Progressive DNC Climate Emergency Declaration
It could be argued, by adding the feedback loops of arctic sea ice loss, methane release from permafrost and other similar triggers, that we have around 19 years 5 months and 23 days (2040) before most of the human race starves to death or dies from other factors. These numbers may be too high - but there are possibly up to one hundred or more tipping points not yet factored in ! It has been stated for each 1 degree C rise we lose 1 billion people. There are potentially 8C of temperature rise in the next few years, as a cascade of dominos start to topple. 8C = everyone. This is occurring because of three major sources of carbon generation, where up until now we have really only had one, Man. We (1) continue to drive up co2 levels, whilst (2) simultaneously nature can absorb less of it, and (3) areas like the permafrost and tundra start creating a third major source of greenhouse gases, and (4) We lose agricultural productivity from hotter croplands while losing arable land to potentially 10 to 20 meters of sea level rise, as well as desertification and insect loss. These four factors could triple the rate of global heating when combined, while devastating food production.
The problem is we use lag measures to judge what's going on - and by then it's too late to fix the problem. When the people finally take to the streets in anger en masse it will be too late, we will already be heading for a hellish future.
We need to declare a #ClimateEmergency:
That means a 10 year "give the planet a rest plan" - where industrial and carbon activities must be reduced to a minimum -. 10 years will allow us to create carbon sinks and carbon neutral systems - and then we step out of this with a society based on life (sustainability) not on death (literally flipping the earth into an uninhabitable planet). As we get on track to achieve a stable planetary temperature we can then take up the debate of how to “get back to normal”. It is likely that people will not want to return to precisely the system they left.
Climate Emergency Mechanics
A #ClimateEmergency Means
1. Only Essential Services Pollute
2. For perhaps 8 to 10 years non-essential services need to be at minimum carbon neutral
3. We reforest, rewild and restore the natural systems so they can help us achieve a stable planetary temperature.ii
This is easy for people to understand now - because COVID shows - we can envision a greatly reduced work force to maintain lifeline services. We see in the worst case we could issue UBI to everyone else. This is the time to make the mental connection of a different way of living (preserving nature and having a just, caring society) but without having to socially distance, rather to give nature some time to restabilize after being driven to near collapse.
Philosophical Note // based on study of anthropology, history, comparative religion, ethnology and prehistory // Probably not to be sent to Biden campaign in this form:
The path of life has been taken by most indigenous peoples, one of sustainability and of respect for nature. These societies were all suppressed by the Indo-Europeans and other peoples on, if you will, a path of death: Patriarchal, warlike, using slavery, creating untouchables out of the indigenous peoples. This started in 4,000 BC and has spread to every corner of the world, and has never stopped and in various forms continues to this day. Thousands of cultures and regions with great forests and ecosystems and often with cultures populated by people willing to share who were loving (read accounts of encounters with Neolithic peoples). All gradually subjugated because apparently, “Might Is Right”.
Political Struggle From the lessons of the past with imperial systems, it would seem we must be aware as Frederick Douglas said “Power concedes nothing without a demand”. We must mobilize middle and lower classes and defeat them in brute strength, based on history at any rate. Peacefully - through boycotting wrong livelihood corporations - self organizing, expropriating land for local self-sufficiency if necessary, using local climate emergency councils.
Disenfranchisement We must develop our own voting tools - we declare the old path of death governance tools as invalid if necessary - using online voting with a goal of 90% + under 45 participation. New systems would have more legitimacy than the current system, if these systems produced higher voter participation and were easier to verify.
For 6,000 years “might” has won out. We must view this as a struggle for power, to achieve the path of life. Where nature and human creativity and non-oppression (egalitarian equality) flourish.
This comparison is relevant because this tendency to dominate, to constantly acquire more wealth, in a system where the costs of that greed (ecological devastation) are paid by the commons and the benefits to the exploiters. With these powerful interests comes another source of pollution and natural degradation,the State: police state levels of national security with constant burning of fossil fuels, to protect fossil fuels.. This path of death if you will, is now brought to its logical conclusion: self obliteration and all that we have known with it. This path of life has proven to work,in thousands of societies over thousands of years, of sustainability, of less glaring inequality, and a less rent seeking relationship between peoples.
W. Alexander Hagen
Co-Founder, CoastSide4Bernie
July 8, 2020
CA CD-14 ALT DELEGATE
References: proof of potential 8c rise in a much shorter period of time than generally assumed:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lxELs_KcclRNYLHbOGjQ5Cf-vSeMezmnbEhpMpdMup8/edit#gid=0