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We need to end climate anger
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We need to end climate anger
By JurriaanKamp | Published: December 15, 2009
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For the past week, a team of Ode volunteers has been handing out free copies of our special “Solutions We Need Now” issue, which presents a series of inspiring and innovative solutions to the challenge of global warming. Our volunteers have given away thousands of copies, and received great enthusiasm in return. They were looking forward to meeting with many more people over the weekend as Copenhagen witnessed large demonstrations. Interestingly enough, their meetings with the “broad coalition of hundreds of environmental groups, human rights campaigners, climate activists, anti-capitalists and freelance protesters from dozens of countries,” as one report described them, were not nearly as successful as the meetings with the delegates, politicians and business leaders in and around the Bella Center, the main venue for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
There was quite a bit of anger in the crowds on the streets this weekend. I’m not referring to the relatively few violent troublemakers, many of whom were arrested by the Danish police. Unfortunately, such radicals will always misbehave at these events. No, our experience was that the many participants in the largely peaceful marches were not interested in solutions—what Ode’s special issue is about. They wanted their anger and frustration with governments and their leaders to be heard. It seemed that they were not (yet) up for meeting the challenge and solving the problem. Or maybe they cannot believe governments will ever act the way these protesters hope.
I sympathize with that frustration. Many people from many organizations have worked tirelessly for years, if not decades, to raise awareness around the issue of global warming. And the political reaction, so far, has been largely disappointing. There is a radical challenge and we have seen nowhere near a radical response.
Yet at the same time, the one thing we don’t need is more discord. We need to close ranks and join hands. We are facing a unique global challenge and, I would argue, an even more unique and inspiring global opportunity. It occurs to me that we need two radical responses. One has to come from the world leaders who need to plan, swiftly, the transformation from our fossil-fuel-based economies to sustainable clean energy economies. The other must come from environmentalists who need to embrace all the people they fear stand in the way of the progress the planet needs: the politicians and industrial leaders.
I’m sure there are people out there who have but one focus: to protect their vested interests. Yet my point would be that these people have children and grandchildren, too. These folks would also like to live in a cleaner world and go to their offices without negotiating exhaust fumes in their congested cities. Ultimately, we share the same interests. Copenhagen is building momentum for radical climate action. That is very good news. “Old” anger and “old” frustration—understandable as these sentiments are—should not become obstacles.
I suggest that the environmentalist, who have led on the issue for so many years, step up once more and open themselves to the idea that those industrial leaders and politicians may be ready to join them, now more than ever. I think everybody may be surprised.
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