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21 votes
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Comprehensive bipartisan plastics recycling bill tackles plastics pollution in US
27 votes -
‘Paper or plastic?’ will no longer be a choice at California grocery stores
32 votes -
How cities run dry
2 votes -
The carbon tax is good for Canadians. Why axe it?
17 votes -
Texas is close to adopting new oil and gas waste rules, first in decades
9 votes -
US Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to invest $76 million closing legacy oil & gas wells in Pennsylvania
16 votes -
Finland's Fortum starts using US nuclear fuel in bid to reduce Russian dependence
7 votes -
The intractable puzzle of growth
12 votes -
What works: Groundbreaking evaluation of climate policy measures over two decades
22 votes -
Sweden to kill 20% of its brown bears in annual hunt – conservationists say number of hunting licences granted is too high and condemn it as ‘pure trophy hunting’
15 votes -
Could Britain's soaring taxes push energy companies to Norway? Taxes on oil and gas profits have risen from 40% to about 78%, prompting several to think about pulling out.
7 votes -
What if Germany had invested in nuclear power? A comparison between the German energy policy the last twenty years and an alternative policy of investing in nuclear power.
9 votes -
Léna Lazare is the new face of climate activism—and she's carrying a pickax
26 votes -
Sweden has cut 80% of its net emissions since 1990 – while growing its economy twofold. How have they done it?
31 votes -
IKEA has been accused of contributing to the rapid deterioration of Romania's biologically rich forests – campaigners say suppliers benefitting from corrupt environment in the country
29 votes -
‘Morally, nobody’s against it’: Brazil’s radical plan to tax global super-rich to tackle climate crisis
61 votes -
Climate hero or villain? As it rapidly adopts clean technologies while drilling furiously for oil and gas, Norway is a paradox.
11 votes -
Ecuador river is granted the right to not be polluted in historic court case
16 votes -
The death squads hunting environmental defenders
34 votes -
Ecuador court rules pollution violates rights of a river running through capital
24 votes -
Labour lifts Tories’ ‘absurd’ ban on UK onshore windfarms
34 votes -
Denmark will introduce a levy on farm emissions in what is set to be one of the world's first carbon taxes on agriculture
26 votes -
Spain has more green power than it can use
22 votes -
US Supreme Court rejects states agreement over Rio grande water distribution
16 votes -
Sweden's nuclear power goal is challenging but attainable – government wants 2.5 gigawatts of new capacity online by 2035
8 votes -
EU states push past opposition to adopt landmark nature restoration law
28 votes -
Protests seen as harming civil rights movement in the '60s—What we can learn from this for climate justice
Protests Seen as Harming Civil Rights Movement in the '60s I've recently had some conversations about activism and protesting about climate change on Tildes, which made me remember these polls...
Protests Seen as Harming Civil Rights Movement in the '60s
I've recently had some conversations about activism and protesting about climate change on Tildes, which made me remember these polls again. I think they are a good historical reminder, and they demonstrate that masses much too often care more about comfort and privilege rather than justice.
These polls also show that you don't need to convince the majority to effect change. In fact, focusing on that might be detrimental to your cause. People who are bothered by your protest, because it disrupts "order", will try to tell you how to effect change while sitting in their own comfort. But this is not important.
Here is the gist of it, with MLK's own words.
"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
Believing in the timetables created by comformist opinions would be a grave mistake for climate activists. We need more confrontation, more radical acts, and more direct action. We don't need to make friends with the majority to do this. We need to shake things up, and most people don't like that. You can see this by the worsening majority opinion of the Civil Rights movement after they intensified protests. But the activists were right, it was an urgent matter, and they succeeded. So, we don't need to play nice.
For example, after MLK's asssassination people started burning down cities, which resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1968 passing. You can see this in the citations; basically the government feared further escalation, and that's why they had to pass the act. Another example is the suffragettes' bombing and arson campaign in Britain and Ireland, which helped with their cause by putting pressure on people in power.
I'm not giving these examples to say there should or should not be one-to-one copies, but to show that being radically confrontational does work. Radical confrontation and direct action are what we need for climate justice, because time has been running out for a while, and every day past without a radical change makes things much worse. So we should cast off the yoke of mass approval and meekness. We need to embrace the confrontation.
44 votes -
Sweden is set to become the second EU country to ban bottom fishing in marine protected areas
16 votes -
Indigenous nations approve historic water rights agreement with state of Arizona. It now goes to US Congress.
17 votes -
A socialist critique of Kohei Saito’s “start from scratch” degrowth communism
6 votes -
Norway sued over deep-sea mining plans – WWF says the government has breached the law without adequately assessing the consequences
6 votes -
EU's Green Deal improved its climate performance: a 1.5°C pathway is close
17 votes -
New EPA regulation requires coal plants in the United States to reduce 90 percent of their greenhouse pollution by 2039
33 votes -
Somalia bans fishing trawlers from its waters
15 votes