To Save the Earth, You Must Stop Believing and Repeating the Lies of the Planet’s Enemies

How many of the ideological lies of the climate destroyers have you internalized? It’s time to vomit them out.

To save the Earth from climate collapse, you must have a vision and a plan. So far, we have neither and, instead, we believe and repeat lies invented by fossil fuel profiteers and their allies. We justify inaction, defeat, or fantasies that markets and our leaders will save us.

But markets and leaders have brought us to the brink of extinction and are poised to drag us across the finish line. It’s time to cleanse your brain of pernicious lies, and refocus on what needs to be done to meet this crisis.

What are these dangerous lies? Let’s look at the two biggest.

1. We are doomed and don’t bother trying to do anything. Well, it’s true that we are in BIG trouble and that the Earth has been seriously and permanently damaged. It’s also true that some continued degradation is already built in from all the abuse we’ve committed against Nature. But, most scientists are not (yet) saying we are doomed. Indeed, some of the most worried (like James Hansen) are screaming bloody murder for action. Our best guess, then, is that if we are doomed it is not proven so we’d be making a terrible mistake if we don’t GIVE IT OUR BEST SHOT.
2. We can’t win because our opponents are too powerful, and people everywhere are too timid — or are unwilling to change. In the past, movements have succeeded against what appeared to be extraordinarily powerful opponents, beating what seemed to be very long odds. And yes, some movements won battles and lost the war…because the evil they ended was (sometimes) replaced by something as bad or worse. That’s a different issue (a challenge we can meet). But the point is, smart people with a good strategy can beat very powerful opponents. I can say unequivocally that we can defeat Big Oil if we are very smart and execute our strategy well. That’s what we will need to do.

Our challenge is (in part) to mobilize people who are currently immobilized by fear, or anxiety, or belief that they cannot do anything meaningful. We must show them otherwise.

The fact is, most of the people of Earth love their children and their friends and their relatives (okay, some of their relatives!) and would go to considerable lengths to protect them from harm. Big Oil is a direct and existential threat to everyone. It seems to me that love for ones own children could be the most significant motivator to get people moving.

Of course, it’s not just that they aren’t doing anything; they also don’t know what to do. We must provide THAT — something meaningful to do — as well.

The Road Ahead and the Way Out

Nature doesn’t compromise or allow us to violate Her laws. The planet IS damaged and will be less than it was for a long, long time — perhaps for the entire future of human existence. Sadly, we can’t fix that.

But we can prevent climate collapse. And we can ditch destructive human systems and values that make life unnecessarily cruel. We intend to do both.

Here’s what we plan:

1. Build a huge movement of people who love their children and Nature, and won’t cooperate with those who are destroying both. This is The Saners. We are just beginning, with only a few hundred people. But if we do our jobs right, we will ultimately number hundreds of millions, perhaps more than a billion. Ask yourself: how many people love their children and focus their entire lives on guaranteeing the quality of their children’s lives? You KNOW that it’s a very, very big number.
2. Change the focus of society — in every country — to be aware that leaders everywhere have failed catastrophically, that the climate is on the verge of collapsing, and leaders have failed to declare and emergency or to develop and enact an emergency plan. We intend to change the focus by having the sane and caring people of Earth (that’s you and me) declare a planet-wide climate emergency. We intend to assemble a group of climate scientists to develop and lead a worldwide emergency program. These are the essential steps that should have been taken decades ago (at least), and we will fill the gap left by useless “leaders.”
3. Model better values and systems by how we live our lives. The Saners will demonstrate what it means to value both Life and Nature. We won’t be perfect, but we will generally be very kind and respectful to people and to our planet. Even our opponents, the silly people who destroy their own children’s future with their shallow greedy motives, will be calmly and politely addressed: We are stopping you from destroying the planet and abusing human beings because these are stupid and cruel and unnecessary actions. We are stopping you and protecting your children and their planet, and the quality of life for all human beings.
4. In the end, we will stabilize the biosphere of our grievously damaged planet, and establish humane systems that protect the dignity of Life and the climate of our Earth.

You can join us now, and be in the first wave of this revolution of humanity — or you can join us later. We will welcome you at any time.

Read about The Saners at WeAreSaners.org. Join the group by signing up to the email list at WeAreSaners.org/join.

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