Chris Hedges: The Last Gasp of Climate Change Liberals

[marmar]

from truthdig:


The Last Gasp of Climate Change Liberals

Posted on Aug 31, 2014
By Chris Hedges


The climate change march in New York on Sept. 21, expected to draw as many as 200,000 people, is one of the last gasps of conventional liberalism’s response to the climate crisis. It will take place two days before the actual gathering of world leaders in New York called by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the November 2015 U.N. Climate Conference in Paris. The marchers will dutifully follow the route laid down by the New York City police. They will leave Columbus Circle, on West 59th Street and Eighth Avenue, at 11:30 a.m. on a Sunday and conclude on 11th Avenue between West 34th and 38th streets. No one will reach the United Nations, which is located on the other side of Manhattan, on the East River beyond First Avenue—at least legally. There will be no speeches. There is no list of demands. It will be a climate-themed street fair.

The march, because its demands are amorphous, can be joined by anyone. This is intentional. But as activist Anne Petermann has pointed out, this also means some of the groups backing the march are little more than corporate fronts. The Climate Group, for example, which endorses the march, includes among its members and sponsors BP, China Mobile, Dow Chemical Co., Duke Energy, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Greenstone. The Environmental Defense Fund, which says it “work[s] with companies rather than against them” and which is calling on its members to join the march, has funding from the oil and gas industry and supports fracking as a form of alternative energy. These faux environmental organizations are designed to neutralize resistance. And their presence exposes the march’s failure to adopt a meaningful agenda or pose a genuine threat to power.

Our only hope comes from radical groups descending on New York to carry out direct action, including Global Climate Convergence and Popular Resistance. March if you want. But it should be the warm-up. The real fight will come once people disperse on 11th Avenue.

“The march is symbolic,” said Kevin Zeese of Popular Resistance when I reached him by phone, “but we are past the time of symbolism. What we need is direct action against the United Nations during the meeting. This should include blockades and disruption of the meeting itself. We need to highlight the fact that the United Nations has sold out to corporate interests. At U.N. meetings on climate change you see corporate logos on display. During the last meeting on climate change in Poland, the U.N. held a simultaneous conference to promote coal as a clean energy source. These U.N. meetings have become corporate trade shows where discussions on climate are hijacked to promote corporate interests. Barack Obama has announced he will continue the U.S. stance of only calling for voluntary climate goals in advance of the upcoming climate summit in Paris next year.” ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_last_gasp_of_climate_change_liberals_20140831

[raouldukelives]

1. K&R

The most important issue we face and not just because of the fact we are losing a sustainable ecosystem, as immense a fact as that is, but because everything so many others fought and died for will be lost as well.
Here in the US we are able to implement laws to bring fair treatment and representation to people. Many people have sacrificed themselves to bring about great change for issues of labor, race, sexual orientation, the disabled and the equality of all people. Climate change and the instability it will bring will bring an end to all those protections and rights so strongly fought for. Without a stable ecosystem, without a stable government, there can be no enforcement. No protections. Every person for themselves. Back in the jungle.
For people concerned about nature and wildlife, there can be no greater concern. For people concerned with human rights & equality, there can be no greater concern. For people concerned about the future, for all living things, there can be no greater concern.

[flamingdem]

2. I'll be there

I really hope it's 200k, that would mean at least a mention on the MSM.