Member-only story
Unlike the Declaration of Independence, there’s no signatures.
As my readers know, I have been promoting something called A Climate Declaration for many months. I’ve written about it repeatedly. I’ve created a downloadable PDF. There’s even a video. It’s all at the website.
But there’s no petition being distributed. It’s not because I don’t like petitions. Sometimes they can be a very important tactic, very valuable for sparking real change. Other times, they are a useless exercise.
Unlike the Declaration of Independence, this Declaration isn’t a message to the King. It’s not a list of grievances for which we are asking corrective action be taken. The “King” we are battling isn’t just a person. It’s a system, actually a series of systems that are rapidly destroying the habitability of the Earth. The leaders are, nominally, CEOs of fossil fuel companies and the very wealthy petro-profiteers who control those companies and influence the policies of governments through bribery and other means.
But replacing leaders would be useless because their successors would do the same damaging things, and faithfully serve the systems which are committing ecocide. The battle between personal greed and life itself would continue, and greed would still be winning.
