, and world’s climate activists are holding rallies every day this week in support of the phase out of fossil fuels. That’s right, not the phase down, but the phase out. Big difference.
The fossil fuel industry will spend hundreds of millions this year in disinformation campaigns to discredit the efforts of the United Nations and the world’s climate activists. Maybe you should attend the summit, and let the world know that the United States is 100% in support of the phase out of fossil fuels. It certainly couldn’t hurt your polling numbers.
Very nice photos, a good looking crowd! I just hope Cornel West has given up his stupid idea of taking votes from President Biden. I'm very disappointed in him, as well as in my neighbor, for helping him, who may have helped give the '16 election to the ugly orange candy corn man.
Nice to hear that AOC was there. Keep up the good work, Bill.
Thank you these excellent and inspiring photos and words. Everyday, including tomorrow wewill keep working to end burning of fossil fuels and deforestation of our Earth. We will work for a circular economy, no more plastic pollution and justice for all.
Abundant hope! Beautiful to see the diversity of marchers - from Third Act to Moms Out Front - accompanied by children and grandchildren - to Peace and Disarmament coalitions ☮️ Also delighted to see the faith groups represented - from the Justice Coalition of Religious to farm folks from PA to Franciscan priests to ecumenical urban ministries. Just a sampling of the wondrous array of humans who marched today 🩵🩵 Alleluia!🌍
Thank you for posting this.
New York Times said tens of thousands came out! My heart sang with joy! Lovely to see the photos.
Lovely to see so many faves, including local friend Tom!!
Yesssssss!
"No one, of course, thought this day had solved anything; it was more like an announcement of resolve to resume the fight. Which, of course, comes with a time limit."
Bill, your phrasing these last few years tells me you know as I do that this is not a "fight" that can be won, no matter how many ordinary people and luminaries show up. And then return home to FF enabled lives. When I organized on campus for Earth Day/Week 1970 our surging environmental movement, focused on pollution, had popular & bipartisan congressional support. Finger in the wind, Nixon signed the clean water & clean air acts, the endangered species act, and the EPA was created. It appeared that we had political influence & felt encouraged about people power. Not so today.
You must already know there will be no voluntary government or industry led "transition away from FFs." When do you/we pull the plug on this dearly embraced, entirely delusional assumption and shift gears to face the collapse of society and the end of Nature as best we can. There is a lot of planning & preparation that needs to happen at every level of community, globally, if we are to minimize the expected chaos and suffering. This is not on the table, not a message anyone wants to hear. But the longer we delay preparation, clinging to the false promise of renewables, is time wasted. Virtually all the legacy enviro/climate organizations, 350 included, are still hypeing a "100% clean energy future", ignoring the full-on commitment by governments to maintain and expand the global FF economy regardless of the costs.
If the movement we have can't repurpose itself to meet reality head on, there will be much regret not far down the path. A vast network of activists is in place. Imagine what it could do to assist local community preparation & survival if that were the focus. It can't happen soon enough, and probably won't.
I’m so proud of the thousands and thousands of people who’ve seen the light and showed up to fight for our future - stop burning fossil fuels before it’s too late!
Thank you so much for sharing pictures of this astounding day for those of us unable to be there in person! Magnificent! From this Third Actor! ❤️🌎🕊️
Hurray from the left coast!!
So much hope!
Thanks for all you do!!
Thanks so much for the report; I’d hoped to go (with powerful memories of NYC September 2014 dancing in my head): we had a hometown RoshHaShana Water is Life Tashlich gathering by the oceans edge yesterday where we expressed solidarity with you all, and where I met a fifth grade teacher who is responding to her kids’ universal climate concerns by helping them launch a climate advocates’ group; I’m sharing your report with them… as well as capecool.org’s archive of climate Justice music and art… all suggestions welcome!
Btw capecool.org is desperately seeking coding assistance or new web-weaver; meanwhile contact is via jerushko17 at gmail dot com
I see three ways to go as a teacher or parent. 1. Bury or minimize the subject for the very young so as not to burden children with a fearful predicament they can do nothing about. (Don't scare them) 2. Once the subject is breached, put positive spin on their future, including the idea that the adult world is doing everything to protect them and their world. (Project hope, no matter what). 3. Level with children about the seriousness of climate impacts and the possibility of hardships to come, but emphasize important ways they can help their families, communities and Nature, whether in good times or bad, e.g. growing food, preserving food, using less water & electricity, always showing kindness & helpfulness to others, planting trees, raising bees & butterflies... (give them real things to accomplish.)
More likely it will be a blend of approaches depending on age. But I feel strongly we must lean toward truthfulness (it IS a crisis) and give children tangible roles to play – as opposed to just inviting them to be advocates who march or do reports; those things raise awareness but leave nothing for the hands to do.
perhaps there are as many ways to go as there are different ages, abilities and interests.
One climate educator discussed the possibility of talking to even very young children, in the context of experiencing the beauty and wonders of the beach or the woods, about how much Nature gives us and asking ourselves what we can give back.
if we could transform the unfathomable reality of 8 billion human earthlings into the slightly less unfathomable possibility of, let's say, a billion groups of 8, we might begin to imagine how we could organize and mobilize. Can we imagine each group tackling one facet of a just energy transition, one piece of the global climate/ environmental justice puzzle? I would love to have at least one or two children in my group...
I'd be curious to learn more about what this teacher and her students have in mind; for one thing, she expressed her classes openness to visitors; I believe we can sometimes learn a lot more from kids about next steps, than we can teach... There are such powerful examples now, including the kids who recrently won their climate lawsuit.