Two ideas that could save us and the planet: community democracy in the name of sustainability, and the rights of nature
This article by Thomas Linzey was published in Common Dreams on July 2nd, 2019.
In May, an international group of scientists warned that over a million of the Earth’s species are being driven to extinction; before that, researchers reported the climate was warming faster than even the most pessimistic projections. Worse yet, another report gave humanity just over thirty years before it could wipe itself out.
Unfortunately, human democracies aren’t the best at receiving this type of news. Like large container ships, they take time to turn, especially when those who profit from staying the course have disproportionate influence over government.
It’s why it took over a hundred years for women to get the right to vote, for African-Americans to free themselves from slavery, and to extract even the smallest concessions, like warning labels on cigarettes, after the first anti-smoking campaigns of the 1860’s.
Given our seemingly imminent demise, it is time we dial up the type of radical change these prior movements delivered. Now. Meekness be damned.
Abolitionists and suffragists innately understood that those serving as state and federal elected officials – mostly elite white males – would never be the lead advocates for the radical changes they sought. Instead, those movements built political power from the ground up – allowing them to shift from merely asking for change, to threatening a revolution without it.
The equivalent action on global warming means having our cities, towns, villages, and counties assume that power – not by passing meaningless resolutions reminding everyone of the dangers of climate change, but by directly banning new fossil fuel projects.
(Read the rest of this article by Thomas Linzey HERE.)