The biggest injury dealt by the climate deniers may not be the snowstorm of deceit on specific issues, or even the Machiavellian maneuvers to confound effective government action on climate.
On reflection, we may find that the most catastrophic success of the industrial-denial complex has been their ability to banish climate awareness from normal daily discussion. To make everyone who is concerned about our climate and eroding natural resources, in effect, invisible in the public square and community conversation.
The Peoples Climate March, this Saturday September 21st, is about taking some big steps to change that.
It’s easy to make people invisible. Overwhelming forces of anonymous commerce rule our days, a trend that has been recognized for over a century. In The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells, this is a clear theme. Witness the experience of the invisible man on the busy streets of London:
"But hardly had I emerged upon Great Portland Street … when I heard a clashing concussion and was hit violently behind…. I tried to get into the stream of people, but they were too thick for me, and in a moment my heels were being trodden upon."
That was in 1897. Since then, as the forces of concentrated capital and financial power have continued to grow beyond human scale, individuals have been rendered progressively smaller and smaller.
Against this backdrop, classes or races of people can be made to vanish. The nameless African-American protagonist of Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, exclaims:
“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible because people refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination- indeed, everything and anything except me.”
Entire classes of people, comprising collectively the majority of all of humanity, are minimized through a narrative that defines who matters and who does not.
So we may find ourselves, dismayed at not being heard on the specific issue of climate despite its immense importance. Many of us are privileged in one or more of economic status, race, gender, formal education, or other ways. Yet, due largely to the well-funded efforts of climate deniers, we have the experience of being outside the perceived mainstream, not heard and not seen.
That stands to be a real learning experience - if any of us feels invisible in the context of a specific issue, the starting point is to acknowledge so many people in our country and in the world who have been rendered effectively invisible with respect to their entire lives.
And from that understanding, we can learn from those who have overcome much larger obstacles to becoming visible.
At times - and this is one of them - it is critically important to be seen in the public square. To show a mass of people, together, who cannot be hidden under the napkin.
It is not a question of whether marching is more effective that other types of action - the point is that it complements everything else. The next time you start a conversation about climate, in your class, neighborhood, place of work, or family, let it be in a setting where everyone has seen a few hundred thousand people clearly show, by marching, that climate is a defining topic of our time.
The weekend of September 21st is a time to march. I request and beseech readers to do all of these things:
- March. Come to the Peoples Climate March if you possibly can. If you can't make it to New York (and not everybody can, although it is important) then march somewhere near your location.
- Make a personal commitment not to be silenced on climate. It is now an everyday part of our lives, and so it should be part of our normal conversation both private and public.
- Look around you, and make you really do see everyone who contributes to the amazing diversity of human experience on our planet.
Sign up For the People's Climate March Now!
New York City, Sunday, September 21
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Just five days remain until the historic Peoples' Climate March. The September 21 March is being held two days before the UN Climate Summit, where government and corporate leaders will convene to discuss taking action to address climate change.
Estimates project over 250,000 will march in New York City, with huge marches also scheduled around the world. Over 1000 groups and organizations are participating.
Join the PCM Sprint on Twitter #PeoplesClimate and help amplify the messaging.
Sign up here!!! --> People's Climate March
Notes
This diary builds on several ideas started in Why We March: There is no Away, There are no Others, which cites this important article by Dierdre Smith: Why the climate movement must stand with Ferguson.
In addition to writing great science fiction, H.G. Wells was a journalist, scientist, and leader in socialist political thought in the England of his day. His books Outline of History and The Science of Life were definitive works on their respective topics. Later this year, I will be following in the family tradition with my first science fiction novel, The Great Symmetry.
UPDATE: Check out this diary from Meteor Blades that is directly about efforts to paint anyone concerned about climate as "radical".