Dear Colleagues,

John Epp's summaries below reveal some great questions.  And clearly the revolutionary "We" needs to face such questions.  But questions are not all that we have.  We have a number of answers that are coming together in the very midst of this swirl of ever more baffling questions.

One of these coming togethers is the priority of the ecological crisis, especially the coming together of climate science and the clear, but shocking, implications of this imperative.  I will not document the truth of this imperative except to say that oil companies and other opponents typically minimize its importance.   Some are now saying that global warming is real, but we can adapt to it.  "Humans have always adapted before.  They will adapt again.  Therefore, we can continue to expand fossil fuel use and adapt to the consequences."  A beautiful theory for oil company power and profits, but exceedingly short on facts.

The truth is that the easiest and cheapest adaption is to phase out fossil fuels with all deliberate speed. The other adaptation is extremely costly: such as losing altogether a number of Pacific islands, a huge chunk of Bangladesh and Florida.  It might entail things like moving the whole city of New Orleans a hundred miles or so.  Even harder may be moving varies growing areas for crops.   Is this what these oil company blow hards mean by "adaptation."

There was a spectacularly wonderful pull together in the CCPA Monitor* on the contradictions (or "barriers" they call them) to dealing fully with the global warming imperative.  Here is the list:

Barrier 1: Inequality undermines trust that we are all in this together.

B2: A lack of a clear alternative vision.

B3: Individuals cannot do it alone. That is, social and governmental organization is required.

B4: An economic (and political) system that is captive to the oil and gas industry and its insatiable hunger for growth and profit. That is, government agencies will have to manage the long-run phasing out of fossil fuels because these companies consider that last barrel of profit making goo their right.

B5: Climate change is not merely an environmental problem for environments adherents.  It is the problem for every institution in society.

B6: People need hope, agency, and voice.  It is now the case that people feel powerless.  We need to see ourselves as the U-Turn generation on this topic. We need to experience stopping the expansion of the problem and experience instead an accelerating momentum of transition.

Here is the conclusion of that article: 

"The urgent immediate task is to prepare for ... tipping points.  To lay the policy groundwork. To seed the public discourse with bold ideas, in anticipation of these moments -- and they are coming -- when the seemingly impossible is suddenly inescapable. 

"There will be a transformation -- an effective response to the climate crisis -- though whether it occurs in a manner that is just and fair or unjust and repressive remains an open question.  Past industrial revolutions have cast aside whole populations on the scrapheap of history. Another revolution is coming.  Our challenge is to ensure that this one unfolds more equitably, democratically, and humanely."

A similar perspective we pulled together in our book The Road from Empire to Eco-Democracy.  My point here is that a consensus is emerging among the awakening forces of the planet.  That consensus and obeying its implications is more important than the sea of questions that a hundred years will not finish answering.  We will have to live with unanswered questions while we obey the answers that are becoming shockingly clear.

For a viable and flourishing humanity on planet Earth,

Gene