Blog

by Sean Nicholson

On Tuesday, Novemeber 20th, 2012 I attended the 350.org 'Do The Math Tour' featuring Bill McKibben. It was sold out at the Variety Playhouse, turning some away at the door, filled with even more others, all clearly energized to move the climate movement forward. Once the doors closed and the show started however, the crowd was quickly hit with the reality of how difficult of a fight we had on our hands for this movement to be successful. I found it very intriguing Bill McKibben was so clear in describing our current situation as a fight, as so many people nowadays shy away from using combative terms when describing the climate movements character. He would go on to express that not only had the fossil fuel industry been preparing for this fight for years, but how they already have the upper hand with so much influence over our governments and media outlets. McKibben did an amazing job comparing our current fight to the other social justice fights through out recent history. He invoked the civil rights movement that grew with student movements here in Atlanta, and also the campaigns to divest colleges and universities from the companies investing in the Apartheid in South Africa that proved rather successful..

With the increase of earth’s temperature it is imperative that we began taking actions to divert from our current path of continuing to burn fossil fuels that increase the warming effect of our planet’s climate.We've already increased the earth's temperature by 1 degree celsius and are sure an increase of 2 more degrees will completely put the climate out of wack. Fossil fuels are the largest cause of this warming effect, but the current industry has plans to continue to burn the 2795 gigatons of their fossil fuels reserves despite numerous reports that this would doom us total climate destabilization. Costing humanity lives, and billions of dollars in disaster relief and repair from an increase in extreme weather patterns

It will take action from people like me and you to organize and fight for our right to a livable, sustainable climate for ourselves and our future generations. Fight! We are pass the point of reasoning and debating about the science with these companies. If they were reasonable they wouldn’t have hid the truth about the effects of burning fossil fuels on the health of the people who they continue to make record setting profits on. The fossil fuel industry continues to put profits over people, and it is time that we recognize that We > Fossil Fuels and cannot back down from protecting our planet. What 350.org and Bill McGibben are advocating on the ‘Do the Math Tour’ is that we divest the millions of dollars invested in fossil fuel companies by our nation’s colleges and universities. I believe that we must also convince are government to protect the people, and no longer subsidize and industry who is bent on burning toxins into our environment to the point of destabilizing our climate.

In these trying times, it’s going to be interesting to see how people rationalize what side of history they would like to be on. Hearing the numbers put in such a clear manner, the situation looks rather dire, and it makes me wonder, how history books will read when referencing this current time in about 200 years (if all of our libraries aren’t underwater by then). When historians look back at this current global society, with America at the lead in culture, military strength, and fossil fuels, will they blame the climates destabilization and acidification of our oceans on the lack of will power of the American people to stand up for there own health? Will they attribute the blame to only the fossil fuel industry or ask how so many people could continue to patronize the very companies that caused the largest unnatural catastrophe of all time? In the end I think they will attribute the blame to all of us, with no one able to escape some form of responsibility. With hypothetical being stated, I continue to hope and have faith that there is enough people who have the will not allow us to reach that grim future, and will to rather to fight for the future of our planet. The history books will instead point out how there was a faction of humans bent on destabilizing the climate but We the People recognized that WE > Fossil Fuels. So Do The Math and Fight On!!