This week as nearly 3,000,000 fire
alerts sounded world wide, as the EPA ended its protections from coal plant
release of methane gas, and as Bolsonaro and Morales of Brazil and Bolivia
respectively encouraged “development” of indigenous lands in the Amazon to GMO
soya farming and hamburger raising, Greta Thunberg landed in New York’s Coney
Island declaring “We must end the War against Nature.”
The war against nature has been a long
one, dating from before history from about 3,000 B .C. when Europe’s peaceful,
agrarian hunter-gathering people were invaded by marauding Kurgan stockmen from
the Russian steppe (probably from part of what we now call Kazakhstan) who
overran Europe over the next thousand year period. They brought with them weapons, warfare,
hierarchy, patriarchy, worship of sky gods, and worst of all, their language,
proto-indo-European, from which almost all our Western languages (and thinking) derive. Their
invasion continues to this day, delayed by a lack of maritime technology between
2,000. B.. C. and 1492, when Europeans arrived in the New (and undespoiled)
World to wreak their centuries of genocide and decimation of landscape and
forest, a movement that continues to this day. Driving them is the Judeo-Christian ideology
which holds dominion of men over the forces of nature, a notion amplified by
the so-called Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.
As a war with deep cultural roots, it
is a formidable opponent for our latest children’s crusade to take on. But
despite its long and pernicious history, it is a war all of this planet’s
inhabitants must take on now if we are determined not to lose our home. And it
is the wild card, perhaps the only one we have, with the potential of rocking
the bleak political forecast for 2020 of another four years of #45's planetary
depredations. It is a war whose climax will occur with the Sept 20 climate
strike and the shutting down of Washington, D.C. to any continued business as
usual.
Corporatists, and people still of the
voiced opinion that human activity has nothing to do with melting glaciers,
rising seas, burning forests, or with millions of migrants world wide fleeing
drought and the political unrest drought foments, might do well to remember the
work of James Lovelock who first proposed the concept which he called Gaia. While the U.S. government allocated billions
of dollars to determin whether Mars might be able to sustain life, Lovelock
proved that the Earth’s atmosphere was tempered and regulated cumulatively by
the work of billions of micro-organisms whose activities had produced an
atmosphere friendly to the evolution of larger animals and eventually man.
If infinitesimally tiny organisms could
create a benevolent atmosphere capable of sustaining of life, what in effect is
Earth’s amniotic sac, then by the same token, any bio-organism has the power to
modify that atmosphere. Even homo
sapiens.
While crowds welcomed Greta in New
York, Sonia Guajajara former VP
candidate of Brazil and national coordinator of Brazil’s Indigenous People’s Articulation
(PIB), speaking for the all indigenous people’s march in Brasilia had this to
say: "Our fight is so urgent that we must all get together right now. The fight
for Mother Earth is the mother of all fights.” Although Greta may have come
lately to the struggle, it is a struggle indigenous women of the Amazon have
been fighting for decades, warning about the dangers to the Amazon from
extractive economic models including the demands of fossil fuel, mining, and
agricultural companies, all of them emboldened most recently by the Bolsonaro
and Morales administrations.
In the Amazon fires we see the egregious abuses
that result from unchecked capitalism, colonization, racism, and patriarchy —
all of which are based upon the same systems and ideologies that promote power
over nature, and exploitation of women, indigenous peoples, people of color and
the land originating with the Kurgan invasion of 3,000 B.C. These events and the multiplicity of actions
detrimental to indigenous peoples and their cultures are just a few examples of
the long-term systemic efforts of governments and corporations worldwide to
enact genocidal policies that harm indigenous peoples and their territories,
and that char the lungs that sequester 20% of the Earth’s carbon emissions.
This year will likely be remembered as
the time when the U.S. and global grassroots finally began acknowledging the
terminal crisis posed by global warming. The indigenous people of Brazil have
been declaring an end to the war against nature for decades, and now in a world
consumed by wild fire, Greta’s arrival echoes that same declaration for the
northern hemisphere.
“If environment were a bank,” says Sanders, “it would have been saved already.”
In the San Francisco-Oakland-Bay Area,
Wednesday from 6 to 9 Pm a Strike for Climate Organizing Meeting has been
called at Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Ave (near 47th AV at Telegraph)
in Oakland.
In San Francisco, a march has been
called Thursday, Sept. 5 for the Global Day of Action for the Amazon from noon
to 2 Pm at the Brazilian Consulate, 300 Montgomery Street in San Francisco to
the Headquarters of BlackRock extractive corporation at 400 Howard Street.
Activities are called for nationwide
the week of Sept. 20-27 with a call to shut down D.C. on the 23th,
and in the S.F.-Bay Area a call join the youth-led Global Climate Strike on
Sept. 20 at 10 AM at the S.F. Federal Bldg at 7th and Mission for a
march and rally led by Youth vs. Apocalypse; on Sept. 23, from 7 to 10 AM at
Union Square, a traffic disruption and outreach; and Wednesday, Sept. 25,
non-violent direct action at 7 AM at Montgomery & Market St. in downtown
San Francisco.
Demand #45 take action on climate
change after UN declares climate change threatens the world’s food supply at
Donate funds to 350.org to pull off the
biggest climate action yet at
Pressure Bolsonaro to stop the plunder
of the Amazon at
Rein in Pentagon spending and end the militarism
that’s contributing to Global Warming at
Defund deforestation in the Amazon at
Sign on to elect a more progressive,
more pro peace Congress at
Extinction Rebellion organizes massive
protest outside London’s Brazilian Embassy on short notice.
Thunberg calls or global climate
strike.
Declaring “No Business as Usual”
activists plan day of mass civil disobedience to #ShutDownDC
Ben & Jerry’s, Lush, and Patagonia
among companies pledging to support global climate strike.
Open letter from college professors
urges educators world wide cancel class to join global climate strike.
Thunberg joins climate strike outside
UN Headquarters, urging “Don’t just watch, Join us.”
Protesters prevent Mountain Valley Pipeline drilling.
National class action lawsuit against ICE and DHS for failure to ensure detained immigrants receive appropriate medical and mental health care and violation of the Fifth Amendment.
National class action lawsuit against ICE and DHS for failure to ensure detained immigrants receive appropriate medical and mental health care and violation of the Fifth Amendment.
Community defense brigades to defend
neighbors against ICE threats in Mississippi.
Over 1,100 congregations agree to
provide sanctuary to migrants.
Former border agent Jason McGilvray
resigns after pleading guilty to charges of assaulting an undocumented person
in U.S. custody.
Border Agent Matthew Bowen's crime of running down a fleeing migrant with his truck as his assault weapon finally ends his violent career.
California leads multistate lawsuit against administration for lifting court-granted protections for young migrant detainees.
California leads multistate lawsuit against administration for lifting court-granted protections for young migrant detainees.
Nineteen states file lawsuit to block
indefinite detention of migrant families.
Bill introduced in the Massachusetts
state legislature requiring state’s pension funds to divest from nuclear
manufacturers.
House intelligence committee and House
Financial Services committee have subpoenaed Trump family financial records and
tax returns from Deutsche bank investigating Russian money laundering and
potential influence on #45.
Grassroots disabled activists stop
American Medical Assn., in its tracks, swerving it to support #MedicareForAll.
Sanders endorses Public Banking Act.
JusticeLA and other organizations and
groups stop LA County’s $3.5 billion dollar jail plan.
Saudi Arabia acknowledge defeat in
Yemen and starts to sue for peace.
Hydro-Quebec ends collaboration with
Israel power firm.
Class-action lawsuit against Apple and
Samsung acknowledges the cellphone makers “intentionally misrepresented” the
“safety” of the devices, citing a Chicago Tribune investigation that tested
popular smartphones for radiofrequency radiation and found some results over
the federal exposure limit.
California public banking bill AB 857
passes final committee hurdle.
T-Mobile cancells 5-G upgrades and new builds nationwide, possibly crippling some contractors.
