Ordinary People Can Save the World — But Only If We REALLY Want To

People in positions of power will kill us and our children if we let them. But we can actually win.

Literally billions of people like you want our species to survive, want the health of our Earth restored and want a better life for themselves and others. On the other side, a few thousand wealthy people and the politicians they own want to pump every last drop of oil from the ground for their personal profit, even at the cost of the apocalypse.

If the billions of us are willing to do what it takes, we can have our way. If we aren’t, we are all doomed. And, by omission, complicit in our own destruction.

Why Climate Catastrophe Has Continued Unabated for 40 Years

There has been a long-running show of “leaders” working hard to stop the fossil fuel industry from destroying the climate. While this show takes many forms, the 26 COP meetings are the most visible. Those meetings consist of speeches and pledges — sometimes bold and ambitious, others weak and disappointing — for reducing C02 emissions and, at minimum, blunting the impact of the climate devastation which is now here.

During this time, pledges have never been met and C02 emissions have sharply increased worldwide. At best, these efforts have failed. At worst, these efforts have been a public distraction aimed at pretending work is being done but actually providing a cover for the fossil fuel billionaires who continue their course of destruction unabated.

In any case, the well-known and undeniable truth of oil lobbyists and other influence peddlers controlling policy, is almost universally ignored — by petro supporters and opponents alike. But the use of money to buy politicians and policy is THE DRIVING FORCE behind our march to doom.

What It Takes to Save the Earth and Why I Personally Don’t Have What It Takes

Removing money from politics isn’t something that can be done through the ballot box. Both political parties here in America are awash in corporate dollars and they won’t allow this to stop. Neither will the petro-dollar bribe distributors. The plutocracy defends itself.

The system is unassailable from within. For example, when a presidential candidate who opposed corporate money in politics won primaries and seemed headed for nomination, party leadership and the other candidates worked together to defeat him. And even if that candidate had somehow become president, both parties would work together to protect corporate money in politics. Even a president opposed to plutocracy could not end plutocracy.

JFK famously said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. That’s where we are. Violence against people is wrong and must never be used — at least by honorable people. But attacks on fossil fuel infrastructure — relentless ongoing attacks — is essential. The book How to Blow Up a Pipeline is getting deserved attention.

This is why I don’t have what it takes. I understand that destroying this infrastructure is necessary but I can’t personally do it. That said, others may. And if they do, I will cheer them on and pray for their success.

Why We Might Not Be Doomed

I think reality is starting to sink in for millions of people — people hit by unprecedented wildfires, heatwaves, hurricanes and tornadoes. They are seeing that no efforts will ever be made unless WE take control. And a true extinction rebellion could be coming. At least that’s my hope.

It’s in the air. Books like Ministry of the Future (fiction but scientifically accurate and compelling) and How To Blow Up a Pipeline (a call to action) have put direct action on the table. Not just protest. We can all see that protest, at best, results in posturing by the status quo while continuing to accelerate planet abuse.

The Pipeline book describes how a very small number of determined people engaged in creative sabotage can begin reducing C02 emissions by directly destroying the tools that are being used to kill us. Yes, the government (the plutocrats’ enforcers) will strike back harshly. But a determined revolt cannot be stopped.

I’ll be guiltily standing by, a failure of nerve, while others take action at great personal sacrifice to save the Earth for current and future generations.