77 Days - Where Has All the Courage Gone? (How I Have Wimped Out)

No sense harping on climate scientists (see yesterday's post) when I often find myself standing at a moment when some courage (or at least a little boldness) would see me do something for the Earth, the future and the children ... but I don't do it.

My most common example is not having the nerve to ask idling drivers to turn off their parked cars. I usually have to give myself a good talking to and remind myself that I'm breathing in those fumes before I'll get out of my car or venture over and use that little hand gesture (turning the key in the ignition to off). I've never had a problem (except for the one fellow who ignored me, despite the fact that he was idling right by a no-idling sign, underneath the windows at a school), so I don't know why it's still so hard for me to do it. Perhaps because I'm not a confrontational person in other areas of my life.

So, to vindicate the climate scientists somewhat (well, they're not vindicated, so to have some compassion for them), here's an email I wrote yesterday that I just can't bring myself to send. It's in response to the notice of an October 24th Climate Action Day event in a nearby community that read in part (all identifying hints removed):

"What can people here do to cope with climate change, peak oil and other challenges that threaten the resiliency of our rural communities?

"That's the question [our group] will ask a public gathering of community members on October 24 at the local secondary school.

"It's a serious question, but organizers promise that the 'gathering' won't be gloomy. The goal is simply to encourage and celebrate the people and programs that will keep our community a wonderful place to live and visit."

*******

Here's my response:
"Hi So-and-So,

"I am pretty saddened that your community has decided to turn October 24th into a day of celebration when hundreds of thousands of people are dying and millions more are losing their livelihoods, their food security, their water sources, their homes and their entire homelands due to global climate chaos. At least one of your speakers will be stating the truth.

"If you have some insight you could share on why people in North America (or at least on your organizing committee) are so deathly (and I mean that literally) afraid of doom and gloom when the situation, as your after-lunch speaker points out, "could mean the end of humanity," I would appreciate you taking the time to share it.

"We're going to do a gloomy event in our community that day. A day of lament. Of course, no one will come to ours. And the denial will continue. Alas.

"All the best with your event. The emcee and the keynote speaker you have chosen will keep it hopping.

"p.s. I am pressing the Send button with reticence and a heavy heart. I mean no ill will to anyone, but I keep seeing images in my mind's eye (perhaps my mind's eye is too close to my heart) of African children afflicted by climate-change-related drought and famine, and Inuit homes crumbling into the sea, and the president of the Maldives begging for action on the international stage. We are so blessed here in our beautiful little communities. We are experiencing no pain (yet); so why are we so unwilling to even feel some of the pain that others are going through? Think of the gloom of their lives."

*******

Is that a terrible email? Why am I afraid to send it? It has struck me that with allies like this, who needs enemies? So far, we live in the luckiest part of the world, but it's sheer luck! We celebrate this luck every day that we live here, free from climate tyranny and, for the most part, political tyranny. Are we flaunting our luck by celebrating it?

Why — and I ask this sincerely — must we spend this day, which is devoted to climate action, celebrating locally when there is so much to lament globally? Are we callous? Wimpy? Narcissistic? Blinded? Numbed? Or simply unwilling to feel the pain of others?

If you can figure this out, please let me know. This is really bothering me — and worse, it does nothing to forward the cause of getting radical emergency climate action happening. We've spent the last 40 years or more trying to cajole people to embrace a more "sustainable" way of being in the world. Cajoling has failed. It's time for painful truth-telling (and truth-hearing) and some heavy-duty, internationally defined but nationally implemented zero carbon legislation. Which we needed to have in place yesterday.

93 Days - Upcoming International Climate Action Days

September 21st - GLOBAL WAKE-UP CALL TO WORLD LEADERS

Avaaz is pulling out all the stops. A stunning 96% of over 100,000 people in 182 countries said YES! to a day of wake-up events in public places all over the world to make leaders sit up and listen.

The world's presidents, prime ministers and other heads of state are gathering at the United Nations on 22 September 2009, at the invitation of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, for a summit on climate change.

Avaaz says, "We have to show a massive public demand for them to sign a fair and binding deal in Copenhagen. Thousands of simultaneous events [on September 21] will give us a unique chance to seize the attention of world media and of leaders everywhere."

September's high-level summit is a time for political leaders "to be forced into the crunch issues" of climate change, identifying these as financing for adaptation and mitigation strategies, according to Connie Hedegaard, Minister for Climate and Energy of Denmark. She added that the meeting is the "last chance" for political leaders to "push for unity in Copenhagen, thus setting the cue for negotiators in December."

So, start dreaming up ideas for your own wake-up call to your elected representatives on September 21st! And if you can help Avaaz fund the wake-up call, please click here.

October 24th - INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION

350.org (I still wish they were ZeroCarbon.org, but they didn't ask me!) has over 100 countries signed up to take climate action this fall. They are sponsoring a huge day of global events on 24 October 2009 to ask for progress on climate change that gets the planet back to 350 parts per million of CO2 (which is still too high, but better than where CO2 levels are now: nearing 390 ppm and rising).

But numerous countries still have no events registered. Visit the 350.org Action List to see if your country has one or more events listed. If not, just contact 350.org for advice on how to get something going.

Let's get behind these two growing international campaigns to sound the climate change emergency alarm. Do something in your local community or country on September 21st and October 24th. Do something simple or complex, radical or safe, imaginative or tried-and-true, but do something!!