Why OUR Climate Movement Insists On Simultaneously Rebuilding Civilization

Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash

We must win TWO battles.

Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was removed from power in a broad-based popular nonviolent campaign. The Shah of Iran was overthrown in a similar way.

Both countries ended up with new authoritarian governments arguable no better - or even worse - than what they replaced.

Serbians removed their dictator starting with a tiny nonviolent campaign and ending in a big one. Today, Serbia has a representative government. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s far better than Milosevic’s brutal regime.

Our movement, The Saners, wants to be more like the Serbians. We don’t want to be a coalition of groups united over one thing who will, upon victory, break into warring factions.

As we work together to prevent climate collapse, we want to become true friends, who know and care about each other. The Saners will not save the biosphere only to end up with a world of continuing brutality.

No faction can win. We must all win together. There is and can be no “other.” We all live on the same Earth and it is beyond stupid for us to waste this precious thing called life. We must truly value and care for each other.

This is the culture we must build and are building in this movement. This is one reason we insist on extending an olive branch even to our most deadly opponents.

We will stop destructive acts. We will not devalue or dehumanize people.

We have an urgent crisis, a deadly climate emergency. And time is of the essence.

We cannot stop to develop a worldwide culture of caring and love and universal respect for humanity, and for the biosphere that sustains us.

We must fix the planet and ourselves at the same time. As quickly as we can.