The
Choice
by C.A. Matthews
I attended the Green Party US Annual National Meeting this past weekend.
Once again we convened together online to hear what our fellow Greens
and others have to say about the state of our nation and our planet.
I have to admit that I quite enjoy online conventions. They’re
cheaper and easier to attend, and you don’t have to dress up—or
at all—if you don’t want to. Given a choice, I’d be happier
attending online conventions from now on. This is probably going to
be possible even with next year’s Presidential Nominating
Convention, as I understand they’re planning a “hybrid
convention” with both in-person and online components. Sounds
good to me.
But
some things in life don’t offer you a choice. You’re stuck with
what you’re given, like it or not.
I’m
one of those persons who’ll fight against anyone who tells me that
I’m stuck with voting for only a “red” or “blue” candidate.
Unless “red” means they’re a socialist, I’ll politely
decline. And if “blue” means I’m supposed to hold my nose and
“vote for the lesser evil,” then no thanks. I’m quite happy
voting for the greater good by supporting the Green candidate who
follows our Four Pillars of “people, planet and peace not
(corporations’)
profits.”
My
ability to vote for the candidate of my choice is important to me, as
I hope it is to others as well. That’s why I’m
volunteering
to
help out with the 2024 ballot access initiative throughout the US, so
voters will have the opportunity to vote Green and
not feel
stuck
voting for one of the “lesser evils.”
The
more choices Americans have at the ballot
box,
the better outcomes (I hope) we can expect for our country.
But
some things in life don’t offer you a choice. You’re stuck with
what you’re given, like it or not.
I
repeat that line because that was essentially the theme behind this
year’s Green Party keynote address given by NASA climate
scientist Peter Kalmus. Peter didn’t give us a choice when he
stated quite plainly that Earth is in big trouble, and human beings
have caused this big
trouble,
and we might already be at the point of no return even if we act now.
Peter isn’t seeing any nation on the planet taking any real actions
to address the climate emergency. He
told
us,
“Don’t lose hope—but don’t have false hope” either.
That
was not a thought I wanted to hear. It
takes away our choice to do something to rectify this dire climate
crisis situation, but Peter is right. We don’t have a choice today
because
we have chosen foolishly in the past. We
have voted for the “lesser evil” too many times and have received
evil in abundance by electing politicians firmly
under
the control of Big Oil.
Worse
yet, even with all the signs and warnings from planetary scientists,
we
continue to act
foolishly
by supporting and increasing our dependency on fossil fuels. There
is no excuse for our behavior. Americans have had choices and have
repeatedly chosen the wrong path. The “global boiling” we’ve
witnessed this summer in the oceans full of blanched coral reefs, on
land with the hottest temperature ever recorded at 136 degrees F.,
and in
the
massive forest fires continually burning in Canada that have
blanketed most of the eastern half of the US with smoke particulates,
killing thousands though respiratory failure, demonstrates that, when
given a choice about
our leadership,
we choose the wrong leaders.
And
look
where our
wrong choices
have
gotten
us—we’ve
put our planet and its inhabitants, including the fish, birds,
animals, insects and plant-life at risk of total extinction. I hope
buying that gas-guzzling SUV and taking all those air flights and
Princess cruises to dump sewage water in the Caribbean were worth it. It hasn’t been for the Earth.
Peter
stated that he feels rage particularly at the sheer stupidity of our
society. He noted that all the seemingly positive talk politicians
make about becoming “Net Zero by 2050!” is dangerously
misinformed. There’s no way we will be able to sequester all
the
carbon already let lose in our atmosphere. Our children twenty years
from now won’t be able to to use this mythological “carbon
capture” technology, even if it does exist by then.
Why?
Well, it’s simply
because they’ll have their hands full of dealing with all the
constant flooding, massive heatwaves, ocean level rise, increasingly
destructive tornadoes, hurricanes
and tsunamis creating billions of climate refugees worldwide.
When
will they have the time and energy to create this magical tech?
Even
worse, if we want to even lessen the impacts these disasters will
have on our children in the future, we’d need to start now
doing what needs to be done. We’d have to kick the fossil fuels
addiction yesterday.
That means giving up the family car. That means not flying or
yachting about the planet constantly.
That means no more disposable water bottles and fast-food wrappers.
How easy is that going to be?
Are you willing to give up your
creature comforts so your grandchildren can have a livable planet to
live on in the coming decades?
Americans—well,
all human beings really—love to have choices. But
some things in life don’t offer you a choice. You’re stuck with
what you’re given, like it or not.
We’ve hurt Mother Earth. Badly, perhaps fatally. It’s time to
repent and change our ways, drastically change our polluting ways. Or
else we’ll be as dead as Mother Earth will be.
Peter
made a good point that the tiny number of climate activists currently
protesting, shouting at, and standing up to the fossil fuel
industries isn’t going to make them shut down. The corporations are
protected by governments with big armies and
deep pockets.
The
planet is calling out for planetary leadership that puts Earth first
before corporations’ profits.
In
the US, we ‘ll
need
the power of executive branch to ban fracking, end pipeline
construction project and stop the disinformation coming from the Big
Oil CEOs according to Peter. The president should declare a climate
emergency and get our economy on a “war footing” like we did
during World War 2, but instead it would be fighting to save our
planet and its people.
Peter
confessed
that
he didn’t trust either of the “red” or “blue” teams to be
up to the task. He recommended Americans
work
to enact Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in order to give an alternative
(or “third”) party US
presidential
candidate a chance of gaining the presidency who
is willing to take on Big Oil and do what needs to be done.
Okay,
now that is a choice and an action I can get behind. What do you
think?
Peter
emphasized that disinformation (or what I’d call “propaganda”)
aimed at the working class has made these workers vote against their
best interests for decades. The Green Party isn’t widely
known
as being pro-worker, even though its platform is clearly pro-worker
with its support of universal health care and the rights
of workers to strike. A “Green-Labor alliance”
needs to form. The
labor movement, working hard to organize the proletariat in
order to enact a general strike,
and the environmental
movement, working to save our world from further ecological disaster
through
acts of civil disobedience against Big Oil and others, must come
together to take on the “rich sociopaths” destroying
our planet.
These
rich sociopaths, whose private jets and yachts burning fossil fuels cause a large portion of the carbon building up in our
atmosphere, have never been held accountable for
their actions
under our present system of government. Why?
They
simply
bribe the politicians (through their lobbyists with big briefcases
full of cash), as well as gifting jobs and trips to the politicians
after they leave office.
If both environmentalists and laborers don’t
take them on then what will our children say about us in the year
2040 or 2050? That we cared more about placating the polluting status
quo than we cared about
our planet and their very lives?
In
the end, we all have a choice to make. It is a difficult choice, but
we must make it. We will all
live
with the consequences of that choice, for
better or worse.
Peter Kalmus says we should never give up. The hour is late, but we
must rise up together to save all that we can. Nothing is more
important. Our children deserve our best efforts.
Which
choice will you make?
Peter Kalmus:
“Biden’s refusal to declare a climate emergency and his eagerness to
push new pipelines and new drilling — at an even faster pace than Trump —
goes against science, goes against common sense, goes against life on
Earth.”
--from Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency. And he must do so now
Related Articles and Interesting Links:
Keynote address from Peter Kalmus https://youtu.be/Subt87Vsp9E
Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency. And he must do so now https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/27/joe-biden-climate-emergency-peter-kalmus
Polluters Rely On Old Rhetoric To Block Clean Energy Future
https://popularresistance.org/polluters-rely-on-old-rhetoric-to-block-clean-energy-future/
The climate movement has a recruiting and retention problem – here’s how we fix it https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/08/climate-movement-recruitment-retention-problem/
There Are Enough Resources In The World To Fulfill Human Needs
https://popularresistance.org/there-are-enough-resources-in-the-world-to-fulfil-human-needs/
US/France threaten intervention in resource-rich Niger: Fears of war in West Africa https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/us-france-intervention-niger-west-africa
SCOTT RITTER: The Atomic Executioner’s Lament
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/08/02/scott-ritter-the-executioners-lament/
Decades later, the US government called Hiroshima and Nagasaki ‘nuclear tests’ https://www.nationofchange.org/2023/08/03/decades-later-the-us-government-called-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-nuclear-tests/
Commemorating Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings
https://popularresistance.org/commemorating-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-bombings/
Military.com Op-Ed Calls for Military Draft
https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/02/military-com-op-ed-calls-for-military-draft/
How to Ignore 4.5 Million Deaths
https://fair.org/home/how-to-ignore-4-5-million-deaths/
'Will Literally Change Lives': Massachusetts Legislature Approves Universal Free School Meals https://www.commondreams.org/news/will-literally-change-lives-massachusetts-legislature-approves-universal-free-school-meals
Patrick Lawrence: Reading the Mess the Democrats Have Made
https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/02/patrick-lawrence-reading-the-mess-the-democrats-have-made/
Report Details 'Shocking Pattern' of Abuse by US Agents at Mexico Border https://www.commondreams.org/news/migrant-abuse
The Forever War’s Forever Legacy https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/03/the-forever-wars-forever-legacy/
Deep State? Or American Mafia? https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/deep-state-or-american-mafia
Judge Orders DOI to Move on Rule for Tribes Reapplying for Federal Recognition https://truthout.org/articles/judges-orders-doi-to-move-on-rule-for-tribes-reapplying-for-federal-recognition/
Another 165 million people join more than one billion in poverty as cost of government debt servicing soars
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/08/02/kxiy-a02.html
UPS-Teamsters: The Strike That Wasn't, The Tentative Agreement, Union Leadership and The Upcoming Vote | How Did We Miss That? https://indienewsnetwork.substack.com/p/ups-teamsters-the-strike-that-wasnt
Wage Gains at UPS Have Amazon Workers Demanding More
https://www.labornotes.org/2023/08/wage-gains-ups-have-amazon-workers-demanding-more
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