A time for renewed hope—and action

The end of the year is a time for evaluation and introspection. What have we achieved? What do we want to achieve? Like everyone else, those of us who care about averting climate chaos are thinking about what has happened in 2014—and what might be possible in 2015.

Looking backward, in fact, is heartening: the climate movement has made great strides this year. Many more people now understand the dangers we face and the solutions that are available. An unprecedented number of climate activists marched in September—400,000 in New York and at least that many again in rallies around the world. Meaningful action has been taken at both state and federal levels. China signed on to a plan to bend the carbon curve downward. And real promise arose at the international meeting in Lima, Peru. For the first time, every country is now committed to developing its own tailored plan to address climate change.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, however, is daunting. The global carbon curve still trends upward. Climate deniers still occupy seats of enormous power in media, politics, and commerce. Though restorative technology exists, we seem to lack the will, as a society, to overcome the soothing lies of Big Energy. And even if we do continue to fight the good fight in California, what about the rest of the country? What about the rest of the world? Our home planet is in grave jeopardy, and, as the old jest goes, “There is no Planet B.” In the face of the enormity of the problem, in the face of such opposition, it is easy to become discouraged—even to tune out the whole issue and just get on with the more immediate concerns of our lives.

But if everyone gives up or turns away, the Earth will burn and habitable spots will disappear. A damaged planet is not what we want to leave our children and grandchildren, and this is a time of year we think especially of them. Nor is that the world we want to inflict upon the needy and disadvantaged around the globe, and they too are in our minds at this season.

What can we do?

So what can we do? The list is long, and you know it already, so I’ll leave it to you to find the items you want to take on. But to start, here are two things you can do right now:

1. If you haven’t signed our divestment petition asking CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from fossil fuel companies, please sign it now.
2. And then you can read Rebecca Solnit’s inspiring article in TomDispatch. It’s titled “Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart: The Climate for 2015,” and it’s a strong antidote to fear and inertia. Here’s a small sample:

There have been heroic climate activists in nearly every country on the planet, and some remarkable things have already been achieved. The movement has grown in size, power, and sophistication, but it’s still nowhere near commensurate with what needs to be done. In the lead-up to the U.N.-sponsored conference to create a global climate treaty in Paris next December, this coming year will likely be decisive.

So this is the time to find your place in a growing movement, if you haven’t yet — as it is for climate organizers to do better at reaching out and offering everyone a part in the transformation, whether it’s the housebound person who writes letters or the 20-year-old who’s ready for direct action in remote places. This is the biggest of pictures, so there’s a role for everyone, and it should be everyone’s most important work right now, even though so many other important matters press on all of us. (As the Philippines’s charismatic former climate negotiator Yeb Sano notes, “Climate change impinges on almost all human rights. Human rights are at the core of this issue.”)

Many people believe that personal acts in private life are what matters in this crisis. They are good things, but not the key thing. It’s great to bicycle rather than drive, eat plants instead of animals, and put solar panels on your roof, but such gestures can also offer a false sense that you’re not part of the problem.

You are not just a consumer. You are a citizen of this Earth and your responsibility is not private but public, not individual but social. If you are a resident of a country that is a major carbon emitter, as is nearly everyone in the English-speaking world, you are part of the system, and nothing less than systemic change will save us.

There is hope, as Rebecca says, and there is reason for renewed action. Read it all.

And let us all resolve to make 2015 the year in which climate change becomes the number-one issue for everyone. And the year that divestment from fossil fuels becomes a core strategy for achieving that goal.

Photo: NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon