It is rare these days to have something to celebrate in the domain of Sustainable Human Flourishing, but this week, there have been two significant breakthroughs.
The first was the success of the NOKXL campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. As you can see in this inspirational victory video, after the most extensive environmental activism campaign in recent history, President Obama finally sent this awful project packing.
Here's a more light-hearted interview with one of the heroes behind that success, Bill McKibben
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Keystone XL Oil Pipeline - Bill McKibben | ||||
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The fight is not entirely over yet though because the Canadian PM and the owners of the tarsands are now negotiating to build an alternate pipeline to support exports to China instead of the US.
I am convinced that this insanity will also be beaten by a North American environment and activism movement that is more empowered, inspired, and united than it has been since the 60s. This environment movement is also more focused than ever through its relationship with the Occupy movement (which is also only really starting to find its rhythm.)
These are exciting times for anyone interested in building a better future.
The second thing to celebrate is happening as I type. Wall Street will be occupied by the OWS protesters. This won't happen without a major fight from the 1% of course, so we should expect it to get pretty ugly. After the shameful preemptive attacks and arrests over the last few days though, the protesters are ready to fight back and will do so starting early on the morning of Thursday 17th (NY time).
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you don't need to get the story filtered through Murdoch and the other 1%ers - you can watch it unfold live!
For the first time in history, the revolution is being televised!
[EDIT - have moved the live streaming links into my next post to avoid duplication]
These successes are only the beginning though. If these actions continue to grow, they will become the tales our grandchildren ask us about in our old age.
If we let them fail or lose momentum, then our grandchildren, if we are lucky enough to have any, will surely ask us very different questions. Those questions will be a lot harder to answer, so now is the time to get off the fence and get involved in any way you can.
Respect and solidarity to everyone who has been engaged in the NOKXL protests, and/or will put their body on the line for my children's future in NYC tomorrow. Thank you.
Peace!
Click here for details of how to follow the Occupy Movement live!
I didn't know that Bill McKibben was behind that campaign. I saw him at a conference in Bristol 3 or 4 years ago and found him very inspirational.
ReplyDeleteI have been following his 350.org campaign but I have always been a bit skeptical about the effectiveness of his mobilisations. But maybe I can't see the wood for the trees on this one ...
Hi Eva, I've never seen Bill live, but I love his writing (my first real intro was his awesome Deep Economy book - highly recommended!)
ReplyDeleteI too was a little unsure about 350.org, but it is a great resource that I use often and it is really well supported by guys like James Hansen - The NoKXL campaign may just have been a game-changer so it seems that his hard work is finally paying off.
They also seem well connected into the Occupy movement, so fingers crossed for more successes http://www.350.org/occupy