Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director
In my early 20’s, the anti-nuclear movement built power and gave meaning to many people’s lives – including mine. Massive demonstrations influenced politicians and changed history.
Behind and before these demonstrations, a relentless commitment to movement building generated the wind in the sails of technical negotiations. People everywhere were involved. If you lived in the US and hadn’t been asked five times by a schoolchild to sign a petition calling for a nuclear freeze, you were hiding under a rock.
The climate movement has nowhere near this level of power. That’s why climate hushing is a thing. Not enough of us have been moved to our core by a visceral sense that what’s happening is wrong.
The climate crisis doesn’t just face an energy crisis – as in fossil fuels vs. renewables. It faces a moral energy crisis. Here are three things we’ve got to do to solve it.
Lead with values, not technocracy. The climate movement loves to talk, for example, about emissions reduction targets. Is this important? Sure. Does it stir the soul? You tell me.
But talk about the beauty of our only home, the greed of the fossil fuel industry, the suffering caused by severe weather – this actually evokes a human reaction.
Five years ago, cultural scolds warned about climate disaster porn. Please. Give me some of that old time religion, talk about love and courage, outrage and hope, and stop pretending that progress ever results solely from measured discourse.
Lead with vision, not incrementalism. This one falls in part on climate donors committed to working for short term wins (which are vital) at the expense of aiming for the stars.
I get it – a treaty banning fossil fuels is a stretch. It’s also far more compelling than a reduction in LNG emissions (a term which most people don’t even understand).
The Bible is blunt: “Without a vision, the people perish.” That’s why we go to temple, mosque or church each week, remind ourselves about goodness and perfection, and then struggle to take baby steps in our own imperfect lives.
If incremental progress is our North Star, we guarantee that we’ll never reach the promised land.
Build a Morally Progressive Populism. The climate movement cannot win alone. It must ally with those working for economic and gender justice, workers rights and a better future.
We’ve been there before. The Progressive Era in the 1890’s-1920’s, and its Social Gospel allies, responded to poverty in the midst of obscene wealth, mistreatment of the vulnerable, and dirty water and air. Sound familiar? The Progressives built a moral movement that channeled profound moral energies. Today, we need the same.
Some fear diluting the climate message by making common cause with those fighting for social justice. This is a recipe for climate purity and political insignificance. Anti-climate forces – an unholy alliance of extractive industries, authoritarian politicians, and fundamentalist cultural and religious forces – have huge power and more money than God. Attacking climate policy is part of an integrated, intersectional far-right strategy that also targets women, LGBTQ people, migrants, and the social safety net at the expense of the rich, corporations and the extractive industries. It will take a comprehensive vision and a big movement to overcome them. A vision that another future is possible. A movement passionately committed to solidarity with our neighbors, responsibility to our children, commitment to our precious planet, and outrage at injustice.
For religious communities, the question isn’t why we would join such a movement.
It’s why we’d settle for anything less.
