Climate change movement must focus on need for government action
May 7th, 2008 by Jim JustGiven the urgency of the need to act to avert catastrophic global warming (even thought the generally-accepted call for 80% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 isn’t ambitious enough and underestimates the urgency), why isn’t there a climate change movement in the US?
Ann Pettifor at BBC News reminds us that all successful social movements have focused on the need for government action.
“The anti-slavery movement sought to change laws that permitted slavery. The suffragette movement only ensured votes for women once discriminatory laws had been displaced; the anti-apartheid movement was only successful once apartheid laws had been removed.
“In the US, the black civil rights movement campaigned from 1947 until the introduction of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act to end discrimination in certain spheres.”
By focusing on individual (“change your light bulbs”) or community (“recycle, reuse, reduce, localize”) action, “green” organizations fail to recognize that the kind of structural change that is needed can only be brought about by governmental action. And as the civil rights movement demonstrated, a successful campaign does not stop at one defeat. It moves forward inexorably over time, in pursuit of its legislative goal.
People acting alone, or even in community, cannot deal with the threat of climate change. A legislative framework is required to effectively address climate change and to allocate the burden of adjusting to climate change equitably between rich and poor. An ideology of “minimal government” [and the "free market"] would be laughable in the face of the reality of the urgent need for radical action, were the consequences of inaction not so tragic.
To succeed, climate change campaigns must become a movement with the radical goal of bringing structural change, regulation and enforcement that will urgently drive down emissions and sequester carbon dioxide. They need to exercise leadership by mobilizing society in a concerted way behind this goal.