Planet on fire

Emergency mobilization is precisely what we need if we are to prevent a global cataclysm and restore a safe and stable climate. We need to transition away from fossil fuels and carbon-intensive agriculture as soon as possible, draw down all the excess CO2 and cool the planet below present levels.

This will happen only with public planning coordinated by the federal government, global cooperation, massive public investment, forceful regulations and economic controls, and full societal participation.

We therefore cannot count on people entering emergency mode reflexively, historically we have only mobilized on that scale in order to go to war against a hated and feared human enemy. This time, the dangerous enemy is invisible gases in the atmosphere.

The climate movement must lead the public into emergency mode through education, organizing, and by setting an example. First we must go into emergency mode ourselves, and then communicate about the climate emergency and need for mobilization with clarity, dedication, and escalating assertiveness.

Those of us who have entered emergency mode – who understand the mobilization imperative – need to get talkative and loud. We need to spread our message as far and wide as possible. We must not stay “closeted” and appear that we believe everything is fine. Rather we need to “come out” as being in emergency mode and in favor of a WWII-scale climate mobilization that rapidly sweeps away business-as-usual – to our friends, family, neighbors, fellow climate activists, and the public. We need to spread our message as clearly, loudly and in the most attention-grabbing ways we can.

Fortunately, a new front is rapidly emerging on the global stage that is geared toward doing just that: The Climate Emergency Movement.

The Climate Mobilization was a pioneer in this movement, spending years promoting maximal intensity mobilization in relative obscurity. Today, the Climate Emergency Movement has captured the public imagination and is rapidly gaining power. There is a militant movement of young people marching in the streets and occupying the offices of elected officials, embarrassing representatives who refuse to act with urgency.

In the US, the Green New Deal is shaping the Democratic Party platform around a 10-year national mobilization to achieve a carbon-neutral economy. More than 620 cities around the world have declared a Climate Emergency.

Excerpted from: ‘With a Planet on Fire, This Is What It Means to Enter Emergency Mode’.

Commondreams.org