First of all, Annika, I am now following you because this is a very thoughtful essay.

I am a climate activist in the United States. When I decided something needs to be done (finally having giving up on nations and industry and world leaders), I looked for a movement that was up to the challenge.

I found many well-meaning and often brave people and movements and groups—but none that I believed had a reasonable chance of success. So, I began to study movements throughout history to figure out: what works?

Well, nothing works perfectly, but the most successful movement apply nonviolent noncooperation as part of a strategic plan that makes it difficult for those committing the evil to continue. In this way, Gandhi's group ended British occupation of India, King's group (along with others) integrated the American South and 5 Serbian college students created Otpor and ousted their dictator.

There was no equivalent group for the climate so I started one. My original intention was to keep the group (and the movement) focused as narrowly as possible. I wanted to prevent climate collapse. Period.

That would be a very big success. But I soon saw that this would be inseparable from some other things, including economics, culture and community.

I had to widen the scope of the movement. Now The Saners seeks to prevent climate collapse and build a sane and humane civilization to replace the terrible (and failing) one we have today.

Now, this all sounds like a pipe dream—simply unattainable. The Saners may fail, but the objective and the strategy is a workable one. It DOES match the pattern of successful movements throughout history.

One of the most striking things (for me) has been that no authority or official group anywhere is even offering a credible plan! Even the much praised (and ultimately merely symbolic) Paris agreement was a vague attempt to eventually slow down the destruction. It was not a plan for our species to even survive—much less flourish.

The Saners have decided that WE NEED A PLAN and it must be one created by qualified experts—largely climate scientists. We understand that a big part of any meaningful plan will slash CO2 emissions quickly and sharply. We are asking qualified scientists to come up with a plan that WE can support and apply pressure to ensure that it is carried out.

It's really hard and impossibly slow to transition to clean energy. IF we were going to go that route, we needed to have started 20 years ago, or more. Today, that would be too little too late.

So, we propose ending production of everything EXCEPT necessities like healthy food, medicine, etc. We also see our role as to STOP COOPERATING WITH and DO NO WORK that helps destroy the Earth.

This SOUNDS crazy, but people have historically shut down industries—including oil production—as part of various movements.

Anyway, it's a bit complex to summarize, but the movement is explained at the website WeAreSaners.org.

If you are motivated to join, you can sign up at WeAreSaners.org/join. And a short video from the movement's YouTube channel is embedded below.