If you wanted one word to sum up this year, it's "noisy." From Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park, people who have gotten tired of the old politics have started grabbing the microphone away from the authorities and speaking themselves. And not just speaking; chanting, drumming, singing-conjuring up a new future.
As 2011 draws to a close, diplomats from almost every country will be gathering in Durban, South Africa to talk about global warming. After the warmest year on record, and endless flood and drought, you'd think they'd be digging in for real change. But, alas, they seem likely to just go on spinning their wheels, unwilling to challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry. Leaders of the world's major economies are privately admitting that they're unlikely to reach a global deal until 2016 at the earliest. So here too people will need to raise their voices.
But since climate change is the first truly global problem, those people have to figure out how to raise a common message, one that crosses the boundaries of language. The best method -- proven in countless social movements -- may be music. Earlier this week, the global climate campaign 350.org launched "Radiowave." It's designed to take a single powerful song, and use it as the focus of a campaign that will sweep down Africa, one country at time, for the next few weeks, finally landing in South Africa just as the UN's climate conference begins.
"People Power" (radio version) by 350RadioWaves. Uploaded with Gobbler
The song is written and performed by a who's who of African musicians, from Angelique Kidjo to Maria Daulne and Ahmed Soultan. Hip Hop star Talib Kweli performs the opening verse. It's in English and French, but also Berber, Arabic, Xhosa, Zulu, Setswana, and Fon. But it's not just the beat that crosses borders; the sentiment, once translated, will make sense to anyone suffering the early effects of climate change. As the South African hip hop star Jabulani Tsambo puts it:
"The weather is crazy
Our leaders are lazy
Their attitude doesn't amaze me"
In almost every country, the refrain is the same: people desperate for jobs, but governments unwilling to unleash the green energy future in any substantial way. As the song's chorus puts it, our nations are
"Drilling for energy, like you cannot see the Sun
This earth belongs to everyone
Mining for energy, like you've never felt the wind
Time to change so we can live."
But it's not just the musicians who will be sending this Radiowave crashing across a continent. In every city and province, volunteers have been trained to use the tune as a way get discussion going. They'll be on radio stations night after night, informing people why climate change is important enough that some of the continent's biggest stars are singing about it. In this country, radio is too often the province of xenophobes -- but in most of the developing world it's the way everyone communicates about what matters.
Environmentalists in particular have too often appealed mainly to the left side of the brain, the part that likes bar graphs and pie charts. But we're learning -- more and more, music and art are part of the fight -- because, of course, they're part of the human experience we want to preserve.
No one can predict what 2012 will bring. But around the world lots of us are committed to keeping it as noisy as we possibly can. We'll sing more or less in tune -- but mostly we'll sing loud. We're tired of not being heard.
Van Jones is the president of Rebuild the Dream.
Follow Bill McKibben on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmckibben
Addressing Climate Change: #Occupy Congress - Huffington Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il5GYFEDJfk
People wake up! Big Oil is _already_ a major threat to National Security, and by extension the security of the entire world.
The Pro-Pollutino for Profit Lobby (Big Oil, Natural Gas, Coal and Nuclear) hates democracy and freedom. They hate energy democracy, which means solar panels on every roof, wind, micro-hydro, wave and geothermal power in or near every town. Freedom from the gas pump. Freedom from the oil tyranny. Freedom from having to pay someone for energy and instead GETTING PAID for energy.
The Pro-Pollution for Profit lobby _hates_ freedom and democracy and BIG OIL IS ALREADY THREATENING OUR NATIONAL SECURITY!
WAKE UP! WAKE UP!! WAKE UP!!!!
Also, since we're having a little debate here, do you not care unless it is the 'end of the world'? I mean, does it have to be the end of the world before you'll do anything about it? At that point, it will be too late, hence the word 'end'.
And regarding your 'economy killing' line. Can you give statistics? Examples? I can.
Germany has one of the greenest economies on the planet, getting 20% of it's energy from renewables already. They also are the biggest economy in the European Union, and they are the 4th biggest economy on the planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)) . They have very few unemployed considering that the European Union has been affected dramatically by the bank failures around the world. What examples can you give?
What proof can you give that Bill M. and Mr Jones are for a global government?
They should have 1 message... political corruption. The rest falls into place after that is addressed... or are you only interested in your issue, and will go away when the corruption plays it lip service?
It's easy to ignore a movement that wants everything, and splits it enough to give that many more people a reason to disagree with you.
http://www.thoriumenergyalliance.com/
Big business hates democracy and freedom, and energy democracy and freedom from the Pro-Pollution for Profit Lobby (Big Oil, Natural Gas, Coal and Nuclear) hates more than anything. Energy democracy is solar panels on every roof. Energy freedom is freedom from the tyranny of fossil and nuclear energy.
Energy democracy means there is no need for Nuclear or Fossil fuels. Instead, you provide your own energy.
We call it people power.
Power to the people!
With deep appreciation for your superficial reasoning.
How can the 1% sing a good song for the 99%?
That is the question.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2011/11/oils-well-that-ends-well-2.html
1 message... political corruption. Or are they out there complaining about their issue, and will dissipate after the corruption pays it lip service?
1 message. Political corruption. The rest falls into place if that is addressed.
The climate now is basically shot- waiting till 2020 to even begin to make any kind of reduction in C02 emissions is too late- by then we will be locked into a 450+ CO2ppm scenario.
The 1% have basically won on the issue of AGW as well- but when the ugly effects of climate change grow worse this decade, and become unbearable in the 2020s- the 1% will find refuge with all their money- the rest of us?
And by 2020 or after the reductions will become all the more costly and larger to keep warming below 3 degrees C over PI levels.