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Like very many people I'm alarmed at the massive threat #ClimateChange directs at the people of this planet, a threat that is already killing large numbers of the poorest. Unlike #XR I don't think this can be tackled in a single issue apolitical manner - that approach will fail 
The 1st reason for failure is obvious, the capitalist economic system goes into crisis when growth falls much below 3% a year. That 3% means production will double every 24 yrs so even renewables replace 40% of fossil fuels CC gas production will rise
The second is that for many people a threat in 2050 is impossibly distant in comparison with paying the rent at the end of this week. We need a movement that addresses immediate in your face problems of low rages, high rents, racism & all oppressions
#XR protests have already shown lines of weakness because of the single issue approach in relation to the police and consequences of arrest varying according to how much privilege the person being arrested has - mass arrest is not an inclusive path and who is excluded is key
We need a movement that recognises the way capitalism & colonialism interacted to determine who got to become wealthy while producing CC gases recognising today those already paying highest cost of #ClimateChange are often those so poor as to not have contributed to the problem
Right now South Eastern Africa is being hit by a 2nd huge Monsoon, the 1st #Idai in March killed 1000 people, mostly in #Mozambique - most of those people contributed next to nothing in terms of climate change gas production but 400k are homeless as result
This animations showing #CCgas emissions over time demonstrates the point that historic production has been by colonial powers - we can't be apolitical about that reality in particular as lowest producers are the people now being killed by #ClimateChange
Here we hit a major problems with #ExtinctionRebellion 'beyond politics' approach - the way they simply list mass migration as a bad thing amongst other bad things - given the rise of the far right on the basis of creating a migrant panic this is dangerous
rebellion.earth/act-now/
rebellion.earth/act-now/
Fascism is a major danger to any movement against Climate Change both as a force to physically attack such a movement but also to co-opt its language for its own racist goals. There is a long history of this back to the Nazis, see theanarchistlibrary.org/library/janet-…
Fudging how colonialism & racism internet climate change and being careless about the use of mass migration along with the pro-police rhetoric is why incidents like London #XR participants setting the cops on "a couple of brown people' could happen
Another serious flaw in the 'beyond politics' approach is the demand that governments call a 'climate emergency'- this clearly comes from the need for urgent actions but such a blanket endorsement of emergency powers is chilling - eg Trumps desire for border wall funding
This is the bind we are stuck in - the UN report gave us to 2030 but there are credible figures suggesting much earlier deadlines, eg 5 years so if your privileged experiences of state power haven't been negative than maybe emergency powers seem non-controversial
But from all the above it should clear that rather than being 'Beyond Politics' a Climate justice movement has to be anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and intersectional in nature. The enormous challenge is how can such a movement be created in so few years
Very relevant to much of the above is this @novaramedia discussion with @GeorgeMonbiot and @AnnPettifor
The photos here are ones I took at two of the Dublin Extinction Rebellion events - I also shoe and edited some video from these
Mozambique is currently being hit by 2nd super storm called #CycloneKenneth - as its hit the less populated north there is hope for a lower death toll but we won't know for days, This @newscientist article explains why we are seeing more stronger storms newscientist.com/article/220092…
To demonstrate my point about why anti-racism needs to be part of climate justice #BBCQT had LOTR actor John Rhys-Davies babbling about population. JRD was brought up in Tanzania when it was a Brit colony - he has 3 kids so its not 'people like him' whose pop. concerns him
He's also babbled about a version of the 'Great Replacement' racist conspiracy theory that motivated the NZ mass killer. But crucially here the current population of East Africa only produces 1/70th CCgas as those of us here. JRD + 3 kids are probably producing more than 280
Graph is from a 2017 @trocaire report on how #ClimateChange is already impacting developing world "Malawi, Ethiopia and Kenya .. projections droughts will become more intense, frequent and severe in future due
to the impact of climate change" trocaire.org/resources/poli…
to the impact of climate change" trocaire.org/resources/poli…
So again for those at the back, Climate Change is already hitting poorest people in the world hard, this is happening right now, literally in the case of Mozambique. 'Mass migration' is already happening internally, we can't be neutral or still worse list it with bad things.
With right wing governments in power the declaration of a #ClimateEmergency from a #XR 'beyond politics' approach would increase the murderous borders controls that have already killed 10s of 1000s of migrants entering EU. We cannot be 'beyond' on the question of migrant rights
A powerful representation of why Climate Justice has to be anti-colonial is this world map shown countries resized be CCgas emissions which also names the Top 100 People Killing the Planet. Africa is tiny but also that's mostly S.Africa decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/nam…
Costs are also economic for Mozambique - "world’s sixth poorest country faces 2nd storm with an extra $118 million of debt, after the IMF last week granted an interest-free loan for rebuilding" Wealth generated in the north caused this climatechangenews.com/2019/04/26/moz…
Returning to why the 'beyond politics' version of declaring a Climate Emergency needs more consideration because it is now happening in a tokenistic non-binding way. The demand itself references the WWII, in effect buying into the colonialist myth making around Churchill
But that WWII state of emergency was a major contributing factor to the 1943 Bengal famine in which 2-3 million died of starvation & related diseases. The Defence of India Act, 1939 & prioritisation of supplies and health care to key military workers were key factors.
And we are talking about the 'good guys' - no need to go into the problems with what fascist run state of emergencies looked like during WWII. As above ask what would a Trump 'state of emergency' look like for Climate refugees at the border?
And to conclude on a positive note - it was great to see @GretaThunberg explicitly taking a stand against the fascist 'Nordic Resistance Movement' party in Sweden, presumably as part of the counter protest - this is what is needed not 'beyond politics'
Forgot to include a link UK Parliament has declared a Climate Emergency, significant #XR achievement "This proposal, which demonstrates the will of the Commons on the issue but does not legally compel the government to act, was approved without a vote" bbc.com/news/uk-politi…
And still the super storms come - Cyclone #Fani the biggest to hit India in two decades is hitting the Bay of Bengal, one million evacuated. .. storm could lead to “total destruction of thatched houses”, flooding of escape routes and large pieces of debris being flung in the air
I've turned a lot of the concepts in this #ClimateChange thread on #ExtinctionRebellion into an expanded 30 minute YouTube analysis
This week we had the highest concentration of atmospheric CO2 ever in human history at 415ppm and it hit a very unseasonal 29c at the Russian article entrance city Arkhangelsk sfgate.com/news/article/I…
Last year that UN report gave us 12 years to halt #ClimateChange - thats 11 years now and over that year our use of oil & gas continued to escalate when it needed to plummet. And COAL blipped up too!
On the one hand this leans towards the worst case scenario. On the other hand the escalating use of oil & gas shown in my last tweet suggests that's right where we are headed #ClimateEmergency wise
vice.com/en_us/article/…
vice.com/en_us/article/…
The Extinction Rebellion FAQ now has this answer to the dangers of giving exiting government powers to declare a state of emergency rebellion.earth/the-truth/faqs/
While acknowledging the danger its not a complete answer as SoEs tend to suspend democratic controls
While acknowledging the danger its not a complete answer as SoEs tend to suspend democratic controls
If you found the above useful you may be interested in this thread where I dig into the weird non violent movements are more successful than violent ones claim that XR has used in answer to no one
"Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty & human rights, said impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food & housing for hundreds of millions of people but also democracy & rule of law" theguardian.com/environment/20…
Jacobian reporting on research on just how much CO2 the super rich produce and its is pretty shocking - The entire nation of Burundi (pop 10 million) produces less than half the carbon emissions than the 15,000 private jets of the US elite
jacobinmag.com/2019/07/enviro…
jacobinmag.com/2019/07/enviro…
Somewhat tangentially I'd recommend The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind to get a sense of the relationship between climate and food insecurity that I talk about above that goes beyond the raw statistics
UN"Above 2 degrees of global warming could be increase of 100 million+ of population at risk of hunger
Waiting to cut emissions risks “irreversible loss in land ecosystem functions & services required for food, health, habitable settlements & production"
nytimes.com/2019/08/08/cli…
Waiting to cut emissions risks “irreversible loss in land ecosystem functions & services required for food, health, habitable settlements & production"
nytimes.com/2019/08/08/cli…
A tangent looking at population, capitalist growth and the non-solution for the free market and state planning in the context of latest global emission figures and China's rapidly rising emissions as it burns half the worlds coal
