Discuss: Duty Dodgers

Hammering solar panels is not advisable.  They usually bolt or screw to brackets that then bolt or screw to a frame of some kind, but anyway, Bill brings up an important point: There is more and more evidence every day demanding that we humans change our ways and we can’t rely on the traditional and ineffective political system to make it possible for us to change. 

Is our only HOPE FOR CHANGE that Mother Nature (or some other pseudo-natural force) will turn our current socioeconomic political structure upside down in an Armageddon sort of way?

Or, will there be a more grassrooty eventually leading to a hundredth monkey type change?

Or, will the uncompromisable (American) way of life continue in perpetuity?

Hey, does anybody know when the iPhone 5 is due out?

If Bill Mckibben & 350.org had spent more time over the past three years actually formulating a sane energy policy and agenda for congress, and had worked with other groups and people in a united front, and had trampled the corridors of congress like NRDC did, and had exposed the fraudulent Democrats’ energy positions and their sell-out to the coal and oil gangs, we might have had a fighting chance for something real. But instead Bill and 350 just chanted; they took no positions for or against the energy bill, offered no alternatives, and had nothing to tell their supporters except homilies like “we want to stop global warming” and pick up shovels. This article is more of same, thoughts but no focused strategy, no purpose, no objectives, which adds up to: No Leadership. Our congress is the body that is deciding the fate of the earth. Anything that detracts from this fact and from the hard work that needs to be done in the halls of congress helps the coal and oil industries.
Emails telling people to plant gardens are just distractions at best and subversion at worst.

Hi Bill,
AGW is but a symptom of the really big issue: population growth.

The simple* mathematical fact is that population will stop growing… we have a chance to affect the conditions when it stops.

Keep up the good work.

*simple, in the sense that you don’t even need calculus to show that a quantity which is ever-increasing will eventually exceed any level you care to name.

I dread the day my five year old nature loving grandson realizes what is coming. I recently quit my job and am living on savings (too young for social security) while I try to figure out how to put all my energies and remaining years of life toward preventing the worst of the climate change catastrophe—and support myself minimally at the same time. Is there an activist cell I can join? I’ve cut my carbon footprint to the bone, and am glad I’m at least not paying income tax! Now to stop betting my life savings on global business as usual. Is there alternative?

Yes, Trillium, try http://transitionus.org/welcome-transition-us

This is a great movement. Full of passion and truth. You couldn’t do better than this. Check it out.

We are going to have to transition to the new reality one way or the other. Learning to live simply and grow your own food isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Good for you for the changes you have made so far! You will find you are in good company.

The concept of climate “work parties” is, as evidenced in the comments here, an easy target for mockery for people who are legitimately disenchanted, confused, and terrified by the political stalemate that is preventing us from making life-saving policy change to combat climate change.  Yet, as others suggest, working together to make our individual communities more sustainable—and train ourselves how to live another way—can be so much more than a cute political demonstration.  I’d wager that folks who suggest that community gardens are merely decorative or symbolic have never harvested overflowing bushels of fresh, nutritious produce from one, or seen a walk-in pantry full from floor to ceiling with preserved food from one.  Millions of people on this planet live entirely off of food-growing operations on the scale of some of our better urban community gardens, and if we achieve what we seemt to want—dismantling agribusiness, creating the policy infrastructure for a sustainable society—then a lot of us would and should be more or less living off such gardens too!  So work parties have incredible value—if properly executed—for two reasons:  (1) to start learning and teaching the skills we will all need to be nourished and productive in the scaled-down future we are seeking, and (2) to demonstrate to ourselves, our neighbors, and our local leaders that we are not all planning to idle in our cynicism until Congress rides in on a white horse and saves the day. 
If you are really so convinced that Congress will not make the requisite change, and you want a healthy, joyful future for yourself and your family, well, I’d suggest you grab that shovel.

Hey everyone—thanks for useful comments and ideas. If you’re looking for something a little more political to do, you might consider bird-dogging your Senator over August recess. Here’s a little guide we put out yesterday, and you’ll be glad to know that 1100 people signed up in the first couple of hours to get involved in this way.
As to Lorna’s idea that I’m not a good leader, she’s doubtless right. It’s not what I grew up knowing how to do. That 350 has turned into the biggest grassroots global climate campaign is entirely due to the hard work of people all over the world—and boy it’s fun to see a few of those names on this list. You know who you are, and as always a million thanks.

Bill McKibben claims 350.org is a worldwide movement. Yes indeed, it is, but what we need in the USA, the country where energy policy and global warming issues will live or die, is an AMERICAN movement unified behind a specific agenda and willing to challenge, at election time, those in either party who do not support it. For years I pleaded with American groups and activists to unify behind a shared energy agenda, 
focus on congress, and form a national Eco-Pac , to get support from congressional candidates (including incumbents), and also to oppose those who do NOT support this. This Eco-Pac can be both an on=line petition and a printed one that people can circulate and bring to their candidates at election time. If everyone in this country who supports 350.org vowed to vote for ONLY those candidates who support the agenda, and vowed to oppose those who do not, we might have a real movement with teeth in it. But come next November, the same crooks will be elected again, to do the same thing again: Nothing. I can provide the EcoPac platform if people want to contact me. Time to get serious.