1 00:00:09,300 --> 00:00:15,590 All of us live in the shadow of an ominous future. None of us can be certain what the 2 00:00:15,590 --> 00:00:20,760 years and decades ahead will bring... but fleeting glimpses have begun to appear in 3 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:24,100 the here-and-now. And they are terrifying. 4 00:00:24,100 --> 00:00:27,259 Fires ravaging Brazil and it’s Amazon rainforest 5 00:00:27,259 --> 00:00:29,869 Super-typhoon Haiyan has made a direct hit. 6 00:00:29,869 --> 00:00:33,390 In this Mozambique port city of Beira, an inland ocean 7 00:00:33,390 --> 00:00:35,170 Continental Europe is baking. 8 00:00:35,170 --> 00:00:37,930 feels like you’re sitting in an oven. 9 00:00:37,930 --> 00:00:42,870 For years, climate scientists’ increasingly urgent warnings have fallen on the deaf ears 10 00:00:42,870 --> 00:00:47,140 of capitalist technocrats from the extractive industries, and their acolytes in the halls 11 00:00:47,140 --> 00:00:53,179 of state power. Faced with the apparent inaction of these decision-makers, environmental activists 12 00:00:53,179 --> 00:00:58,640 and non-profits have opted to simply shout louder... seemingly unaware that they’re 13 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,000 speaking the wrong language. 14 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:07,460 The most dire predictions of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, have repeatedly 15 00:01:07,460 --> 00:01:13,410 failed to keep up with the pace and trajectory of ecological devastation. This problem stems 16 00:01:13,410 --> 00:01:18,330 from a persistent inability to predict and account for the cascading, mutually-reinforcing 17 00:01:18,330 --> 00:01:20,930 nature of runaway feedback loops. 18 00:01:20,930 --> 00:01:28,660 With each passing year, this situation gets worse. As glaciers recede and ice-shelves 19 00:01:28,660 --> 00:01:33,220 collapse, record-breaking forest fires in Alaska and Siberia foreshadow the thawing 20 00:01:33,220 --> 00:01:39,120 of the Arctic permafrost — a volatile wildcard with the potential to dump more carbon into 21 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:45,400 the atmosphere than the sum total released during the past two centuries of human activity. 22 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:50,570 Heatwaves and droughts claim the lives of millions of people each year, a majority of 23 00:01:50,570 --> 00:01:56,970 whom are children from the Global South. And while the great mass of humanity swelters 24 00:01:56,970 --> 00:02:02,740 here on land, temperatures are rising even more rapidly in the oceans. This is leading 25 00:02:02,740 --> 00:02:08,130 to mass die-offs in what were once some of the richest areas of biodiversity on the planet, 26 00:02:08,130 --> 00:02:11,420 and spawning more frequent and violent mega-storms. 27 00:02:11,420 --> 00:02:16,680 And yet, despite the incredibly drastic situation that we face, much of the mainstream discourse 28 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:21,370 around climate change remains aimed at competing with oil industry propaganda to convince the 29 00:02:21,370 --> 00:02:27,250 public that the phenomenon even exists. And despite the vast amount of time and resources 30 00:02:27,250 --> 00:02:34,060 devoted to this task, millions of people continue to loudly claim that global warming is a hoax, 31 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,940 including the President of the United States. 32 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:42,560 Over the next thirty minutes, we’ll take a closer look at some of the potential implications 33 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:49,050 and underlying causes of this slowly unfolding disaster. Along the way, we’ll talk to a 34 00:02:49,050 --> 00:02:53,770 number of individuals as they share their personal experiences fighting their alienation 35 00:02:53,770 --> 00:02:58,750 from the natural world, pushing back against ecologically-destructive industrial development 36 00:02:58,750 --> 00:03:04,880 projects... and making a whole lot of trouble. 37 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:50,400 The climate emergency is affecting people here and now all over the world. 38 00:03:50,430 --> 00:03:55,459 There’s still this portrayal and thinking along the lines of “oh, we still have eight 39 00:03:55,459 --> 00:04:02,270 years or ten years to really respond.” or maybe even change things, or quote unquote 40 00:04:02,270 --> 00:04:06,840 you still hear “save the earth,” which is, an enormous amount of hubris that goes 41 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:12,239 along with that, as well as just being factually inaccurate. You can look out your window anywhere 42 00:04:12,239 --> 00:04:18,549 you are on the planet right now and see it’s upon us now. We need to behave accordingly 43 00:04:18,549 --> 00:04:22,470 because of that and not pretend that it’s out in the future and there’s still time 44 00:04:22,470 --> 00:04:26,039 to avoid what’s upon us. 45 00:04:26,039 --> 00:04:31,921 Worldwide all of the climates together, they act together. What happens on the other side 46 00:04:31,921 --> 00:04:38,809 of the world affects us here. Climate change, we’re already seeing the effects on animals 47 00:04:38,809 --> 00:04:44,590 that are in our region that don’t normally live here. We also have a great deal of changes 48 00:04:44,590 --> 00:04:50,150 in the water temperatures, so it affects salmon numbers. The habitats of the salmon are being 49 00:04:50,150 --> 00:04:56,090 changed with soil erosion as well as deforestation from industry. Most of these industries don’t 50 00:04:56,090 --> 00:04:57,740 clean up any of their messes. 51 00:04:57,740 --> 00:05:02,779 Whether it’s the amazon or if it’s the arctic, all of those different ecosystems 52 00:05:02,779 --> 00:05:08,970 are now as a result, moving outside of the equilibrium that they’ve been in for, say, 53 00:05:08,970 --> 00:05:09,520 several hundred thousand years 54 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,400 that have allowed us to live on this planet 55 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,720 in the way that we do in this kind of harmony. 56 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:20,960 That means huge shifts in the now and where humans and other animals area able to live. 57 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:26,400 This process is being exacerbated by capitalism. 58 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:35,280 Glaciers receding around the planet dramatically is the perfect illustration of the impact 59 00:05:35,300 --> 00:05:42,550 that industrialization and corporate capitalism is having. Just in the Himalayas alone, there’s 60 00:05:42,550 --> 00:05:47,830 1.5 billion people that at current rates of ice loss in the Himalayas and in the Hindu 61 00:05:47,830 --> 00:05:55,150 Kush specifically, that by 2100 may not have any water for drinking and irrigation. And 62 00:05:55,150 --> 00:05:59,639 that’s just talking about glaciers, I mean we could say similar things when we talk about 63 00:05:59,639 --> 00:06:05,719 ocean acidification, the warming of the oceans, sea level rise, all these other really, really 64 00:06:05,719 --> 00:06:08,400 dramatic and obvious impacts of the climate crisis. 65 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,560 The latest now, on that state of emergency in Venice. Water levels are even higher this 66 00:06:14,599 --> 00:06:17,180 morning, the city’s worst flooding in more than 50 years. 67 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:23,120 The Indonesian capital Jakarta is slowly sinking. By 2030, half of the city will be 68 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,240 below sea level. 69 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,300 The simplest way to explain a feedback loop is, the more something happens, the more something 70 00:06:31,300 --> 00:06:37,919 happens. The most famous and easy to explain feedback loop perhaps is the loss of summer 71 00:06:37,919 --> 00:06:43,619 sea ice in the arctic. So when the sea ice is there, it reflects most of the sun rays 72 00:06:43,619 --> 00:06:49,930 back into space and that solar radiation, the heat, with it. As the atmosphere warms 73 00:06:49,930 --> 00:06:56,419 and the sea ice melts, then the ocean around it more is exposed and it absorbs more of 74 00:06:56,419 --> 00:07:03,430 that sunlight and heat, which then makes the ice melt faster which then means the ocean 75 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,560 absorbs more heat, and so it goes. 76 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:13,729 According to a new report experts say that we have until 2030 to avoid catastrophe. It 77 00:07:13,729 --> 00:07:19,419 also says if unprecedented changes are not made soon, there will be irreversible damage 78 00:07:19,419 --> 00:07:24,379 to the planet. The report focuses on what could happen if global temperatures rise by 79 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:29,200 more than 1.5 degrees Celcius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. 80 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:38,000 The problem is the IPCC fails to include the rapidity of the feedback loops and the non-linear 81 00:07:38,029 --> 00:07:43,150 nature. So it’s not just things are increasing like this, but they're increasing like that. 82 00:07:43,150 --> 00:07:47,069 And I think that’s a concept that’s very important for people to understand, and also 83 00:07:47,069 --> 00:07:50,999 one that unfortunately a lot of people don’t understand, and it’s because their simply 84 00:07:50,999 --> 00:07:53,840 not being told by the corporate press. 85 00:07:54,800 --> 00:08:01,280 There’s this idea that climate disaster is going to level systems of power. That we 86 00:08:01,310 --> 00:08:07,520 are going to be affected at the same rate and thus have the ability to build power as 87 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:12,029 politicians and elites are simultaneously dis-empowered. But this is not how it’s 88 00:08:12,029 --> 00:08:18,659 worked so far. People who have the incentive to fight against climate change are going 89 00:08:18,659 --> 00:08:25,429 to be fighting the rise of fascists and militant citizen groups trying to hoard and protect 90 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:31,280 resources, as well as the militarization of the state and natural disasters. 91 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:37,750 Dealing with climate change means dealing with inequality, means dealing with systems 92 00:08:37,750 --> 00:08:44,620 of injustice. The impacts are disproportionate and intersectional right. The impacts of the 93 00:08:44,620 --> 00:08:50,611 climate emergency are especially felt by low-income communities, by racialized communities, by 94 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:53,200 people in the global south. 95 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:59,300 People of color, indigenous people in particular, are most likely the most impacted by climate 96 00:08:59,300 --> 00:09:01,680 change and industrial disasters. 97 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:08,320 I think what we’re now starting to realize is that climate change is more than just about 98 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:14,199 carbon. it’s about a way of life, a way of being, it’s about an understanding of 99 00:09:14,199 --> 00:09:19,100 the world, the understanding of nature, the understanding of who we are. And what we’re 100 00:09:19,100 --> 00:09:24,250 starting to realize is that in order for us to change our approach to the climate, we 101 00:09:24,250 --> 00:09:29,240 really have to change everything that we do. Looking at climate change, looking at solutions, 102 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:34,899 is a lot more than just thinking about techno fixes, it’s about re-writing our entire 103 00:09:34,899 --> 00:09:37,520 operating system. 104 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:54,880 On Friday September 20th, 2019, millions of people from more than 160 countries took to 105 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:59,600 the streets, in what’s been described as the largest climate protests in human history. 106 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:08,550 These rallies and demonstrations were led by young people, particularly high school 107 00:10:08,550 --> 00:10:13,810 students responding to 16 year old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s call to skip class 108 00:10:13,810 --> 00:10:17,019 and participate in what was dubbed a ‘climate strike’. 109 00:10:17,019 --> 00:10:21,930 Thunberg, who has been skipping class herself every Friday for the past year to protest 110 00:10:21,930 --> 00:10:27,920 politicians’ inaction on climate change, is an impressive figure. 111 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:36,560 Her withering speeches to world leaders, in which she berates them for their shameless 112 00:10:36,569 --> 00:10:40,960 insincerity and their crimes against future generations, resonate with a public that has grown increasingly 113 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:46,640 frustrated by their so-called leaders’ inability to stop this slow-moving apocalypse. 114 00:10:47,790 --> 00:10:53,200 But as impressive as this massive upsurge in mobilization and awareness has been, these 115 00:10:53,250 --> 00:10:58,000 rallies will accomplish very little in and of themselves, other than provide yet another 116 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:03,600 exercise in recuperation and an opportunity for political re-branding. And that is because 117 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:07,991 they are premised on a comforting, naive, and ultimately false conception of 118 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:09,680 how the world works. 119 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:14,560 The true mechanisms of power that are driving us down the path of climate destruction are 120 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:20,220 not swayed by protests. Capitalism, as it turns out, also has a pretty strong survival 121 00:11:20,220 --> 00:11:25,879 instinct. And its drive for self-preservation is based on perpetual economic growth... a 122 00:11:25,879 --> 00:11:30,760 principle that every single state and the entire architecture of global finance exists 123 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:34,000 to uphold. 124 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,829 Ridding ourselves of the fairy tale notion that we can somehow avoid the worst effects 125 00:11:37,829 --> 00:11:43,339 of global warming if we organize a big enough rally does not necessarily entail giving up, 126 00:11:43,339 --> 00:11:48,949 or succumbing to fatalistic despair. Instead it can and should serve as a sobering call 127 00:11:48,949 --> 00:11:54,899 to brace ourselves to the harsh reality that politicians aren’t going to save us. 128 00:11:54,899 --> 00:11:58,160 And that we need to start acting accordingly. 129 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:22,560 Climate change is like the earth going into shock from a gunshot wound. And it makes no 130 00:12:22,560 --> 00:12:30,320 sense to try to talk about solving the problem without talking about the bullet, which is 131 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:37,600 our current capitalist, extractive resource-dependent civilization. 132 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:45,839 I don’t see us rapidly changing soon enough to stop climate change. It’s not just running 133 00:12:45,839 --> 00:12:50,870 a vehicle that’s creating climate change. The mass amount of industrialization and disconnect 134 00:12:50,870 --> 00:12:55,930 from our planet is what’s creating the climate change. We just feel that ‘oh, I’m entitled 135 00:12:55,930 --> 00:13:02,240 to this.’ That the way we live today in a modern life—that that has to keep existing. 136 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:09,680 People know the basics of climate change and ecological destruction at this point, and 137 00:13:09,709 --> 00:13:15,100 I think we need to abandon this insistence on education, or raising awareness. Education 138 00:13:15,100 --> 00:13:20,879 is great, for a while, but I think what is needed is groups of people who trust each 139 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:26,320 other to feel empowered and act. And supported when they do. 140 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:33,140 I mean does anyone really, taking a sober assessment of the situation in this country 141 00:13:33,140 --> 00:13:39,079 today politically, think that any pressure can be brought to bear to change a system 142 00:13:39,079 --> 00:13:47,050 where fascists essentially rule the White House, the Supreme Court and the Senate? 143 00:13:47,050 --> 00:13:53,110 Does it make sense to use traditional methods of information-spreading and organization to 144 00:13:53,110 --> 00:13:57,819 try to apply pressure to an authoritarian regime? Would it make a whole lot of sense 145 00:13:57,819 --> 00:14:02,880 for there to be a traditionally-organized environmental movement in Russia trying to 146 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:09,510 apply pressure to President Putin to have better climate policy? And anyone that’s 147 00:14:09,510 --> 00:14:14,680 gonna really argue differently about that in this country is just not taking a very 148 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:19,360 clear, honest look at the situation this country’s already in. 149 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:26,790 Movements in other countries know that politicians don’t willingly give up their power. Incapacitating 150 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:30,480 systems that harm them is really what changes things. 151 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:35,980 I would say my main critique of the mainstream environmental movement in general is that 152 00:14:35,980 --> 00:14:42,310 it’s too liberal. The mainstream environmental movement, at least as we see it on television, 153 00:14:42,310 --> 00:14:46,550 is really a movement that features people who are fairly comfortable with the status 154 00:14:46,550 --> 00:14:51,740 quo—with capitalism, with colonialism and all these other things. And don’t really 155 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:54,400 want to challenge them. 156 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:15,920 It’s exciting to see momentum around the urgency of climate change, but it’s also 157 00:15:15,939 --> 00:15:21,769 important to recognize that groups like Extinction Rebellion are still operating from the basic 158 00:15:21,769 --> 00:15:27,520 idea that appealing to power is an effective way to bring about change. 159 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:35,600 Really, XR I think needs to be able to engage much more closely with the communities that 160 00:15:35,639 --> 00:15:41,100 are affected by these disruptions to understand what kinds of activities would they support. 161 00:15:41,100 --> 00:15:45,519 And that means broadening the discussion around climate change, so that people can begin to 162 00:15:45,519 --> 00:15:49,820 see it’s not just about extinction in a far-flung future. That it’s something a 163 00:15:49,820 --> 00:15:55,949 bit abstract to think about. That that same system is destroying lives here and now. That’s 164 00:15:55,949 --> 00:16:00,569 the system that people are worried about. Y’know, they’re struggling to pay their 165 00:16:00,569 --> 00:16:05,170 bills. They’re kind of reeling under the impacts of austerity. It’s that same system 166 00:16:05,170 --> 00:16:08,810 that is basically destroying the planet, and destroying our ecosystems. 167 00:16:08,810 --> 00:16:13,490 The large climate marches that we’ve seen more recently—these marches of hundreds 168 00:16:13,490 --> 00:16:19,380 of thousands of people—show me that we have enough human beings who care. The question 169 00:16:19,380 --> 00:16:25,090 is whether those people are willing to use the tactics necessary. Whether they’re willing 170 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:30,080 and able to learn from other movements in history, and from more grassroots, 171 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:32,720 direct-action oriented movements. 172 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:38,930 The premise of direct action is that you are not appealing to a larger power than yourself 173 00:16:38,930 --> 00:16:43,730 to enact change. You’re taking power into your own hands instead of trying to figure 174 00:16:43,730 --> 00:16:49,380 out what you could do that would help someone else make that change happen for you. 175 00:16:49,380 --> 00:16:56,949 Direct action from Indigenous-led land defence and water defence has proven over time that 176 00:16:56,949 --> 00:17:01,720 we can go back to humble ways of living. We can reduce our consumption. 177 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:05,890 It requires a smaller number of people, but it requires a higher level of risk. And that’s 178 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:11,280 often why people from a more comfortable background don’t want to do that kind of action. 179 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:18,400 Mothers in marginalized communities have historically been on the forefront, because marginalized 180 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:24,710 communities are often receiving the first blow of the horrors of our ecological and 181 00:17:24,710 --> 00:17:26,790 social and economic collapse. 182 00:17:26,790 --> 00:17:32,040 The project of fighting climate change in the long term also means essentially getting 183 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:38,130 rid of capitalism. That we have to move to other economic systems and overturn the legacy 184 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:45,200 of colonialism that was the original way to impose capitalism on most of the world. 185 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:51,120 We need to look at how we can dismantle these kinds of systems. We have it in us to turn 186 00:17:51,140 --> 00:17:54,870 things around, but there’s a lot to let go of. 187 00:17:54,870 --> 00:17:59,550 We have to get very very real about the situation that we’re in. And that’s gonna call on 188 00:17:59,550 --> 00:18:05,600 something different within each one of us, as far as how committed are we to 189 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:07,280 walking our talk? 190 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:11,660 That’s the action that these kids are really marching for. That’s the real action that 191 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:17,600 needs to happen. A complete overhaul and dismantling of society. 192 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:30,960 According to official statistics from the UN Refugee Agency, 16.1 million people were 193 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:36,880 displaced due to weather-related events in 2018 alone. Notably, this figure does not 194 00:18:36,900 --> 00:18:41,860 include those forced from their homes by armed conflicts triggered, or worsened by climate-related 195 00:18:41,860 --> 00:18:43,280 factors. 196 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:49,680 A new study, released in October of 2019, suggests that the number of people that will 197 00:18:49,690 --> 00:18:54,110 be affected by rising sea levels in the coming decades is more than three times what was 198 00:18:54,110 --> 00:18:59,690 previously thought. The updated report projects that 300 million people will experience annual 199 00:18:59,690 --> 00:19:05,600 flooding by the year 2050, meaning that many coastal cities will need to be evacuated altogether. 200 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:11,760 These figures are based on countries meeting the emission reduction targets outlined in 201 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:17,120 the Paris Climate Accord, which isn’t going to happen... meaning that the actual figures 202 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:19,120 are likely to be even higher. 203 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:25,120 Much of the displacement from sea level rise is expected to occur in heavily-populated 204 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:32,940 regions in Asia. In Bangladesh alone, the homes of 42 million people are at risk. Given 205 00:19:32,940 --> 00:19:37,700 the rise of Hindu nationalism and the acute threat of ethno-religious sectarianism in 206 00:19:37,700 --> 00:19:42,710 the neighbouring state of India, the prospects of a mass exodus from Bangladesh are particularly 207 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:49,120 grim. But it’s far from the only potential geopolitical flashpoint. 208 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:54,320 The racist anxieties conjured up by the spectre of unchecked migration has been a windfall 209 00:19:54,320 --> 00:20:00,420 for fascist, third-positionist and identitarian movements, nationalist politicians, police 210 00:20:00,420 --> 00:20:05,120 forces, military planners and other advocates of increased border militarization 211 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:06,960 all around the world. 212 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,240 Unfortunately, over the coming years and decades, this trend is likely going to get 213 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,720 much, much worse. 214 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:32,080 The climate crisis is causing and affecting a refugee crisis, or at least adding dramatically 215 00:20:32,110 --> 00:20:42,580 to already existing refugee crises. For example, we look at the Arab Spring. One of the foundational 216 00:20:42,580 --> 00:20:48,560 causes of the Arab Spring was drought, regional drought. We can remember the Arab Spring was 217 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:54,460 caused by a fruit vendor in Tunisia doing self-immolation, and that was because of food 218 00:20:54,460 --> 00:20:59,250 prices and because what’s happening to crops, and because of governments not stepping in 219 00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:01,790 to help in anyway. 220 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:11,430 A series of global climate linked food basket failures before the 2011 Arab Spring led to 221 00:21:11,430 --> 00:21:17,340 these big food price spikes in the year before the riots broke out. And it was those food 222 00:21:17,340 --> 00:21:26,110 price spikes that made basic food, like bread, almost unaffordable for many people in those 223 00:21:26,110 --> 00:21:32,640 parts of the world, which was one of the major triggers for the outbreak of riots. 224 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:36,990 People were literally not eating and farmers were literally not making it, and that spread 225 00:21:36,990 --> 00:21:43,060 across the whole region, and look at what’s happened today. There’s a huge immigration 226 00:21:43,060 --> 00:21:48,600 crisis of people going across the Mediterranean, drowning in boats, and trying to get to Europe, 227 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:50,720 and trying to get to safer countries. 228 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:56,490 The number of migrants and refugees who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2019 229 00:21:56,490 --> 00:21:59,010 is up to 900. 230 00:21:59,010 --> 00:22:01,200 ... declared a state of emergency. 231 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:05,320 The summit that’s taking place next week will be looking for new ways to tackle the 232 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:09,700 continent’s biggest influx of migrants since the second world war. 233 00:22:09,700 --> 00:22:13,830 The number of asylum seekers are very high. 234 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:20,770 Police now decide who stays and who moves on deeper into Europe and into uncertainty. 235 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:28,850 So we’re already seeing governments around the world move in a direction of policing 236 00:22:28,850 --> 00:22:34,870 migrants, in particular, because of the climate emergency and because of its impact. There 237 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:41,920 is a real essential connection and an essential overlap between the migrant crisis and authoritarianism. 238 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:49,440 And we see in North America, and many parts of the world, that authoritarians or would-be 239 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:57,120 authoritarians are using the migrant crisis as an excuse to whip up xenophobia and racism. 240 00:22:57,120 --> 00:23:04,560 And using it as an excuse to crack down at borders and crackdown on undocumented people. 241 00:23:05,380 --> 00:23:08,720 We look at what’s happening in the United States where so many people coming to the 242 00:23:08,730 --> 00:23:13,890 southern border coming up through Mexico are farmers from Central America that just can’t 243 00:23:13,890 --> 00:23:17,680 make it- that’s because of drought, that’s because of extreme weather events and things 244 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:22,880 that never used to happen at the level that they’re happening now. 245 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:33,200 Another factor is rising sea-levels. The hard fact is that the amount of sea-level rise 246 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:39,500 that right now is already baked into the system; meaning, if we stopped all C02 emissions on 247 00:23:39,500 --> 00:23:45,780 a dime, we have meters of sea-lvel rise that are inevitable now, that means every major 248 00:23:45,780 --> 00:23:51,140 coastal city on the planet is gone. The question is not, “if,” it is “when”. So, where 249 00:23:51,140 --> 00:23:55,360 are all those hundreds of millions of people going to go? 250 00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:03,040 People are becoming more and more paranoid and afraid, thus this human population is 251 00:24:03,070 --> 00:24:09,420 becoming more and more fragile. And with that fragility comes more fear-based expansion 252 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:10,830 on the militaries. 253 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:17,120 At the moment, most governments who are looking at climate change... where we’re seeing 254 00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:22,240 the real action is that most governments are doing it through the lense of national security. 255 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:28,320 They will look at all the different ways that climate change can amplify traditional security 256 00:24:28,350 --> 00:24:34,960 threats- how will climate change amplify conflict? How will climate change destabilize different 257 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:42,480 countries due to impact on water or impact on food? And that sort of thing, so all of 258 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:49,350 the focus ends up expanding... you know you’ll have militarization and police state power 259 00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:56,960 in order to be prepared for what happens when climate destabilizes your soc iety. After the 260 00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:03,360 Arab spring, we had this massive seismic shifts in politics, very rapidly across the Western 261 00:25:03,390 --> 00:25:10,570 world. The election of Donald Trump, the Brexit referendum, the increase in popularity of 262 00:25:10,570 --> 00:25:15,040 far-right groups in Europe. And what we know is that this sort of thing is 263 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,600 likely to continue happening. 264 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:25,680 We’re gonna see capitalism and neo-fascism both exacerbating and causing these disasters, 265 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:35,200 and being involved in the aftermath whether that be militias or hate crimes occurring. 266 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:43,740 Western world. Fortress Europe. Fortress Britain. Is that the politics we have in store? Are 267 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:50,440 we seeing this worst-case scenario of where doing nothing about climate change leads to 268 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,920 the rise of different forms of fascism, and possibly even a form of even eco-fascism... 269 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,320 who knows? 270 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:20,880 Given its incredibly vast scale and complexity, and the existential threat that it poses to 271 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:25,440 the future of life on this planet, the spectre of climate catastrophe can take a serious 272 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,480 toll on our individual and collective mental health. 273 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:34,000 Unfortunately, matters aren’t helped by the heavily ingrained Western tendency to 274 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:41,040 frame issues in stark, moralistic, all-or-nothing terms. Environmental non-profits repeatedly 275 00:26:41,060 --> 00:26:45,720 claiming that humanity has ‘one more chance to save the world’ may encourage people 276 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:51,470 to come out to a rally or a march... for a while. But it doesn’t do much to equip people 277 00:26:51,470 --> 00:26:56,170 for the inevitable disillusionment that comes when the world isn’t saved, and business 278 00:26:56,170 --> 00:27:01,360 continues as usual. The question is... what comes next? 279 00:27:01,850 --> 00:27:07,100 Thankfully, the struggle isn’t a zero-sum game. We need to accept that the effects of 280 00:27:07,100 --> 00:27:11,180 climate change are already upon us, and they will continue to get worse for the foreseeable 281 00:27:11,180 --> 00:27:17,620 future. In order to stem and begin to reverse this tide, we need to overthrow capitalism, 282 00:27:17,620 --> 00:27:22,790 remove the ceaseless drive for profit as the central organizational pillar of the global 283 00:27:22,790 --> 00:27:28,580 economy, and build a new, more sustainable civilization in its place. This monumental 284 00:27:28,580 --> 00:27:33,650 task is too much for any of us to do on our own. It is a historic challenge that will 285 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:39,540 require a massive shift in global consciousness, and the combined, unshakable determination 286 00:27:39,540 --> 00:27:44,320 of millions of people willing to risk their lives. All that each of us can do is play 287 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,200 our own small part in this bigger whole. 288 00:28:21,780 --> 00:28:29,360 I make it a point to not give suggestions or advice to people about what to do about 289 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:35,630 the climate crisis. Instead I tell people the most important thing to do is to get really 290 00:28:35,630 --> 00:28:44,620 really quiet and listen. And really really ask to be shown what is it that I need to 291 00:28:44,620 --> 00:28:48,970 do to try to serve and take care of the earth. What is the sense of justice that's really 292 00:28:48,970 --> 00:28:56,310 calling to me, that I need to go act upon. I think each one of us is going to get a very 293 00:28:56,320 --> 00:29:04,080 very different message. It might be feeling a deep calling to go create music, or be a 294 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:08,800 doctor, or go join extinction rebellion or go do something even 295 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,280 much more radical than that. 296 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:20,080 So a big question is what people can do to get involved and take action. Building networks 297 00:29:20,100 --> 00:29:25,820 with people you trust right now. Learn skills and share them with people you love. And fight 298 00:29:25,820 --> 00:29:32,850 infrastructure projects in our community. And take care of yourself. Recognize the ways 299 00:29:32,850 --> 00:29:39,400 that all struggles for liberation are intertwined. And I think primarily supporting people in 300 00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:45,970 retaining or getting ownership of their land back is one place to start by supporting indigenous 301 00:29:45,970 --> 00:29:49,950 struggles. The highest levels of biodiversity that still exist on this planet are the places 302 00:29:49,950 --> 00:29:56,080 where people still live or have returned to who are indigenous to that area. 303 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:05,000 For folks who are used to and conditioned to having great amounts of advantages, just 304 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:11,450 understand that a lot of your advantages most likely came from our devastation. There's 305 00:30:11,450 --> 00:30:15,880 a lot of changes that are going to be coming very soon. There's going to be a lot of things 306 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:21,090 that you're not going to like hearing. It might involve folks that are disadvantaged 307 00:30:21,090 --> 00:30:26,970 picking up on some advantages for once in their lives. Support them. Support those movements, 308 00:30:26,970 --> 00:30:31,820 support those populations. The capitalist planet is not going to build a big massive 309 00:30:31,820 --> 00:30:38,200 ship for us to escape and get to another planet. We don't have any other options. This is our 310 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,700 one option. This is our one chance. 311 00:30:42,700 --> 00:30:48,100 We don't have to start from scratch, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Our planet has 312 00:30:48,100 --> 00:30:54,950 a rich tradition, a rich history of social movements and of resistance movements, on 313 00:30:54,950 --> 00:31:00,940 this continent and around the world on many different time scales. And if we can understand 314 00:31:00,940 --> 00:31:06,300 and learn from and celebrate those movements, then we can learn the things that we need 315 00:31:06,300 --> 00:31:12,430 to learn in the time that we have to take action. One of the primary shortcomings of 316 00:31:12,430 --> 00:31:19,130 the mainstream environmental movement has been its focus on individual action. And individualism 317 00:31:19,130 --> 00:31:25,210 really limits what we're able to accomplish. Things like flying less or using less gasoline, 318 00:31:25,210 --> 00:31:31,290 I mean these are all fine things to do, consuming less if you're a kind of an affluent, privileged 319 00:31:31,290 --> 00:31:39,770 person, but they only go so far. And if we really want to change society and stop catastrophic 320 00:31:39,770 --> 00:31:46,090 climate change, that means collective action, that means organizing into groups of people 321 00:31:46,090 --> 00:31:51,090 who can confront injustice in really tangible ways. And that means building those groups 322 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,430 also into powerful movements. 323 00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:03,760 It's really easy to get lost in the sense of overwhelming chaos that's going on in the 324 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:10,720 world every day. And to realize that you can't change all of those things as one person. 325 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:18,400 But what you can do, fundamentally and what no one else can take away from you, is you 326 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:24,400 can completely change yourself, and you can act within the domain around you and change 327 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:28,720 that. When you look at your networks when you look at your friend circles, when you 328 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:35,600 look at the communities that you operate in when you look at your skills and your resources, 329 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:40,560 however limited they might be, what that process of assessment does is it allows you to see 330 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,040 that actually you're far more powerful than you might think you are. 331 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:55,520 Avoid getting into climate nihilism. There are definitely a lot of weaknesses in the 332 00:32:55,520 --> 00:33:05,600 capitalist and resource extraction machine. I think that folks should just find the easiest 333 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:13,580 exploit for them to go after and find some folks who wanna shut shit down, organize around 334 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:19,760 that exploit and go forth with insurrectionary optimism. 335 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,880 I think these are very critical life and death decisions and each one of us needs to take 336 00:33:24,930 --> 00:33:30,230 this very very seriously. Because these are decisions that a lot of us are gonna make 337 00:33:30,230 --> 00:33:33,620 to literally go put our bodies on the line and try to save what's left of the earth. 338 00:33:33,620 --> 00:33:37,830 And that's why I would never try to tell somebody what to do I think that's something that each 339 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:45,040 one of us has to take full responsibility in making that decision for ourselves. 340 00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:58,690 We are entering a new era – one that will be inevitably characterized by increasingly 341 00:33:58,690 --> 00:34:04,480 hostile weather patterns, rising sea levels, shortages of fresh water, and historically 342 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:10,629 unprecedented levels of forced human migration. Over the coming decades, these pressures will 343 00:34:10,629 --> 00:34:15,730 lead to the sudden collapse of states, further exacerbating the cycle of displacement and 344 00:34:15,730 --> 00:34:20,460 offering a political justification for the entrenchment of nativist reaction and the 345 00:34:20,460 --> 00:34:23,420 further militarization of borders in the Global North. 346 00:34:23,420 --> 00:34:28,750 This will be a period of profound social, economic and political strife... and if history 347 00:34:28,750 --> 00:34:35,470 is any guide, it will be ugly. Yet even in the tragedy, chaos and bloodshed brought about 348 00:34:35,470 --> 00:34:41,330 by these seismic geopolitical shifts, there will be opportunities for solidarity and mutual 349 00:34:41,330 --> 00:34:46,760 aid. Humanity has faced incredible hardships before, and we have persevered. As always, 350 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:53,050 the specific form that our future takes will depend, in large part, on our willpower, ingenuity, 351 00:34:53,050 --> 00:34:55,600 level of preparation, and capacity to resist. 352 00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:01,040 So at this point, we’d like to remind you that Trouble is intended to be watched in 353 00:35:01,060 --> 00:35:05,520 groups, and to be used as a resource to promote discussion and collective organizing. Are 354 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:11,320 you interested in incorporating a more radical environmental analysis into an existing organizing 355 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,260 project, or in starting a campaign against an ecologically destructive development in 356 00:35:15,260 --> 00:35:20,650 your area? Consider getting together with some comrades, organizing a screening of this 357 00:35:20,650 --> 00:35:23,730 film, and discussing where to get started. 358 00:35:23,730 --> 00:35:27,320 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community 359 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:31,190 centre, or even just at home with friends? Become a Trouble-Maker! For 10 bucks a month, 360 00:35:31,190 --> 00:35:37,160 we’ll hook you up with an advance copy of the show, and a screening kit featuring additional 361 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,800 resources and some questions you can use to get a discussion going. 362 00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:47,360 If you can’t afford to support us financially, no worries! You can stream and/or download 363 00:35:47,390 --> 00:35:54,010 all our content for free off our website: sub.media/trouble. If you’ve got any suggestions 364 00:35:54,010 --> 00:35:59,200 for show topics, or just want to get in touch, drop us a line at trouble@sub.media. 365 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:04,620 This episode would not have been possible without the generous support of Michael, Carla, 366 00:36:04,620 --> 00:36:07,770 Jimmer and the good folks at the Earth First! Journal Collective. 367 00:36:07,770 --> 00:36:12,860 We’ll be taking off a month for the holidays, but stay tuned in early 2020 for Trouble 24, 368 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:18,400 where we plan on taking a closer look at anarchist theories, strategies and tactics for organizing. 369 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:22,320 I mean most of the time you see them when they riot. Couple 30 second clips, and that’s 370 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:28,240 about it. What is it like inside these groups... and what motivates their members? 371 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:30,800 Now get out there…. and make some trouble!