#climate protests

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"If we define peaceful protest as designated protest zones that don't cause any public inconvenience we've more or less defined it out of existance.

Past protest movements (civil rights, anti-war, suffrage) were disruptive in a way that modern whitewashing understates."

-- Zeke Hausfather, "A tireless chronicler and commentator on all things climate" -NYTimes. Climate lead @stripe , writer @CarbonBrief, scientist @BerkeleyEarth , IPCC/NCA5 author

[on-break-read-my-last-post]

Retired priest speaks of ‘painful’ treatment by church over her climate protests

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

[tomorrowusa]

To the Putin dictatorship, any group which tells the truth about Russia these days is "undesirable".

Russia can't hide its ecocide in Ukraine which was put into spectacular focus by its destruction of the Kakhovka dam. Though Russia is also busy creating environmental problems within its internationally recognized borders.

Moscow has labelled the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) "an undesirable organization," saying the independent nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the environment and protecting endangered species was "being used as a facade to carry out projects that create threats to the country's security in the economic sphere." The move, which follows a decision by Russia in March 2022 to label the organization a "foreign agent," forces the nonprofit to cease all activities in Russia. According to a statement from the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office on June 21, the WWF posed a threat to economic development, specifically citing activities it said were meant to hinder Russia's extraction of natural resources from the Arctic.

The Kremlin doesn't appreciate the WWF bringing to light Russia's environmentally unsound practices in its fossil fuel industries.

WWF campaigns against oil and natural gas industries were aimed at “shackling” Russia’s economic development, the statement added. The Prosecutor-General's Office also said it believes that the fund is developing restrictions that may become the basis for "transferring the Northern Sea Route in the direction of the U.S. exclusive economic zone” though the WWF’s website makes no mention of such a project.

In other words, just more paranoid bullshit from the Kremlin.

The fund, which works closely with the United Nations, operates large environmental advocacy programs for many causes, including deforestation, freshwater preservation, and endangered species protection. The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2012, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that have forced scores of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations to halt operations as the government stifles civil society. The Prosecutor-General's Office statement also notes that WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, provided support to Russian nonprofit organizations, such as Friends of the Baltic and Sakhalin Environmental Watch. The two organizations are included in Russia's register of so-called foreign agents and were found liable for uncoordinated, unauthorized climate protests. The move against the WWF comes after Russia shut down Greenpeace, another major environmental NGO, in May. Also labeled as “undesirable,” Greenpeace was similarly accused of intervening in internal affairs.

Somebody needs to declare Putin "undesirable" for the planet and shut him down for good.

[bumblebeeappletree]

The recent surge in radical climate activism is being met with a huge backlash. Does civil disobedience work or is it harming the movement? And why is everyone mad at the messenger, and not the perpetrators? We deep dive into the past and the present to find answers.

Reporter: Emily Leshner

Camera: Emily Leshner

Video Editor: Markus Mörtz

Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk, Kiyo Dörrer

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #RadicalActivism #ClimateAction

Read More (Links):

The Guardian on Extinction Rebellion changing its tactics:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

The Guardian on Extinction Rebellion and road blocking: https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

The Conversation on the history of social movements:

https://theconversation.com/climate-c...

Aljazeera on Egypt's dissuasions on climate groups: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9...

NBC News on climate grief:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental...

Olaf Corry and David Reiner (9/2020): "Protests and Policies: How Radical Social Movement Activists Engage with Climate Policy Dilemmas":

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1...

+++

Chapters

Intro: 00:00

Backlash: 00:52

History: 02:38

Activist's side: 04:47

Expert's opinion: 06:30

State reaction: 08:04

Conclusion: 11:23

[averycanadianfilm]

Climate Protests 2023. 

hmmmm.....

[lifeinfleeting]

Why people skip climate protest?: Insights from Recent Research

Photo: Alejandro Alvarez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons In the fight against climate change, climate protests, such as those driven by the Fridays for Future movement, are pivotal in pushing for more ambitious climate policies. However, new research published in Nature Climate Change reveals surprising phenomenon in protest participation. This phenomenon, called “strategic…

[familythings]

"Just Stop Oil" Activists Target Private Jets and Cultural Heritage Sites in Climate Protests

In a bold move to draw attention to the climate crisis, “Just Stop Oil” activists recently sprayed orange paint over private jets at Stansted Airport, including a plane owned by pop star Taylor Swift. The environmental group, known for its high-profile protests, continues to push for immediate action against fossil fuel use, despite facing significant backlash. The Stansted Incident Early on…

[silverfox66]

Tired of seeing police men crying about the climate protests that are currently happening in 🇳🇱: "oh nooo now we have to arrest peaceful climate protesters, poor us, now we can't fight real crime." Aye, you couldn't do that even without the climate protest, you are too understaffed and underfunded for that. You can also just let people protest.

Tired of this guilt-tripping manipulation. The right to protest is a fundamental right.

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"I was the greatest threat the Continuum had ever known. They feared me so much, they had to lock me away for eternity, and when they did that, they were saying that the individual's rights will be protected only so long as they don't conflict with the state. Nothing is so dangerous to a society."" - Star Trek Voyager: Deathwish --- “These defenders are basically trying to save the planet, and in doing so save humanity,” Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, told the Guardian last year. “These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by governments and corporations as a threat to be neutralised. In the end it’s about power and economics.”

[kingkrillin]

just need to share how much I dislike this post lol

people will fully expect trans men to put ourselves on the line for everyone else and meanwhile the only time they acknowledge our existence is to talk about how "low risk" we are (obviously untrue) or to volunteer us out as a community for potentially dangerous activist endeavors that they wouldn't risk doing themselves

"we need to get uncomfortable!" and what's actually being discussed is convincing a subset of the community to be uncomfortable on your behalf while you do nothing to show solidarity with us

[alicemccombs]

Make it Global!

[bumblebeeappletree]

Stopping climate change continues to be at the forefront of protests throughout the world — here’s a look back at some of 2022’s most dynamic demonstrations

#Earth #Environment #ClimateCrisis #NowThis

[averycanadianfilm]

LUTZERATH Germany 2023

[reasonsforhope]

Hazel Chandler was at home taking care of her son when she began flipping through a document that detailed how burning fossil fuels would soon jeopardize the planet.

She can’t quite remember who gave her the report — this was in 1969 — but the moment stands out to her vividly: After reading a list of extreme climate events that would materialize in the coming decades, she looked down at the baby she was nursing, filled with dread.

 “‘Oh my God, I’ve got to do something,’” she remembered thinking...

It was one of several such moments throughout Chandler’s life that propelled her into activist spaces — against the Vietnam War, for civil rights and women’s rights, and in support of environmental causes.

She participated in letter-writing campaigns and helped gather others to write to legislators about vital pieces of environmental legislation including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, passed in 1970 and 1972, respectively. At the child care center she worked at, she helped plan celebrations around the first Earth Day in 1970. 

Now at 78, after working in child care and health care for most of her life, she’s more engaged than ever. In 2015, she began volunteering with Elder Climate Action, which focuses on activating older people to fight for the environment. She then took a job as a consultant for the Union for Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization. 

More recently, her activism has revolved around her role as the Arizona field coordinator of Moms Clean Air Force, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group. Chandler helps rally volunteers to take action on climate and environmental justice issues, recruiting residents to testify and meet with lawmakers. 

Pictured: Hazel Chandler tables at Environment Day at Wesley Bolin Plaza in front of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona, in January 2024.

Her motivation now is the same as it was decades ago. 

“When I look my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, my children, in the eye, I have to be able to say, ‘I did everything I could to protect you,’” Chandler said. “I have to be able to tell them that I’ve done everything possible within my ability to help move us forward.” 

Chandler is part of a largely unrecognized contingent of the climate movement in the United States: the climate grannies. 

The most prominent example perhaps, is the actor Jane Fonda. The octogenarian grandmother has been arrested during climate protests a number of times and has her own PAC that funds the campaigns of “climate champions” in local and state elections. 

Climate grannies come equipped with decades of activism experience and aim to pressure the government and corporations to curb fossil fuel emissions. As a result they, alongside women of every age group, are turning out in bigger numbers, both at protests and the polls. All of the climate grandmothers The 19th interviewed for this piece noted one unifying theme: concern for their grandchildren’s futures. 

According to research conducted by Dana R. Fisher, director for the Center of Environment, Community and Equity at American University, while the mainstream environmental movement has typically been dominated by men, women make up 61 percent of climate activists today.  The average age of climate activists was 52 with 24 percent being 69 and older...

A similar trend holds true at the ballot box, according to data collected by the Environmental Voter Project, a nonpartisan organization focused on turning out climate voters in elections. 

A report released by the Environmental Voter Project in December that looked at the patterns of registered voters in 18 different states found that after the Gen Z vote, people 65 and older represent the next largest climate voter group, with older women far exceeding older men in their propensity to list climate as their No. 1 reason for voting. The organization defines climate voters as those who are most likely to list climate change, the environment, or clean air and water as their top political priority.

“Grandmothers are now at the vanguard of today’s climate movement,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the Environmental Voter Project.

“Older people are three times as likely to list climate as a top priority than middle-aged people. On top of that, women in all age groups are more likely to care about climate than men,” he said. “So you put those two things together … and you can safely say that grandma is much more likely to be a climate voter than your middle-aged man.” 

In Arizona, where Chandler lives, older climate voters make up 231,000 registered voters in the state. The presidential election in the crucial swing state was decided by just 11,000 votes, Stinnett noted.

“Older climate voters can really throw their weight around in Arizona if they organize and if they make sure that everybody goes to the polls,” he said. 

Pictured: Hazel Chandler’s recent activism revolves around her role as the Arizona field coordinator of Moms Clean Air Force, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

In some cases, their identities as grandmothers have become an organizing force. 

In California, 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations formed in 2016, after older women from the Bay Area traveled to be in solidarity with Indigenous grandmothers protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. 

“When they came back, they decided to form an organization that would continue to mobilize women on behalf of the climate justice movement,” said Nancy Hollander, a member of the group. 

1000 Grandmothers — in this case, the term encompasses all older women, not just the literal grandmothers — is rooted at the intersection of social justice and the climate crisis, supporting people of color and Indigenous-led causes in the Bay Area. The organization is divided into various working groups, each with a different focus: elections, bank divestments from fossil fuels, legislative work, nonviolent direct actions, among others...

“There are women in the nonviolent direct action part of the organization who really do feel that elder women — it’s their time to stand up and be counted and to get arrested,” Hollander said. “They consider it a historical responsibility and put themselves out there to protect the more vulnerable.” 

But 1000 Grandmothers credits another grandmother activist, Pennie Opal Plant, for helping train their members in nonviolent direct action and for inspiring them to take the lead of Indigenous women in the fight. 

Plant, 66 — an enrolled member of the Yaqui of Southern California tribe, and of undocumented Choctaw and Cherokee ancestry — has started various organizations over the years, including Idle No More SF Bay, which she co-founded with a group of Indigenous grandmothers in 2013, first in solidarity with a group formed by First Nations women in Canada to defend treaty rights and to protect the environment from exploitation. 

Pictured: Pennie Opal Plant has started various organizations over the years, including Idle No More SF Bay, which she founded in 2013 alongside Indigenous grandmothers.

In 2016, Plant gathered with others in front of Wells Fargo Corporate offices in San Francisco, blocking the road in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, when she realized the advantages she had as an older woman in the fight. 

As a police liaison — or a person who aims to defuse tension with law enforcement — she went to speak to an officer who was trying to interrupt the action. When she saw him maneuvering his car over a sidewalk, she stood in front of it, her gray hair flowing. “I opened my arms really wide and was like, are you going to run over a grandmother?”

A new idea was born: The Society of Fearless Grandmothers. Once an in-person training — it now mostly exists online as a Facebook page — it helped teach other grandmothers how to protect the youth at protests. 

For Plant, the role of grandmothers in the fight to protect the planet is about a simple Indigenous principle: ensuring the future for the next seven generations. 

“What we’re seeing is a shift starting with Indigenous women, that is lifting up the good things that mothers have to share, the good things that women that love children can share, that will help bring back balance in the world,” Plant said...

[Kathleen] Sullivan is one of approximately 70,000 people over the age of 60 who’ve joined Third Act, a group specifically formed to engage people 60 and older to mobilize for climate action across the country. 

“This is an act of moral responsibility. It’s an act of care. And It’s an act of reciprocity to the way in which we are cared for by the planet,” Sullivan said. “It’s an act of interconnection to your peers, because there can be great joy and great sense of solidarity with other people around this.”

-via The 19th, January 31, 2024