The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion who was recently released from jail, on why civil disobedience is all that can save us now from catastrophe.
The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion who was recently released from jail, on why civil disobedience is all that can save us now from catastrophe.
I’m not sure this is a hill you want to die on, Chris. The climate zealots are basing their religion on models that supposedly forecast millennia long meteorological patterns with unrealistic precision. And these models have been consistently inaccurate as decades pass since the inception of this cult. You and I are not trained in this discipline, and as we’ve seen, the ability to subvert and amplify certain perspectives under the guise of “science” is vey easy with the right financial incentives. Simplistically, the polar ice pack is still intact, yet Al Gore’s net worth has increased about $300 million since he began proselytizing about global warming (despite his predicting Arctic glacier demise by 2015). I’m not saying that anthropogenic climate change isn’t happening. I am saying we haven’t a clue of timing, direction, or magnitude, given all the other non-human factors that affect our climate cycles. Yes, reduce fossil fuel consumption, reduce plastic in the oceans, be thoughtful about rain forest and other habitat preservation; but don’t destroy the already impoverished lower socioeconomic classes by boosting energy and food costs to exorbitant levels because a few true believers are throwing loud tantrums.
This is a dangerous frustrating message that reflects ignorance of ecology. There is a TON everyone can do and MUST do. Soil serves as a robust carbon sucking machine when all of its ecosystem parts are functioning well. Plants pull carbon dioxide out of the air and uses it to feed biological life in the earth. Soil already removes about 25 percent of the world’s fossil fuel emissions each year this way. If we create healthier soil out of our vast tracts of degraded land we can QUICKLY sequester billions of additional tons of carbon. The Earth’s soils already contain about 2,500 gigatons of carbon and that is three times more carbon than in the atmosphere and four times the amount of carbon in all living plants and animals.
But it isn't just farmers who can restore ecosystem functioning. Everyone who manages a watershed, lawn, park, or school ground can start planting native or drought-tolerant deep-rooted plants, trees, and meadows and thus help heal soil, water and carbon cycles. Both citizens and policymakers have enormous power to reduce both flooding and drought by changing how land is used and this means healing local soil and water cycles. Profound drought and flood are simply not inevitable. Water does not absorb into concrete, asphalt, thin rooted lawns, bare plowed soil, or depleted agricultural soil. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 38% of global land is agricultural, and humans have altered three-quarters of the earth's land surface within the last millennium. For centuries humans have wrecked healthy ecosystems to make urban and agricultural zones devoid of healthy soil and well-functioning water and carbon cycles. As a result, most land on earth does not currently absorb water the way it should.
Getting control of increasingly scary weather dominated by arctic blasts, high heat, drought, and by intense snow, rain and flooding requires reducing our fossil fuel consumption and expanding renewable energy, and but it also requires that we restore natural water cycles, soil health, plant cover, and carbon cycles. This can be done locally and everyone can help. Recreating healthy ecosystems on public, private and agricultural land also increases food supply, food nutrient density, air quality, water supply and quality, and biodiversity.
Poorly managed land has profound public consequences and is one of climate change's most visible yet reversible drivers. Our best food and water security option as we head into a deepening climate crisis is to raise hope and awareness as we quickly transition to ecosystem regenerative landscaping, farming and grazing practices. This requires changed policies for everything from lawns to farms to watershed management. Flooding, drought, food shortages and the dangers of too much carbon in the atmosphere can all be addressed by repairing the complex natural life systems we have so profoundly altered. This is great news but ecology is the least understood of the sciences. Our best hope isn’t protest new inventions. Hope lies in restoring the incredible complexity of natural ecosystems.
Sorry...there is so much more wrong in the world than a 1 degree rise in temperature...And ironically the 'solution' to climate change is more taxes on people to be given to whom? To me Civil disobedience is really necessary to push back against the repression, loss of jobs, endless judicial corruption, corporate takeover of government, and class war foisted on the people.
I respect the idea of a Citizens' Assembly as another way to focus on the problems besetting our world. There are already versions of Citizens' Assemblies (very narrowly defined, albeit) who stalk the halls of Congress or Parliaments - they are the lobbyists paid for by the fossil fuel industries, big mining, big pharma, big tobacco/vaping, the NRA - and so forth. Free to pump money into their pro-Representatives re-election campaigns - so they are no longer answerable to the people - but to major corporations. That's why Citizens' Assemblies - folk appointed by sortition - appeals - though one would have to mandate space within major media outlets for the deliberations to be given airing. And of course - keeping lobbyists away from those appointed - that would need protecting... Roger Hallam spoke clearly in answer to Chris' questions - I found him very impressive. Thanks, Chris. Extinction Rebellion here in Australia has been largely answered by the authorities here as in the UK - garnering it lots of publicity and, I think, generally speaking - sympathetic hearing - even by those frustrated by traffic brought to a standstill!
So very glad to learn about Mr Hallam and hear how he constructs a necessary response to the closed mindedness of the oligarchy. Please have him speak again so more of us can hear him and become inspired. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Elizabeth Heilman, for that message of hope. Have you heard of Viktor Schauberger, the Austrian nicknamed the Water Wizard, who died in 1955 a broken man five days after being forced to sell all his patents to American corporate interests just to obtain a flight back to Germany. He’s the real deal in Ecology, and had an almost mystical knowledge of the properties of water. The PKS or Pythagoras Kepler Institute in Graz in Austria is his legacy.
Expecting earthlings to sacrifice for their young is asking just a little too much. Cars should be required to get 50 miles per gallon now and family should be limited to one child per couple. That would drive the cost of Labor up and the corporate immigrant importers would not approve of that. One thing that I have learned since Trump is that our government is totally bought off, Trump included.
"Humanity is at risk of extinction, and so is everything we have ever created."
Common overclass luxury virtue signaling terrorism.
What it masks is an agenda to kill off much of the population of underclass "ants" as they currently cause negative ascthetic impacts and stress to the overclass.
“Either you are actively supporting civil resistance,
fighting for life or you are complicit with genocide.” How can you be so sure? Science is not an ivory tower of perfect truth; Science is people and people are subject to biases, pressure to conform, career incentives and financial incentives. Scientific consensus is surely subject to the same problems as any other "consensus." Science is never "settled."
And wouldn't it be wonderful if the science is wrong, and we are not doomed? That said, I think we should start taking better care of the earth, not to save ourselves from imminent death, but because its the right thing to do
However I do support your right to protest and to be annoying and crazy. Dissent should not be criminalized, it makes the intellectual landscape richer and more diversified.
"There is this belief, especially strong in the West, that "the people" will rise up or somehow fight back when a certain level of tyranny or oppression is reached. I'm not speaking of foreign countries — where "color revolutions" are launched on the flimsiest of pretexts — but of domestic dissidents, absolutely convinced that "democracy" works and that governments are ultimately kept in check by the prospect of a popular revolt.
It's a lie.
Look around you. Damn near every single government in the "civilized West" is run by odious technocrats and permanent bureaucracies, with barely any actual legitimacy and no accountability mechanisms left whatsoever. Governments treat their own constitutions as dead letters, and channel the anarcho-tyranny they previously practiced abroad towards their own subjects. The lockdowns happened, and the few who dared protest were smeared and denounced — not just by the governments and their pet media, but by the brainwashed populace at large.
Didn't ANYBODY learn anything from Martin Luther King Jr? Or read Chomsky on effective protesting? These tactics just cause people to decide you're just another fruitcake with nothing to be learned from.
Thank you. I still come away with blurriness about how to move forward. It took me some time to understand the tomato soup, superglue tactic. As an art student I would marvel at the skill of Degas and Daumier, studying and copying the works of art in the National Gallery. The irony at the core of our system of art VALUE worship over the value of life takes a mental shift to see, like seeing a cup or two profiles in a design. Once seen, it is impossible to ignore, yet the need to create remains.
Let's keep it simple. First things first and the first thing that must be done is MASSIVE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO PRESENT AUTHORITY. Go to "A Letter to a Generation" at
I’m not sure this is a hill you want to die on, Chris. The climate zealots are basing their religion on models that supposedly forecast millennia long meteorological patterns with unrealistic precision. And these models have been consistently inaccurate as decades pass since the inception of this cult. You and I are not trained in this discipline, and as we’ve seen, the ability to subvert and amplify certain perspectives under the guise of “science” is vey easy with the right financial incentives. Simplistically, the polar ice pack is still intact, yet Al Gore’s net worth has increased about $300 million since he began proselytizing about global warming (despite his predicting Arctic glacier demise by 2015). I’m not saying that anthropogenic climate change isn’t happening. I am saying we haven’t a clue of timing, direction, or magnitude, given all the other non-human factors that affect our climate cycles. Yes, reduce fossil fuel consumption, reduce plastic in the oceans, be thoughtful about rain forest and other habitat preservation; but don’t destroy the already impoverished lower socioeconomic classes by boosting energy and food costs to exorbitant levels because a few true believers are throwing loud tantrums.
This is a dangerous frustrating message that reflects ignorance of ecology. There is a TON everyone can do and MUST do. Soil serves as a robust carbon sucking machine when all of its ecosystem parts are functioning well. Plants pull carbon dioxide out of the air and uses it to feed biological life in the earth. Soil already removes about 25 percent of the world’s fossil fuel emissions each year this way. If we create healthier soil out of our vast tracts of degraded land we can QUICKLY sequester billions of additional tons of carbon. The Earth’s soils already contain about 2,500 gigatons of carbon and that is three times more carbon than in the atmosphere and four times the amount of carbon in all living plants and animals.
But it isn't just farmers who can restore ecosystem functioning. Everyone who manages a watershed, lawn, park, or school ground can start planting native or drought-tolerant deep-rooted plants, trees, and meadows and thus help heal soil, water and carbon cycles. Both citizens and policymakers have enormous power to reduce both flooding and drought by changing how land is used and this means healing local soil and water cycles. Profound drought and flood are simply not inevitable. Water does not absorb into concrete, asphalt, thin rooted lawns, bare plowed soil, or depleted agricultural soil. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 38% of global land is agricultural, and humans have altered three-quarters of the earth's land surface within the last millennium. For centuries humans have wrecked healthy ecosystems to make urban and agricultural zones devoid of healthy soil and well-functioning water and carbon cycles. As a result, most land on earth does not currently absorb water the way it should.
Getting control of increasingly scary weather dominated by arctic blasts, high heat, drought, and by intense snow, rain and flooding requires reducing our fossil fuel consumption and expanding renewable energy, and but it also requires that we restore natural water cycles, soil health, plant cover, and carbon cycles. This can be done locally and everyone can help. Recreating healthy ecosystems on public, private and agricultural land also increases food supply, food nutrient density, air quality, water supply and quality, and biodiversity.
Poorly managed land has profound public consequences and is one of climate change's most visible yet reversible drivers. Our best food and water security option as we head into a deepening climate crisis is to raise hope and awareness as we quickly transition to ecosystem regenerative landscaping, farming and grazing practices. This requires changed policies for everything from lawns to farms to watershed management. Flooding, drought, food shortages and the dangers of too much carbon in the atmosphere can all be addressed by repairing the complex natural life systems we have so profoundly altered. This is great news but ecology is the least understood of the sciences. Our best hope isn’t protest new inventions. Hope lies in restoring the incredible complexity of natural ecosystems.
.
Dr. Elizabeth Heilman
Musing on our earth in her day 04/22/2023
HOMELAND
This is our homeland:
our neglected earth
that in her lengthy path
has watched us engaged
in endless wars
and we are close to our end
caused by industrial pollution
or nuclear warfare.
This is our homeland:
our mother earth
whose roundness of breast
entrusted upon us
all of her wealth
and that only demands
that when we look over
the spanse of her bowed land
learn that there are no borders
in a generous heart.
Sorry...there is so much more wrong in the world than a 1 degree rise in temperature...And ironically the 'solution' to climate change is more taxes on people to be given to whom? To me Civil disobedience is really necessary to push back against the repression, loss of jobs, endless judicial corruption, corporate takeover of government, and class war foisted on the people.
I respect the idea of a Citizens' Assembly as another way to focus on the problems besetting our world. There are already versions of Citizens' Assemblies (very narrowly defined, albeit) who stalk the halls of Congress or Parliaments - they are the lobbyists paid for by the fossil fuel industries, big mining, big pharma, big tobacco/vaping, the NRA - and so forth. Free to pump money into their pro-Representatives re-election campaigns - so they are no longer answerable to the people - but to major corporations. That's why Citizens' Assemblies - folk appointed by sortition - appeals - though one would have to mandate space within major media outlets for the deliberations to be given airing. And of course - keeping lobbyists away from those appointed - that would need protecting... Roger Hallam spoke clearly in answer to Chris' questions - I found him very impressive. Thanks, Chris. Extinction Rebellion here in Australia has been largely answered by the authorities here as in the UK - garnering it lots of publicity and, I think, generally speaking - sympathetic hearing - even by those frustrated by traffic brought to a standstill!
So very glad to learn about Mr Hallam and hear how he constructs a necessary response to the closed mindedness of the oligarchy. Please have him speak again so more of us can hear him and become inspired. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Elizabeth Heilman, for that message of hope. Have you heard of Viktor Schauberger, the Austrian nicknamed the Water Wizard, who died in 1955 a broken man five days after being forced to sell all his patents to American corporate interests just to obtain a flight back to Germany. He’s the real deal in Ecology, and had an almost mystical knowledge of the properties of water. The PKS or Pythagoras Kepler Institute in Graz in Austria is his legacy.
Expecting earthlings to sacrifice for their young is asking just a little too much. Cars should be required to get 50 miles per gallon now and family should be limited to one child per couple. That would drive the cost of Labor up and the corporate immigrant importers would not approve of that. One thing that I have learned since Trump is that our government is totally bought off, Trump included.
"Humanity is at risk of extinction, and so is everything we have ever created."
Common overclass luxury virtue signaling terrorism.
What it masks is an agenda to kill off much of the population of underclass "ants" as they currently cause negative ascthetic impacts and stress to the overclass.
“Either you are actively supporting civil resistance,
fighting for life or you are complicit with genocide.” How can you be so sure? Science is not an ivory tower of perfect truth; Science is people and people are subject to biases, pressure to conform, career incentives and financial incentives. Scientific consensus is surely subject to the same problems as any other "consensus." Science is never "settled."
And wouldn't it be wonderful if the science is wrong, and we are not doomed? That said, I think we should start taking better care of the earth, not to save ourselves from imminent death, but because its the right thing to do
However I do support your right to protest and to be annoying and crazy. Dissent should not be criminalized, it makes the intellectual landscape richer and more diversified.
"There is this belief, especially strong in the West, that "the people" will rise up or somehow fight back when a certain level of tyranny or oppression is reached. I'm not speaking of foreign countries — where "color revolutions" are launched on the flimsiest of pretexts — but of domestic dissidents, absolutely convinced that "democracy" works and that governments are ultimately kept in check by the prospect of a popular revolt.
It's a lie.
Look around you. Damn near every single government in the "civilized West" is run by odious technocrats and permanent bureaucracies, with barely any actual legitimacy and no accountability mechanisms left whatsoever. Governments treat their own constitutions as dead letters, and channel the anarcho-tyranny they previously practiced abroad towards their own subjects. The lockdowns happened, and the few who dared protest were smeared and denounced — not just by the governments and their pet media, but by the brainwashed populace at large.
https://t.me/GeopoliticsAndEmpire/35213
Didn't ANYBODY learn anything from Martin Luther King Jr? Or read Chomsky on effective protesting? These tactics just cause people to decide you're just another fruitcake with nothing to be learned from.
Meanwhile, the Biden regime has indicted four American citizens for "weaponized speech".
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-doj-indicts-four-americans?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=115804436&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email
Germany has brought criminal charges against its citizens for blog posts that the regime there doesn't like.
Thank you. I still come away with blurriness about how to move forward. It took me some time to understand the tomato soup, superglue tactic. As an art student I would marvel at the skill of Degas and Daumier, studying and copying the works of art in the National Gallery. The irony at the core of our system of art VALUE worship over the value of life takes a mental shift to see, like seeing a cup or two profiles in a design. Once seen, it is impossible to ignore, yet the need to create remains.
Let's keep it simple. First things first and the first thing that must be done is MASSIVE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO PRESENT AUTHORITY. Go to "A Letter to a Generation" at
https://www.wisebird.com
I wish they spent more time fleshing out exactly what the "social formation" looks like and how it operates and examples of mobilizations.
Also like to know where models of this serious revolutionary formation are happening in the US - sign me up!