Michael C. Ruppert was a peak oil analyst, investigative journalist, and activist. Many readers may know Mike as author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, or as the subject of the 2009 documentary Collapse, based on his book A Presidential Energy Policy.
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Part of the reason why climate scepticism has been so effective is that we all want the science to be false. We all want to forget about climate change and in fact remove that term from our lexicon altogether. Many do not want to think about radically altering their lives and the uncertainty that comes with change. Even for those who do, there is no obvious path for surviving (let alone flourishing) outside of the market society that has come to order all aspects of our lives.
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We are now awakening to the realization that the self is porous and not as contained as we might like to think – and that all aspects of consciousness dance together in a mutual state of inclusivity, so that it is ultimately impossible to divorce happiness from grief. Perhaps coming home to ourselves involves recognizing that grief has its purpose, without which happiness is a mere plastic echo of itself. Perhaps coming home to a more beautiful world means we realize – as the gentleman up in the Himalayan regions told Ej and I – that life isn’t that coherent.
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What has gone wrong? With the eradication of the old-style tyrannies, has a more subtle but equally devastating hierarchical tyranny risen up to coerce us all into a diabolical trajectory toward self-extinction?
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In our individualistic, identity-asserting culture of conditional worth and comparative selfhood, it can feel as though every triumph and tribulation is scrutinised as a defining fault of personal character. As activists and global citizens, we face enough pressure from reigning ideologies and the media telling us how to live and be A Worthwhile Person that it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate when we’re helping the world from when we could be hurting it, and by reflection, ourselves.
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Far from the one-size-fits-all stereotype, activists come in all shapes and sizes, each bringing their own set of skills to the movement to shift the paradigm. Carving out a niche for activism in our everyday lives is easy once we’ve discovered our own activist superpowers. The trick is to find your natural pace of ‘active being’, and then commit with purpose.
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Though comprehensive data is sadly lacking, all evidence available demonstrates this species is in dramatic decline. Some data quote global populations in 35,800 adult females in 2004, a massive decline from the 1982 figure of 115,000. In the Pacific, where numbers have declined the most, estimates are that there has been an 80 – 95% decline in numbers over the last 20 years.
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Coal, Australia’s #1 export and much-touted bringer of economic growth, is at the centre of controversy in Australia’s rural heartland, and the movement to take on Big Coal is gathering steam.
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Artists don’t come much more independent than David Rovics, whose resolutely political music belongs to no record label, and who answers to no one. Shunning the norms of the industry, Rovics makes all of his music available online for free, along with his lyrics and sheet music, encouraging its use for non-profit purposes. The message is clear: this is not just art for art’s sake; there are stories that need to be told, and heard.
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Our job is to take every brilliant pro-sustainability message that comes to us, and recommend it to our friends and colleagues. When I get this issue of SHIFT, I will post it to my facebook wall and tweet it to my followers. I do the same with Richard Heinberg’s Museletter. You, no doubt, have your own favorite sources.
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