Joe Romm of Climate Progress recently had an interesting post on an email from Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp regarding “how we begin to rebuild public support for climate action and the political will to pass climate legislation.”
After reading the post, I decided to chime in with my own 2 cents. Thought I’d share the meat of that here (edited a bit to make it more readable and remove superfluous notes):
1) I think that what we need more than anything else is people getting into the streets. We need to get the mainstream media’s eye on people (us) who are ready to show others how much we need climate action now. Direct action is needed. Politicians can ignore email campaigns, twitter campaigns, and even blogs as much as they want and hardly feel any pressure. A few years ago, before I became a blogger, despite being a dedicated green, I had never heard of TreeHugger, Climate Progress, Grist, or a number of other major green sites we are all probably pretty familiar with now (I was aware of Planetsave, but that’s a story for another day).
2) Now, contradicting the point above a little bit (but not really), we need obsessive messaging (that reaches those who don’t think they care about politics) on politicians’ actions when it comes to climate change. Politicians who do and don’t support climate action need to be exposed to the public, to their constituents, most of whom probably wouldn’t support them for a second if they knew what they were actually doing. Why is this a semi-contradiction? Because this part does need to be done on blogs and social media/networking sites. People spend a ton of time online now, especially on facebook and such places. While the action needs to happen outside, where the mainstream media will pick it up, the education needs to happen in people’s comfort zones — which are increasingly online. This should not just include abstract discussions, but names (repeatedly, & linked obviously to the actual negative consequences they are creating in their lack of climate action). Most people probably don’t have a clue what their Congressmen are doing in office. We need to know.
3) Combined with that 2nd point, people need to have a better understanding about what climate change practically means for them, their children, their grandchildren, & so on. Too many people think this is just about the birds & the trees. I think most of us would be shocked to find out what people actually think climate change will entail. We all need to raise our voice about what we are putting ourselves & our children in for: food insecurity (Human Suffering & Death), water insecurity (Human Suffering & Death), rising sea levels (pretty clear), economic collapse (due to food & water insecurity and the tremendous costs of natural disasters).
That’s the 3-point plan I think is needed: DIRECT ACTION, OBSESSIVE COVERAGE OF POLITICIANS AND THEIR CLIMATE ACTION OR INACTION, and CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION.
I studied environmental studies and sociology for my undergrad degree several years ago, focused very obsessively on how society viewed environmental issues and the direction the environmental movement needed to go in. It has taken the environmental movement 7-8 years now to get to the point I thought it needed to get to at the end of my studies. But think it finally is starting to (barely starting to). I think we are inching into the plan I mentioned above, but only inching.
I think our current needs are clear:
- Direct Action
- Hold Politicians’ Feet to the Fire; Help Educate their Constituents who “aren’t interested in politics”
- Educate people about climate change & how it affects them & their children
Photo via kk+
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