I was invited to speak tonight via Skype at the introduction to a movie screening benefiting the West Kootenay EcoSociety in Nelson, British Columbia. They had asked me to talk about what inspires me to do the work I do to fight climate change, in the face of the daunting challenges, hugely vested and powerful interests, and everything else that stands in our way.
Naturally, ahead of the talk, I asked my friends on Facebook for help...
Here's what I ended up saying to the folks gathered in the small town in Canada...It's a bit rough, but it seemed to resonate with the crowd (as far as I could tell via Skype, that is)...
Thanks so much for having me tonight....So, I was asked to talk about what gives me hope in the fight against climate change, what message I might send to you all up there in a town in Canada to get inspired to take action in whatever way you can to help in the fight against climate change.
But first, I think a quick little story can give you a sense of what we’re up against perhaps.
Just about a year ago I was in Washington DC for a couple big events to push for rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. One was a civil disobedience action at the White House where a few dozen prominent environmental and social justice leaders, including my boss, were locking themselves to the gates of the White House in opposition to Keystone XL.
At the same time, my organization was also in the midst of a campaign targeting Exxon and the massive subsidies they receive each year from our government. Literally as my boss was having handcuffs placed on him outside of the White House, I got a call from our lawyer letting me know that Exxon was threatening to sue if we aired the tv ad we had produced targeting them (to be fair, the ad's title was Exxon Hates Your Children).
So anyways, Steve was arrested and released quickly with no issues, and Exxon didn’t sue us in the end…
But a call with my girlfriend later that day kind of summed it up. She said to me, “Dave, maybe next time you should probably choose to EITHER take on the one of the world’s most powerful individuals OR take on one of the largest corporations known to man. But probably not both in one day.”
I of course responded that we simply don’t have enough time to choose one over the other. There’s too much to do and too little time to do it in.
So that’s the story. We’re facing the worst crisis known to humanity and are up against corporations who are making more money than anyone in the history of money, and we don’t have time to delay.
But I still have hope, and the thing is so do a lot of people I know who work on this every day. Last week, I did a little crowd-sourcing on Facebook, asking what gives my activist friends hope in this huge fight. And the answers were amazing.
Lots of folks cited amazing examples of awesome wins against all odds.
Like the time that ordinary folks in Boulder Colorado stood down the fossil fuel industry that was spending 10 times as much money as they were. They were able to create a publicly owned electric utility in their city, running off of 100% clean energy.
Or the success of the divestment movement both in the US and Canada to get schools and institutions to divest from fossil fuels.
And there were some wonky answers too, about how technologies can be disruptive and change happens quickly, when you sometimes least expect it.
And of course there were some famous quotes:
"It always seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela
"The eyes of the future are gazing back upon us, praying that we can see beyond our own time." Terry Tempest Williams
But what struck me most in the responses was how many people talked about how their friends were what kept them going.
They talked about the amazing feeling of togetherness we all share in waging this battle that seems impossible to win. They talked about the beauty and honesty and integrity that they see in people standing up to the fossil fuel interests and for a brighter future. Notably, my boss mentioned that he works with really smart principled people who will not quit. I liked that one, as you might expect.
But two quotes really struck me and I’ll just read them directly.
My old colleague in Australia, wrote: “It's easy to be driven forward when you have a sense of justice at your back. And it's hard to sit still when you know what is at stake. And, because amazing changes happen even though they may seem impossible before they do.”
And a mentor of mine from Brazil wrote: “Someone someday will write our story, the story of a very small group of incredible people who came together from around the world and grew into a movement that changed the course of human history.”
That’s the thing. It’s the people that are standing up that give me hope. And it’s people like you that will drive the solutions, in so many ways. What we’re talking about is fundamentally changing the way we live life on this planet. The only way that is going to happen is to build communities that will stand up and build that new future together.
So thank you for having me and for being there tonight and for all your doing in your community to win this thing together.