This post is meant to kick off an actionable dialogue about where the U.S. climate movement is headed in the new year. Please use the comment form to suggest additions, flesh out points, propose alternate ideas, etc! Just remember that this blog is a public space, and the goal is positive action to move us forward. Also– while this is a post about the US, this remains an international blog chronicling a global movement. Many of these steps apply to, or would benefit from the perspectives of, allies outside the US as well. In random order, steps are as follows:
1) Learn to lineback
2) Make leadership feel good
3) Build personal accountability in leaders and decision makers
4) Assume a diversity of positions of power
5) Run for office
6) Move from the youth movement to our late 20s, 30s, and beyond
7) Become global citizens
More on what these look like in practice after the jump.
1) Learn to lineback. November’s hacked climate science email debacle–and the regrettable treatment of same by much of mainstream media– proved that where defense is concerned, unfortunately we’re not done yet. More on what I mean by “linebacking” here . And DeSmog Blog is one great example of smart strategists working to keep unfounded but highly funded opposition at bay.
2) Make leadership feel good. Too often, we as a movement get caught up in short-term battle after short-term battle and ultimately end up losing the long-term war as a result. We need to figure out how to make climate leadership feel good and thereby put elected leaders in the position of consistently/reliably making better choices. We need to articulate and inspire a big picture vision of real leadership in the 21st Century: the kind of principled collective leadership that endures time and time again, vote after vote, issue after issue—across generations, across many backgrounds, and across party lines.
3) Build personal accountability in leaders and decision makers– and recognition that in the face of climate change, being a true American leader isn’t just about the US. This is closely related to point #2: Our parents didn’t teach us that you only have to do the right thing if (and when!) a million people show up on the White House lawn to demand it of you. At a time when it’s all too easy for leaders to point to someone else– China, a particular senator, the fossil fuel industry, an under climate-educated American public, etc.–and talk about their shortcomings, we should focus instead on the power, privilege, and access our individual leaders have right now and how each of them is actively doing what’s right for the American people and the global community now and well beyond the next election cycle. We’ll be building our own power, privilege, and access, and using it there right beside them.
4) Assume a diversity of positions of power. That leads me to #4: not just taking on power, but taking power, period, in order to better apply that power to solving the climate crisis. This means running for office at all levels. It means working for the U.S. State Department and the World Bank. It means working for corporations. It means rising to the top at major media outlets. It means leading and revamping Green Group environmental organizations. It means doing some serious work in the youth climate movement to give people the tools to catapult quickly into those kinds of roles. And it means the rest of “the movement” must keep people doing good, honest, world-changing work in those positions supported, help them stay grounded in what we’re working for, and always remind them they’re still very much a part of our collective movement and community.
5) Run for office. Ok, so “run for office” falls within “assume a diversity of positions of power, ” but it’s important and timely enough to get its own mention here. 2010. 2012. And if you’re not running for office, you can help elect a climate justice and clean energy champion who is.
6) Move from the youth movement to our late 20s, 30s, and beyond. Have you noticed that lots of folks 25-35 and beyond are coming back to, sticking around, or finding the youth climate movement for the first time? (Some, like me, have come back to post on itsgettinghotinhere.org despite our self-consciousness about our advancing years because at the end of the day, it’s simply the best thing going…). This trend is proving what we knew all along: the youth climate movement isn’t just unique by merit of age. It’s unique in its substance and its strategy in compelling and important ways. So what happens as we “age out” of the youth climate movement- do the model and its support structures–its blogs, coalitions, conferences, and the like–expand to include all ages? Or do we need new parallels for “older” climate activists? Allies such as 350, 1Sky, etc. have been doing a lot of good thinking about what this can and should look like. It’s time we all kick the conversation into high gear.
7) Become global citizens. Let’s be honest: post-Copenhagen, the road to a fair, ambitious, and binding global climate treaty is in some ways fuzzier than ever, and the deep and bitter divide between the developed and the developing world remains stark. Specific action items here remain to-be-determined, except to say that together we will figure it out, and quickly–simply put, because we have to. And if you ask me, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is still the place to figure it out.
…Thoughts?
Posted in Act Locally, Copenhagen 2009, Government, Political Participation, Power Shift 2009, United States, Visioning, Youth Leaders
