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Activism
A hero is born
By Andrew Teasdale
It’s a revolution demanding less, and the heroes are the leaders who do less
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A highly versatile, effective and potentially dangerous technology has caught the attention of environmentalists and humanitarians across the globe in the movement to save our planet. It has been used with flair and courage by stars such as Sea Shephard’s Paul Watson and the brilliant author George Monbiot. It has landed Betty Krawczyk in jail and Harriet Nahanee in heaven. It has most recently made headlines with the announcement that three “terrorists” who used it to save whales in the Antarctic from Japanese ships are being sought for trial in Japan for their “crimes.”
It is called “direct action” and we might want to consider using it too before it becomes obsolete.
What we do, or don’t do, in these coming ten years will seal our fate as a species. Do we want to live in a world without coral reefs or snow? Do we want to have Mother Nature around to replenish us when we are running on empty? Or is it possible our children can live happily ever after without her? It sure is a nice feeling to put your foot on the gas as you zip along to your favorite tunes but this once-innocent pass-time now has a very big skull in the corner of the windshield. Yes, it’s all happened so quickly, but the fact is that carbon kills. So our flights to Indonesia and dreams of new cars are going to have to stop. And fast. The only question is how.
As George Monbiot points out, no one has ever fought a revolution demanding less, but that is what we must do. Less driving, less flying, less pampering, less meat, less fish, less children, less fun. But plenty more moral dilemmas.
Here I am in Japan for the birth of my daughter. It would be morally wrong for me to have foregone the long flight just as it is morally wrong for me to have made the flight. All that bike riding I did doesn’t count for much now that I am responsible for the emissions created while I flew across the Pacific Ocean. And I am already dreaming about swimming with mantas in some far off corner of Indonesia when I escape from Vancouver’s brutal winter. Every environmentalist is a hypocrite. Two years ago I would have never even dreamt that taking a plane would cancel out most of the things I did to care for nature.
So how are we going to stop ourselves from doing the things that we need? We have to see beyond our own noses. The beast that we are fighting is the most terrifying we have ever faced. We have to relearn the meaning of “us” and recognize the grave threat which confronts us. This is our Second World War and we all have to come together for the first time in a long time, indeed, for the first time in history for the species as a whole. The enemy is not the Chinese or the Russians or the Iranians. It’s carbon.
And we are all going to have to make sacrifices big and small. So next time your friend foregoes that flight to Indonesia or takes part in some daring direct action against some mad construction project, you might want to recognize him for what he is: a hero! Because we are going to need a lot of heroes in this revolution.
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The Republic of East Vancouver masthead
The Republic of East Vancouver supports no party, advocates
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