This Climate Activist Has a Plan to Defeat Trumpism. He’s in Prison.

8 comments

1. Roger Hallam is serving a five-year sentence for advocating direct action during a videoconference. It hasn’t stopped him.

2. This excerpt ends with an unexpected laugh….

   *unpleasant though it may be, it’s helpful to contemplate the dire implications embedded within the parade of dry scientific findings we keep reading. A few of the most obvious: As noted above, an increase in floods, droughts, and wildfires will wreak havoc on the global food system. Prices for basic commodities will rise, economies will sputter, social strife will intensify. Densely populated areas will become unfit for human life, forcing hundreds of millions to migrate, and thereby fomenting political chaos in more prosperous regions. Bacteria and insects too will migrate, leading to waves of deadly disease. Struggles over scarce resources will produce military conflict, straining precisely the kind of transnational alliances required to confront a global crisis.* ***And we’ll have to face it all without coffee.***

3. David Tennant?

4. Nutshell:

   Article has three major parts.

   First a great biography of Hallam, and in the process drives home the reality of climate-driven breakdown we are facing if we don’t change course.

   Second, Hallam’s answer is a call for replacing elections – an oligarchist system in which only the rich privileged and elite get anywhere near power – with citizen assemblies drawn by random, akin to ancient Greece’s “sortition” system and our modern day juries. Experiments have been done elsewhere, notably in France where one citizens panel led to a national referendum on a contentious issue.

   Third, the piece ends with an imaginary scenario – it is unclear if this is from Hallam or the article author – but it imagines a group of ordinary folks in a US rural town who just decide to do a Citizen’s Assembly project…. which leads to electing a local board member running as an independent….. which inspires other places to do this too…. which eventually leads to enough Citizen-Assembly advocates in state legislature to form a caucus…. which leads to elections of some of these folks to Congress, and eventually constitutional amendment at state and federal level supporting Citizen Assemblies as a key part of the political process.

   MY OWN THOUGHTS… My personal answer to this piece is its a great and worthy read, and the idea is inspiring *but* for the problem that I don’t think we have enough time to implement these ideas. I think climate and economic stress is going to build up faster than we can grow the two or three generations it would take to implement these ideas without bloodshed. So what I think is more likely is that we’ll experience chaos and breakdown. Survivors will gradually sort themselves out around new social/economic structures for making clothes, shelter, and food…. and it is in these new communities where Citizens Assemblies might finally start to take root. Of course the next community down the road might adopt a warlord model. So…. buckle up.

5. The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey feels incredibly relevant.

   A few good quotes:

   “My job is to save the fu**ing wilderness. I don’t know anything else worth saving.” <—apparently you aren’t allowed to curse in R/climate b/c we’re soft here

   “When the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about.”

   “There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.”

   “To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades. Because we like the smell of danger.”

   “What’s more American than violence?” Hayduke wanted to know. “Violence, it’s as American as pizza pie.”

6. This was a surprisingly good read. Made me hopeful for the future somehow.. knowing I’m not alone in fear and seeing a path forward for humanity

7. I used follow this guy on twitter and he’s always on point. Highly recommend people listen.

8. Climate catastrophe is now. Every record temperature and tipping point passed will eventually lead to human extinction. The aliens can have their bio lab back and elevate another species

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