Our PM is discussing the Hulk, the US President is using a sharpie to pretend away his stupidity and on the news right now… well-dressed people are calmly chatting about the rights and wrongs of a day off from school or work, as if it’s some massive act of revolution… maybe it is? Maybe when we genuinely ‘revolt’ for the greater good (rather than individual grievance) it doesn’t have to be bloody and vicious – it can be the withdrawal of our participation in the mechanisms of life as we currently live it? “We are many, they are few” and as long as we keep hanging on for ‘democracy’ to save us in the form of a new colour at the helm of government – we’re doomed to keep on this suicidal road… we ARE many and those very few with the power who are in (or manipulating) government can’t be the solution ...when that’s where the problem lies.
All around is fear and anger and it’s overwhelming… the sense inside is to run and hide but the knowledge we have means we know – nowhere is safe from the threat to our very existence as a species that depends on nature’s ever-more polluted, poisoned, diminishing resources to survive. Across the world this Friday, our children are calling for us to join them for a day of peaceful response… if we don’t act now, the responses will eventually grow uglier. There is a choice for every one of us this week – to stand up for the life we all want to go on having ...or to abandon the children to a game of Russian Roulette where the gun is fully loaded.
Extinction is a real possibility (probability) unless we work each day to stop environmental and societal harm – even if we do take it from different angles and take our activism in different ways – it's the action that matters… the becoming ‘activist’. No ONE way of responding being right because with problems as big as we face – a diverse approach by people in different arenas (on the streets, in parliament, in academia, in the arts etc) is needed… to have us all though on ONE day, standing together in our communities is, I think… essential if we’re to get past our ridiculously far less consequential divides of borders, genders, roles, beliefs (none of which will need to be defended if we can't breathe the air, drink the water or exist in the climate).
I have been stuck focusing on fracking because it’s an incredible act of self-harm by our government and it’s happening before our eyes in the here and now. There are many more issues too of course that are making our future existence a gamble - but if we stop this one ... then explore how on earth it ever ended up for consideration and worse still, getting a cheery and enthusiastic 'Yes' from government, then we can begin to untangle our way out of the processes that trap us in this mess.
For me… I see fracking is a big, ugly and dangerous symptom of a disease that's rampant and unchecked in the places where power lies - single symptoms tell clearer stories but are never the full picture - the ‘disease’ is exhibiting in so many other cruel and dangerous ways ie:
-privatisation that's forcing the monetisation of all the things ie: education and health to be measured for profit rather than the greater values of a healthy, educated population
-austerity used as a tool to shape the economy and society to favour those with the power
-phoney media owned and controlled by those who design the news rather than reporting truths and investigating lies
-academic institutions where reports are paid for by industries with a planned outcome to make them look favourable and bury otherwise negative facts that as 'purveyors of knowledge' ...academics should be obliged to share
I recall reading about a well-respected academic who committed suicide in 2014 (search: Stefan Grimm) and being shocked at the way our academic institutions function – I had been in awe of places of learning and knowledge. His suicide note was sent a fortnight after his suicide as a delayed email and tells a story that sadly resonates today as the incidence of academic suicides grows:
“This is not a university anymore but a business with very few up in the hierarchy…profiteering and the rest of us are milked for money. You are targeted if your grant income is deemed insufficient. Those submitted to the research assessment hence support those colleagues who are unproductive but have grants. Grant income is all that counts here, not scientific output. This leads to a interesting spin to the old saying ‘publish or perish’. Here it is ‘publish and perish’.”
Grimm’s death is just one from the world of academics where financial pressure was key… there are many, many more and the situation is growing worse. For climate researchers and scientists, there are additional issues that are impacting mental health and leading to depression and suicide. A really, really long article (www.motherjones.com/
“Are scientists, then, canaries in a psychological coal mine? Is understanding their grief important because their anxiety could become more widespread within the general population? That’s why, I chose them as a research sample. Put another way, climate scientists often resemble Sarah Connor of the Terminator franchise, who knows of a looming catastrophe but must struggle to function in a world that does not comprehend what is coming and, worse, largely ignores the warnings of those who do. “An accurate representation” of the Connor comparison, one scientist darkly notes, “would have more crying and wine.””
Below are the words of some of those interviewed for the article:
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“I’m tired of processing this incredible and immense decline—and I’m a contributor to the problem. I have to walk away from the papers and don’t want to face myself in the mirror. I feel profound sadness and loss. I feel very angry.”
…
She had been taking these sorts of research trips for two decades, and over recent years she had witnessed about 85 percent of the island’s reef system perish due to rising ocean temperatures. “I was diving with tears in my eyes,” she recalls.
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At 27 years old, realized she was “emotionally exhausted” by the toll of constantly scrutinizing the “huge tragedy” happening in the oceans. “I did not want to experience that fatigue,” she says, “because then I wouldn’t want to do this work anymore.”
…
“Studying earth science and thinking about climate change is a totally different ballgame than thinking about astrophysics. Astrophysics was pure science. I was looking for gravitational waves. It had no implication for the possible collapse of human civilization. But the unrelenting momentum of climate change does. I’m always thinking about it. That can be a burden. Whenever friends talk about flying off to vacation, I feel compelled to point out the large carbon cost to flying. I’d like to take a vacation from thinking about it. I’m not sure that is psychologically possible.”
...
“I have no child and I have one dog, and thank god he’ll be dead in 10 years.” Afterward, people asked Wilkinson if she truly believed that. “The truth is, I do,” she says. “And it’s only going to get more intense—the emotional nature of this work—as climate change happens and the necessary actions become more urgent.”
…
“I lose sleep over climate change almost every single night. I can’t remember how long this has been happening, but it’s been quite a while, and it’s only getting worse. I confess: I need help. I went to see a counselor and the therapist seemed unprepared for my emotional crisis. His simple advice was, ‘Do what you can.’”
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...please strike on Friday – do it for yourself or for Greta or for your kids or nature or any living thing you can think of – because that’s how bloody important this is. Why not? There is little risk or issue as it’s just ONE day where you make a ‘vote’ with your body and time that is actually seen and heard, then let’s see where we go from there. Unity of purpose that forces change, starts with one in-step step together and then in one day at least – the barriers between us don’t divide us x
Global Climate Strike - September 20th #ClimateStrike
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