Taking Direct Action: Just Do It

Tim DeChristopher, the young climate activist who monkey-wrenched an illegal federal land give-away, is due for sentencing later this month.  Just in time, this documentary will be premiering with stories and video of a new, more militant breed of climate activists, who aren’t waiting to see if the “system”, so horribly gamed by fossil funded disinformation, will ever take action on the scale necessary to stave off catastrophe.

It’s the young people that get it, like the young people got civil rights. It’s been the young people who have moved this country out of slavery, out of child labor, into women’s rights, worker’s rights, a 40 hour week, and a decent wage.

It’s the young people who don’t ask if our soldiers are gay, just if they can do their jobs. It’s the young people who get environment, and get climate change.  Look around at the geriatric tea-party brigades denialism, and you’ll understand that this is a fight we are going to win.  But patience may not be sufficient – we may not have enough time. If we want this to happen, we may just have to stand up and yes to what’s right, and no to what’s wrong.

Rolling Stone has it:

This question of how far to take the fight to stop global warming has haunted activists for years.  But now that more conventional solutions, such as a global treaty to cut greenhouse-gas pollution, are dead, the issue is more pressing than ever.  As the crisis grows, the temptation to turn up the volume with more dramatic and attention-grabbing protests will only increase.  Climate activists often speculate about who will emerge as the Martin Luther King of the climate movement.  But it may be equally relevant to ask who will emerge as the Malcolm X.