Klein writes: "What you're seeing are the first
steps towards a new kind of climate movement. It's a climate movement that
recognizes that time is too short to allow our divisions to keep us from
building the kind of coalitions that will safeguard life on earth."
Best selling author/activist Naomi Klein. (photo: Anya Chibis/Guardian UK)
The Fossil Fuel Roller-Coaster
By
Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything
07 June 15
This is an edited version of a speech
that given by Naomi Klein on May 21st in downtown Toronto, at a press
conference announcing the upcoming March for Jobs, Justice and the
Climate on July 5. Video of Naomi’s full speech is also included
below.
’ve had the incredible privilege of traveling around
the world and meeting with activists, labour unions, and politicians who are
focusing on climate change. I want to tell you that that the coalition of
groups we’re witnessing being assembled here in Canada is unique: organizations
representing the most marginalized people in Toronto; First Nations who are our
water and carbon keepers; environmentalists waging inspiring divestment
campaigns; and the trade union movement, including the country’s largest
private sector union representing workers at the heart of the fossil fuel
economy. We understand that we have key differences, but we also understand
that what unites us is greater.
That’s why we’re coming together in Toronto on July 5
for a March for Jobs, Justice and Climate Action. What
you’re seeing are the first steps towards a new kind of climate movement. It’s
a climate movement that recognizes that time is too short to allow our
divisions to keep us from building the kind of coalitions that will safeguard
life on earth.
Canadians are clearly getting tired of the fossil fuel
roller-coaster. Tired of being told we have to sacrifice our environmental
protections and our international standing when times for industry are good. Of
seeing our budgets for social programs slashed and livelihoods destroyed when
times for industry are bad. It turns out we sacrifice on the upside and we
sacrifice on the downside.
We’re tired of seeing the quest for super-profits
cause the degradation of Indigenous lands, workers’ safety and immigrant rights
during those boom years. We’re tired of seeing reduced profits used as the
excuse for mass lay-offs, for broken contracts, for lowered safety standards,
and for increased racism against immigrants during the bust years. We’re tired
of having a petro-currency that destroys manufacturing when times are up. We’re
tired of picking up the pieces when times are down.
We’re tired of the huge physical costs of digging up
and burning this much carbon. Tired of the polluted rivers, the exploding oil
trains, the extreme weather linked to climate change. We are tired, too, of the
merger between our government and the extractive sector.
Tired of having a Prime Minister who bullies other
nations into taking our oil and building our pipelines when they don’t want
them.
Tired of a Department of Indian Affairs that pushes
relentlessly to extinguish Indigenous rights in order to pave the way for more
mines and more pipelines.
Tired of a Department of Foreign Affairs that acts as
an adjunct of a mining industry that’s infamous from Guatemala to Greece for
its violations of human rights.
Tired of our “national interest” being equated with a
sector whose business model is to dig up more carbon than is compatible with a
stable climate.
Now that the price of oil is low, we can see that the
price of all this is simply too high. For a decade, the Harper government has
told Canadians they have to choose between a healthy economy and stable
climate—and as a result, we are ending up with neither.
The people of Alberta, the epicenter of the fossil
fuel roller coaster, just voted to get off this reckless ride. And many other
Canadians are ready to join them.
But we want more than the politics of rejection. The
politics of “anything but.” Because most of all, we’re tired of being tired and
we’re ready to be inspired.
We look around the world and we see that a far better
economy is possible while taking serious action on climate change. We see that
in Germany, a dramatic transition to renewable energy is underway and it has
created 400,000 jobs. It is also bringing control over energy back to hundreds
of towns and cities, promising to strengthen democracy and generate much needed
revenue.
A few weeks ago, on Earth Day, New York mayor Bill de
Blasio announced his vision for climate justice in his city, which he
said would bring 800,000 people out of poverty by 2025 by combining green
projects with a higher minimum wage, expanded affordable housing, and
investments in public transit that will reduce commute times for the city’s
poorest residents.
We’ll see if he pulls it off, but every day it is
becomes clearer that it is possible to solve our most pressing economic and
environmental crises at the same time.
We can do this and much more in Canada—but we lack the
leadership.
That’s why you see the slogan here on these panels for
the July 5 march: Jobs, Justice, Climate Action. We don’t just want off this
roller coaster. We’re ready for the next economy. And we know the leadership
isn’t going to come from the political class, so it’s going to have to come
from below.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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