"Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.”
Helen Keller
We need to recognize that climate collapse is a threat so grave
that nothing less than an uprising, a massive nonviolent mobilization of citizens
on an unprecedented scale, will be sufficient to rescue our planet … and our species.
Obstructive government bureaucrats and denying politicians need to be replaced!
If politicians don’t make climate a high priority,
their ignorance needs to be exposed.
The world’s climate scientists, along with California’s wildfires, Greenland’s melting glaciers, flooding in Venice, Miami, and Sao Paolo, and extreme weather events everywhere, have made it abundantly clear that we must act soon.
If we don’t act, it is highly likely that our children and grandchildren will face mass starvation and the end of our species.
A recent morning’s news reported that 25% of the world’s population is under “Extremely High Water Stress.” We already have tens of millions of climate refugees. After Greenland’s massive ice melt some now say we have 18 months, not 12 years. If there is a window of hope, it is very small and rapidly closing.
One of our leaflets lists steps individuals can take, the chief of which is to reduce meat and dairy consumption. (To understand why, look at Cowspiracy on YouTube or Netflix.) Although we can individually change to a plant-based diet, the impact of millions doing this on the meat industry and the economy will not be smooth and will require much planning to make the transition to other food sources.
The government, academics, and technical experts must take the lead on the specifics to effect a radical change in our diet and our conversion to renewable energy which will include creating 30 million living-wage jobs in the U.S. and 100 million more globally. We can make a good start to pay for the transition by ending huge government subsidies - $5TN per year worldwide - to the fossil fuel industry. (John Abraham The Guardian: Aug 7 2017 "Fossil fuel subsidies are a staggering $5TN per year - 6.5% of global GDP goes to subsidizing dirty fossil fuels”).
The dumbest question we can ask.
And let's be clear, asking how we’re going to pay to avoid the end of our world is the dumbest question we can ask! When, in 2018, California’s wildfires entered Yosemite, when they destroyed the entire town of Paradise, no one asked, “Do we have the money to fight the fire?" When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, we didn’t ask how we would pay for it. We simply did it and, in 6 months our country was on a war footing! In this present existential challenge, we need to engage every available resource and engage them quickly. We must get the entire world on an emergency footing … or join the extinction!
And, of course, our children must be a priority in everything we do. If we save the planet and continue to neglect them - as we do now - for whom did we save the planet? Not only must our children and youth be priorities, we need to encourage them to play a key role in making the world aware of the danger. Swedish teen Greta Thunberg is our inspiration:
Deploying the innocence, moral force
and boldness of our children is essential
to convince the world of the danger.
You are invited to embark with us on a daring adventure
Know this as we embark on our efforts to avert climate collapse: there will be great disruptions because the changes must be massive and will affect every aspect of our lives. Major changes in our food supply, economy, and flow of energy will create many problems. Knowing this, we must be the bold ones, the daring ones, who insist with our words, our voices, and our bodies, that the climate and our Sister, Mother Earth, become the highest priorities of our governments, our media, our businesses, our families and friends. We must insist that our entire community put itself on an emergency footing. We are in the fight of our lives and we must do what FDR did in 1941. We must emulate JFK's bold mobilization to land us on the moon. What is required now for our country and the world is far, far beyond those achievements. And we have far less time to do it.
Listen to Greta Thunberg in 2019 tell the world that we must reduce the carbon in our atmosphere by 80% by 2030. If her words don’t inspire you to action, you need to pinch yourself to see if you are awake.
We must reduce the carbon budget but that is not enough. We must change our whole way of thinking. Greta says, we must stop competing to win, stop trying to get more power. Start cooperating. If we don’t, we will lose our planet.
Reducing our carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2030 isn’t enough. If we want to stay within the two-degree limit, we must reduce it by at least 80%.
In the US, challenging the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) complex must be part of any permanent change. This huge, destructive, greedy complex swallows up and misdirects the resources needed to care for our people and our planet. It must be seriously compromised if we are to save our planet. These are dark forces not easily overcome. We believe totally in prayer and the power of spiritually-based activism. With this in mind, we invite you to join our community to rescue our Sister, Mother Earth … and all of us.
A Daring Invitation
We're forming an interfaith community of daring folks who sense an urgent call to address the existential threat of our time, climate collapse. Our community will practice unorganized religion and do this as we emulate Jesus, Gandhi, King, Herschel, and others who came to the street out of their spiritual centers. We intend to pray, study, and plan together, then do acts of justice for our Sister, Mother Earth, and for all those we are commanded to love.
If you believe you hear a call* from God to base your climate
activism in a spiritual community, let’s share a coffee. God may
have something very daring in mind for both of us - and for a few
more - here in the Nation’s Capital.
* Mary Cosby described four signs of God's call as (1) a constant inner nagging, (2) something desperately needed by the world, (3) not ego-driven, and (4) impossible. Founder of the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius Loyola, said we could know God’s will by seeking the counsel of two or three people we respect, then deciding.