Climate Justice Fast

True Insanity

Submitted by Anna Keenan on Mon, 09/11/2009
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Today, day four of the fast, I received this message from a friend of mine, who I know through my non-climate activities.

“I just saw the climate fast web site, wow. Take care.
Don't know who is more crazy, you for doing it or me (and the rest of the world) for not.”

I think he got it just right – a few people have said that this is a 'crazy' action, that we would 'be mad' to do anything that risks our health, but then still others I've spoken to have said that this was their initial reaction, but on thinking more deeply about it, they realised the truth.

We as humanity are in a terrifying situation – as 'The Age of Stupid' put it so clearly, there are many species that have 'consumed' and polluted their environments to the point of collapse before – just put yeast bacteria in a jar of sugar-water and see what happens. But humans are the only species who have ever been blessed with full consciousness, and are doing exactly the same thing, knowingly. That is the greatest tragedy of all.

We have, for the last few decades, chosen ignorance, chosen to indulge our mindless consumerism, and chosen to focus on GDP-growth, literally 'at all costs'. Meanwhile the scientists are doing their best to warn us that the 'point of no return' is just around the corner – if we haven't already passed it.

The early signs of collapse are clear: droughts and famine in Kenya and Zambia; whole nations preparing to move in the low-lying island nations; bushfires in Australia and California; heatwaves in India and Spain; glaciers melting and rivers flooding then drying up in Nepal and Peru.

And yet, politics seems to ignore all this. Rather than taking the urgent, radical action that is needed, and facing up to the fact that we need a deep values shift away from consumerism and the eternal-growth mentality, politics is busy finding any excuse that they can hold on to the fossil-fuel industry and the profits that it brings, and holding tight to the notion that we have a 'right' to buy anything that we want if we can afford it, without considering the planetary effects.

This attitude is leading us to disaster.

This political inaction – on the part of world governments and on the part of the world's apathetic citizens – is truly crazy. Insane

It is even a little bit crazy for citizen activists to expect that letter-writing and impassioned speeches alone will change the world. We need action at the highest possible levels – civil disobedience, hunger-strikes, and million-person marches coordinated around the world, you name it. Now is the time.

Climate Justice Fast! is standing up for the truth, and bringing attention to the gravity of the immoral situation that we now find ourselves in.

I feel it is the most sane action that I have ever undertaken.