Civil Disobedience, Anyone? It's Not Just a Nice Idea Any Longer.

 "The only way to prevent our extinction

 is through mass participation civil disobedience"

That bit of wisdom from one of the founders of Britain's Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam.

Whether it's a mass demonstration snarling transportation in our city core or blocking Justin Trudeau's pipeline to oblivion, we have no choice but to push back against the forces of extinction, our own governments.

The fact of the matter is finally settled. Not the fact that if we do not stop putting carbon into the atmosphere our children will starve. That was settled three decades ago. Rather that the only way to prevent our extinction is through mass participation civil disobedience – thousands of people breaking the laws of our governments until they are forced take action to protect us. In less than a year Extinction Rebellion has gone from 15 people in a room to creating the biggest organised civil disobedience campaign in British history. In the past two weeks more than a thousand people have been arrested and as a result the climate and ecological crisis is finally on the political agenda. Everyone from the Labour party to the Sun newspaper is accepting we are right – we face the destruction of the next generation unless immediate emergency action is taken. For millions of people this week the penny has finally dropped – this is real and it’s terrifyingly serious.

Drawing on the groundbreaking research of Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan (Why Civil Resistance Works), we came to the conclusion that the only way to overcome entrenched political power is through extensive campaigns of large-scale nonviolent direct action. In January this year I produced a 30-page paper for XR which formed the basis of the strategy of the past two weeks of mass disruption in London. The document has now been made into a booklet. The strategy is based upon three observations. Firstly that only through disruption, the breaking of laws, do you get the attention you need. Secondly only through sacrifice – the willingness to be arrested and go to prison – do people take seriously what you are saying. And thirdly only through being respectful to ourselves, the public and the police, do we change the hearts and minds of our opponents, which makes it easier for them to negotiate with us.

Specifically the strategy – the “civil resistance model” as we call it – needs to involve several key elements in order for successful outcomes to be optimised. Firstly you need a lot of people – thousands need to be involved. You need to go to the capital city because that is where the rich and powerful are – the government, big business and the media. You need to break the law – sit in the road or glue yourself to the entrance of a building and such like. Unlike A to B marches this is what gets attention. You have to stay strictly nonviolent. Indulging in violence and aggressive language excludes vulnerable groups – the old and young – from participation. Crucially it has to go on day after day. Like a labour strike you have to impose economic and reputational damage on the opponent over an extended period. Finally it has to be fun – many more people are attracted to celebratory cultural spaces than narrowly political ones.

Push them off the hill. Lay claim to the moral high ground. Keep the light on just who and what these people are whether they're Liberal or they're Conservative or even demonstrably feckless New Dems. The irony is they'll throw you in jail when they're to blame for exposing the population to ruin and worse. Beat them into submission, day by day.

Extinction Rebellion Canada

Extinction Rebellion Vancouver

Extinction Rebellion Vancouver Island

Extinction Rebellion Ontario

Extinction Rebellion Alberta

Extinction Rebellion Nova Scotia

Extinction Rebellion Quebec

BRITAIN WINS! Parliament Declares Climate National Emergency

From CNN:

Lawmakers in the UK Parliament have declared "an environment and climate emergency," making it the first country in the world to do so, according to the opposition Labour Party. 

The motion was called by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

WE DID IT! Thanks to pressure from the Labour Party, the UK just became the first country to declare an environment and #climateemergency. Now it's time for real action to tackle climate change. Share this. pic.twitter.com/hOheWxQQHf—  

The Labour Party (@UKLabour) May 1, 2019

I realize I've flogged this story pretty relentlessly lately but I only did that because it's so important for life on Earth, all life on Earth.

What we need to do now, here in Canada, is turn on the petro-pimps, the fossil fuelers and their political handmaidens and tell them they have no place in Canada's future. They won't switch their allegiance back to the people of Canada and our future until they fear us again. As Jeremy Corbyn put it this morning, "we have no time to waste."

And what did we accomplish on the climate emergency front today? Why, it was Bill Morneau boasting about how our fracked gas/LNG venture shows that Canada can still deliver on big, carbon-energy projects. And then Justin went groveling to Jason Kenney.

Ottawa is vowing to exempt certain non-mining projects that use steam to extract crude from deep under the earth — known as in-situ projects — as long as Alberta Premier Jason Kenney maintains a hard cap on emissions from his province's oil sector.

Is that a prime minister you can respect?

May Day. M'aidez. Mayday.

p.s. yes, I know, Scotland and Wales previously declared a climate change state of emergency.

Two Thirds of Britons Believe World in "Climate Emergency"

Good. It seems the British people have done what their political caste has so far refused to do. They have concluded that the world is in a state of climate emergency.

Two-thirds of people in the UK recognise there is a climate emergency and 76% say that they would cast their vote differently to protect the planet. 

The findings, in a poll commissioned by Greenpeace, come as the group unveiled a detailed “climate manifesto”, listing 134 key actions they say the government should take immediately to ensure the UK hits zero carbon emissions as soon as possible. 

The manifesto – which will be sent to MPs, policymakers, thinktanks and other experts for feedback – was released on Tuesday, a day before a parliamentary vote on whether to declare a national climate emergency.

In Canada, the great petro-state of Canada, we've been groomed, both domestically and by the nonsense relentlessly spewed south of the border, to believe there is no emergency. Just go to a story on climate change in any Canadian news site and read the comments. But, if you really want to get down in the sewer you'll have to rub elbows with the likes of Scheer, Kenney, Pallister, Moe and Ford, paid patsies of the fossil energy giants. And before you Liberals get smug, your guy is a little better but not all that much.

The measures outlined in the manifesto include:

A tripling of wind and solar power from current levels to ensure 80% of electricity comes from renewables by 2030.

Ambitious targets to phase out the internal combustion engine in cars and vans with all new vehicles to be electric by 2030.

Huge insulation drive on all existing and new buildings, and the installation of renewable generation on site as far as possible.

A commitment to protect all high-carbon natural habitats and bold targets for habitat restoration/rewilding on land and at sea – including planting at least 700m trees over the next decade. 

The manifesto was released alongside polling carried out by Opinium in the midst of the Extinction Rebellion protests. It found:

63% of British public think they are in a climate emergency.

76% say they would vote differently to protect the planet and climate.

64% say government is responsible for taking action on climate change.

The Brits have it figured out. If you want real action on climate change from your government, you have to make them afraid of you, very afraid. It's time we did the same here.

If You're Pouring Gasoline On the Fire, Don't Pretend You're Fighting the Flames.

It's funny, with the October elections nearing, how concerned the Conservatives and Liberals are becoming about climate change or, at least, the flooding that has ravaged eastern Canada and the maritimes.  Oh they're all eco-warriors now. So precious.

It might be inspirational if they weren't such petro-pimps, eager to flood world markets with high-carbon, high-cost, low-value sludge bitumen. It doesn't matter where that garbage is burned. It's all going up into our shared atmosphere and it's our warming and more moisture-laden atmosphere that's delivering all those floods.

Hell, even PostMedia's Montreal Gazette is getting wise. Today the paper warns that this flooding could be Quebec's "new normal." Not really. Give it another ten years, twenty to be sure, and Quebeckers might be remembering this as the good old days. This is just "early onset" stuff. There's no stasis. The climate is worsening. There'll be plenty of new normal to come, sort of like the "oldest person on Earth" contest.

In today's Globe, Ibbitson writes that even the Tories are now getting onside about climate change. Why does Greenwash smell so much like horse shit? Ibbitson begins with the mandatory disclaimer that no weather event can absolutely be linked to global warming and then follows up with this whopper:

Although the United States, China and India are far more responsible for climate change than Canada, that does does not relieve this country of its moral obligation to do its part.

We're really not the problem. Until you consider that Canada consistently ranks in the Top Ten countries for overall emissions and an impressive Top Three standing for per capita emissions.  And that's before we get an honest accounting for the emissions from Alberta and Saskatchewan's bitumen producers (don't hold your breath waiting).

There may not be another issue that has prompted so much blatant dishonest from governments as climate change. Pity it's also an existential threat, the gravest in the history of human civilization. Scheer is about to pull some sort of eco-bunny out of his backside. Singh will go tut-tut, tut-tut. Trudeau will fill a sandbag, maybe flash his abs.

Who to trust, who to believe? The one that produces a convincing policy to meet the immediate baseline requirement for averting catastrophic, runaway global warming - a 50 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 leading to a near total decarbonization by 2050.

You'll know they're lying if they don't identify how they'll fund such a Herculean effort. Where's the money coming from? What will we have to sacrifice? Who loses so that we all might survive? Something has to give. What'll it be? How about those billions in subsidies and benefits you're lavishing on the Oil Patch? That would be a start.

No rush. The Three Stooges might just get solutions from the motion Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party will table in Britain's HoC this Wednesday.  Harnessing the energy of the Extinction Rebellion and the Greta Thunberg-inspired student climate strikers, Corbyn will demand that the government declare a national climate emergency. It's expected that part of that deal will require a firm commitment to meet the 50 per cent by 2030 and near total elimination of GHG emissions by 2050, something our government hasn't even acknowledged much less accepted.

"If This Is What It Takes"

Londoners react to traffic disruption caused by Extinction Rebellion protesters.