WEBVTT 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 00:00:15.590 --> 00:00:20.760 years and decades ahead will bring... but fleeting glimpses have begun to appear in 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.100 the here-and-now. And they are terrifying. 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:27.259 Fires ravaging Brazil and it’s Amazon rainforest 00:00:27.259 --> 00:00:29.869 Super-typhoon Haiyan has made a direct hit. 00:00:29.869 --> 00:00:33.390 In this Mozambique port city of Beira, an inland ocean 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:35.170 Continental Europe is baking. 00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:37.930 feels like you’re sitting in an oven. 00:00:37.930 --> 00:00:42.870 For years, climate scientists’ increasingly urgent warnings have fallen on the deaf ears 00:00:42.870 --> 00:00:47.140 of capitalist technocrats from the extractive industries, and their acolytes in the halls 00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:53.179 of state power. Faced with the apparent inaction of these decision-makers, environmental activists 00:00:53.179 --> 00:00:58.640 and non-profits have opted to simply shout louder... seemingly unaware that they’re 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.000 speaking the wrong language. 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 00:01:07.460 --> 00:01:13.410 failed to keep up with the pace and trajectory of ecological devastation. This problem stems 00:01:13.410 --> 00:01:18.330 from a persistent inability to predict and account for the cascading, mutually-reinforcing 00:01:18.330 --> 00:01:20.930 nature of runaway feedback loops. 00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:28.660 With each passing year, this situation gets worse. As glaciers recede and ice-shelves 00:01:28.660 --> 00:01:33.220 collapse, record-breaking forest fires in Alaska and Siberia foreshadow the thawing 00:01:33.220 --> 00:01:39.120 of the Arctic permafrost — a volatile wildcard with the potential to dump more carbon into 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:45.400 the atmosphere than the sum total released during the past two centuries of human activity. 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:50.570 Heatwaves and droughts claim the lives of millions of people each year, a majority of 00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:56.970 whom are children from the Global South. And while the great mass of humanity swelters 00:01:56.970 --> 00:02:02.740 here on land, temperatures are rising even more rapidly in the oceans. This is leading 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, 00:02:08.130 --> 00:02:11.420 and spawning more frequent and violent mega-storms. 00:02:11.420 --> 00:02:16.680 And yet, despite the incredibly drastic situation that we face, much of the mainstream discourse 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:21.370 around climate change remains aimed at competing with oil industry propaganda to convince the 00:02:21.370 --> 00:02:27.250 public that the phenomenon even exists. And despite the vast amount of time and resources 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, 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:36.940 including the President of the United States. 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 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:49.050 and underlying causes of this slowly unfolding disaster. Along the way, we’ll talk to a 00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:53.770 number of individuals as they share their personal experiences fighting their alienation 00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:58.750 from the natural world, pushing back against ecologically-destructive industrial development 00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:04.880 projects... and making a whole lot of trouble. 00:03:44.600 --> 00:03:50.400 The climate emergency is affecting people here and now all over the world. 00:03:50.430 --> 00:03:55.459 There’s still this portrayal and thinking along the lines of “oh, we still have eight 00:03:55.459 --> 00:04:02.270 years or ten years to really respond.” or maybe even change things, or quote unquote 00:04:02.270 --> 00:04:06.840 you still hear “save the earth,” which is, an enormous amount of hubris that goes 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 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 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 00:04:22.470 --> 00:04:26.039 to avoid what’s upon us. 00:04:26.039 --> 00:04:31.921 Worldwide all of the climates together, they act together. What happens on the other side 00:04:31.921 --> 00:04:38.809 of the world affects us here. Climate change, we’re already seeing the effects on animals 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 00:04:44.590 --> 00:04:50.150 in the water temperatures, so it affects salmon numbers. The habitats of the salmon are being 00:04:50.150 --> 00:04:56.090 changed with soil erosion as well as deforestation from industry. Most of these industries don’t 00:04:56.090 --> 00:04:57.740 clean up any of their messes. 00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:02.779 Whether it’s the amazon or if it’s the arctic, all of those different ecosystems 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, 00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:09.520 several hundred thousand years 00:05:09.520 --> 00:05:12.400 that have allowed us to live on this planet 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:14.720 in the way that we do in this kind of harmony. 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. 00:05:21.840 --> 00:05:26.400 This process is being exacerbated by capitalism. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:35.280 Glaciers receding around the planet dramatically is the perfect illustration of the impact 00:05:35.300 --> 00:05:42.550 that industrialization and corporate capitalism is having. Just in the Himalayas alone, there’s 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 00:05:47.830 --> 00:05:55.150 Kush specifically, that by 2100 may not have any water for drinking and irrigation. And 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 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:05.719 ocean acidification, the warming of the oceans, sea level rise, all these other really, really 00:06:05.719 --> 00:06:08.400 dramatic and obvious impacts of the climate crisis. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:14.560 The latest now, on that state of emergency in Venice. Water levels are even higher this 00:06:14.599 --> 00:06:17.180 morning, the city’s worst flooding in more than 50 years. 00:06:17.200 --> 00:06:23.120 The Indonesian capital Jakarta is slowly sinking. By 2030, half of the city will be 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.240 below sea level. 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:31.300 The simplest way to explain a feedback loop is, the more something happens, the more something 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:37.919 happens. The most famous and easy to explain feedback loop perhaps is the loss of summer 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 00:06:43.619 --> 00:06:49.930 back into space and that solar radiation, the heat, with it. As the atmosphere warms 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 00:06:56.419 --> 00:07:03.430 that sunlight and heat, which then makes the ice melt faster which then means the ocean 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:06.560 absorbs more heat, and so it goes. 00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:13.729 According to a new report experts say that we have until 2030 to avoid catastrophe. It 00:07:13.729 --> 00:07:19.419 also says if unprecedented changes are not made soon, there will be irreversible damage 00:07:19.419 --> 00:07:24.379 to the planet. The report focuses on what could happen if global temperatures rise by 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:29.200 more than 1.5 degrees Celcius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. 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 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. 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 00:07:47.069 --> 00:07:50.999 one that unfortunately a lot of people don’t understand, and it’s because their simply 00:07:50.999 --> 00:07:53.840 not being told by the corporate press. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:01.280 There’s this idea that climate disaster is going to level systems of power. That we 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 00:08:07.520 --> 00:08:12.029 politicians and elites are simultaneously dis-empowered. But this is not how it’s 00:08:12.029 --> 00:08:18.659 worked so far. People who have the incentive to fight against climate change are going 00:08:18.659 --> 00:08:25.429 to be fighting the rise of fascists and militant citizen groups trying to hoard and protect 00:08:25.440 --> 00:08:31.280 resources, as well as the militarization of the state and natural disasters. 00:08:32.400 --> 00:08:37.750 Dealing with climate change means dealing with inequality, means dealing with systems 00:08:37.750 --> 00:08:44.620 of injustice. The impacts are disproportionate and intersectional right. The impacts of the 00:08:44.620 --> 00:08:50.611 climate emergency are especially felt by low-income communities, by racialized communities, by 00:08:50.640 --> 00:08:53.200 people in the global south. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:59.300 People of color, indigenous people in particular, are most likely the most impacted by climate 00:08:59.300 --> 00:09:01.680 change and industrial disasters. 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 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 00:09:14.199 --> 00:09:19.100 the world, the understanding of nature, the understanding of who we are. And what we’re 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 00:09:24.250 --> 00:09:29.240 really have to change everything that we do. Looking at climate change, looking at solutions, 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 00:09:34.899 --> 00:09:37.520 operating system. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:54.880 On Friday September 20th, 2019, millions of people from more than 160 countries took to 00:09:54.880 --> 00:09:59.600 the streets, in what’s been described as the largest climate protests in human history. 00:10:02.880 --> 00:10:08.550 These rallies and demonstrations were led by young people, particularly high school 00:10:08.550 --> 00:10:13.810 students responding to 16 year old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s call to skip class 00:10:13.810 --> 00:10:17.019 and participate in what was dubbed a ‘climate strike’. 00:10:17.019 --> 00:10:21.930 Thunberg, who has been skipping class herself every Friday for the past year to protest 00:10:21.930 --> 00:10:27.920 politicians’ inaction on climate change, is an impressive figure. 00:10:30.880 --> 00:10:36.560 Her withering speeches to world leaders, in which she berates them for their shameless 00:10:36.569 --> 00:10:40.960 insincerity and their crimes against future generations, resonate with a public that has grown increasingly 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:46.640 frustrated by their so-called leaders’ inability to stop this slow-moving apocalypse. 00:10:47.790 --> 00:10:53.200 But as impressive as this massive upsurge in mobilization and awareness has been, these 00:10:53.250 --> 00:10:58.000 rallies will accomplish very little in and of themselves, other than provide yet another 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:03.600 exercise in recuperation and an opportunity for political re-branding. And that is because 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:07.991 they are premised on a comforting, naive, and ultimately false conception of 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:09.680 how the world works. 00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:14.560 The true mechanisms of power that are driving us down the path of climate destruction are 00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:20.220 not swayed by protests. Capitalism, as it turns out, also has a pretty strong survival 00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:25.879 instinct. And its drive for self-preservation is based on perpetual economic growth... a 00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:30.760 principle that every single state and the entire architecture of global finance exists 00:11:30.760 --> 00:11:34.000 to uphold. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.829 Ridding ourselves of the fairy tale notion that we can somehow avoid the worst effects 00:11:37.829 --> 00:11:43.339 of global warming if we organize a big enough rally does not necessarily entail giving up, 00:11:43.339 --> 00:11:48.949 or succumbing to fatalistic despair. Instead it can and should serve as a sobering call 00:11:48.949 --> 00:11:54.899 to brace ourselves to the harsh reality that politicians aren’t going to save us. 00:11:54.899 --> 00:11:58.160 And that we need to start acting accordingly. 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 00:12:22.560 --> 00:12:30.320 sense to try to talk about solving the problem without talking about the bullet, which is 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:37.600 our current capitalist, extractive resource-dependent civilization. 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 00:12:45.839 --> 00:12:50.870 a vehicle that’s creating climate change. The mass amount of industrialization and disconnect 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 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. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:09.680 People know the basics of climate change and ecological destruction at this point, and 00:13:09.709 --> 00:13:15.100 I think we need to abandon this insistence on education, or raising awareness. Education 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 00:13:20.880 --> 00:13:26.320 other to feel empowered and act. And supported when they do. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:33.140 I mean does anyone really, taking a sober assessment of the situation in this country 00:13:33.140 --> 00:13:39.079 today politically, think that any pressure can be brought to bear to change a system 00:13:39.079 --> 00:13:47.050 where fascists essentially rule the White House, the Supreme Court and the Senate? 00:13:47.050 --> 00:13:53.110 Does it make sense to use traditional methods of information-spreading and organization to 00:13:53.110 --> 00:13:57.819 try to apply pressure to an authoritarian regime? Would it make a whole lot of sense 00:13:57.819 --> 00:14:02.880 for there to be a traditionally-organized environmental movement in Russia trying to 00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:09.510 apply pressure to President Putin to have better climate policy? And anyone that’s 00:14:09.510 --> 00:14:14.680 gonna really argue differently about that in this country is just not taking a very 00:14:14.680 --> 00:14:19.360 clear, honest look at the situation this country’s already in. 00:14:19.920 --> 00:14:26.790 Movements in other countries know that politicians don’t willingly give up their power. Incapacitating 00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:30.480 systems that harm them is really what changes things. 00:14:31.760 --> 00:14:35.980 I would say my main critique of the mainstream environmental movement in general is that 00:14:35.980 --> 00:14:42.310 it’s too liberal. The mainstream environmental movement, at least as we see it on television, 00:14:42.310 --> 00:14:46.550 is really a movement that features people who are fairly comfortable with the status 00:14:46.550 --> 00:14:51.740 quo—with capitalism, with colonialism and all these other things. And don’t really 00:14:51.760 --> 00:14:54.400 want to challenge them. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:15.920 It’s exciting to see momentum around the urgency of climate change, but it’s also 00:15:15.939 --> 00:15:21.769 important to recognize that groups like Extinction Rebellion are still operating from the basic 00:15:21.769 --> 00:15:27.520 idea that appealing to power is an effective way to bring about change. 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 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:41.100 are affected by these disruptions to understand what kinds of activities would they support. 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:45.519 And that means broadening the discussion around climate change, so that people can begin to 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 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 00:15:55.949 --> 00:16:00.569 the system that people are worried about. Y’know, they’re struggling to pay their 00:16:00.569 --> 00:16:05.170 bills. They’re kind of reeling under the impacts of austerity. It’s that same system 00:16:05.170 --> 00:16:08.810 that is basically destroying the planet, and destroying our ecosystems. 00:16:08.810 --> 00:16:13.490 The large climate marches that we’ve seen more recently—these marches of hundreds 00:16:13.490 --> 00:16:19.380 of thousands of people—show me that we have enough human beings who care. The question 00:16:19.380 --> 00:16:25.090 is whether those people are willing to use the tactics necessary. Whether they’re willing 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:30.080 and able to learn from other movements in history, and from more grassroots, 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:32.720 direct-action oriented movements. 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 00:16:38.930 --> 00:16:43.730 to enact change. You’re taking power into your own hands instead of trying to figure 00:16:43.730 --> 00:16:49.380 out what you could do that would help someone else make that change happen for you. 00:16:49.380 --> 00:16:56.949 Direct action from Indigenous-led land defence and water defence has proven over time that 00:16:56.949 --> 00:17:01.720 we can go back to humble ways of living. We can reduce our consumption. 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 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. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.400 Mothers in marginalized communities have historically been on the forefront, because marginalized 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:24.710 communities are often receiving the first blow of the horrors of our ecological and 00:17:24.710 --> 00:17:26.790 social and economic collapse. 00:17:26.790 --> 00:17:32.040 The project of fighting climate change in the long term also means essentially getting 00:17:32.040 --> 00:17:38.130 rid of capitalism. That we have to move to other economic systems and overturn the legacy 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:45.200 of colonialism that was the original way to impose capitalism on most of the world. 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 00:17:51.140 --> 00:17:54.870 things around, but there’s a lot to let go of. 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 00:17:59.550 --> 00:18:05.600 something different within each one of us, as far as how committed are we to 00:18:05.600 --> 00:18:07.280 walking our talk? 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 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:17.600 needs to happen. A complete overhaul and dismantling of society. 00:18:25.280 --> 00:18:30.960 According to official statistics from the UN Refugee Agency, 16.1 million people were 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:36.880 displaced due to weather-related events in 2018 alone. Notably, this figure does not 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:41.860 include those forced from their homes by armed conflicts triggered, or worsened by climate-related 00:18:41.860 --> 00:18:43.280 factors. 00:18:44.320 --> 00:18:49.680 A new study, released in October of 2019, suggests that the number of people that will 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 00:18:54.110 --> 00:18:59.690 previously thought. The updated report projects that 300 million people will experience annual 00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:05.600 flooding by the year 2050, meaning that many coastal cities will need to be evacuated altogether. 00:19:07.360 --> 00:19:11.760 These figures are based on countries meeting the emission reduction targets outlined in 00:19:11.760 --> 00:19:17.120 the Paris Climate Accord, which isn’t going to happen... meaning that the actual figures 00:19:17.120 --> 00:19:19.120 are likely to be even higher. 00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:25.120 Much of the displacement from sea level rise is expected to occur in heavily-populated 00:19:25.120 --> 00:19:32.940 regions in Asia. In Bangladesh alone, the homes of 42 million people are at risk. Given 00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:37.700 the rise of Hindu nationalism and the acute threat of ethno-religious sectarianism in 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:42.710 the neighbouring state of India, the prospects of a mass exodus from Bangladesh are particularly 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:49.120 grim. But it’s far from the only potential geopolitical flashpoint. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:54.320 The racist anxieties conjured up by the spectre of unchecked migration has been a windfall 00:19:54.320 --> 00:20:00.420 for fascist, third-positionist and identitarian movements, nationalist politicians, police 00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:05.120 forces, military planners and other advocates of increased border militarization 00:20:05.120 --> 00:20:06.960 all around the world. 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:12.240 Unfortunately, over the coming years and decades, this trend is likely going to get 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:14.720 much, much worse. 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:32.080 The climate crisis is causing and affecting a refugee crisis, or at least adding dramatically 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 00:20:42.580 --> 00:20:48.560 causes of the Arab Spring was drought, regional drought. We can remember the Arab Spring was 00:20:48.560 --> 00:20:54.460 caused by a fruit vendor in Tunisia doing self-immolation, and that was because of food 00:20:54.460 --> 00:20:59.250 prices and because what’s happening to crops, and because of governments not stepping in 00:20:59.280 --> 00:21:01.790 to help in anyway. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:11.430 A series of global climate linked food basket failures before the 2011 Arab Spring led to 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 00:21:17.340 --> 00:21:26.110 price spikes that made basic food, like bread, almost unaffordable for many people in those 00:21:26.110 --> 00:21:32.640 parts of the world, which was one of the major triggers for the outbreak of riots. 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:36.990 People were literally not eating and farmers were literally not making it, and that spread 00:21:36.990 --> 00:21:43.060 across the whole region, and look at what’s happened today. There’s a huge immigration 00:21:43.060 --> 00:21:48.600 crisis of people going across the Mediterranean, drowning in boats, and trying to get to Europe, 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:50.720 and trying to get to safer countries. 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:56.490 The number of migrants and refugees who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2019 00:21:56.490 --> 00:21:59.010 is up to 900. 00:21:59.010 --> 00:22:01.200 ... declared a state of emergency. 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 00:22:05.320 --> 00:22:09.700 continent’s biggest influx of migrants since the second world war. 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:13.830 The number of asylum seekers are very high. 00:22:13.840 --> 00:22:20.770 Police now decide who stays and who moves on deeper into Europe and into uncertainty. 00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:28.850 So we’re already seeing governments around the world move in a direction of policing 00:22:28.850 --> 00:22:34.870 migrants, in particular, because of the climate emergency and because of its impact. There 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:41.920 is a real essential connection and an essential overlap between the migrant crisis and authoritarianism. 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 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:57.120 authoritarians are using the migrant crisis as an excuse to whip up xenophobia and racism. 00:22:57.120 --> 00:23:04.560 And using it as an excuse to crack down at borders and crackdown on undocumented people. 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 00:23:08.730 --> 00:23:13.890 southern border coming up through Mexico are farmers from Central America that just can’t 00:23:13.890 --> 00:23:17.680 make it- that’s because of drought, that’s because of extreme weather events and things 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:22.880 that never used to happen at the level that they’re happening now. 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 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 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 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 00:23:51.140 --> 00:23:55.360 are all those hundreds of millions of people going to go? 00:23:56.320 --> 00:24:03.040 People are becoming more and more paranoid and afraid, thus this human population is 00:24:03.070 --> 00:24:09.420 becoming more and more fragile. And with that fragility comes more fear-based expansion 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:10.830 on the militaries. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:17.120 At the moment, most governments who are looking at climate change... where we’re seeing 00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:22.240 the real action is that most governments are doing it through the lense of national security. 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:28.320 They will look at all the different ways that climate change can amplify traditional security 00:24:28.350 --> 00:24:34.960 threats- how will climate change amplify conflict? How will climate change destabilize different 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 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:49.350 the focus ends up expanding... you know you’ll have militarization and police state power 00:24:49.360 --> 00:24:56.960 in order to be prepared for what happens when climate destabilizes your soc iety. After the 00:24:57.120 --> 00:25:03.360 Arab spring, we had this massive seismic shifts in politics, very rapidly across the Western 00:25:03.390 --> 00:25:10.570 world. The election of Donald Trump, the Brexit referendum, the increase in popularity of 00:25:10.570 --> 00:25:15.040 far-right groups in Europe. And what we know is that this sort of thing is 00:25:15.040 --> 00:25:17.600 likely to continue happening. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:25.680 We’re gonna see capitalism and neo-fascism both exacerbating and causing these disasters, 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:35.200 and being involved in the aftermath whether that be militias or hate crimes occurring. 00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:43.740 Western world. Fortress Europe. Fortress Britain. Is that the politics we have in store? Are 00:25:43.760 --> 00:25:50.440 we seeing this worst-case scenario of where doing nothing about climate change leads to 00:25:50.440 --> 00:25:53.920 the rise of different forms of fascism, and possibly even a form of even eco-fascism... 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:56.320 who knows? 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:20.880 Given its incredibly vast scale and complexity, and the existential threat that it poses to 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:25.440 the future of life on this planet, the spectre of climate catastrophe can take a serious 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.480 toll on our individual and collective mental health. 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:34.000 Unfortunately, matters aren’t helped by the heavily ingrained Western tendency to 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:41.040 frame issues in stark, moralistic, all-or-nothing terms. Environmental non-profits repeatedly 00:26:41.060 --> 00:26:45.720 claiming that humanity has ‘one more chance to save the world’ may encourage people 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 00:26:51.470 --> 00:26:56.170 for the inevitable disillusionment that comes when the world isn’t saved, and business 00:26:56.170 --> 00:27:01.360 continues as usual. The question is... what comes next? 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 00:27:07.100 --> 00:27:11.180 climate change are already upon us, and they will continue to get worse for the foreseeable 00:27:11.180 --> 00:27:17.620 future. In order to stem and begin to reverse this tide, we need to overthrow capitalism, 00:27:17.620 --> 00:27:22.790 remove the ceaseless drive for profit as the central organizational pillar of the global 00:27:22.790 --> 00:27:28.580 economy, and build a new, more sustainable civilization in its place. This monumental 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 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:39.540 require a massive shift in global consciousness, and the combined, unshakable determination 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 00:27:44.320 --> 00:27:47.200 our own small part in this bigger whole. 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 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 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 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 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 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 00:29:04.080 --> 00:29:08.800 doctor, or go join extinction rebellion or go do something even 00:29:08.800 --> 00:29:11.280 much more radical than that. 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 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 00:29:25.820 --> 00:29:32.850 infrastructure projects in our community. And take care of yourself. Recognize the ways 00:29:32.850 --> 00:29:39.400 that all struggles for liberation are intertwined. And I think primarily supporting people in 00:29:39.400 --> 00:29:45.970 retaining or getting ownership of their land back is one place to start by supporting indigenous 00:29:45.970 --> 00:29:49.950 struggles. The highest levels of biodiversity that still exist on this planet are the places 00:29:49.950 --> 00:29:56.080 where people still live or have returned to who are indigenous to that area. 00:29:58.080 --> 00:30:05.000 For folks who are used to and conditioned to having great amounts of advantages, just 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:11.450 understand that a lot of your advantages most likely came from our devastation. There's 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 00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:21.090 that you're not going to like hearing. It might involve folks that are disadvantaged 00:30:21.090 --> 00:30:26.970 picking up on some advantages for once in their lives. Support them. Support those movements, 00:30:26.970 --> 00:30:31.820 support those populations. The capitalist planet is not going to build a big massive 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 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:42.700 one option. This is our one chance. 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 00:30:48.100 --> 00:30:54.950 a rich tradition, a rich history of social movements and of resistance movements, on 00:30:54.950 --> 00:31:00.940 this continent and around the world on many different time scales. And if we can understand 00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:06.300 and learn from and celebrate those movements, then we can learn the things that we need 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 00:31:12.430 --> 00:31:19.130 the mainstream environmental movement has been its focus on individual action. And individualism 00:31:19.130 --> 00:31:25.210 really limits what we're able to accomplish. Things like flying less or using less gasoline, 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 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 00:31:39.770 --> 00:31:46.090 climate change, that means collective action, that means organizing into groups of people 00:31:46.090 --> 00:31:51.090 who can confront injustice in really tangible ways. And that means building those groups 00:31:51.120 --> 00:31:54.430 also into powerful movements. 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 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. 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 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:24.400 can completely change yourself, and you can act within the domain around you and change 00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:28.720 that. When you look at your networks when you look at your friend circles, when you 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, 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 00:32:40.560 --> 00:32:45.040 that actually you're far more powerful than you might think you are. 00:32:46.560 --> 00:32:55.520 Avoid getting into climate nihilism. There are definitely a lot of weaknesses in the 00:32:55.520 --> 00:33:05.600 capitalist and resource extraction machine. I think that folks should just find the easiest 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 00:33:13.600 --> 00:33:19.760 that exploit and go forth with insurrectionary optimism. 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 00:33:24.930 --> 00:33:30.230 this very very seriously. Because these are decisions that a lot of us are gonna make 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. 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 00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:45.040 one of us has to take full responsibility in making that decision for ourselves. 00:33:53.760 --> 00:33:58.690 We are entering a new era – one that will be inevitably characterized by increasingly 00:33:58.690 --> 00:34:04.480 hostile weather patterns, rising sea levels, shortages of fresh water, and historically 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:10.629 unprecedented levels of forced human migration. Over the coming decades, these pressures will 00:34:10.629 --> 00:34:15.730 lead to the sudden collapse of states, further exacerbating the cycle of displacement and 00:34:15.730 --> 00:34:20.460 offering a political justification for the entrenchment of nativist reaction and the 00:34:20.460 --> 00:34:23.420 further militarization of borders in the Global North. 00:34:23.420 --> 00:34:28.750 This will be a period of profound social, economic and political strife... and if history 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 00:34:35.470 --> 00:34:41.330 by these seismic geopolitical shifts, there will be opportunities for solidarity and mutual 00:34:41.330 --> 00:34:46.760 aid. Humanity has faced incredible hardships before, and we have persevered. As always, 00:34:46.760 --> 00:34:53.050 the specific form that our future takes will depend, in large part, on our willpower, ingenuity, 00:34:53.050 --> 00:34:55.600 level of preparation, and capacity to resist. 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 00:35:01.060 --> 00:35:05.520 groups, and to be used as a resource to promote discussion and collective organizing. Are 00:35:05.520 --> 00:35:11.320 you interested in incorporating a more radical environmental analysis into an existing organizing 00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:15.260 project, or in starting a campaign against an ecologically destructive development in 00:35:15.260 --> 00:35:20.650 your area? Consider getting together with some comrades, organizing a screening of this 00:35:20.650 --> 00:35:23.730 film, and discussing where to get started. 00:35:23.730 --> 00:35:27.320 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community 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, 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 00:35:37.160 --> 00:35:40.800 resources and some questions you can use to get a discussion going. 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 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 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. 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:04.620 This episode would not have been possible without the generous support of Michael, Carla, 00:36:04.620 --> 00:36:07.770 Jimmer and the good folks at the Earth First! Journal Collective. 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, 00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:18.400 where we plan on taking a closer look at anarchist theories, strategies and tactics for organizing. 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 00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:28.240 about it. What is it like inside these groups... and what motivates their members? 00:36:28.240 --> 00:36:30.800 Now get out there…. and make some trouble!