Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
‘The public gets what the public wants’ sang a young Paul Weller on the 1979 hit Going Underground. It’s a lyric that doubles as our one-line summary of this week’s major report by the world’s leading climate scientists.
At a time when the entire world needs to focus on radical climate policy changes, Putin has thrust us into a war that might be as existentially dire as the climate crisis.
Despite months of struggle by water protectors, the tar-sands oil of Alberta, Canada is flowing through Enbridge Inc.’s controversial Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. But for indigenous-led water protectors, environmental activists and concerned citizens who stood with them, the fight against the “black snake” is far from over.
We need to move from civil disobedience to political disobedience.
We need to move from captured corporate representative democracy (democracy in name only) to the real and deep democracy of deliberative peoples and citizens assemblies.
Establishing systems rooted in deep, inclusive democracy, we can govern ourselves in a way that uplifts all rights for all people, ensuring that no one is left behind. Then everyone can truly enjoy the foundational tenet of “liberty and justice for all.”
Indigenous climate justice advocates argue that as long as these dominant world systems fail to embrace the transformation required and offered by Indigenous peoples – including an acceptance of the rights of Mother Earth – humanity as a whole will continue to fail the planet.
In my brief time with XR in London I saw a lot of people from many different social positionings interacting with each other around climate activism – a community of communities seeking common ground.
The feminist approach to climate justice therefore demands that governments, civil society, private sector, environmentalists should address the causes and effects of climate change, not as a single issue, but in recognition of the full spectrum of the numerous challenges that communities face
Dany Sigwalt, Executive Director at Power Shift Network, has spent much of her career moving between movement building and youth leadership development, working to marry the two into one cohesive strategic reality. She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?”
The number of climate litigation cases around the world has more than doubled since 2015 – the year the Paris Agreement was signed.
Dr. Katharine Wilkinson is an author, strategist, and teacher, working to heal the planet we call home. She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?”
“Diversity matters in climate and energy policy because for too long, concerns of vulnerable communities have been minimized and dismissed while white-male-dominated-fossil-fuel interests have profited from exploiting marginalized people. “
