Today in Climate Change News

[Forest Nymph]

The Guardian acknowledges that people need to go plant-based: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/08/climate-change-food-global-heating-livestock

Extinction Rebellion kicks off five days of protests: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/nyregion/extinction-rebellion-nyc-protest.html

I heard bad things about Extinction Rebellion in Berkeley, though. Ironically though they focus on the sixth mass extinction, they apparently take offense as an organization to people emphasizing plant-based for the environment (like most hypocrites in the environmental movement).

So good thing that there's now Animal Rebellion: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-49976197

 

[Sax]

Ironically though they focus on the sixth mass extinction, they apparently take offense as an organization to people emphasizing plant-based for the environment (like most hypocrites in the environmental movement).

Wow really? Guess I shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Sax]

Here's a good article from The Guardian that touches on Extinction Rebellions strategy: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/09/polluters-climate-crisis-fossil-fuel

It’s the system we need to change, rather than the products of the system. It is as citizens that we must act, rather than as consumers. But how? Part of the answer is provided in a short book published by one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, called Common Sense for the 21st Century. I don’t agree with everything it says, but the rigour and sweep of its analysis will, I think, ensure that it becomes a classic of political theory.

It begins with the premise that gradualist campaigns making small demands cannot prevent the gathering catastrophes of climate and ecological breakdown. Only mass political disruption, out of which can be built new and more responsive democratic structures, can deliver the necessary transformation.

By studying successful mobilisations, such as the Children’s March in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 (which played a critical role in ending racial segregation in the US), the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig in 1989 (which snowballed until they helped bring down the East German regime), and the Jana Andolan movement in Nepal in 2006 (which brought down the absolute power of the monarchy and helped end the armed insurgency), Hallam has developed a formula for effective “dilemma actions”. A dilemma action is one that puts the authorities in an awkward position. Either the police allow civil disobedience to continue, thereby encouraging more people to join, or they attack the protesters, creating a powerful “symbolism of fearless sacrifice”, thereby encouraging more people to join. If you get it right, the authorities can’t win.

Among the crucial common elements, he found, are assembling thousands of people in the centre of the capital city, maintaining a strictly nonviolent discipline, focusing on the government and continuing for days or weeks at a time. Radical change, his research reveals, “is primarily a numbers game. Ten thousand people breaking the law has historically had more impact than small-scale, high-risk activism.” The key challenge is to organise actions that encourage as many people as possible to join. This means they should be openly planned, inclusive, entertaining, peaceful and actively respectful.

Maybe having ER being more inclusive, with Animal Rebellion focusing on the animal rights aspect is a good compromise.

 

[Forest Nymph]

Yeah I still find it a bit unfortunate and hypocritical. I watch Humane Hancock and he's argued with ER people in the UK who seem to hate vegans or even deny the impact of red meat on environment.

Having to make Animal Rebellion separate is legitimately sad, but I'm glad it exists all the same.

I also balk at this idea of "inclusiveness" not because I don't want to include people, but because it allows people to foster Neoliberal Delusions (TM) such as "asking people to stop eating meat is racist." My favorite part is when middle class white people offer it as their own excuse to eat McDonald's cheeseburgers.

I'm struggling with this attitude at my university and I have come to believe some facets of the political left are as harmful to climate change as the right. In my grad school classes I've been thrwarted by alleged liberals and environmentalists with talk of Israeli soldiers in vegan boots, and Hindu murders of Muslims who smuggle cattle for eating in India. Meanwhile my least favorite roommate (who is a vegetarian by the way so WTF) informed me in a pissy way they wanted no more invitations to Vegan Club movie nights (with free food!) nor helpful reports of half priced tofu.

That's why I like DXE. They're very inclusive, in fact insist on respect for all races and orientations, even welcome vegetarians or the veggie curious but at the end of the day maintain vegan as the standard.

It's really hostile out there.

 

[Sax]

Thought this was a good article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/15/reframing-climate-change-story-human-evolutionary-success/