Photo by Ecolabs.

Two headlines in USA Today and Reuters last week were very sobering: “Study: Global temperatures could rise 5 degrees by 2050,” and, even worse, “Global warming close to becoming irreversible.”

It’s not that I was surprised. I have known for years how urgent things are as far as our heated-up climate. Since I decided in 2003 that I needed to do more personally on this overarching survival issue, the world has seen a dramatic rise in the number and intensity of weather disasters, just as predicted by climate scientists years ago, though they’ve come sooner than most scientists expected.

What are the main points of these two articles?

USA Today reports on extensive research at Oxford University in England using computer model simulations which show that “average global temperatures could climb 2.5 to 5.4 degrees by 2050” if we don’t get serious about shifting from fossil fuels to a renewable energy-driven economy.

Reuters reports from a London conference where scientists “say the world is close to reaching tipping points that will make it irreversibly hotter … ‘We are on the cusp of some big changes,’” said Will Steffen, executive director of the Australian National University’s climate change institute. “We can cap temperature rise at 2 degrees, or cross the threshold beyond which the system shifts to a much hotter state.”

These articles were discussed a few days ago by some of us organizing the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate in late April. We talked about the importance of emphasizing the urgency of the climate crisis if we are to build the political will, and get to a political tipping point, that will force the U.S. government to finally offer the leadership on this issue that is desperately needed. At the same time, we need to make clear that it is not a hopeless situation. The technologies exist and are improving that will allow us to rapidly reverse our fossil-fuel-industry-driven forced march toward catastrophic climate change. And there will be huge numbers of decent jobs and significant economic stimulation created by this shift.

It is hard, impossible really, to know exactly how and when that sea change in consciousness and active concern among the U.S. people will happen to constitute the political tipping point we need. But it is clear that those of us who get it on the urgency of this issue can speed up that process by doing several key things:

• Don’t mourn, organize. These famous words of martyred labor organizer Joe Hill ring true as never before.

It is easy to get down, to mourn, over the failure, so far, of U.S. and world leaders on this issue. As the Reuters article commented, “a new global climate treaty forcing the world’s biggest polluters, such as the United States and China, to curb emissions will only be agreed on by 2015 — to enter into force in 2020.” This abysmal failure of political leadership will only be changed when more and more people throughout all sectors of society are motivated, and supported, to speak out and take action, consistently, on this greatest civilizational challenge we have ever faced.

• Organizing must include outreach to regular folks who are not activists, as well as to those who are progressive activists.

I continue to be astounded by how many progressive activists just don’t get it on this issue. It’s really a form of denial. I started experiencing this when I began working on the climate crisis in 2004. People who understood how bad things were but who were doing and saying virtually nothing about it would respond as if I was making them uncomfortable by being up front about our dire situation. We can’t let anyone “off the hook” on this issue; it’s long past time for everyone who cares about what kind of world we will be leaving to those who follow after us to integrate speaking about this issue into their daily lives.

• There is no substitute for visible, demonstrative action.

Mass movements for social change have never been successful unless they have been able to show visibly via street demonstrations, mass meetings, civil disobedience and/or other ways that large numbers of people feel so strongly about an issue that they are willing to take risks and do things they don’t ordinarily do to demand change. Period. Full stop.

• Finally, it is critical that we do all of this work in a way which has a growing and widening impact because of how we go about doing it.

The Interfaith Moral Action on Climate group incorporated a verse from the Old Testament in its Call to Action which gets at this question: “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.” This is from Micah, chapter 6, verse 8. You don’t have to be religious to get the basic points. We must be about the creation of a just world if we are to be true to the best within us and if we are to be successful building the broad climate movement necessary. We must treat one another and all people with kindness and in a non-arrogant way if we are to maintain our commitment to struggle for as long as it will take to bring about a more just world and a stable climate.

May the Great Unknown Force Which Rules the Universe give us strength, courage, and persistence for this most important of battles between right and wrong.

I must make my way, no matter what life throws me
I must make my way, must do the best I can
I must make my way, my faith and hope they guide me
I must make my way, together we all must stand.

We must make our way, together up the mountain
We must make our way, rememb’ring those before
We must make our way, rememb’ring those still coming
We must make our way, draw strength at the ocean’s shore.

Rachel Carson lived and worked for Earth and people.
Rachel Carson loved the sea and all that lives.
We must learn from her and never lose our loving,
Loving Mother Earth with all that we can give.

Water makes its way, through fields, hills, and mountains
Water makes its way, it has its ups and downs
Water makes its way, it ends up in the oceans
Water makes its way, it really gets around.

I was inspired to begin writing this song while hiking through Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., in early February, but it took reading about Rachel Carson in the book Courage for the Earth, edited by Peter Matthiessen, to gain the inspiration to finish it.

I don’t know how long I’ve known about Rachel Carson, but it has only been over the last year that I have read first her highest-impact book, Silent Spring, and then about her in Courage for the Earth. The latter book, in particular, helped me to come to appreciate how important she was, her critical role in generating the political momentum that led to the emergence of massive environmental activism in the 1960s and ’70s, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the spread of “green” consciousness and activism ever since. There is no doubt in my mind that if she were alive today she would be a leader in the climate movement.

There were special qualities about Rachel Carson that we can all learn and draw strength from.

It’s not just that she was a gifted writer; she was a person who did serious research to understand the topic — in the case of Silent Spring, the widespread, dangerous use of pesticides — about which she was writing.

She was a woman scientist and writer during a time when it was very much “a man’s world,” with no women’s movement to provide support.

She had the courage to face the reality of things and speak truth to power regardless of the consequences, and she was attacked viciously by corporate interests: “Monsanto, Velsicol, American Cyanamid — indeed, the whole chemical industry, duly supported by the Department of Agriculture as well as the domesticated ostriches in the media,” in Peter Matthiessen’s words.

She had her ear to the ground; referring to why she decided to write Silent Spring, she began her acknowledgements at the beginning of the book with a reference to a letter written to her in January, 1958. The letter was from Olga Owens Huckins, a member of the Committee Against Mass Poisoning, that “brought my attention sharply back to a problem with which I had long been concerned. I then realized I must write this book.”

She loved the oceans and wrote a trilogy of books about them — Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, and The Edge of the Sea — before writing Silent Spring. In Under the Sea-Wind she wrote of the ocean’s attraction and significance:

To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shorebirds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be. These things were before humankind ever stood on the shore of the ocean and looked out upon it with wonder; they continue year in, year out, throughout the centuries and ages, while man’s kingdoms rise and fall.

Carson fully appreciated the deep importance of human connection to nature, and I am certain that it was this connection in her life that enabled her to do all that she did. In the words of John Hay in one of the essays in Courage For The Earth, in a speech toward the end of her life at a small women’s college in Claremont, Calif.:

… she addressed the larger problems of changing human attitudes toward nature, and she challenged her listeners to do what they could to curb the rapacious human appetite for control. Conquest, be it of insects, space, disease, or nations, was an attitude based on arrogance. With humility and wonder instead, Carson hoped humankind might yet discover itself as part of nature. “We still have not become mature enough to see ourselves as a very tiny part of a vast and incredible universe, a universe that is distinguished above all else by a mysterious and wonderful unity that we flout at our peril.”

Spring is about to officially arrive, although in much of the U.S., spring- and even summer-like temperatures have already made their unsettling appearance. Because of Rachel Carson’s and many other people’s work, it will not be a “silent spring,” devoid of the singing of birds because of mass poisoning. But it must not be a silent spring in another way. Those of us who appreciate the urgency of the climate crisis and oppose the fossil fuel industry’s destructive practices, including its power over Congress, must raise our voices as loudly as we can during the spring, summer, and fall of this national political year.

There are some ways to do so this spring, among them:

• Interfaith Moral Action on Climate’s call for actions during Earth week, in D.C. and locally, April 21-27;

• 350.org’s day of action to “Connect the Dots” between extreme weather events and climate change via distributed actions on May 5;

• The Alliance for Appalachia’s “End Mountaintop Removal Week” in Washington June 2-6.

Wind, water, sun, the earth, the moon, the stars

I feel such joy, love and appreciation

I thank my God, the Force of Truth You are.

Chorus: Then sings my soul, the best I know within

How great thou art, how great thou art

Then sings my soul, the best I know within

How great thou art, how great thou art.

And yet I know the world is full of suffering

From greed and hate which often have their way

Children dying, oppression much too normal,

The environment itself in danger of decay

But still sings my soul, the best I know within

(Chorus)

For I have seen the power of the people

When standing strong, united what’er may come

For justice always will overcome false evil,

No power can stop an idea whose time has come

So sings my soul, the best I know within

(Chorus)

There’ll come a day I’ll pass to something different

No longer feel the power of wind and sun

But I’m at peace, I know we will not falter

That Truth and Love endure ‘til The Work is done

So sings my soul, the best I know within

(Chorus)

-new lyrics by Ted Glick

Without question my favorite hymn is How Great Thou Art. In part it’s the beautiful melody, and in part it’s the verses which extol the wonder and power of nature, which celebrates the very real sense of connection, a Greater Presence, many of us feel when we spend time in the forests, mountains, beaches, other natural settings or even an urban park.

The many years I have been an activist and organizer for progressive social change have taught me how essential it is that all of us, all human beings, have opportunities for this nature connection. Without it, our lives are less whole, at the least. We are out of balance, more likely to engage in disrespectful or socially negative actions.

I was reminded of this fundamental truth and inspired to write a new set of verses to How Great Thou Art while on vacation last week in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Vieques is a small island where, in 2003, after 60 years of U.S. Navy occupation and practice bombing of 2/3 of Vieques land, the Bush Administration was forced to announce that the Navy would withdraw in 2005, which they did. Thousands of Viequenses and other Puerto Ricans, as well as other supporters, engaged in an intense final campaign of civil disobedience from 1999 to 2003 to achieve this victory.

There is a basic similarity between human interaction with nature and the feelings that come when part of a unified, popular campaign for positive change. Both generate transcendence, allow us to see beyond the often-mundane, sometimes alienating, sometimes oppressive realities of day to day life. Both allow us to have “mountaintop” experiences, a sense of what life can be like if human society evolves rapidly enough to forestall climate catastrophe and emerge on the other side with much more just, peaceful and ecologically sound ways of organizing itself.

But it is more than this. History shows that there is no guarantee that mass social movements which are justice-oriented will always be so. Leaders can lose touch with the best within themselves, become corrupted or autocratic, as the daily demands of leadership weigh them down, or they give in to cooptation efforts by the powers-that-be.

These dangers can be prepared for in a number of ways: fully democratic, transparent and participatory mechanisms of decision-making; a culture of resistance which is consciously supportive, loving and empowering for all part of it; and anti-oppression education which encourages leadership from women, people of color, youth, lgbt people and others historically disrespected by the dominant culture.

Also essential is taking time to renew the nature connection, to appreciate the wind, waters, sun, earth, moon and stars which are part of who we are. For myself, after years of experiences, I know when I am making that connection. Spontaneously, without a conscious thought, I begin to hum or sing How Great Thou Art. Now, thanks to a power much greater than myself, I have words to sing to go with the beautiful melody which express some of what I have learned over the course of my 62 years.

I knew about the issue of global warming before 2003. Indeed, in 2002, during a Green Party of New Jersey campaign for the U.S. Senate, it was one of my major issues. Prominent in my basic brochure was this statement: “Move towards energy independence, reverse global warming and create jobs through a crash program to get energy from the sun, the wind and other renewable fuels.”

But it was that European heat wave that literally drove me to serious study about this issue, and by the end of the year I was convinced that the climate crisis was much more serious, much more imminent, than I had thought. Ever since, work in support of a renewable energy revolution has been my top priority.

There’s no question but that today, compared to eight years ago, there is much more consciousness about and work on this most overarching and urgent of issues. As the climate crisis has led to stronger, more frequent and more destructive weather impacts—droughts, floods, powerful winds, rain and snow deluges, deadly hurricanes, huge tornadoes and more—so has it led to a stronger international climate movement. In 2010 there were 7,300 local actions in 188 countries around the world on the same 10/10/10 day of action organized by 350.org.

But the deeper truth is that, certainly in the United States, there is a disconnect between the urgency of this civilizational crisis and the response to it on the part of the broad progressive citizenry, those tens of millions of people who believe generally in human rights and fact-based decision-making. One recent example is the late summer and fall campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline. Although this was a victorious campaign, temporarily, the fact is that there were no more than 12,000 people at the biggest event of the campaign, the November 6^th encircle-the-White-House demonstration.

For the climate movement, this was a very big action, the largest climate-focused street demonstration ever in the USA. However, compare this to the demonstrations of hundreds of thousands against the Iraq war multiple times between 2003 and 2008. Even taking into account the fact that there have been conscious decisions by key climate movement leaders NOT to organize major national or regional mobilizations, opting instead for decentralized, local “distributed” actions, the disparity of numbers is significant.

The movement against the Keystone XL pipeline DID mobilize half a million people but not into the streets. This is the number of people who registered their opposition to the pipeline through official government channels, primarily via online comments. This should not be discounted.

But again, is it realistic to believe that we are going to break the power of Big Oil and the coal and gas industries to determine government energy policy without large numbers of people engaging in direct action and mass mobilization, in addition to the other less edgy forms of action? No, it is not realistic; there is no way we will ever turn this crisis around unless much larger numbers of people take visible action in support of a clean energy revolution.

Why is it that this urgent threat to civilization-as-we-know-it, to the possibility of a truly just and human civilization in the future, has failed so far to generate the breadth and depth of active, visible action so clearly required? From my experience, I see four main reasons:

-Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, while playing a major role in educating millions about the urgency of the crisis in 2006 and 2007, presented a very problematic answer to what people should do about it: change your shopping habits; e.g., change your lightbulbs, buy a hybrid car, etc. There was very little said in “Truth” about the essential need for a mass political movement to overcome the power of the entrenched fossil fuel interests. And Al Gore wasn’t the only one giving this “shopping” answer; many of the mainstream environmental groups did the same.

-Although Barack Obama was elected in 2008 following an election campaign in which he spoke regularly about the need for strong action on the climate crisis, he failed to follow through with any degree of seriousness after he was elected. This contributed to problematic climate legislation in the House heavily influenced by the coal industry. Most environmental groups went along with this legislation, many with serious reservations. By the time that it ultimately died in the Senate in 2010, the whole process had demoralized many and strengthened the climate deniers in both major parties.

-Human society’s dependence upon fossil fuels is wide and deep. It has been this way for hundreds of years. A clean energy revolution, accordingly, will have economic impacts throughout all levels of society, from farms to homes to businesses to the way we travel. This reality has been used by the fossil fuelers to raise fears and undercut political support for the desperately needed shift to serious energy efficiency and a renewable energy-based economy.

-Finally, from an organizing standpoint, the demand for clean energy is just not as immediate an issue on a daily basis as, for example, demands for jobs, for labor rights, against police brutality, to end wars, for access to education or medical care, etc. This is why many sectors of the climate movement connect demands for a clean energy revolution with demands for jobs or to stop the toxic pollution of air and water that comes with coal, oil and gas production and burning. But it is also why many progressive groups organizing on those more immediate issues have not taken up the urgent but not as immediately-visible climate issue.

A few weeks ago I had some email interaction with a several people who questioned the assertion in my last Future Hope column, “Movement-Building and 2012,” that the progressive movement should prioritize the climate crisis in our progressive movement-building activity in 2012. Their view, an understandable one, is that the issue which should be prioritized is corporate power and its domination of our economy and government. Here’s what I said in response:

Bruce makes good points, and Heather is right that the 99% vs. 1% message/the Occupy movement has had a big political impact and connected a potentially powerful alliance of constituencies and groups.

Bruce says, toward the end of his email, that “there is no way we can deal effectively with climate catastrophe without first (or at least simultaneously) confronting global corporatism.”

If it’s not “simultaneous,” as opposed to “first,” I see little to no hope that we will have any chance to solve the climate crisis. And if we don’t solve the climate crisis, the sobering truth is that it really doesn’t matter what other progressive changes we make. They’ll all be swept away by a rising tide of crop failures, stronger storms, droughts and spreading desertification, floods, sea level rise, etc.

We are already in great danger of hitting climate “tipping points”–like the release of huge amounts of methane from the melting of northern latitudes permafrost, or massive methane releases from a warming ocean–that will make it extremely difficult to ever pull ourselves back from an escalating series of climate catastrophes. These will hit those in Africa and Asia and the world’s poor first and hardest but, in time, will overwhelm us all.

At the same time, a worldwide commitment–with the US giving leadership, something which definitely isn’t happening now, just the opposite–to a rapid transition from fossil fuels to wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy sources has the potential to create huge numbers of jobs and spur economic development. And the technology has advanced, and continues to advance, such that this is completely possible to be undertaken seriously right now.

It has to be “simultaneous,” not “first,” and the urgent clean energy transition has to be right at the center of anti-corporate campaigning. After all, three of the top 5 corporations in the U.S. are oil companies, and 5 of the top 10 in the world are. Big Oil is the epitome of the 1%.

As we enter the critical political year of 2012, I hope and pray that many more people in the USA and around the world will make a new year’s resolution to speak up and take action on the biggest threat to our common future that human society has ever faced.

     -Arundhati Roy,  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/30/arundhati-roy-interview

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen a number of articles about what the Occupy movement/the progressive movement/the climate movement should do about the 2012 Presidential election. Here’s my view:

I see virtually no chance that a broadly-based and powerful progressive alliance is going to emerge to run either a credible third party Presidential campaign or an anti-corporate insurgent Presidential campaign within the Democratic Party. Either one of those developments would make possible a significant political realignment in 2012 given the emergence of the Occupy movement and other important developments, especially what is happening within the labor movement [Wisconsin and Ohio as the two best examples] and the ascendant climate/no tar sands-fracking-mountaintop removal-deep ocean offshore drilling-etc. movement.

Because this won’t be happening, progressives and regular folks who are not committed to either the Republican or Democratic parties will be divided as far as what to do about the Presidential election.

Many will give Obama critical support and their vote despite his repeatedly-demonstrated unwillingness to take on the 1%, the Pentagon, the fossil fuel industry, the health care industry, etc., etc. etc. Lesser-evilism and “practical politics” are still very much alive and well within the progressive body politic, for understandable reasons. The tremendous barriers to a truly democratic, multi-party system and the absurdly regressive and dangerous positions and actions of the Republican Party leadership are influential things.

Others will support either the Green Party’s Presidential candidate, likely to be Massachusetts doctor Jill Stein, or an apparent Ralph Nader-like independent Presidential campaign by Rocky Anderson, despite the fact that neither has a chance of winning or, almost certainly, gaining a significant percentage of the vote. This will especially be the case if it turns out that there are, indeed, two independent, progressive, third party campaigns competing against each other for votes.

And others very consciously and deliberately will not support any Presidential candidate and, for some, any election campaigns at all. The alienation from our undemocratic and dysfunctional, corporate-dominated, two-party system is deep and wide, leading to this reality.

From a grassroots activism standpoint, it is to be expected that there will be mass mobilizations around both the Republican and Democratic conventions, happening in Tampa, Fl. August 27-30 and in Charlotte, North Carolina September 3-6. If these mobilizations are significant, if tens of thousands of people take unified action throughout each of the 4-5 days of these events, that could be an important way to make visible the reality of a national progressive movement outside of the control of either party which is coming together and building for the real thing as far as “change we can believe in.”

And there is no question but that, over the course of 2012, there will be particular days of action or campaigns that attract the active support of many thousands or tens of thousands, manifested by street heat or building occupations. We should all be on the alert for these particular upsurges—like Occupy Wall Street, or the no tar sands pipeline campaign, or the Wisconsin uprising—which show strength and staying power and which can lead to short-term victories.

But what’s missing is a way that many of us, whatever our individual decisions about what to do on the Presidential question, can work together on a common project that keeps us out there, visible, shows our strength and unity, and keeps stirring up justice-seeking activism.

What about this: let’s give people another way to vote, other than just for a candidate.

How? By organizing alternative ways that people can vote for what they believe in and feel strongly about.

Two examples from the U.S. movement’s history come to mind. One was in the summer of 1963, when the civil rights movement in Mississippi organized a “freedom ballot.” Since black people were not able to register to vote or run their own candidates, they organized a way for people to vote at movement-organized locations for civil rights leaders for important local offices. 80,000 people took part, and the success of this tactic led to the emergence of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The MFDP organized a powerful challenge to the racist, all-white official 1964 Democratic Party delegation to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, and this inspired a stronger movement for black people’s freedom.

The other example, the People’s Peace Treaty, took place in 1971. This treaty was put together by leaders of the National Student Association and leaders of student organizations in Vietnam. It was explained by the NSA in these words:  “This is not a petition. It is a Joint Treaty of peace. Endorsing the principles of the Treaty is just the beginning of our work. The Peace Treaty will provide a focus for all our efforts to end the war.  We need your commitment, your energy—we also need money—to carry the People’s Peace Treaty into every home, church, professional society, union, city council, business group, school, club, and community organization.”

It was an outreach tool, and for much of the peace movement 40 years ago it was a major focus of work. At least 130 organizations endorsed it and large numbers of individuals signed it. It helped to keep the pressure on, and two years after this campaign was initiated, the U.S. government gave up on its attempt to take over the southern part of Vietnam and signed a U.S.-withdrawal peace treaty with the government of then-North Vietnam.

We need something that combines the best elements of these two successful campaigns, and builds upon them.

I think that we need a campaign in 2012 to “Vote for a Clean Energy Future.” I believe the climate crisis should be the central issue because, in my opinion, it is THE most urgent issue facing the entire world today, and the United States, under Obama, is mis-leading the world AWAY from facing up to the urgency of our situation. We are seeing this as I write at the United Nations Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa.

How urgent is it? Several weeks ago the International Energy Agency (IEA), by no means a radical group, warned publicly that we may have no more than five years to change course, to get serious about getting off fossil fuels, or it may be too late to avoid worldwide, catastrophic climate change.

In the words of IEA chief economist Faith Birol, quoted in The Guardian on November 9, “The door is closing. I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”

2012 should be the year that the progressive movement as a whole demonstrates that it gets it on the urgency of the climate crisis and acts accordingly. Organizing a way for millions of people to vote clearly and unmistakably for a clean, renewable energy future would be a huge, hopeful step forward for all of humanity and all of the other species that are going extinct now or facing extinction.

How could people vote? There are lots of options:

-massive internet and social media outreach

-specific Days of Outreach are organized where tables are set up on street corners, people go door to door, etc.

-there might be an “election day,” similar to what happened in Mississippi in 1963, where all over the country local events/fairs/rallies are organized and people come to vote throughout the day of those events

-collecting of votes on the clean energy future pledge are combined with voter registration activities

-candidates for office who publicly vote for the clean energy pledge are called upon to publicly talk about it and urge others to sign it

Are we up for it? Are we up for making 2012 truly a turning point year towards a jobs-creating, clean air and clean water-producing, civilization-saving renewable energy revolution? Or is there a better idea for how to do this? It’s time. It’s time. It’s past time.

But not just this. Yesterday was also the day that the Delaware River Basin Commission, in response to the aggressive and effective organizing of the mid-Atlantic no-fracking movement, announced that it was canceling its planned meeting for this Monday. At this meeting they were likely going to lift a moratorium on fracking in the Delaware River basin area.

I can’t remember ever in my life a week so full of concrete actions and victories which presage hope for the future.

Why is this happening? What is it in the air, over the internet, in the world, that is driving not just a popular upsurge for justice and democracy but actual victories, here in the U.S., in North Africa and elsewhere?

The movement of history. And the speed of communications today. These are two primary reasons.

Here is an edited version of something I wrote 11 years ago, at a point where the global justice movement had pulled off successful actions against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the IMF and World Bank in Washington, D.C.  The words ring true for what is happening today:

“I recently received a letter from someone who quoted Karl Marx as having once said, ‘History moves with the speed of communication.’ This quote struck me.

“We are living in a time when communications are both near-instantaneous and potentially worldwide for an ever-growing number of people. Something which happens in one part of the world can be reported on or learned about at the same time it is happening all over the world.

“More significantly, with the advent of the internet, grassroots, labor, progressive, revolutionary and people’s movements can be in direct, immediate contact, in an interactive way, with millions of people involved. The internet, through email lists, web sites, twitter, facebook and more, because it is not controlled by the ruling corporate elite, is becoming an increasingly powerful tool for the building of massive movements for progressive change. Without it, it is highly unlikely that the actions in Seattle last November and Washington, D.C. this past April would have attracted the numbers and had the immense political impact that they did.

“It seems to me that this makes it possible for positive change to take place much more rapidly than many of us might think. If it is true that the year 2000 is witnessing a rebirth of the kind of popular, activist, multi-issue movement that we haven’t seen in 30 years in this country, and if history does indeed move ‘with the speed of communication,’ this first decade of the 21st century could well become a time of great historical significance.

“After all, it is a law of physics that ‘things in motion tend to stay in motion.’ If the new people’s movement of the 21st century can hold together and keep building and interconnecting, there is no way to forecast how much we can do in a relatively short period of time.”

What happened to that movement? It was overwhelmed by the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks and the government’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of those part of that movement shifted their focus to anti-war activism and, years later, the Obama Presidential campaign.

Another Obama presidential campaign is getting underway, but I don’t expect the people’s power movement and the climate movement to repeat what happened in 2008. Instead, I expect, and will be doing what I can to build, a continuation of the kind of strategic nonviolent direct action and independent movement building we have been seeing in the U.S. since late August and the arrest of over 1,250 people at the White House.

Some of those active in this movement will be critical supporters of Obama, others will support the Green Party, others won’t have anything to do with elections, and that’s all just fine. We can agree to disagree on tactics as far as our corporate- and two-party-dominated, undemocratic electoral system while we join forces to build the people’s movement in the streets, in the schools, in the workplaces and communities.

While we keep making history in 2012.

I’m reminded of another “victory” that many in the climate and broader progressive movement were feeling just about three years ago: Obama’s election. That one didn’t exactly turn out the way many of us thought it would.

Obama does deserve credit and thanks for the decision he made to put off a final decision about the tar sands Keystone XL pipeline until sometime in 2013. This is a major blow to Transcanada and their efforts to expand tar sands oil production. It’s a rare instance where a fix that was in was “unfixed’ and overturned because of the power of a genuinely popular national movement. Without such a movement, there is no way that Obama would have done what he did.

THIS is the most important thing about this victory. It shows what can happen when groups and constituencies which don’t ordinarily work together do so in a united, diverse campaign built upon mutual respect and a multi-tactical approach that ranges from traditional lobbying of government officials to massive and sustained nonviolent civil disobedience.

Would it have been better if Obama had explicitly turned this pipeline down, explaining that he was doing so, in part, because of the urgent need to stop extreme energy extraction and get serious about energy efficiency and a shift to renewables? That the extreme weather events we are regularly experiencing in the US need to be a wakeup call? That it’s time to do what he said he would do in 2008, “free America from the tyranny of oil?”

Yes, but I don’t think too many of us in the pipeline fight were expecting this. We thought what happened was the best we could realistically hope for.

President Obama issued a short statement after his State Department announced the pipeline delay. In it he spoke of “progress we’ve made towards strengthening our nation’s energy security,” with the first example of three being “responsibly expanding domestic oil and gas production.” His administration announced earlier this week that it would be moving to expand offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean off Alaska.

Obama rarely even mentions the words “climate change” anymore. It wasn’t mentioned in this statement, though there was mention of it in the State Department announcement.

If the climate movement is going to make this pipeline victory a launching pad for future victories, become a political force that can eventually overcome the power of Big Oil and the coal and gas industries, it has to be crystal clear that Barack Obama is not our ally. On the other hand, his personal political history shows that he is someone who can be moved to respond to effective, persistent, broad-based and aggressive pressure.

Frederick Douglass had it right:

“Power concedes nothing with a demand. It never did, and it never will.”

He went on to say words even more important, words that those who genuinely want a justice-based, clean energy revolution need to take to heart:

“Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blow, or with both.

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

It is long past time to end the “tyranny of oil,” the tyranny of the tar sands region destroyers, the mountaintop removers, the frackers, those who want to drill the Arctic Ocean and the deep oceans, those extremist energy extractors who are so central a part of the 1%. This tiny group of multi-millionaires and billionaires is driving the world toward the abyss of catastrophic climate change.

Next up for climate activists on the east coast: a massive demonstration November 21^st in support of a continued moratorium on fracking in the Delaware River Basin region. Let’s bring the spirit of the no-pipeline movement to Trenton, N.J. on that day. Go to http://savethedelaware.wordpress.com to learn more and sign up.

Ain’t no power like the power of the people IF the power of the people don’t stop.

But lo and behold, at 5:15 p.m., as the light was rapidly fading and a beautiful three-quarters moon appeared in the sky over Lafayette Park, as Bill McKibben was wrapping up, speaking about the wonder and power of the day’s event and this movement, a motorcade appeared at the top of Lafayette Park. Someone pretty reliable said, “It’s President Obama!,” and Bill proceeded to lead the thousands of people still there in a chant of, “Yes We Can Stop the Pipeline,” as hundreds streamed toward the cars with their flashing red lights. If, indeed, it was Obama in that motorcade, there is no way he didn’t hear us.

This was just one of many amazing things that happened yesterday.

There was the turnout, 10,000 plus, as many as 12,000 in the view of the organizers.

There was the virtually unprecedented discipline and organization of the 2 p.m. rally which ended just before 3 p.m. despite there being 17 speakers, an amazing mix: Gloria Reuben, McKibben, Michael Brune, Rep. Steve Cohen, Mark Ruffalo, James Hansen, Naomi Klein, Courtney Hight, Rev. Jim Wallis, Jody Williams, Nebraskan Bruce Boettcher, Larry Schwieger, Roger Touissant, Heather Mizeur, Tom Poor Bear, John Adams, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood.

The encirclement! It worked. And there were probably enough people that if we had had the time and resources to do so we could have been two-deep or even three-deep all the way around. Instead, some places there was a single line, others it was five-deep, and there was a powerful spirit of hope and determination that was palpable as I walked the circle doing a numbers count.

There were large numbers of youth in attendance, perhaps half of the total being under 30. Students came on buses from as far away as Missouri and Florida.

There was the 100 yards-or-so-long “Stop the XL Pipeline” creation which was carried by hundreds up and down Pennsylvania Ave., chanting as they marched.

There were the connections made by many of the speakers at the rally, connections between the no pipeline movement and the movements against fracking, deepwater oil drilling, and mountaintop removal, with the struggle of workers for jobs and their rights, with the #Occupy movement and with past social movements.

A highlight of the pre-encirclement rally was Marc Ruffalo giving his two minute speech without using the electronic mic and sound system. He called out “mic check,” thousands repeated it, and he spoke [he spoke] in the Occupy mode [in the Occupy mode] effectively and powerfully [effectively and powerfully].

This was in no way a culminating rally. Just the opposite. At a pre-rally event Saturday evening attended by many hundreds, and in what McKibben talked about throughout from the stage, the warmly-received message was that people need to go back home and, over the next few weeks, organize actions at and visits to Obama for America reelection campaign offices. A major demonstration is already being organized at the national Obama reelection office in Chicago on Nov. 16 at noon.

Bill McKibben was clearly impressed by what took place yesterday. For the first time that I have heard since he and others publicly initiated this movement  over four months ago, he said, as he closed the post-encirclement second rally, “we can win this fight.” Yes, si se puede, yes we can stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Yes we can transform U.S. energy policy and create a new world.

Nov. 6 at the White House is the latest sign that a new beginning, a powerful, loving and hopeful new beginning, is here and sinking deeper and deeper roots among the people of the U.S.

On Tuesday, Nov. 1, speaking during an interview at the White House with a reporter from Omaha, Nebraska-based TV station KETV, President Obama himself said that he will be making the decision.

More than that, Obama gave the rhetorical back of his hand to the false argument of pipeline supporters that it is a big jobs creator: “I think folks in Nebraska, like all across the country, aren’t going to say to themselves, ‘We’ll take a few thousand jobs if it means that our kids are potentially drinking water that would damage their health,’ or [if] rich land that’s so important to agriculture in Nebraska [is] being adversely affected, because those create jobs, and you know when somebody gets sick that’s a cost that the society has to bear as well. So these are all things that you have to take a look at when you make these decisions.”

What has gotten into the president? Are we seeing the reappearance of the person who campaigned in 2008 as a strong proponent of action to “end the tyranny of oil” and address climate change?

Perhaps. And it is important to note that Obama made no mention of climate change in his TV interview. But the most important takeaway from this positive development for Mother Earth and all of its life forms is this: when people get organized, when they are willing to make sacrifices for the common good, when they are able to build broad-based alliances and when they are able, as a result, to break through into the national mass media, changes that once seemed impossible all of a sudden become possible.

These are all things that the movement to stop the Keystone XL pipeline has done and accomplished over the past four months. This movement has built upon the leadership given by Indigenous people, in particular, fighting for years against the exploitation of the tar sands in Alberta, Canada.

It’s like the Occupy movement. Less than two months ago, who would have thought that the national conversation as defined by the news media would now be on the issue of the 1% vs. the 99%? But because a relatively small group of young people were willing to take risks in the heart of the Wall Street financial district in New York City, getting pepper sprayed and arrested, it’s an entirely new political world in the U.S.

This political sea change, however, is in no way a guarantee that we, the people are going to win on the pipeline issue, much less  all of the many other issues around which we are organizing. It is essential, critical, that the upcoming Nov. 6 surround-the-White-House action be even bigger than it would have been. We haven’t really won anything yet. Things are moving in the right direction, but make no mistake, Big Oil and the Chamber of Commerce, those leading representatives of the 1%, are going to bring every lever of pressure to bear that they can to get to Obama. We can’t let up for an instant.

It’s pedal to the metal time. All out to the White House on Nov. 6!

We will call upon President Obama to reject the dirty-oil, Keystone XL pipeline Big Oil wants built across the middle of the USA, from the Canadian tar sands in Alberta province to the Texas Gulf Coast refineries (http://tarsandaction.org).

We will be doing this carrying banners and signs with some of then-candidate Obama’s words during his 2008 Presidential campaign. Words like:

• “We can be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil.”
• “The next generation will not be held hostage to energy sources from the last century. We are not going to move backwards. We are going to move forward.”
• “We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations.”
• “The threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing.”

Many thousands of climate, environmental and environmental justice activists will be there on November 6. What about activists from the broader progressive movement?

I know that there will be some from the Occupy movement, which is very important. As a primarily young people’s movement, it is young people, as well as low-income, Indigenous and other people of color, who will be most impacted as our earth gets hotter and hotter.

Beyond that I wonder. And I wonder based on seven years of attempting to spread the word about the urgency of the climate crisis and the need for more people to speak up and take action on it NOW.

There is no question but that there is much more consciousness about this issue among progressives and among the US American people than was true back then. In large part this is because of the droughts, rain and wind storms, flooding, tornadoes and other extreme weather events that we have been experiencing. Anyone who is not in climate denial and is willing to deal with reality knows on some level that our climate has been disrupted. And it is being disrupted in the ways predicted years ago by scientists who have been studying the climate for a long time, more rapidly and extensively, however, than they had expected.

The climate issue has to become an issue that the 99% take up as their own. People are going to continue to work on the other issues that they see as most important, but all of us, all of us who want to preserve the earth as a viable home for us and other life forms must also prioritize slowing, stopping and reversing global heating.

And the White House on November 6 is an absolutely essential way to do so. James Hansen, this nation’s leading climate scientist, has said that if the tar sands are fully exploited, it is “game over” for any hope of avoiding worldwide climate catastrophe.

We can win this battle! Ever since the late August/early September actions at the White House where over 1250 people were arrested, the no-pipeline movement has been growing and getting stronger. Just this week, at two events where Obama was speaking, no-pipeline activists were able to put this issue directly to him. At almost every place where Obama has spoken around the country over the last month and a half, he has been met with visible protests on this issue. This is on top of editorials against the pipeline from the New York Times, LA Times and other newspapers and a wide variety of other positive developments (check out http://tarsandsaction.org for more info).

Let’s win one for our wounded Mother Earth and its people. Let’s have a massive turnout on November 6^th. Let’s keep building the momentum of our Autumn Awakening. All out to the White House on November 6^th!