Womens' Voices on Climate Change

http://vodpod.com/watch/2297818-womens-voices-on-climate-change-columbia

"Evrything we do is important."

Gramsci and Climate Change

Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philospoher who was jailed by the fascists.

As a political radical, Gramsci wanted to change people's thinking and priorities, but this also required an engagement with the shared mode of thinking and acting, since for our communication we have to be ....'conformists.' ....This is a kind of dual task, using language and imagery that communicates effectively through the use of conformist rules, while trying to make this language express non-conformist proposals. The object was to formulate and discuss ideas taht are signifcantly new but which would neveretheless be readily understood in terms of old rules of expression.  (Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice, 2009)

Are we climate change activists not engaged in the same process?  In the developed world, we try to change people's way of thinking and their priorities each time we hold a rally, write a letter to the editor, lobby the government, shame the government, blockade a road, go to jail, et al in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Are we effective?  Perhaps - recent polls in Canada demonstrated that people care about climate change and want the federal government to do more.
http://www.climateactionnetwork.ca/e/news/2009/release/index.php?WEBYEP_DI=35
However, the Canadian federal government has taken little action - it is following the American lead - and it seems the PM hopes to do nothing. How do we translate poll results into action by the government?  We mobilize the public by using visual imagery and emotion to slip through their defensive denial.  James Cameron's movie Avatar  did this superbly as I discussed in an earlier post.  So did Greenpeace when they climbed the Parliament buildings and unfurled their banners: no one was hurt and the banners were in place for hours.  Theirs is the standard we  should all attempt to meet in our activism.

You're Not Done Yet - and Neither Are We

http://www.350.org/

Two Things: Avatar and a Book (and a Spoiler Alert)

Please don't read this post if you don't want to hear about the plot of Avatar.

I had just read The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World (Wade Davis, 2009) when I went to see Avatar.  The movie is sensational entertainment: it is also a vehicle for James Cameron's environmental message.  The book is heavier going - it  discusses human cultures and the ethnosphere -  it reminds us  that " the path that we (the developed world) have taken is not the only one available .... by their very existence, the diverse cultures of the world bear witness " to different ways of living.

ABeCedary of Valuable Contributors to Human Life

Artists, Agro-ecologists, Agitators, Appropriate technology geeks, Biophiles,  Composers, Child minders, Cloud watchers, Dancers, Dreamers, Dreadlock braiders, Drummers, Ethno botanists, Ecosystem activists. Furniture builders, Foresters, Fire ecologists, Freaks, Gardeners, Green architects, Healers, Intuitives, Internationalists (as opposed to those who support globalization,) Jam and Jelly makers (if ya think jam isn’t important, you haven’t tasted my sunshine marmalade,) Journalists, Lovers, Linguists, Long-now watchers, Lighthouse keepers, Marathoners, Mystics, Meddlers, Memory keepers, Organic farmers, Poets, Philosophers, Pagans, Queers,  slow food Restaurateurs, Rainwater harvesters, River keepers, Singers, Social workers, Solar panel makers, Shamans, Seed savers, Tree talkers,Vintners, Writers, Witches, Wise Women, and Wind Whisperers.

Carry on with you're doing - making things better for humanity and the earth one step at a time.  Thank you - all of you.  (If I've missed a category that should be included, please email me and I'll add them to the list.)