All of us live in the shadow of an ominous
future. None of us can be certain what the

years and decades ahead will bring... but
fleeting glimpses have begun to appear in

the here-and-now. And they are terrifying.

Fires ravaging Brazil and it’s Amazon rainforest

Super-typhoon Haiyan has made a direct hit.

In this Mozambique port city of Beira, an
inland ocean

Continental Europe is baking.

feels like you’re sitting in an oven.

For years, climate scientists’ increasingly
urgent warnings have fallen on the deaf ears

of capitalist technocrats from the extractive
industries, and their acolytes in the halls

of state power. Faced with the apparent inaction
of these decision-makers, environmental activists

and non-profits have opted to simply shout
louder... seemingly unaware that they’re

speaking the wrong language.

The most dire predictions of the UN’s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, have repeatedly

failed to keep up with the pace and trajectory
of ecological devastation. This problem stems

from a persistent inability to predict and
account for the cascading, mutually-reinforcing

nature of runaway feedback loops.

With each passing year, this situation gets
worse. As glaciers recede and ice-shelves

collapse, record-breaking forest fires in
Alaska and Siberia foreshadow the thawing

of the Arctic permafrost — a volatile wildcard
with the potential to dump more carbon into

the atmosphere than the sum total released
during the past two centuries of human activity.

Heatwaves and droughts claim the lives of
millions of people each year, a majority of

whom are children from the Global South. And
while the great mass of humanity swelters

here on land, temperatures are rising even
more rapidly in the oceans. This is leading

to mass die-offs in what were once some of
the richest areas of biodiversity on the planet,

and spawning more frequent and violent mega-storms.

And yet, despite the incredibly drastic situation
that we face, much of the mainstream discourse

around climate change remains aimed at competing
with oil industry propaganda to convince the

public that the phenomenon even exists. And
despite the vast amount of time and resources

devoted to this task, millions of people continue
to loudly claim that global warming is a hoax,

including the President of the United States.

Over the next thirty minutes, we’ll take
a closer look at some of the potential implications

and underlying causes of this slowly unfolding
disaster. Along the way, we’ll talk to a

number of individuals as they share their
personal experiences fighting their alienation

from the natural world, pushing back against
ecologically-destructive industrial development

projects... and making a whole lot of trouble.

The climate emergency is affecting people
here and now all over the world.

There’s still this portrayal and thinking
along the lines of “oh, we still have eight

years or ten years to really respond.” or
maybe even change things, or quote unquote

you still hear “save the earth,” which
is, an enormous amount of hubris that goes

along with that, as well as just being factually
inaccurate. You can look out your window anywhere

you are on the planet right now and see it’s
upon us now. We need to behave accordingly

because of that and not pretend that it’s
out in the future and there’s still time

to avoid what’s upon us.

Worldwide all of the climates together, they
act together. What happens on the other side

of the world affects us here. Climate change,
we’re already seeing the effects on animals

that are in our region that don’t normally
live here. We also have a great deal of changes

in the water temperatures, so it affects salmon
numbers. The habitats of the salmon are being

changed with soil erosion as well as deforestation
from industry. Most of these industries don’t

clean up any of their messes.

Whether it’s the amazon or if it’s the
arctic, all of those different ecosystems

are now as a result, moving outside of the
equilibrium that they’ve been in for, say,

several hundred thousand years

that have allowed us to live on this planet

in the way that we do in this kind of harmony.

That means huge shifts in the now and where
humans and other animals area able to live.

This process is being exacerbated by capitalism.

Glaciers receding around the planet dramatically
is the perfect illustration of the impact

that industrialization and corporate capitalism
is having. Just in the Himalayas alone, there’s

1.5 billion people that at current rates of
ice loss in the Himalayas and in the Hindu

Kush specifically, that by 2100 may not have
any water for drinking and irrigation. And

that’s just talking about glaciers, I mean
we could say similar things when we talk about

ocean acidification, the warming of the oceans,
sea level rise, all these other really, really

dramatic and obvious impacts of the climate
crisis.

The latest now, on that state of emergency
in Venice. Water levels are even higher this

morning, the city’s worst flooding in more
than 50 years.

The Indonesian capital Jakarta is slowly sinking. 
By 2030, half of the city will be

below sea level.

The simplest way to explain a feedback loop
is, the more something happens, the more something

happens. The most famous and easy to explain
feedback loop perhaps is the loss of summer

sea ice in the arctic. So when the sea ice
is there, it reflects most of the sun rays

back into space and that solar radiation,
the heat, with it. As the atmosphere warms

and the sea ice melts, then the ocean around
it more is exposed and it absorbs more of

that sunlight and heat, which then makes the
ice melt faster which then means the ocean

absorbs more heat, and so it goes.

According to a new report experts say that
we have until 2030 to avoid catastrophe. It

also says if unprecedented changes are not
made soon, there will be irreversible damage

to the planet. The report focuses on what
could happen if global temperatures rise by

more than 1.5 degrees Celcius, or 2.7 degrees
Fahrenheit.

The problem is the IPCC fails to include the
rapidity of the feedback loops and the non-linear

nature. So it’s not just things are increasing
like this, but they're increasing like that.

And I think that’s a concept that’s very
important for people to understand, and also

one that unfortunately a lot of people don’t
understand, and it’s because their simply

not being told by the corporate press.

There’s this idea that climate disaster
is going to level systems of power. That we

are going to be affected at the same rate
and thus have the ability to build power as

politicians and elites are simultaneously
dis-empowered. But this is not how it’s

worked so far. People who have the incentive
to fight against climate change are going

to be fighting the rise of fascists and militant
citizen groups trying to hoard and protect

resources, as well as the militarization of
the state and natural disasters.

Dealing with climate change means dealing
with inequality, means dealing with systems

of injustice. The impacts are disproportionate
and intersectional right. The impacts of the

climate emergency are especially felt by low-income
communities, by racialized communities, by

people in the global south.

People of color, indigenous people in particular,
are most likely the most impacted by climate

change and industrial disasters.

I think what we’re now starting to realize
is that climate change is more than just about

carbon. it’s about a way of life, a way
of being, it’s about an understanding of

the world, the understanding of nature, the
understanding of who we are. And what we’re

starting to realize is that in order for us
to change our approach to the climate, we

really have to change everything that we do.
Looking at climate change, looking at solutions,

is a lot more than just thinking about techno
fixes, it’s about re-writing our entire

operating system.

On Friday September 20th, 2019, millions of
people from more than 160 countries took to

the streets, in what’s been described as
the largest climate protests in human history.

These rallies and demonstrations were led
by young people, particularly high school

students responding to 16 year old Swedish
activist Greta Thunberg’s call to skip class

and participate in what was dubbed a ‘climate
strike’.

Thunberg, who has been skipping class herself
every Friday for the past year to protest

politicians’ inaction on climate change,
is an impressive figure.

Her withering speeches to world leaders, in which she berates them for their shameless

insincerity and their crimes against future generations, resonate with a public that has grown increasingly

frustrated by their so-called leaders’ inability
to stop this slow-moving apocalypse.

But as impressive as this massive upsurge
in mobilization and awareness has been, these

rallies will accomplish very little in and
of themselves, other than provide yet another

exercise in recuperation and an opportunity
for political re-branding. And that is because

they are premised on a comforting, naive,
and ultimately false conception of

how the world works.

The true mechanisms of power that are driving
us down the path of climate destruction are

not swayed by protests. Capitalism, as it
turns out, also has a pretty strong survival

instinct. And its drive for self-preservation
is based on perpetual economic growth... a

principle that every single state and the
entire architecture of global finance exists

to uphold.

Ridding ourselves of the fairy tale notion
that we can somehow avoid the worst effects

of global warming if we organize a big enough
rally does not necessarily entail giving up,

or succumbing to fatalistic despair. Instead
it can and should serve as a sobering call

to brace ourselves to the harsh reality that
politicians aren’t going to save us.

And that we need to start acting accordingly.

Climate change is like the earth going into
shock from a gunshot wound. And it makes no

sense to try to talk about solving the problem
without talking about the bullet, which is

our current capitalist, extractive resource-dependent
civilization.

I don’t see us rapidly changing soon enough
to stop climate change. It’s not just running

a vehicle that’s creating climate change.
The mass amount of industrialization and disconnect

from our planet is what’s creating the climate
change. We just feel that ‘oh, I’m entitled

to this.’ That the way we live today in
a modern life—that that has to keep existing.

People know the basics of climate change and
ecological destruction at this point, and

I think we need to abandon this insistence
on education, or raising awareness. Education

is great, for a while, but I think what is
needed is groups of people who trust each

other to feel empowered and act. And supported
when they do.

I mean does anyone really, taking a sober
assessment of the situation in this country

today politically, think that any pressure
can be brought to bear to change a system

where fascists essentially rule the White
House, the Supreme Court and the Senate?

Does it make sense to use traditional methods of
information-spreading and organization to

try to apply pressure to an authoritarian
regime? Would it make a whole lot of sense

for there to be a traditionally-organized
environmental movement in Russia trying to

apply pressure to President Putin to have
better climate policy? And anyone that’s

gonna really argue differently about that
in this country is just not taking a very

clear, honest look at the situation this country’s
already in.

Movements in other countries know that politicians
don’t willingly give up their power. Incapacitating

systems that harm them is really what changes
things.

I would say my main critique of the mainstream
environmental movement in general is that

it’s too liberal. The mainstream environmental
movement, at least as we see it on television,

is really a movement that features people
who are fairly comfortable with the status

quo—with capitalism, with colonialism and
all these other things. And don’t really

want to challenge them.

It’s exciting to see momentum around the
urgency of climate change, but it’s also

important to recognize that groups like Extinction
Rebellion are still operating from the basic

idea that appealing to power is an effective
way to bring about change.

Really, XR I think needs to be able to engage
much more closely with the communities that

are affected by these disruptions to understand
what kinds of activities would they support.

And that means broadening the discussion around
climate change, so that people can begin to

see it’s not just about extinction in a
far-flung future. That it’s something a

bit abstract to think about. That that same
system is destroying lives here and now. That’s

the system that people are worried about.
Y’know, they’re struggling to pay their

bills. They’re kind of reeling under the
impacts of austerity. It’s that same system

that is basically destroying the planet, and
destroying our ecosystems.

The large climate marches that we’ve seen
more recently—these marches of hundreds

of thousands of people—show me that we have
enough human beings who care. The question

is whether those people are willing to use
the tactics necessary. Whether they’re willing

and able to learn from other movements in
history, and from more grassroots,

direct-action oriented movements.

The premise of direct action is that you are
not appealing to a larger power than yourself

to enact change. You’re taking power into
your own hands instead of trying to figure

out what you could do that would help someone
else make that change happen for you.

Direct action from Indigenous-led land defence
and water defence has proven over time that

we can go back to humble ways of living. We
can reduce our consumption.

It requires a smaller number of people, but
it requires a higher level of risk. And that’s

often why people from a more comfortable background
don’t want to do that kind of action.

Mothers in marginalized communities have historically
been on the forefront, because marginalized

communities are often receiving the first
blow of the horrors of our ecological and

social and economic collapse.

The project of fighting climate change in
the long term also means essentially getting

rid of capitalism. That we have to move to
other economic systems and overturn the legacy

of colonialism that was the original way to
impose capitalism on most of the world.

We need to look at how we can dismantle these
kinds of systems. We have it in us to turn

things around, but there’s a lot to let
go of.

We have to get very very real about the situation
that we’re in. And that’s gonna call on

something different within each one of us,
as far as how committed are we to

walking our talk?

That’s the action that these kids are really
marching for. That’s the real action that

needs to happen. A complete overhaul and dismantling of society.

According to official statistics from the
UN Refugee Agency, 16.1 million people were

displaced due to weather-related events in
2018 alone. Notably, this figure does not

include those forced from their homes by armed
conflicts triggered, or worsened by climate-related

factors.

A new study, released in October of 2019,
suggests that the number of people that will

be affected by rising sea levels in the coming
decades is more than three times what was

previously thought. The updated report projects
that 300 million people will experience annual

flooding by the year 2050, meaning that many
coastal cities will need to be evacuated altogether.

These figures are based on countries meeting
the emission reduction targets outlined in

the Paris Climate Accord, which isn’t going
to happen... meaning that the actual figures

are likely to be even higher.

Much of the displacement from sea level rise
is expected to occur in heavily-populated

regions in Asia. In Bangladesh alone, the
homes of 42 million people are at risk. Given

the rise of Hindu nationalism and the acute
threat of ethno-religious sectarianism in

the neighbouring state of India, the prospects
of a mass exodus from Bangladesh are particularly

grim. But it’s far from the only potential
geopolitical flashpoint.

The racist anxieties conjured up by the spectre
of unchecked migration has been a windfall

for fascist, third-positionist and identitarian
movements, nationalist politicians, police

forces, military planners and other advocates
of increased border militarization

all around the world.

Unfortunately, over the coming years and decades,
this trend is likely going to get

much, much worse.

The climate crisis is causing and affecting
a refugee crisis, or at least adding dramatically

to already existing refugee crises. For example,
we look at the Arab Spring. One of the foundational

causes of the Arab Spring was drought, regional
drought. We can remember the Arab Spring was

caused by a fruit vendor in Tunisia doing
self-immolation, and that was because of food

prices and because what’s happening to crops,
and because of governments not stepping in

to help in anyway.

A series of global climate linked food basket
failures before the 2011 Arab Spring led to

these big food price spikes in the year before
the riots broke out. And it was those food

price spikes that made basic food, like bread,
almost unaffordable for many people in those

parts of the world, which was one of the major
triggers for the outbreak of riots.

People were literally not eating and farmers
were literally not making it, and that spread

across the whole region, and look at what’s
happened today. There’s a huge immigration

crisis of people going across the Mediterranean,
drowning in boats, and trying to get to Europe,

and trying to get to safer countries.

The number of migrants and refugees who have
lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2019

is up to 900.

... declared a state of emergency.

The summit that’s taking place next week
will be looking for new ways to tackle the

continent’s biggest influx of migrants since
the second world war.

The number of asylum seekers are very high.

Police now decide who stays and who moves
on deeper into Europe and into uncertainty.

So we’re already seeing governments around
the world move in a direction of policing

migrants, in particular, because of the climate
emergency and because of its impact. There

is a real essential connection and an essential
overlap between the migrant crisis and authoritarianism.

And we see in North America, and many parts
of the world, that authoritarians or would-be

authoritarians are using the migrant crisis
as an excuse to whip up xenophobia and racism.

And using it as an excuse to crack down at
borders and crackdown on undocumented people.

We look at what’s happening in the United
States where so many people coming to the

southern border coming up through Mexico are
farmers from Central America that just can’t

make it- that’s because of drought, that’s
because of extreme weather events and things

that never used to happen at the level that
they’re happening now.

Another factor is rising sea-levels. The hard
fact is that the amount of sea-level rise

that right now is already baked into the system;
meaning, if we stopped all C02 emissions on

a dime, we have meters of sea-lvel rise that
are inevitable now, that means every major

coastal city on the planet is gone. The question
is not, “if,” it is “when”. So, where

are all those hundreds of millions of people
going to go?

People are becoming more and more paranoid
and afraid, thus this human population is

becoming more and more fragile. And with that
fragility comes more fear-based expansion

on the militaries.

At the moment, most governments who are looking
at climate change... where we’re seeing

the real action is that most governments are
doing it through the lense of national security.

They will look at all the different ways that
climate change can amplify traditional security

threats- how will climate change amplify conflict?
How will climate change destabilize different

countries due to impact on water or impact
on food? And that sort of thing, so all of

the focus ends up expanding... you know you’ll
have militarization and police state power

in order to be prepared for what happens when
climate destabilizes your soc iety. After the

Arab spring, we had this massive seismic shifts
in politics, very rapidly across the Western

world. The election of Donald Trump, the Brexit
referendum, the increase in popularity of

far-right groups in Europe. And what we know 
is that this sort of thing is

likely to continue happening.

We’re gonna see capitalism and neo-fascism
both exacerbating and causing these disasters,

and being involved in the aftermath whether
that be militias or hate crimes occurring.

Western world. Fortress Europe. Fortress Britain.
Is that the politics we have in store? Are

we seeing this worst-case scenario of where
doing nothing about climate change leads to

the rise of different forms of fascism, and
possibly even a form of even eco-fascism...

who knows?

Given its incredibly vast scale and complexity,
and the existential threat that  it poses to

the future of life on this planet, the spectre
of climate catastrophe can take a serious

toll on our individual and collective mental
health.

Unfortunately, matters aren’t helped by
the heavily ingrained Western tendency to

frame issues in stark, moralistic, all-or-nothing
terms. Environmental non-profits repeatedly

claiming that humanity has ‘one more chance
to save the world’ may encourage people

to come out to a rally or a march... for a
while. But it doesn’t do much to equip people

for the inevitable disillusionment that comes
when the world isn’t saved, and business

continues as usual. The question is... what
comes next?

Thankfully, the struggle isn’t a zero-sum
game. We need to accept that the effects of

climate change are already upon us, and they
will continue to get worse for the foreseeable

future. In order to stem and begin to reverse
this tide, we need to overthrow capitalism,

remove the ceaseless drive for profit as the
central organizational pillar of the global

economy, and build a new, more sustainable
civilization in its place. This monumental

task is too much for any of us to do on our
own. It is a historic challenge that will

require a massive shift in global consciousness,
and the combined, unshakable determination

of millions of people willing to risk their
lives. All that each of us can do is play

our own small part in this bigger whole.

I make it a point to not give suggestions
or advice to people about what to do about

the climate crisis. Instead I tell people
the most important thing to do is to get really

really quiet and listen. And really really
ask to be shown what is it that I need to

do to try to serve and take care of the earth.
What is the sense of justice that's really

calling to me, that I need to go act upon.
I think each one of us is going to get a very

very different message. It might be feeling
a deep calling to go create music, or be a

doctor, or go join extinction rebellion or
go do something even

much more radical than that.

So a big question is what people can do to
get involved and take action. Building networks

with people you trust right now. Learn skills
and share them with people you love. And fight

infrastructure projects in our community.
And take care of yourself. Recognize the ways

that all struggles for liberation are intertwined.
And I think primarily supporting people in

retaining or getting ownership of their land
back is one place to start by supporting indigenous

struggles. The highest levels of biodiversity
that still exist on this planet are the places

where people still live or have returned to
who are indigenous to that area.

For folks who are used to and conditioned
to having great amounts of advantages, just

understand that a lot of your advantages most
likely came from our devastation. There's

a lot of changes that are going to be coming
very soon. There's going to be a lot of things

that you're not going to like hearing. It
might involve folks that are disadvantaged

picking up on some advantages for once in
their lives. Support them. Support those movements,

support those populations. The capitalist
planet is not going to build a big massive

ship for us to escape and get to another planet.
We don't have any other options. This is our

one option. This is our one chance.

We don't have to start from scratch, we don't
have to reinvent the wheel. Our planet has

a rich tradition, a rich history of social
movements and of resistance movements, on

this continent and around the world on many
different time scales. And if we can understand

and learn from and celebrate those movements,
then we can learn the things that we need

to learn in the time that we have to take
action. One of the primary shortcomings of

the mainstream environmental movement has
been its focus on individual action. And individualism

really limits what we're able to accomplish.
Things like flying less or using less gasoline,

I mean these are all fine things to do, consuming
less if you're a kind of an affluent, privileged

person, but they only go so far. And if we
really want to change society and stop catastrophic

climate change, that means collective action,
that means organizing into groups of people

who can confront injustice in really tangible
ways. And that means building those groups

also into powerful movements.

It's really easy to get lost in the sense
of overwhelming chaos that's going on in the

world every day. And to realize that you can't
change all of those things as one person.

But what you can do, fundamentally and what
no one else can take away from you, is you

can completely change yourself,  and you can
act within the domain around you and change

that. When you look at your networks when
you look at your friend circles, when you

look at the communities that you operate in
when you look at your skills and your resources,

however limited they might be, what that process
of assessment does is it allows you to see

that actually you're far more powerful than
you might think you are.

Avoid getting into climate nihilism. There
are definitely a lot of weaknesses in the

capitalist and resource extraction machine.
I think that folks should just find the easiest

exploit for them to go after and find some
folks who wanna shut shit down, organize around

that exploit and go forth with insurrectionary
optimism.

I think these are very critical life and death
decisions and each one of us needs to take

this very very seriously. Because these are
decisions that a lot of us are gonna make

to literally go put our bodies on the line
and try to save what's left of the earth.

And that's why I would never try to tell somebody
what to do I think that's something that each

one of us has to take full responsibility
in making that decision for ourselves.

We are entering a new era – one that will
be inevitably characterized by increasingly

hostile weather patterns, rising sea levels,
shortages of fresh water, and historically

unprecedented levels of forced human migration.
Over the coming decades, these pressures will

lead to the sudden collapse of states, further
exacerbating the cycle of displacement and

offering a political justification for the
entrenchment of nativist reaction and the

further militarization of borders in the Global
North.

This will be a period of profound social,
economic and political strife... and if history

is any guide, it will be ugly. Yet even in
the tragedy, chaos and bloodshed brought about

by these seismic geopolitical shifts, there
will be opportunities for solidarity and mutual

aid. Humanity has faced incredible hardships
before, and we have persevered. As always,

the specific form that our future takes will
depend, in large part, on our willpower, ingenuity,

level of preparation, and capacity to resist.

So at this point, we’d like to remind you
that Trouble is intended to be watched in

groups, and to be used as a resource to promote
discussion and collective organizing. Are

you interested in incorporating a more radical
environmental analysis into an existing organizing

project, or in starting a campaign against
an ecologically destructive development in

your area? Consider getting together with
some comrades, organizing a screening of this

film, and discussing where to get started.

Interested in running regular screenings of
Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community

centre, or even just at home with friends?
Become a Trouble-Maker! For 10 bucks a month,

we’ll hook you up with an advance copy of
the show, and a screening kit featuring additional

resources and some questions you can use to
get a discussion going.

If you can’t afford to support us financially,
no worries! You can stream and/or download

all our content for free off our website:
sub.media/trouble. If you’ve got any suggestions

for show topics, or just want to get in touch,
drop us a line at trouble@sub.media.

This episode would not have been possible
without the generous support of Michael, Carla,

Jimmer and the good folks at the Earth First!
Journal Collective.

We’ll be taking off a month for the holidays,
but stay tuned in early 2020 for Trouble 24,

where we plan on taking a closer look at anarchist
theories, strategies and tactics for organizing.

I mean most of the time you see them when
they riot. Couple 30 second clips, and that’s

about it. What is it like inside these groups...
and what motivates their members?

Now get out there…. and make some trouble!