Greetings, fellow climate activists, bloggers and Daily Kos environmental justice enthusiasts.
I write to inform you about a change in direction for the Climate Action Hub and to thank all of you who have supported this work since the September launch.
For a few weeks now, I succeeded in rallying some of DK's finest eco writers to experiment with the idea of running the Climate Action Hub as a regular Sunday night series. The hope was that perhaps we would have better luck in gathering followers and building a powerful coast-to-coast community of climate activists. The short term plan was to focus on the campaigns which sprung directly from the success of the People's Climate March; most specifically #Action2015, #ActOnClimate and the #SDGs campaigns. We began work collaborating with other regular Sunday series to support the regular lineup and were truly graced when 2thanks stepped in and began working his organizational acumen to help promote CAH.
After discussions with some of those who volunteered to help with this series, I have concluded The Hub does not have the support to continue as a team effort. The Hub will, therefore, no longer function as a team and will not publish on a regular basis. I will not be seeking assistance or looking for volunteers to post or promote.
I do intend, however, to continue using The Hub personally, posting when I have the time as news on campaigns and mobilizations filters in through listservs and personal emails. I hope these occasional diaries will inspire many of you to begin or continue to participate in civic actions to protest international procrastination, the power of vested interests in dominating the global energy environment, and the immediate need to champion the rights of those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.
Things have changed so dramatically since we first began ringing alarm bells on global warming. Now, all of us have witnessed and cope with the impacts of a changing climate: droughts, extreme weather events, floods, the loss of ecosystems, and the impact of rising tides on our coastal communities.
I created the CAH soon after the People's Climate March/UN Summit with several goals:
1. To involve NGOs, climate scientists, think tanks, environmental writers, activists and Daily Kos bloggers in a team effort to educate and inspire climate activism.
2. To breathe some 'fresh air' into the climate change community here, to mend some fences.
3. To spawn local 'hubs' through the different local Kossacks groups
4. To present The Hub as a place for folks to stop for support on local campaigns and to comment on cllmate news which entered their personal bandwidth yet did not generate coverage at DK.
I was not successful in meeting any of these goals.
Reflecting on what went wrong, I realize I misread the DK community. I was attempting to ignite in you the passion, obsession might be a more appropriate word, in becoming immersed in the nuances of the UN negotiating processes, the 'real issues' masked behind the lingo, (endless endless acronyms like the GCF and the G-77, loss and damage, DRR, CDMs, NAMAs, LDCs, SDIS, RMUs). I believed that having well seasoned highly entrenched experts write about these issues, about where the UN process was failing, about the commonly held belief that the UN remains our last best hope of tackling climate change at a global level. Make no doubt about it: Underlying this motive was a keen understanding that it is highly unlikely that the Paris talks will come anywhere near what we need and that, since the treaty does not go into effect until 2020, there is a monumental need to push for pre-2020 actions.
I believe that the community will rally around the need for aggressive and informed civic engagement to pressure world leaders to negotiate a legally binding treaty at the UN Climate Talks this December. I have seen what we are capable of achieving when we work as a united team.
In my world, action on climate is not just the ultimate global political issue, it's the only issue. But that is my world.
Some have explained that the Climate Action Hub did not engage them because the idea was too vague; others said they no longer have the time or inclination to be involved in the grunt work of promoting, tweeting, cross posting, emailing. I so totally understand. Still others said they felt compelled to drop in and rec a post even when they found it dry or jargony or just plain uninspiring. That the lack of interaction by new posters, coupled with the fact that many posts read mere press releases was a turn off.
I agree with everything. I misread what the community would respond to. My vision was wrong.
As most of you know, John Crapper, the coordinator of Seattle & Puget Sound Kos, is launching Northwest Climate Voices next month. (John originally planned to call this Northwest Climate Hub, but at my request graciously changed the title so as not to confuse his group with the Climate Action Hub.) His mission is "To make the issue of climate change go viral ... To serve the Pacific Northwest area providing a communication hub to inform, promote and empower citizens to take effective civic actions to bring climate sanity and sustainable living practices into our lives.”
(To find out more about this project, John outlined his ambitious plan of "bringing this power to the environmental activists in our area and designing it to be a prototype for replication throughout the country" earlier this week Seattle & Puget Sound Kos - Change is Coming - Meet up Sunday 3/29/15.)
"Voices" will feature guests from organizations and climate activists from the Pacific Northwest (and perhaps beyond) and will debut as a Sunday series in April.
The Climate Action Hub remains an active group. I intend to continue promoting climate activism and will occasionally invite a guest host. I will utilize it in the hopes of generating momentum for upcoming mobilizations scheduled in May and June in the lead up to the Paris talks. And beyond. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just flying solo.
I want to thank everyone who helped and supported our posts over these few months, with special gratitude to rb137, with whom I've worked for what must add up to hundreds of hours on every eco campaign here at DK since 2008; to James Wells, Agathena, ClimateDenierRoundup, Josh Wiese, and Tom Athanasiou. And a special, special thank you for the continuous support of the wonderful team of remembrance and Glen The Plumber, to 2thanks, to renzo for all those RTs, and to all the folks at KTK.
Bless you.
Just remember. Stay tuned for more from boatsie. I'm in this for the long haul. And I'm leaving it all on the road. But that probably doesn't surprise anyone:)
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The Climate Action Hub
The Climate Action Hub serves as a platform to inform and mobilize action on environmental campaigns which demand aggressive and just solutions to global warming and climate change. The group follows global campaigns such as #Action2015 and #ActOnClimate with the goal of informing and engaging the Daily Kos community in climate activism.
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