Climate Crisis Update: “Yes, It’s Terrible but No, I Can’t Support a Strike”

Here is an image of Grand Bahama Island being 60% submerged during hurricane Dorian – the outline shows normal land mass, the dark areas are the only ones not submerged.

This is a grim vision of our collective future: massive storms and rising sea levels making large parts of the world uninhabitable.

I have shared two papers which make the case that we are are super far behind on solving the climate crisis in an earlier post but am bringing them back up here as more people need to read them:

http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/33/8252

So what’s the point? When I start engaging people on the climate crisis, I can often get them to the point where they read one or both of these papers (or at least skim them) and finally say: “Yes, it’s terrible. We absolutely have to do something about it.”

Then I say “Oh great, please join the global climate strike on September 20th and let other people know about it.” And invariably the answer is some form of “No, I really can’t support a strike.” When pushed, the excuses are many. “I have another cause that’s more important” or “A strike is too disruptive” or “What are the strikers even asking for?” or “Now is not the time to panic” or “They just want us to travel less and all become vegans and nobody wants that.”

I am pretty sure my list of excuses here is far from comprehensive and I will encounter new ones as I keep asking people to join and support the strike.

So here we go again:

1. JOIN THE STRIKE

There is a global climate strike planned for September 20th and you should join – if you are in New York, you can find details on the New York strike here.

2. PROMOTE THE STRIKE

If you have a website, please add the assets from https://digital.globalclimatestrike.net/ to your site.

If you are active on Twitter, Youtube or Instagram please promote the strike there using the hashtag #climatestrike – you can also maybe add something to your username, I have chosen 🌎🔥⌛to symbolize that the earth is on fire and we are running out of time.

If you have a large following, find the strike organizers and help promote their message. For the New York strike, look at Fridays for Future NYC and Alexandria Villaseñor.

And of course talk to your friends, your family, and your colleagues and get them involved as well. If you are at a school or college, help organize there.

It is time to stop the excuses and start acting.