Who are the Climate Leaders?
An Article for Red Pepper
first published 2 August 2007
Professional climate activists often concentrate on the task of negotiating global emissions reduction targets. But dealing with climate change also means finding practical political means of keeping fossil fuels in the ground. However brilliantly the world theorizes ways of getting carbon out of energy, it is also going to have to get energy companies out of fossil fuel deposits. As climatologist Jim Hansen notes, burning the Earth's remaining coal, oil and gas "would guarantee dramatic climate change, yielding a different planet from the one on which civilisation developed."
To be successful, climate movements must therefore be empowered and informed by grassroots movements fighting oil and gas pipelines in places like the Niger Delta, South Wales, Chana district in Southern Thailand and Rossport in Ireland. While most official responses to climate change are stuck in the past, such communities are looking to the future.