Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2014)
Street roots Nov. 21, 2014 KLEIN, from page 4 pledge vast amounts of money to find solutions to climate change. Richard Branson promised to spend $3 billion on finding an alternative low-carbon fuel for jet planes. Harnessing the profits from fossil fiiel- dependent businesses to tackle climate change is exactly what we need, believes Klein. Such a pity then that her research finds he s actually spent a fraction of this money, come out against carbon taxes, set up new polluting airlines and masked it all with some green PR. And he’s continued to take subsidies from British taxpayer to run his train companies. This is where Klein effectively makes a link between environmentalism arid wider political questions. Wouldn’t it have been better if Britain hadn’t privatized its rail service, she asks, and converted it entirely to electric, with that power coming from renewables? Klein acknowledges that this link between environmental and political concerns goes back at least to the Seattle generation of global justice activism that she documented in her first book “No Logo.” “One of the strengths of that movement was that it broke down the barriers between labor and the environment,” she says. “But climate was not central to the movement” At the time she felt that the lack of organization and the rejection of leadership and hierarchies was an advantage for young social movements, but as climate change has become ever more urgent, and more recent moveirients like Occupy and the Arab Spring have flickered but then faded, she says we can ill afford a “fetish for structurelessness.” She says: “It’s been a tough time and there’s been a lot of despair. A lot of people have given up because they’ve invested a lot and either been smashed or not delivered. The main weakness was in being simply . oppositional.” . ZZ T h e u rgency o fp re v e n tin g th e 2C rise is > fearful. Klein particularly draws on the work of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change and its Manchester University-based deputy director Kevin Anderson, which is “doing the most important work on climate science anywhere in the world,” using conservative estimates and “following them honestly to their conclusions.” Klein finds hope in the work of Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Mark Delucchi of U.C. Davis, who in 2009 published a study showing how 100 percent of the world’s energy could be supplied by wind, water and solar resources as early as 2030 — with political will. That’s a tight timetable but sufficient to prevent the worst of climate change. * Given the political will, how would we pay for such a transformation? A financial transaction tax, closing tax havens, a 1 per cent “billionaire’s tax”, slashing military spending, a carbon emissions tax and the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies would net $2 trillion annually, says Klein - “certainly enough for a very healthy start to finance a Great Transition”. Klein refuses to guilt-trip individuals about the carbon footprint of their lifestyles. “A lot of people feel disqualified from taking action because they don’t live the perfect lifestyle. The people least able to afford the green premium that’s put on so many products, for example, are working class people. But the scale of action needed and the urgency mean they can’t be excluded. “If you only included those people whose lives are a pure piece of carbon-related performance art then you’d have a movement of about 10 people.” Instead, she draws hope from people who are not only opposing the extraction of fossil fuels where it threatens thefr livelihoods and well-being, but also putting forward their own economic and environmental solutions: the farmers and indigenous people of Canada resisting tar sands oil extraction, the Greek anti-mining movement, French anti-fracking activists, all of which she calls “Blockadia” - “not a specific place on a map but a roving «. transnational coriflict zone”. She has also drawn hope from the way the Occupy Wall Street moveftient didn’t disappear just because it was no longer on the front pages of mainstream media but morphed into Occupy Sandy, an organized relief effort to help victims of the 2012 , natural disaster in New England. That started a conversation with local working- class people about climate change and was a “gamechanger,” she says, when environmentalism is often the preserve of the privileged. Those hopescarfte to a head with the People’s Climate March in New York and in more than 160 countries last month. “That was a real moment of hope. I’ve not been feeling hopeful for a long time to be honest with you but I saw lots of people ' there I’ve not seen for a long time. It wasn’t just the amount of people but that it was so ‘ diverse. The march looked like New York, and not Manhattan but the Bronx or Queens. “We should also take inspiration from Germany’s move towards renewables. One of the differences about the current movement is the focus on ownership, and in Germany it’s small-scale locally owned energy schemes that are growing. It’s not the case that this is about utopian pastoral dreamers but rather shows how bold national policies, well designed, can roll out effective responses effectively. Compare that with the U.K.’s lumbering subsidised nuclear policy.” Her book, concludes Klein, is about a “path to science-based reductions. These transformations are actually popular.” CENTRAL CITY I I I I I Transition Projects believes I1 0 0n6 should have to be homeless. I I I ¡11 1 1 T ra n sitio n ^ P ro je c ts! llff ljj|j| 650 NW Irving S t Portland, OR 97209 503.280.4700 www.tprojects.org concern Ending homelessness and achieving self-sufficiency. Now roasting & distributing craft coffee. ■ , Available fo r purchase at: Chuck's Produce Food Front Cooperative Grocery Green Zebra Grocery New Seasons Market Whole Foods Market Soon a va ila lb e for on-line purchase! For office coffee service, ca ll our friends a t Percosso Coffee, 503-460-3861 CENTRAL CITY W COFFEE www.centralcityconcern.org faoebook.com/CentraiatyCoffee B e tra y a l’s B eefed-U p B o o ty D an ces by J.McCurdy I wondered briefly For a moment If this ever got as old to others as it got to me... Doesn’t the plot ever change?. Oh, come on now Gimme a twist or at least a space Where maybe old school and loyalty got to dance... StiU... For reasons unknown F remained rooted to the spot As tihe familiar lines and faces changed places Trust ducked and dodged Then looked guiltily back at me Wait for it Wait for it Ahhhh, here we go... I watched without surprise As goodbye consumed hello And hope held my breath Tightly in Against a heaving chest As betrayal swung heavily through All I ever knew of you, of me, of she Hell, yes I did get right down to it Visualized Famine and flames dance While I stood in the in-between space Trying to decide If barbarism and returned cruelty Were worth the ride Ego, pride and compassion D ukeditout In the split second Our glances met And I knew then that all we were Ever gonna be was gone And I gotta say I’m still ribt sure If I’m gonna miss any of us Or the worn out parts we played PAID TRAINING PHC FOR PE0PLE WITH N orthwest D,SAB,LIT|ES! Beyond Lim itations- REQUIREMENTS: 5312 NE 148th ÄVG. Portland, OR 97230 / Pass a drug test / Must be at least 18 ✓ Must be able to provide documentation of a disability / Fluency in English ✓ Clean background check QUESTIONS? Please call (503) 261 -1266 or (800)874-7917 email: dcherry@phcnw.com
