SHIFTING MY CLIMATE ACTIVISM

An Open Letter To My Climate Fighting Friends

Daniel Celovsky, December 10 2022

Dear Climate Activist,

I owe you - my fellow activists on the Climate Crisis battlefront - an explanation for my recent actions and what may appear as my change in direction.  This is my open letter to you wonderful folks who are working so hard to ensure a habitable future for my kids and the generations beyond.

I have shifted away from my focus on demanding action on the Climate Emergency.  This shift is noticeable to me and it is completely understandable that many of you have also noticed it.  Some of you have pointed it out - and you deserve an explanation. 

I have not abandoned the climate fight.  I have shifted my actions to another playing field. Let me explain this shift.

There is nothing about my shift that has abandoned the Climate Action effort.  I am still with you. I have just taken the next step in that effort - my focus is now directed to the cause of the inaction our efforts have exposed us to.

I see this shift as a positive step forward.  First, it is focused on the actual snag that is preventing action on the Climate Crisis front.  Second, this shift actually leads to a broader and more inclusive tent because the same snag is experienced on so many other social issues and fights for a better future we have across our communities and societies.  We can actually gain more support because it brings in 99% of us all.  And - most importantly - its success will actually lead us to winning this fight.

Many times I have made mention of “the scoreboard”.  The single dynamic that actually reflects solving the Climate Crisis.  Are our emissions going up or are our emissions going down?  Nothing else matters.  It is the sole point of difference between winning or losing the battle of our lives.  It is what it is all about.  Either we win or we lose.  

Greenhouse gas emissions have to stop.  The scientists who measure the Climate Problem are unanimous in their declaration of what has to happen to solve the crisis they are measuring.  There is no debate because that debate is over. 

Yet, the debate continues.  And - year after year after year - the scoreboard is showing we are losing this battle.  Emissions are not stopping, they are also not slowing down, they are not even plateauing.  They are rising and rising faster every single year.  We are losing on the only scoreboard that matters - and that scoreboard reflects an outcome whether we live or die. 

And it is worse than we could have imagined.  The very people we put our faith in to guide us in this battle - have not only abandoned us - they have taken sides to support the enemy;  the fossil fuel industry specifically, and the global corporate elite generally.  This game of life has turned into a complete total nightmare.

I have experienced this first hand from my own climate activism efforts.  In 2015, then candidate for Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau made promises for what his candidacy would deliver:  It included a promise for an immediate cessation of all subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.  Well, I bought into it and gave him my vote.  Here it is now seven-years later and those subsidies have continued.   And the scoreboard is racking up the score for the other side.

In 2019, I ran as a candidate for the Green Party - to elevate the dialogue for Climate Action.  I raised my voice and centred my campaign on raising the Code Red alarms of the science community.  I got arrested blocking construction equipment from infrastructure development that was counter to the emission reduction agenda.  I stood up with those who blocked railways in support of indigenous people that resisted tar sands pipeline construction across their lands.  I wrote letters to the editor.  I stood up in front of our local council demanding action.   

I watched you take actions. I watched you demonstrate, get arrested, and block fossil fuel infrastructure. I watched you plead for action from “our leaders”. I signed your petitions. I showed up at your protests. I watched scientists protest and get arrested - which is something I would have never imagined seeing (and I love them for it).

But - then I looked at the scoreboard again.  Emissions are not going down - emissions are going up.  We continue to lose.  We are losing a game we cannot afford to lose.

All our efforts are failing to get the job done.  We cannot lose this game - we have to win this game.  We know the stakes.

I had to analyze this deeper because all our efforts - supported by the scientists that measure the problem itself - are not moving the needle at all.  The needle is actually bending in the other direction!  

We are not getting the job done.  We are losing the battle of and for our lives. The time came to re-evaluate where my energy was going.  Albert Einstein is one of my heroes and I reflected on his wisdom and his humanity (which I lean to often):

I do not believe myself to be insane so why was I taking actions that were not leading to the results we absolutely must achieve?  

It had always made sense to me to follow the same path we have taken in the past which has led to success.  Outline the problem to our leaders and demand and pressure that they act to address the problem.  This has worked before and our problems were addressed. They did what was needed in World War 2.  They did what was needed to address the toxic pollution of leaded gasoline and paint, to address the ozone depletion, and to ban DDT and other pesticides.  When scientists outlined the environmental misadventures of our societies to our leaders, our leaders acted and changed course as needed.  

But not today. Today, the reality of responsible leadership is absent.  They will not act to solve the problem.  In fact, they acknowledge the need to act - and then completely refuse to act. It is not that they are not listening. They are. But they refuse to act. Refuse!

Our actions are not leading to solving the problem.  What worked in the past, is not working today. We have to shift to something that will work.

I shifted.  I considered our continued efforts to change the attention and focus of our leaders to be insane.  Continuing with that hope - and the tactics that should adjust the course of our leaders - is futile.  It is a direction to losing the battle of our lives.  The scoreboard confirms it.

Watch the scoreboard.  Nothing else matters.

In June 2019, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau demonstrated the difference between responsible leadership and completely reckless leadership.  “On Monday, Canada’s Liberal Party voted en masse to declare a climate emergency in the House of Commons. Then on Tuesday, the Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion that, when completed, will pump 590,000 barrels of highly-polluting tar sands oil from Alberta to British Columbia.”

Yes, our leaders confirm the problem. They tell us that the problem is an Emergency. But they refuse to keep us safe from that emergency. That is insane. We absolutely must understand that our leaders are acting against us, our safety, and the rights to the futures of our younger generations. Acknowledge that to be a fact. We must.

Any action taken to expect our leaders to change course and change the score on the only scoreboard that matters is pointless and futile.  It is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  It is insane.

That represents us with a different playing field altogether.  We are not playing this game of our lives on the same playing field as our opposition.  And make absolutely no doubt about it - our leaders are not working for us or our futures.  They have abandoned us.  We are on our own. 

We are on the wrong playing field.  We need to show up where this game is being played.  It is being played on the playing field of power - a game which we have not been playing.  We have been playing the game on the playing field of reason. 

 

Power and reason are not the same. We showed up at the wrong ballpark!!!  We must show up at the right ballpark to change the scoreboard and win this game.  And we are very late showing up there - time is now a critical factor as the time clock is winding down quickly.

We have to remove the leadership that has failed us.  We need to remove it and replace it with responsible leaders that will take action.  Or we will watch the scoreboard continue to show our losses until the game itself concludes and everything goes silent.

We thought we were playing based on the rules of democracy.  We aren’t.  We are playing by the rules of a small elite ruling class.  We never even agreed to these rules! This elite ruling class has literally forced these rules upon us by taking our democracy for themselves - without any authority to do so. They took it. But the authority an the power it conveys is ours and we can - and must - take it back. I outlined this previously in an earlier post and recommend you hear the case out because it is our path to winning this game.

We are playing in a class war that is rooted in a nefarious few who have an insatiable need to extract monetary profits - which all come at the expense of the rest of us and the natural environment we depend on for our lives.  Infinite exploitation and extraction is the game being played against us.  It will continue to be played until every single cent is exploited from us and every nickle is extracted from our natural spaces.  

I have re-focused my attention on this playing field.  The playing field of removing this elite class who is literally not playing by the rules of reason, decency and common sense - nor by the rules of the democracy that they profess we have (they are gaslighting us on the subject of democracy itself).  

But - you know what?  This playing field is much richer for us.  If we win this game, we will not only have the Climate Crisis addressed - we will have addressed so many other ills we have in our society.  All our goals and hopes for a better society all run against the same enemy: the 1% and their enablers.

We will gain economic, social, human rights, and criminal justice as well as environmental justice.  We will liberate ourselves from the scourge of a 1% elite that literally cares nothing about anything except their monetary profits - which all comes at our expense.  They do not earn anything - they take everything from us and our environment.  They oppress, cheat, lie, extract, exploit, and con us all.  

Let’s remove them from our lives and liberate ourselves.  Let’s show them what democracy means.  Democratic freedom is the playing field where this game is being played.

That is where I have re-directed my energy and focus.  I have not abandoned the Climate Fight.  I have only shifted it to where it must go. Taking democracy back to the people is where we will put up some numbers on the scoreboard for our team.  And our team is us.  You, me and every one of our neighbors.  It truly is the 99% of us.  And the other team is a team of narcissistic psychopaths that will never ever change their ways until they take everything and ultimately even consume themselves.  

Trying to convince them to change is absolutely futile.  It is the wrong playing field.

I have merely moved to the playing field where this game is being played.  The field of democracy - which is where our power and authority resides.  

As a final comment, I completely applaud, appreciate and thank you for every single effort taken on the Climate Crisis front.  Your efforts keep us all awake to the urgency we have to win in this fight.  Everything we do helps us to put up points on the scoreboard for our side.  We just need to play this game on multiple fronts.  

I am fighting for democracy.  I am fighting to remove the unauthorized power of the 1% over us.  We are all on the same team and we all need each other to be unified.  Because all our fights require one thing - they require us to go together.  That is where our dream team resides.  We are our dream team.  It is us. 

We together are the 99% and we will flood the playing field with ourselves and we will win this Climate Fight and - by winning it - we will win all our fights. We will become one with our planet and we will be free to live our lives, build our communities, and create our societies. We will be free to partake in and enjoy the gifts of self-determination that democracy gives us.

We have to work together on all of this.  Standing alone - we have no power.  Standing together - we have all the power.  That is the core of democracy.  And we absolutely need democracy right now.

Thank you for hearing me out.  Comments are welcome and I rely on your voices to help give me my voice. We go together. I love you all because you give me hope.