What makes a Climate Activist?

We care and we know

Coal is a powerful incumbent. It’s there by the millions of tons under the ground. Powerful companies, backed by powerful governments, often in the form of subsidies, are in a rush to grow their markets before it is too late. Banks still profit from it. Big national electricity grids were designed for it. Coal plants can be a surefire way for politicians to deliver cheap electricity — and retain their own power. In some countries, it has been a glistening source of graft.

Source: the New York Times

This week marked the half-way point of my training with 350 Australia .

Here is why I work with this grass-roots movement which works tirelessly toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the necessary 350 parts per million.

In just 3 out of 5 training modules, I emerged from being a “lone wolf” not by choice but due to a constellation of personal conditions, to respect and know myself. To acknowledge that my activist work is important.

The information on social movements, campaigning and strategy, and organising have made me realise that even while being an activist as a “lone wolf” for 30 odd years in the fields of social justice and environmental change, I am part of a wider social movement.

I am part of the revolutionary global social movement of grass-roots power for our birth-rights.

We stand for equal rights and for an Earth that is clean and sustainable. We cannot be broken.

We are distributed around the globe and if anyone tries to take down any one of us, a hundred more will step into their place.

My values and my love of life and my unshakeable advocacy for fairness has galvanised me into constant activism.

Follow my journey through my University study years of the Biological Sciences, helping Community Aid Abroad (now Oxfam) and campaigning to free Tibet and East Timor, my one-woman protest to stop Australia from sending young people to war in Iraq, to my running the “Stop Fires Australia” website to provide information to interested people.

In November 2019 I looked to the future and I saw an abyss. I thought that the fires would come and I hung my head and thought that I should have done more to stop them. In December 2019 I was ill with the shingles because I felt defeated.

My immune system mirrored the lowered immune state of the World. The doctor who said that I have the most stamina in a person that he had seen, would have been sad. He and I would know that I had taken on too much and that for once my natural positive cheery disposition had flickered.

But as always, I raised my head above water. I wrote my stories and philosophies for my therapy, online, and I got through one day at a time, focusing on the positive and being grateful for every single thing that is wonderful, collaborative and natural.

My illness left scars, but scars are the marks of the warrior; and I found 350.org and have not looked backwards since then.

The New York Times says:

The World Needs to Quit Coal. Why Is It So Hard?

I feel the vibes of the 350 org as tunes of a great symphony, people totally dedicated to restoring our planet, people who are real, and who use paving-stones or tactics among the paths of strategies toward the “plants” of a level playing field that every being on Earth has a right to.

The people of 350 sow the seeds of relationships and ideas, thoughts, feelings, conversations, and actions among the ground crew, who are those who realise we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions world-wide by 2050.

I know that I am just one person and that each one of us is on the exact step of their path that is their unique way.

True activists do not compete with each other, but instead they collaborate. We share our stories. Our stories or our motivations and our experiences are the cement that we use to build cohesion around a common purpose.

As an activist it’s easy to be disheartened. If you’re a lone wolf looking for your pack you may almost give up. But your pure intent will get you to your tribe.

The tribe must focus upon “the Hundredth Monkey effect” when enough of us will bring a tidal wave to bear upon those who have the power to make the overarching changes. That day will come.

Right now there is a huge number of energy-saving techniques for buildings and transport and industry, plus the will of the grass-roots to implement plans and systems for renewable energy, like Beyond Zero Emission’s “Million Jobs Plan” and Spain’s plan to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050.

If you’re starting out on your journey toward joining a movement for climate action, join forces with the 350 group in your country and region.

Recognise that you are part of the seams that keep together the whole, and that you are an essential and priceless thread.

All people in the global climate action movement teach me how to continue, to keep hoping and to never give up. Don’t let anyone tell you that it is too late.

The 350 Leadership training teaches me the framework of the HOW to work toward our goals, and this has boosted my morale and given me encouragement and motivation. I have found my tribe.

The power of one is now magnified by my being an essential cog in the wheel of organised and collaborative climate activism.

The WHY we move toward our goals is because we care.

And that is what really makes an activist.

Put your care of our Earth into fully-fledged flight by being an integral part of the global movement for climate action.

Get ready to march and rally. Educate yourself and others.

Know that things can change fast and we need to get our messages out to the public, corporate bodies and governments that this year is a “golden opportunity” for a fast push of renewable energy and energy-saving technology, and that oil and gas expansion must stop

The oil industry is an increasingly unreliable source of secure employment for workers. The oil industry is dying right now and must not be resuscitated.

You will be supported by a network of committed people and by the awareness that you are doing your best while caring for yourself.

By rippling out information and actions to many others, signing up with climate groups, and joining in their campaigns and sharing them, you will build momentum toward achieving our climate action goals. Thank you.