by Chris Hedges
November 18, 2019
reposted from Truthdig.com
If you read only one book this year, it should be Roger Hallam’s “Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse.”
Hallam’s lucid and concise book, which echoes Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” says what many of us now know to be true but do not say: If we do not replace the ruling elites soon we are finished as a species.
It is a cogent, well-argued case for global rebellion—the only form of
resistance that can save us from ecosystem collapse and human-induced
genocide. It correctly analyzes the failure of environmentalist
activists in groups such as 350.org
to understand and confront global corporate power and thus make a
meaningful impact as we barrel toward ecocide. “Common Sense for the
21st Century” is a survival manual for the human species.
“The corrupt system is going to kill us all unless we rise up,” Hallam, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, bluntly warns.
The activism, protests, lobbying, petitions, appeals to the United
Nations and misguided trust in “liberal” politicians such as Barack
Obama and Al Gore, along with the work of countless NGOs,
have been accompanied by a 60% rise in global carbon dioxide emissions
since 1990. The United Nations estimates this will be augmented by a 40%
rise in CO2 emissions in the next 10 years.
Hallam, who has long been a part of the environmental movement, says of
his past activism: “I was wasting my time.”
We must reduce carbon emissions by 40% in the next 12 years to have a
50% chance of avoiding catastrophe, according to a report last year by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But the ruling
elites, as expected, ignored the warning or mouthed empty platitudes. CO2
emissions increased by 1.6% in 2017 and by 2.7% in 2018. Carbon dioxide
levels went up by 3.5 parts per million (ppm) last year, reaching 415
ppm. We are only a decade away, Hallam warns, from 450 ppm, the level
equivalent to a 2-degree Celsius average temperature rise.
“Let’s be frank about what ‘catastrophe’ actually means in this
context,” Hallam writes. “We are looking here at the slow and agonizing
suffering and death of billions of people. A moral analysis might go
like this: one recent scientific opinion stated that at 5°C above the
pre-industrial mean temperature, we are looking at an ecological system
capable of sustaining just one billion people. That means 6-7 billion
people will have died within the next generation or two. Even if this
figure is wrong by 90%, that means 600 million people face starvation
and death in the next 40 years. This is 12 times worse than the death
toll (civilians and soldiers) of World War Two and many times the death
toll of every genocide known to history. It is 12 times worse than the
horror of Nazism and Fascism in the 20th century. This is what our
genocidal governments around the world are willingly allowing to happen.
The word ‘genocide’ might seem out of context here. The word is often
associated with ethnic cleansing or major atrocities like the Holocaust.
However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition reads ‘the
deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or
cultural group.’ ”
“It is time to grow up and see the world as it is,” Hallam writes.
“There are some things which are undeniably real, there are some things
we cannot change, and one of those is the laws of physics. Ice melts
when the temperature rises. Crops die in a drought. Trees burn in forest
fires. Because these things are real, we can also be certain about what
the future holds. We are now heading into a period of extreme
ecological collapse. Whether or not this leads to the extinction of the
human species largely depends upon whether revolutionary changes happen
within our societies in the next decade. This is not a matter of
ideology, but of simple math and physics.” Hallam points out that most
predictions by climate scientists have turned out to be wildly
over-optimistic. “… Recent science shows permafrost melting 90 years
earlier than forecast and Himalayan glaciers melting twice as fast as
expected,” he writes. “Feedbacks and locked-in heating will take us over
2°C even before we factor in additional temperature rises from
human-caused emissions over the next ten years.”
“In short, we are fucked—the only question is by how much and how
soon?” Hallam continues, “Do we accept this fate? I suggest we do not.
Many self-respecting people who can overcome the human failing to
disbelieve what they don’t like, now accept what is obvious looking at
the natural science. But they have yet to work through the political and
social implications.”
Hallam understands that even with reformists in power—and the
political mutations caused by neoliberalism have not favored the rise of
reformers but instead right-wing demagogues including Donald Trump and
Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro who accelerate the ecocide—any change will be
too incremental and too slow to save us from catastrophe.
Extinction Rebellion has the stated aim of bringing down the ruling elites. It organized last month’s coordinated series of demonstrations in 60 cities around the globe. Some 1,832 people were arrested in London alone. Additionally, more than 1,000 people were arrested during 11 days of civil disobedience in the streets of London in April. You can see interviews I did with Hallam here, here and here.
“This is not a matter of one’s political party preferences,” Hallam
writes. “It is a matter of basic structural sociology. Institutions,
like animal species, have limits to how fast they can change. To get
rapid change they have to be replaced with new social systems of policy,
practice and culture. It is a terrible and painful realization, but it
is time to accept our reality.”
It is only by bringing tens of thousands of people onto the streets
to disrupt and paralyze the functioning of the state and finance
capitalism—in short, a rebellion—that we can save ourselves, he writes.
He grasps the fact that the protests must be nonviolent and must focus
on governments.
“After one or two weeks following this plan, historical records show
that a regime is highly likely to collapse or is forced to enact major
structural change,” he writes. “This is due to well-established dynamics
of nonviolent political struggle. The authorities are presented with an
impossible dilemma. On the one hand they can allow the daily occupation
of city streets to continue. This will only encourage greater
participation and undermine their authority. On the other hand, if they
opt to repress the protestors, they risk a backfiring effect. This is
where more people come onto the street in response to the sacrifices of
those the authorities have taken off the street. In situations of
intense political drama people forget their fear and decide to stand by
those who are sacrificing themselves for the common good.”
“The only way out is for negotiations to happen,” he writes. “Only
then will a structural opportunity open up for the emergency
transformation of the economy that we need. Of course, this proposal is
not certain to work but is substantially possible. What is certain,
however, is that reformist campaigning and lobbying will totally fail as
it has for decades. The structural change we now objectively need has
to happen too fast for any conventional strategy.”
No rebellion succeeds, Hallam understands, unless it appeals to a
segment within the ruling elite. Once there are divisions in the ruling
class, paralysis ensues and ultimately larger and larger fragments of
the elite defect to those who are rebelling or refuse to defend a
discredited ruling class.
“Mass action cannot just be nonviolent in a physical sense but must
also involve active respect towards the public and the opposition,
regardless of their repressive responses,” Hallam notes.
He writes specifically of the police:
A proactive approach to the police is an effective way of enabling
mass civil disobedience in the present context. This means meeting
police as soon as they arrive on the scene and saying two things
clearly: “This is a nonviolent peaceful action” and “We respect that you
have to do your job here”. We have repeated evidence that this calms
down police officers thus opening the way to subsequent civil
interactions.
The Extinction Rebellion actions have consistently treated the police
in a polite way when we are arrested and at the police stations,
engaging in small talk and quite often in political discussions and
other topics where activists might have affinity (inequality, unfair
pay). If police initially stonewall activists, they can become more open
by a willingness to engage with and listen to them.
This engagement can start before an action. Often a face-to-face
meeting with police is effective as they are able to understand that the
people they are dealing with are reasonable and communicative.
Rebellion will also require repeatedly breaking the law. This will mean time spent in jails and prisons.
“It would be beneficial to the Rebellion for people to be in prison
before the major civil resistance event to create national publicity,”
writes Hallam, who was jailed for six weeks
this fall in London. “The best way of potentially doing this is for
people to do repeated acts of peaceful civil disobedience and then read
out statements as soon as they enter court, ignoring the judge and court
staff. In a loud voice they might say ‘I am duty bound to inform this
court that in bringing me here it is complicit in the “greatest crime of
all” namely, the destruction of our planet and children due to the
corrupt inaction of the governing regime whose will you have chosen to
administer. I will not abide by this court’s rules and will now proceed
to explain the existential threat facing all life, our families,
communities and nation …’ and then start a long speech on the ecological
crisis.
“This will likely result in the arrestee being in contempt of court
and placed in remand or given a prison sentence. It will be a dilemma
for the authorities (depending on the regime) as to how long the remand
or sentence would be. If the period of imprisonment is short, then
people will be out soon and can continue peaceful civil disobedience. If
the sentence is long, it will create a national media drama which will
feed into overall rebellion.”
Popular assemblies have to be formed to take power and oversee a dramatic and swift reduction in CO2 emissions.
The science is unequivocal. The temperature increase must be
stabilized at between 1 degree C and 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial
levels, and CO2 levels must be stabilized at
about 350 ppm. We have to find ways to largely eliminate human-created
greenhouse gas emissions of all types within a decade, two at the most,
and put in place programs to cool the earth, including planting
trillions of trees to absorb CO2. One of the
easiest and most significant ways an individual can directly reduce his
or her environmental impact on the planet is to eat a diet free of animal products.
The animal agriculture industry rivals the fossil fuel industry as one
of the largest, multi-factorial causes of climate catastrophe.
The danger, Hallam points out, is that if we do not act soon we will
trigger runaway climate feedbacks or tipping points at which no effort
to curb emissions will succeed. Fossil fuels must be swiftly eliminated
from the economy, including through a ban on all new investments in
fossil fuel exploration and development. Coal-fired and gas-fired power
stations must be shut down within a decade. This process will require a
massive reduction in energy use that may have to include rationing.
Hallam is acutely aware that we may fail. It may be too late already,
he admits. But not to resist is to be complicit in this act of
genocide. Hallam understands global corporate power. He knows how to
fight it. The rest is up to us.
William Barber III, the lawyer son of the powerful Reverend William Barber II, was a fitting speaker for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Asheville. He is co-chair of the NC Poor People’s Campaign Ecological Devastation Committee, as well as the strategic partnerships associate at The Climate Reality Project started by Al Gore (
