From April 9-11 2021, 350.org and over 140 other national and international organizations and affiliates held a three-day online Global Just Recovery Gathering. There were over 200 workshops offered by climate activists from around the world. Featured speakers included Dr. Vandana Shiva, India, Naomi Klein, Canada, Greta Thunberg, Sweden, and Bill McKibben, United States.
I participated in a workshop with three high school teachers who work with the Hofstra University teacher education program, Adeola Tella-Williams from Uniondale and Pablo Muriel and Dennis Morales from the Bronx, who discussed their thoughts on student activism and climate change, and a New York City high school student, Sadia Weiner from Brooklyn. Sadia read a climate change manifesto she wrote as a high school project that is included at the end of this chapter. Adeola, Dennis and Pablo teach in minority communities, Dennis and Pablo in one of the poorest areas of New York City, and Adeola in the suburbs. All three raised that their students had many issues in their lives that seem more pressing and immediate to them than climate change. As teachers, they try to help their students draw connections between issues like poverty, racism, unemployment, COVID-19, and the disproportionate climate vulnerability of minority communities that face greater risk of flooding and are often located in urban heat islands where rising temperatures negatively affect the health of residents.
The conference was organized in Europe so our session, scheduled for 9:15 AM was at 4:15 AM in New York City. We taped our presentation the night before so I was the only one who had to appear “live” on Zoom.
When I signed in I was apprehensive that no one would show, but to my amazement 99 people participated and 95 stayed for the entire one hour and 45 minute workshop. Teachers and students from across the globe joined with a sense of urgency about addressing climate change. It was invigorating. A high school student from Australia wanted tips on how to organize classmates who were non-engaged despite fires raging in southwestern Australia and threats to the Great Barrier Reef, a student from Brazil had similar questions about defending the Amazon, and a group of students from the John Dewey School for Children in Manila, Philippines presented a video that they made as a school project to mobilize support for climate action in their country (Climate Change: An Inevitable Crisis). A young woman from Spain recounted how she was penalized by a teacher for missing class when she attended a climate change conference. In the chat, teachers from some Asian countries explained that they had less freedom to speak out or protest than in the United States and Europe. People were concerned that an impending climate catastrophe seemed to be ignored in the press and by the 24-hour cable news cycle, pushed off because of the overwhelming attention to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Philippines students had a Climate and Nature Group at their school and we discussed setting up student clubs, web pages and social media networks to educate students and mobilize them for action. One of activities of the Philippine Climate and Nature Group was visiting students in younger grades to teach them about the climate emergency. Adeola added that her own seven and nine year old children formed a community cleanup action to emphasize the importance of caring about the environment. A teacher from Taiwan explained how her students were educating their parents and other adults to raise awareness about the threat of climate change.
In a follow-up email, a teacher-education student from Austria who plans to be a history and English teacher wrote that in her country teachers are expected to always be “neutral” and examine “both sides.” I wrote back that as a high school teacher and university professor my commitment is not to false neutrality but to informed and respectful dialogue. One of my goals is to teach students how their ideas can be presented responsibly, supported by evidence, and held open to critical examination. Active citizenship in a democratic society requires critical thinking and the constant questioning of authority. If teachers are afraid to express their views in open discussion, how will students learn how to participate as active citizens in a democratic society?
I agree it is important to introduce multiple perspectives and “sides” into discussion. But the question is not whether human caused climate change is happening, it is, but how should humanity respond.
As a teacher, I constantly ask myself, does offering my opinion open up discussion or close it down. If I find that my views are silencing students, I try to tone down my comments or keep them to myself. However, I find expressing my views usually lead to a broader exchange of ideas and they are necessary to counter the propaganda students are often exposed to from the government and the media.
In many of the Gathering sessions people discussed strategies and tactics for expanding the environmentalist movement through education and actions and the need for alliances with social justice groups involved in pro-immigrant, anti-racist, pro-democracy, and economic reorganization campaigns. Strategies are incremental goals like stopping a particle fossil fuel company from expanding production or pushing for passage of specific legislation like the Green New Deal. Tactics are the on the ground activities climate activists will pursue to achieve their goals.
Some of the tactics discussed were very creative, while I felt others were counterproductive. Gatherings like the Global Just Recovery and mass marches build spirit and attract media attention. Community campaigns like park cleanups and recycling initiatives connect the global with the local. Climate activists can lobby politicians with petition drives and at constituent meetings. People can put pressure on fossil fuel companies and the banks that loan them money by becoming stockholders and introducing climate change resolutions at stockholder meetings. Letters to the Editor and Facebook posts draw attention to climate actions and expose polluters. Websites have been set up launching mock campaigns demanding justice for billionaires and food bailouts for the World Bank, and circulating pretend corporate reports confessing to their environmental misdeeds. Use social media for wide distribution of agit-prop climate change action videos. To promote concern for the environment, Australian activists ran an online election where people voted for their favorite bird and learned about threats to their survival.
One idea always put forward is provoking police or even military intervention. At Keystone pipeline protests in 2016 activists put their bodies on the line to block construction, leading to arrests, convictions, and prison sentences. Flooding local jails was a successful tactic during the 1950s and 1960s African American civil rights movement in the segregated American South, but it required mobilizing large numbers of people who were willing to be arrested and stay in jail for prolonged periods of time if necessary. I have been involved in social justice and antiwar movements since the 1960s and I am not happy with symbolic arrest as a tactic. It drains the campaign of activists and resources, can alienate potential allies, and shifts focus from the original goal to getting activists out of jail.
On the other hand, mobile protests that push up to the line and then draw back can generate media attention. One tactic that was discussed and seems promising is pressuring fossil fuel companies to cut back exploration and production by “flooding” a company’s gas stations. Teams of activists drive up to all the pumps and instead of fueling they park. They stay until ordered to move by police and then drive to another station and repeat the performance. Media should be advised of the protest schedule in advance so television reporters are on the scene and have time to set up.
A continuing theme during the conference was the relationship between the climate crisis and centuries of Western colonialism and imperialism across the globe. As with the COVID-19 pandemic, the people most who are most endangered by climate change are the same people who have long been victimized. Climate activism is a social justice movement.
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