AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: A Third Solemn Letter to The Environmental & Climate Movement

Dear valued members of the environmental movement,

For over 53 years, we have been marching, striking, speaking, yelling and protesting in ingenious and creative ways; some sit on pavements, some walk on the street, some orate with utmost eloquent speeches, some host and organise discussion panels; we’ve all fought a most historic and legendary battle, partaking in what is arguably the most terrifically altruistic, righteous and conscious endeavour humans have ever undertook.

All of those heroic actions have induced a mark on the world during the last half century, and I couldn’t be more proud of that. Global warming went from being a fringe, sideline issue, to a priority issue on society’s main agenda, or so it seems. We like to think that we could perpetuate this fight and win it within the limited time we have, by simply making our voices heard, but the inescapable and inconvenient truth is; we are failing.

We, as a movement, and as a species, are failing in this fight to secure a livable, prosperous and equitable future for all. We are failing in our fight to save the human species from self-inflicted doom. Yet, it must be acknowledged that with the best of intentions, unfaltering grit and an admirable spirit and sense of mission we have taken on the powerful juggernauts of the world, such as the rotten dinosaur industry (aka the fossil fuel industry), and the monolithic corporations whom put profit over people and sales over planet, we’ve come a long way and there’s no denying that this age was, and still is, the most critical pivot point humanity has ever lived through.

They say that change starts from within, inasmuch as when things are not going our way, we should blame no other party than ourselves, because if we’re not succeeding then it’s our fault, our ineffectiveness, our lack of strategic and critical thinking as well as lack of synergy between our various organisations have led us to this point. And to paraphrase what Albert Einstein said “We must be willing to give up what we are in order to become what we will be". Indeed, it is true that we cannot become what we want by remaining what we are; so the burning question before us is: why on Earth are we, as a movement, still staying on the same path that led us to this very point? Isn’t it high time we change before attempting to change the world? As the Chinese proverb advises us “Before preparing to improve the world, first look around your own home three times.”

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There's a saying "We don't plan to fail, we fail to plan". Well, that's precisely what we're undertaking here, we failed to plan this ill-thought-out experiment that we've been carrying out for the last 53 years. That is the bitter truth. Whether we like it or not, though, it is the truth. The thing about truth is, it can be repudiated, but it can not be avoided.

To paraphrase Astro Teller’s quote, fearing or attempting to delay change, it turns out, doesn’t slow change down, it only makes it more painful to go through. So the question before you, is, isn’t it evidently clear that we have to change something, that we have to try and do things differently?

We are faced with a choice, we could keep our head in the sand, or, we could acknowledge the fact that we have to do something different. We, as a movement, need to recognise that the political atmosphere as well as the needs and interests of various entities, societal cohorts, and third parties will continue to change, and so we need to become better at changing our own norms of change-making and the way we act and approach inducing change, and thus adapt to and keep up with the expeditious pace of change of an ever-changing world. That, as Mr. Teller puts it, is the difference between drowning in the water and riding the wave.

And so, the question before us all is: For how long are we gonna keep doing this? Will we acknowledge that we have to rethink, reassess and adjust, and if deemed necessary, overhaul, our entire approach to change-making? And how long is it before we accept that truth? That is currently anybody’s guess, but there is one incontrovertible fact: being stuck on our past will not improve our future.

As Tamara Pearson puts it,

“We are marching and meeting, but our levels of organisation and resistance are vastly disproportionate to the anger and concern we feel, and the urgency of the situation.”

We are striking, marching, blocking roads, occupying commercial showrooms and buildings, handcuffing ourselves to banks, even pouring soup over exquisite artwork in museums, and screaming at the top of our lungs while taking all of those actions, yet none of it even nudged the needle forwards in the grand scheme or purview of climate action. What we are doing, it appears, is unfortunately merely a scream beneath the water. But as Peter Kalmus puts it "The people in power are sociopaths and don't care". They will continue to ignore us, unless we hit the 2.5% societal paradigm mass movement threshold, which, ironically, as of now, there is no clear-cut pathway for us to arrive there.

This may very well be the underlying reason why our current approach is, by design, fundamentally flawed. Because it is incomplete. It treats change-making not as the multitudinous and multi-faceted undertaking it is, but as a one-dimensional endeavor; tractable and attainable merely by the means of protesting and marching, which, don't get me wrong, are crucial, but are simply insufficient on their own.

To wit, none of this is to negate the fact that we need these actions to put pressure on governments, businesses and the elite echelon of society to act on climate. They are an integral and indispensable piece in the climate puzzle, but simply put, they're not the entire thing. In other words, we cannot succeed without them, yet, we also cannot succeed by solely relying on them. There is a world of difference between engaging in civil disobedience that we believe puts enough pressure on governments just to make ourselves feel like we’re actually doing something—instead of being a spectator—and thereby liberate ourselves from the guilt of bystanding; and between identifying and seeking out what works best and then endorsing and integrating that into our approach. These are very disparate paths.

And so we gotta ask: what if this will be the achilles' heel of our movement? Dooming ourselves to failure by the simple act of clinging onto old, ineffective ways of changing the world, which have time and again invariably conduced very insubstantial and meagre change in how the world operates and how our society, as well as economic structures, function; while refusing to recognise why we are failing as a movement and admitting to our own collective shortcomings.

Even David Suzuki recently admitted that the movement has already failed!

Einstein reminds us that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results". But, isn’t this more or less what we’ve been doing for the last 53 years? By only marching and protesting with some sloppy lobbying and few inauspicious petitions here and there?

Swedish behavioural expert, Thomas Erikson had once said,

"If you do the same that you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten"

There's a saying relayed by Denzel Washington that,

"To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did"

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So, what if we imagined a new kind of movement? One that is more coordinated, more interconnected, more synergetic, one that has a diversified, holistic approach consisting of not just heroic civil disobedience—which is absolutely requisite—but one that is premised upon the notion that for one to succeed, one has to first have a diversified and adaptive approach comprising of a volley of strategies and different tactics, that act in concert with one another, forming a new all-encompassing and interdisciplinary approach? Isn’t it time for a new deal for us? Or are we going to keep doing the same thing and expect different results?

Let us usher in a new era, my fellow superheroes. Let us give birth to a new and improved environmental movement, my dear superheroes. Let’s start anew and be reborn. Let us choose to see and accept our own shortcomings and identify why we have so far been mostly unsuccessful in our endeavour. For the acknowledgement of one’s (or a movement’s) own failings, is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of change, and the beginning of success.

Let us be the ancestors future generations would like us to be; unrelenting, fearless, and valiant, yet intelligent, adaptive and ever-changing. Let this be an ending, and the advent of a new beginning. Because when we change, the world changes. What we achieve inwardly, can transform outer reality. I cannot say whether things will get better if we change, what I can say is that we must change if they are to get better.

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Before I perorate, Creig Crippen had a wonderful and most truthful piece of writing that I think would be apt to share before I close:

"You are being presented with a choice: evolve or remain. If you choose to remain unchanged, you will be presented with the same challenges, the same routine, the same storms, the same situations, until you learn from them, until you love yourself enough to say "no more", until you choose change. If you choose to evolve, you will connect with the strength within you, you will explore what lies outside of the comfort zone, you will awaken to love, you will become, you will be. You have everything you need. Choose to evolve. Choose love."

And I think it couldn't be more relevant and timely today. Isn’t it high time we unlimited ourselves and became truly limitless?

Isn’t it about time we transcended beyond merely protesting and marching, and evolved into something much more refined and strategically advanced?

Wasn’t civil disobedience our cradle?

Didn't it hold true that one cannot live in a cradle forever?

Isn’t it about time we grew?

Isn’t it about time we evolved?

Isn’t it high time we changed?

Didn’t yesterday’s thinking not solve tomorrow's problems?

Our actions today shape the future. What happens henceforth is only and only up to us, and is undoubtedly our choice, and we can make the right one if we choose; the question is: Will we?

To finish off, I'd like to remind us all of what JFK had said “The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining” and this quote is as relevant today as it was over 61 years ago. The climate crisis won't wait for us to reform and reorganise the movement and put it on a trajectory towards synergy, effectiveness and whence, success, nor will those unscrupulous politicians or feckless and asinine corporations admonish us on this very fact if we are to outwit, overpower or beat them.

It is never too late to change ourselves, but let us change ourselves before it is too late.

Endings are never truly endings, only new beginnings. There will always be endings, and to replace them, there will always be new beginnings, so let us give ourselves, and the world, a new .. beginning.

Myriads of thanks,

With love and care,

Yusuf Kemal