Tag Archives: climate-change

Energy Affordability+, Not Energy Dominance

Future Hope, , , ,

Two of the most significant dates in my life as a progressive activist and organizer are April 4, 1968 and August of 2003. The 1968 date is the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. His killing pushed me to finally do something about racial injustice and the Vietnam War rather than just reading and thinking about them.

August of 2003 was when there was a brutal heat wave in western Europe which led to 70,000 deaths, primarily of elders. This was my wakeup call as far as the climate crisis, leading to several months of book-reading to understand how bad things were, which led to a decision later that year to begin working on this issue. Ever since it has been at the top of my list as far as where I put my energies and time as an organizer: locally, statewide, regionally and nationally.

My primary focus on all those levels, since 2013, has been working and taking action to obstruct the buildout of fracked gas pipelines, gas compressor stations and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals. That work quickly led me to learn about FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the most important federal agency that most US Americans have never heard of.

FERC is primarily the regulator of the US electrical grid. In 1977 when it was created by Congress, replacing the Federal Power Commission, it was also given the responsibility of regulating the methane gas industry, which in the 21st century has become primarily a fracked gas industry.

How have they “regulated” it? By giving the gas industry over 99% of the permits that they apply for to build new pipelines, compressor stations to push the gas along and import (in the past) and export (now) LNG terminals along US coastlines, primarily in Texas and Louisiana.

In 2020 a study done by the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, chaired by Representative Jamie Raskin, looked at FERC’s record between 2000 and 2020 and found that of the 1,027 applications to them by industry for permits, only six were denied. This is why the movement which has been fighting FERC and calling for it to be reformed, or replaced by a Federal Renewable Energy Commission, describes it as a rubber stamp agency.

For over 11 years a national organization, Beyond Extreme Energy, has been refusing to quit in its efforts to change this outrageous situation. For a while, from 2021 to 2023, under the leadership of then-FERC chairperson Richard Glick (no relation), actions were taken to make this happen. But when dirty-coal owner and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairperson Joe Manchin ratcheted up his support for coal, oil and gas in March of 2022 and, in collaboration with Republicans and a few other Democratic Senators, attacked Glick very openly, these efforts were seriously undercut.

Now comes Trump. On his first day as President, January 20th, he issued two Executive Orders to “streamline the permitting process for [fossil fuel] infrastructure projects” and declare a “national energy emergency.” The purpose: to set back the shift to solar and wind and accelerate new coal, oil and methane gas projects. FERC is central to this destructive plan.

Last month, on October 7th, FERC issued a “final rule” to severely reduce the ability of affected landowners, communities and environmental organizations to legally challenge methane gas infrastructure projects FERC approves. The reason given for doing so was to “encourage the orderly development of plentiful supplies of natural gas. . . particularly the development of data centers to advance artificial intelligence.”

But there’s more. Three weeks ago former Republican Senator Rick Santorum called for the DC Circuit Federal Court of Appeals to be removed as the place where court challenges to FERC permits are heard and decided. The headline blared, “DC Circuit Court is blocking America’s energy dominance.”

Why this extreme call to action?

Over the last five years this court has made a number of decisions upholding the need for FERC to take seriously the rights of landowners fighting eminent domain for corporate gain, environmental justice (ej) and other communities opposing proposed new polluting gas pipelines and infrastructure projects, and those groups defending the earth’s ecosystems challenged by global heating.

Over the last 11 years climate justice activists have demonstrated at a big majority of the monthly meetings of the five FERC commissioners who are the decision-makers. 200 or more people have been physically removed from the meetings for speaking out—there is no public comment period—and permanently banned from ever going to this meeting again. For the last year and a half, led by Beyond Extreme Energy, every single meeting has been met with action outside and some kind of inside action.

The latest was this past week when a small group of us dressed up in black judges robes to underline the importance of continuing court oversight of this now-Trump-dominated agency. We will do so again at their next meeting on December 18 and keep taking action to shine as bright a spotlight as we can on this increasingly more well known but still dangerous, extremely dangerous, threat to ej communities and the world’s ecosystems. It is one important front of the battle to prevent climate catastrophe and shift rapidly off fossil fuels to the wind, solar, battery storage and energy conservation that our children and grandchildren desperately need.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Jane Goodall: “Fight to the Very End”

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“I have no doubt that we have the tools to make the change, but do we have the will to make the change? It seems with some of the top politicians and corrupt corporations there’s no such will. We need to reach people’s hearts. If millions, billions of people do little things it makes big change. That’s the main message of Roots and Shoots.

“Above all, I want you to think about the fact that we are part—when we’re on Planet Earth—we are part of Mother Nature. We depend on Mother Nature for clean air, for water, for food, for clothing, for everything. And as we destroy one ecosystem after another, as we create worse climate change, worse loss of diversity, we have to do everything in our power to make the world a better place for the children alive today, and for those that will follow.

“You have it in your power to make a difference. Don’t give up. There is a future for you. Do your best while you’re still on this beautiful Planet Earth.”

-Netflix interview: Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall’s death last week affected me emotionally in ways that surprised me. I’ve known of her, of course, for a very long time. I heard her speak many years ago at  Rutgers University and remember generally liking what I heard. But she hasn’t been someone I’ve worked with or even seen in places where I’ve been over my 22 years of activism on the deepening climate crisis.

However, watching the Netflix interview with her conducted six months ago a couple of days after she died was deeply affecting. Her decades-long dedication to the cause of preserving life on earth and fighting those—“top politicians and corrupt corporations [who are] destroying one ecosystem after another”—was unmistakable. She understood the importance of young people becoming active in large numbers, helping them do so through the Roots and Shoots program. Her deep wisdom and love for all life forms, informed by a similarly deep spirituality, shone clearly throughout. And she understood that the way social change comes about is through large numbers of people—“millions, billions”—taking action on a daily basis.

In the interview she also shared very wise words about how to interact with those who disagree with you. She spoke about the importance of not being either aggressive or overly intellectual, “from the brain,” but instead being empathetic to reach people’s hearts. She referenced how she had observed within chimpanzee societies in Africa that group leaders, always male it seemed, who became leaders because they were aggressive didn’t live as long as less aggressive, more sensitive and group-centered leaders.

It is sad to realize that Goodall will not be with us physically as we fight Trump and all the others who mis-lead through bombast, threats and environmentally and humanly destructive policies and actions. But she was very firm in the belief that after her physical death she would still be around, that her spirit, her consciousness, would not die.

My view of “life after death” is that each of us lives on—or not—in the hearts and minds of other people, based upon what we have done with our lives while on earth, what we have said and done, how we have given of our time and energies for others, how much we have lived by adherence to the principles of higher love. There is no question that Jane Goodall will live on in that way within people all over the world for a very long time, strengthening and prodding us.

Goodall didn’t pull any punches about our dire situation, but she was a fighter. Here’s how she put it in the interview:

“Even if this is the end of humanity as we know it, let’s fight to the very end. Let the children know that there is hope if they get together. It’s better to go on fighting to the end than to just give up. . . I have no doubt that we have the tools to make the change, but do we have the will to make the change?”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Rise Up for Our Planet September 18-21

Future Hope, , , ,

It is crystal clear that millions of US Americans are prepared to organize and take action to fight the efforts of the Trump regime to impose a form of 21st Century fascism on the USA. From the first youth-led, #50501 actions in all 50 states on February 5th to the more than five million people who came out in over 2,200 localities on June 14th, No Kings Day, and everything in between and since, it is unquestionable that there is a mass resistance movement that is not giving up.

History is calling upon us to step up, and we are doing so.

This resistance movement has been a multi-issue movement participated in by people with a wide diversity of radical to progressive to liberal to common sense sentiments but who are united in our fear, rage, and support for democracy and social and environmental justice.

One of the issues of this multi-issue movement has been the climate crisis, but it has not been a priority. This is the case even as the world’s scientists and accelerating extreme weather events worldwide are clearly saying that this existential crisis is getting worse, and time is running out to turn things around in enough time to prevent worldwide climate catastrophe.

Since the Trumpists have taken office it has become increasingly clear that, despite significant Republican voter support in many states for jobs-producing wind and solar energy and electric cars, the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to halt and reverse the growth of these critical industries. A few weeks ago the head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, former NY Republican candidate for Governor, announced that he intends to try to overturn the “endangerment finding” upheld by the US Supreme Court 16 years ago. That finding determined that CO2, methane and four other greenhouse gases are pollutants that can be regulated and reduced.

But the climate movement in the US and elsewhere is fighting back. Finally, on the fall equinox weekend of September 20th and 21st, the climate crisis will be a central issue in mass demonstrations around the US and beyond.

On the 20th world leaders will be gathering in NYC for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week. A major climate justice demonstration will be held that day in NYC, convened by international 350.org, DRUM, Climate Defenders and the Women’s March and endorsed by over 100 other groups so far. Simultaneous actions will happen on that day around the world as part of a Draw the Line campaign. The youth-led Fridays for Future is calling for actions around the world beginning on September 20. We are uniting across the world to demand a better future for our communities and for all living beings!

Then on Sunday, September 21, “Sun Day”, local actions around the country organized by national Third Act will “celebrate solar and wind power and the movement to leave fossil fuels behind. Solar energy is now the cheapest source of power on the planet—and gives us a chance to actually do something about the climate crisis. But fossil fuel billionaires are doing everything they can to shut it down. We will build, rally, sing and come together in the communities where we must work to get laws changed and work done.”

But this isn’t all that is happening five weeks from now. On the Thursday and Friday before this big weekend, September 18-19 in Washington, DC, actions are happening each day calling for: Hands Off Our Planet, No Fracking Petrostate

–Thursday morning: Action at the monthly meeting of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to demand that this agency do what the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals has said they must do: stop approving new methane gas projects unless they have done serious analyses of the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental justice impacts of proposed new methane gas pipelines and other infrastructure.

–Thursday afternoon: Action at the federal headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency as the beginning of a sustained national campaign to demand its restoration and the removal of Administrator Lee Zeldin.

–Friday morning: A Petrostate Tour stopping at trade associations that have captured our government, compromised the environment, and violated private property rights, including the American Petroleum Institute (API), American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC), and the American Gas Association (AGA). 

These DC actions are being organized by Beyond Extreme Energy, Elders Coalition for Climate Action, Third Act Actions Lab and the UnFrack FERC Campaign, supported by many others.

The peril our planet is in cannot be overstated. The popular democracy movement which has done so much over the last seven months to resist Trumpist tyranny must, really must, hit the streets next month.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

The Trump Death Cult, Part 2

Future Hope, , , ,

Six weeks ago I wrote a column entitled, Fighting Climate Meltdown and the Death Cult. In it I said, “This would-be fascist government wants to roll back hundreds of billions of dollars approved in 2022 for wind and solar energy, electric cars, buses and trains and other clean and jobs-producing energy. This is the kind of energy we must shift to as rapidly as possible if we are to avoid the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies worldwide. It’s as if Trump and the MAGA’s were a death cult, truly, and not just when it comes to energy policy.”

I wrote this before the vote, one week later, on the Big Billionaires Bill that passed in the House and the Senate by the narrowest of margins. Millions of US Americans, predominantly low-income working people, will be hurt because of this bill’s passage.

At the very last minute of the months-long work of putting together this legislation there was an effort to insert language to make its energy provisions even worse by adding a new tax on wind, solar, batteries and other clean energy technologies. This tax would be levied if companies cannot prove that their products are made without Chinese parts. This provision, if passed, would have made the bill much worse. Fortunately, there were enough Republican Senators who refused to support it so that it was taken out before the final vote.

Interestingly, as far as I can tell, no one has come forward to take credit for this diabolical effort to decimate these rapidly-growing and world-critical technologies. I’d put my bet on Trump and/or Steven Miller being behind it, almost certainly.

One week ago this Trumpist campaign in support of fossil fuel industry dominance of US energy took another huge step when Lee Zeldin, head of the EPA, announced that it will move to overturn the 2009 Supreme Court “Endangerment Finding” which determined that there are six greenhouse gases (GHG’s) that are air pollutants which endanger public health and welfare.

If this 16-year-old finding is ultimately overturned by the current Supreme Court, it would be a huge dagger, a knife to the chest, of US efforts going on since 2009 and before to reduce those GHG’s and shift, instead, to a 21st Century clean energy economy that cleans up air, water and land, particularly in environmental justice communities, and gives humankind a fighting chance to prevent worldwide ecosystem and societal breakdown as this century progresses.

Then there is the recently revealed Trump Administration policy linking lower tariffs for other countries to their agreeing to buy US-produced, climate-destroying methane gas exports. Was this from the beginning a major purpose of the tariff campaign?

Truly, maddeningly, Trump, Miller, Zeldin, Vance, the whole cabal, can best be described given all of these actions, and more, as no less than a death cult. Their actions prove that they literally don’t care about anything other than the amassing of as much wealth and power for themselves and their billionaire backers as they can. They are climate criminals.

Fortunately, the US movement for climate justice is very much alive and kicking. There is organizing going on in every state and numerous localities in support of the urgently needed shift away from fossil fuels and to clean renewables, battery storage, electric vehicles and electric heating/cooling systems. These clean energy technologies are advancing worldwide and, still, if now more slowly, in the US.

Support for renewables among the US population continues to be high. A recent Pew Research poll in June reported that 68% continue to support wind power and 77% support solar power.

Our job today is to expose the deadly implications of the Trump/MAGA policies, activate the clear majority which supports making the clean energy transition, fight in every way we can against the planned dramatic expansion of fossil fuel, especially methane gas, pipelines, export terminals and infrastructure, and groundswell a visible, in the streets, mass climate justice movement that refuses to quit.

Down with the Trump death cult.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Fighting Climate Meltdown and the Death Cult

Future Hope, , , ,

“This is a fight for life. And like all fights, you need a tremendous amount of bravery to take it on. Before I started working on climate change, I didn’t think of myself as a fighter, but I became one because I felt I have a responsibility to preserve the world for my son and children everywhere. That kind of fierce protectiveness is part of the way that I love. We can draw on that to have more strength than our enemies because I don’t think they’re motivated by love. I believe love is an infinite resource and the power of it is greater than that of greed or hate. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

-Dr. Genevieve Guenther, The Guardian, June 24

On June 14th I spoke at one of the 2,200 or so “No Kings!’ actions around the country, this one in Newark, NJ. In part I said, “This would-be fascist government wants to roll back hundreds of billions of dollars approved in 2022 for wind and solar energy, electric cars, buses and trains and other clean and jobs-producing energy. This is the kind of energy we must shift to as rapidly as possible if we are to avoid the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies worldwide. It’s as if Trump and the MAGA’s were a death cult, truly, and not just when it comes to energy policy.”

I’ve thought about this characterization that I made since I did so publicly. I’ve wondered if it was too over the top, too rhetorical. I’ve thought about all of the many other people down through history, Hitler and the Nazis as exhibit number one, who clearly fit this description.

There’s no question Trump would like to rule the world and that he cares little about the lives of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, low-income people, women and lgbtq people. He’s a racist and sexist through and through. He’s OK with genocide in Gaza, doesn’t even feign to be concerned, instead dreaming about turning Gaza into another luxury resort on the Mediterranean Sea. He wants to drastically increase the already obscene US military budget, etc., etc., etc.

But what I think makes the “death cult” phrase unquestionably accurate is his and his billionaire buddies’ very explicit efforts to stop and reverse the growing worldwide, and US, shift from fossil fuels to renewables and a truly clean and green economy.

We are already far down the road as far as climate disruption and danger. Climate scientists are telling us that there is a very real possibility of soon passing environmental tipping points that could destabilize the climate for generations, centuries. Those who are doing all they can to set back renewable energy and achieve “energy dominance” via coal, nukes, oil and methane gas; these people, Trump and his government appointees, the fossil fuel industry and the banks and billionaires who support them, are absolutely a death cult.

Fortunately, a big majority of the US population supports the shift to wind, solar, electric vehicles and heat pumps and other truly renewable energy sources. This is crucial, and a reason not to lose hope.

What is the evidence for this assertion? Here is one source: a poll released in late January this year by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication:

Registered voters across the political spectrum support many policies designed to reduce carbon pollution and fossil fuel dependence and promote clean energy, including: 

  • 88% support providing federal funding to help farmers improve practices to protect and restore the soil, so it absorbs and stores more carbon.
  • 77% support funding more research into renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.
  • 74% support setting strict limits on methane emissions from oil and gas production.
  • 73% support regulating carbon dioxide (the primary greenhouse gas) as a pollutant.
  • 69% support providing tax credits or rebates to encourage people to buy electric appliances, such as heat pumps and induction stoves, that run on electricity instead of oil or gas.
  • 69% support funding more research on global warming and climate change by Federal agencies such as NASA, NOAA, and the EPA.
  • 67% support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax and use the money to reduce other taxes (such as income tax) by an equal amount.
  • 63% support transitioning the U.S. economy (including electric utilities, transportation, buildings, and industry) from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2050.
  • 58% support providing tax rebates for people who purchase electric vehicles.

Note that these percentages could not be what they are unless more than a few Trump voters had these views. There is widespread, tri-partisan support on this huge issue.

So is there hope? Yes, there is. There’s hope not just because of the results of this, and other, polls but because of the massive local demonstration turnouts in every state since Trump took office, over 5 million people the most recent time on June 14. There is hope when climate and social justice state assemblyman Zohran Mandani decisively wins the New York City primary on June 10. And there are so many more examples, so many of us rising up on issue after issue and continuing to resist.

There is absolutely no question that the national progressive movement in the United States is in the ring, landing punches and fighting hard in this existential and urgent battle for the future.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Pipeline Resistance Gets the Goods

Future Hope, , , ,

I’ve believed for many years that in the race against time to prevent ecosystem and societal meltdown because of climate heating and climate disruption, a key front in that struggle is the prevention of the buildout of new oil and methane gas pipelines and associated infrastructure, like compressor stations, export terminals and gas-fired power plants.

This isn’t just the opinion of me and the many tens of thousands of activists around the country who have been waging these fights for over a decade. Both the International Energy Agency, in 2022, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2023, have said that in order to have a chance of preserving and improving the conditions of life on earth in all its forms for future generations, this is what governments should be doing.

Unfortunately the US government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has refused to do this. Both have allowed for fossil fuel infrastructure expansion, although there has been and is a pretty strong sector of the Democrats who get it on this requirement for the world’s survival and have taken part in the nationwide no new fossil fuels movement, inside and outside the Biden Administration and in Congress.

Trump/MAGA control of Congress and the White House means that there will be a major effort to ramp up the building of new oil and gas infrastructure. There have been reports that they want to build hundreds of new pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals. It’s like they’re just fine with the very real possibility of ecocide.

Fortunately, the no new fossil fuels movement is in no way demoralized, speaking generally. And a very good example of this fact is what happened in the town of Pearisburg, Virginia, deep in the heart of coal country in southwest Virginia, a few days ago.

On Tuesday February 25th 12 pipeline fighters, almost all of them young people, were sentenced in a Giles County courtroom for nonviolent direct actions they had taken over the last year and a half trying to stop the completion of the fracked-gas transporting Mountain Valley Pipeline. All locked themselves to construction equipment, inserted their bodies into pipelines or locked down to block roads leading to construction sites. Some were facing felony charges, though most were charged with misdemeanors.

Without any on the ground knowledge, people not from this part of the country, coal country, would likely expect the sentences handed down to be harsh, but that wasn’t the case. No one was sentenced to jail time; instead, after negotiating down all the felonies to misdemeanors, each of the 12 was sentenced to 50 hours of community service per misdemeanor. For some with three misdemeanors this meant a sentence of 150 hours.
And though the issue of fines was put off to future court dates, it is impossible to see this result as anything but a big victory for the climate justice movement.

A major reason for this positive result was the presence of over 100 supporters, mainly but not solely young people, filling to overflowing the 89-seat courtroom. One court officer said that there had never been anything like this before. An additional reason was the refusal of those charged to plead guilty to any felonies or overly repressive deals over the many months leading up to this day of reckoning in court.

The primary organization which did these actions and has led this direct action resistance is Appalachians Against Pipelines. AAP is famous for a 932-day tree sit in Montgomery County, Va. between 2018 and 2021 on the planned pipeline right of way.

I’ve been involved with the no new fossil fuel infrastructure movement since about 2012. One of the noteworthy things I’ve observed about it is that this issue crosses political lines. There are a lot of conservative white landowners, people facing eminent domain proceedings to take their land for the benefit of corporate profit-making and climate destroying oil and gas companies, who have joined with radicals, progressives and people of color to fight together against these arrogant, destructive entities. In the process, people have had their lives changed. By joining together in righteous campaigns for justice, everyone has seen that we have common enemies and that we can only win against these corporatists by forging unity in action.

If, or as, Trump and the MAGA’s role out their plan to accelerate climate disruption by expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, the powerful alliance needed to fight these projects, one by one, on the ground, can contribute a lot to generating the powerful movement of movements to ultimately stop these 21st century fascists and put our country on a very different, life-affirming, justice-creating, urgently needed path.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com

For Our Children and Grandchildren

Future Hope, , , ,

People gonna rise like the waters,
Gonna calm this crisis down,
I hear the voice of my great granddaughter
Saying keep it in the ground.
-sung for years at climate justice actions in the USA

32 years ago the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid!,” was used by the Clinton for President operation as the primary message of that successful Presidential campaign. It seems to me that there are very good reasons why, in 2024, those of us who are working to defeat Trump, whether independent of or inside the Biden/Harris operation, and who are supporting genuinely progressive candidates otherwise, should be using and advocating for something else.

I believe it should be the phrase, “For Our Children and Grandchildren.”

The primary reason is because it is absolutely on point with our reality in 2024, particularly, but not only, because of the seriousness of the climate emergency. Human society is in a race to get off fossil fuels and onto wind, solar and other renewables before it is too late. We are literally in the make-or-break decade. It is so serious that three years ago the very establishment International Energy Agency called for an end to the buildout of any new fossil fuel infrastructure as of that year, 2021.

Unfortunately, particularly in the United States, that call has not been sufficiently heeded. The primary reason is the power of the oil and gas industry over almost all Republican and far too many Democratic politicians at both state and federal levels. Huge campaign donations and corporate support in other ways continue to have their corrupting, destructive impact.

As a progressive activist and organizer for a very long time, I’ve found that when I say we need to bring about major societal change because we need a better world for our children and grandchildren, it has an effect. The song quoted above is another example, a way of bringing into our present struggles the generations coming after us who we must be responsible to. Within many Indigenous cultures the concept of taking action with the seventh generation in mind is very strong and deeply rooted.

The idea of looking out for our children and grandchildren and those coming after us can connect people who otherwise would be on opposite sides of an issue. As one example, I increasingly find myself saying to police at demonstrations, including to some who are arresting me, that I and those with me are taking action for their children and grandchildren too, and I have seen on their faces, and sometimes heard in their words, that they relate to this idea. In their own ways they are worried about the state of the country and world and how their offspring will survive in it.

Just recently, during an action at the DC headquarters of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a Federal Protective Services higher-up in charge of policing us actually said to a group of us as we were leaving, unprompted, that “we appreciate what you are doing.”

This concept of the welfare of those coming after us as a primary motivation for our actions today is not just climate-related. It’s true for many issues. I’ve read of formerly enslaved Africans in the deep South explicitly referencing their children and grandchildren as the reason they were willing to risk their lives to end slavery. Today, the MAGA attacks on the rights of immigrants, women, people of color, lgbtq+ people and low-income, low-wealth families, are a huge threat to those coming atter us if Trump wins and Republicans do well in Congressional races. And clearly a Trump-led government would be a huge threat to US democracy, as flawed as it is, and a boost to neo-fascists worldwide.

11 years ago I took part in a Walk For Our Grandchildren and Mother Earth, a 100 mile walk of elders and others from Camp David to Harpers Ferry to the White House. The walk struck a chord and got national media coverage. Eight years later I was part of a similar walk in 2021 from Scranton, Pa. to Wilmington, De., ending up in Biden’s home town. In Wilmington we rallied close to Biden’s home and then concluded it with a civil disobedience action at the national headquarters of Chase Bank, one of the big banks funding oil, coal and gas corporations that are the main drivers of the climate chaos that is jeopardizing a livable future.

Our children and grandchildren must be openly and publicly at the center of what we do and why we do it.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com. 

The End of the World?

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A sobering article published in The Guardian yesterday has gotten me thinking, not for the first time, about why, despite difficult odds and repeated disappointments, I and many others keep plugging away, doing all we can to drastically reduce the power of the fossil fuel industry and rapidly shift the world’s energy sources from fossil fuels to truly clean renewable energy like solar and wind.

The article “surveyed hundreds of the world’s leading climate experts and reported that

  • 77% of respondents believe global temperatures will reach at least 2.5C above preindustrial levels, a devastating degree of heating;
  • almost half – 42% – think it will be more than 3C;
  • only 6% think the 1.5C limit will be achieved.

“The task climate researchers have dedicated themselves to is to paint a picture of the possible worlds ahead. From experts in the atmosphere and oceans, energy and agriculture, economics and politics, the mood of almost all those the Guardian heard from was grim. And the future many painted was harrowing: famines, mass migration, conflict. ‘I find it infuriating, distressing, overwhelming,’ said one expert, who chose not to be named. ‘I’m relieved that I do not have children, knowing what the future holds,’ said another.”

I first began having these kinds of thoughts and feelings about 20 years ago when I learned after study that the climate crisis was worse than I had known, which led to consciously taking steps to begin working on this issue. Ever since, it has been the primary issue that I have focused on, including for the last nine years since I retired from paid employment.

Often over those years I’ve been asked if I believe it is really possible that we can bring about the changes needed in enough time to prevent worldwide ecosystem and societal unraveling. Here’s what has become my answer to that question:

          I don’t know if we are going to be able to avert climate catastrophe. The odds aren’t good. It is possible, maybe probable, that at least hundreds of millions, possibly billions of people will die prematurely in the 21st century as the atmosphere and oceans overheat. Maybe by halfway through this century world population will be on a decided and unplanned major downturn. But even if that’s what the future holds, even if the fossil fuel industry and mega-corporate capitalism maintain their murderous grip over most of the world’s governments, it is necessary that we build the strongest possible resistance movement to fight them, for two main reasons:

–The faster the shift off of fossil fuels the less damage will be done to ecosystems and human societies and the more likely it is that, after a long and difficult transitional period, the societies which emerge on the other side of that wrenching transition will be larger in number and qualitatively better than would be the case if the climate emergency goes on for a longer period of time.

–If it turns out that the human race is just not up to the task right now, if the power of the fossil fuelers, mega-corporatists and the neo-fascists cannot be reduced or, much better, broken, it is important that those who come after us know about and draw strength from our example. Just as we draw strength from the heroes and heroines of the fight to abolish chattel slavery in the 1800’s and all of the many other movements down through history for justice and human decency, those coming after us can draw strength from our refusal to give up, from our building of a culture grounded in love, service to others and determined, fearless resistance to evil.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com. 

Take That, Joe Manchin

Future Hope, , , ,

“We are a married couple of 45 years. We are taking action together as elders deeply concerned about the future facing our 3-year-old grandson, all children, and all life on earth. That is why we have joined with many others to stop the destructive and abusive Mountain Valley Pipeline, as well as any new fossil fuel infrastructure. Three years ago, the International Energy Agency said that was needed even then, because of the seriousness of the climate emergency.

“We need solar and wind right now, not destructive fossil fuels and a trillion dollar a year war economy.

“We are outraged that billions of our tax dollars are being used for military aid to Israel in its genocidal war on Gaza. War kills people and the environment.”

This is the statement that we wrote explaining why on April 10 we locked ourselves into a “trojan possum” wooden structure blocking the only access road to a major MVP construction site on Poor Mountain in Virginia. For seven hours, with the support of others, we were able to prevent work being done at this site. After extraction and arrest, we were each charged with three misdemeanors in Roanoke County, Va.

Many other people have taken actions like this going back to 2018. Indeed, an historic and heroic tree sit of 932 straight days between 2018 and 2021 in Elliston, Virginia, along the planned route of the pipeline, was a major reason why, six years later, the MVP has not been finished and is not yet operational.

Joe Manchin can’t be very happy about this situation. He and Republicans tried to squash resistance and fast track MVP construction last summer via an amendment to must-pass federal debt legislation. The amendment which was included required federal agencies to provide all needed permits within 30 days and for the federal courts to be stifled in their oversight role.

Some of those active in the movement to defeat the MVP were understandably deflated by this development, but others responded with outrage. Within a couple months of this Congressional action, young people connected to Appalachians Against Pipelines had begun engaging in nonviolent direct action to slow pipeline construction work. Hundreds of people in the last six months have risked arrest in these actions. Climate activist Jerome Wagner was released just last week after spending two months in a West Virginia prison for locking himself to an MVP drill.

The two of us have been active in movements for positive social change going back to the Black Freedom and Anti-Vietnam War movements 60 years ago. One of us is 83 and the other is 74. We are active in our town, in our state and nationally in a number of climate justice and progressive groups. We do so because we were raised by loving parents to live by the ethic that our role on this earth, for as long as we are alive and capable of doing so, is to do all we can to make the earth a better place for those coming after us.

We feel this responsibility even more so now because of the deepening climate emergency and the growing neo-fascist threat posed by Trump and the MAGA movement. We also feel it because, as of January, 2021, we are grandparents of a wonderful three-year old boy. Without question, a major reason we took this action was for him and all children.

We are heartened by many things we see within our progressive movement for positive social change. One of them is the emergence of new groups like Third Act and Radical Elders and the connections developing between them and youth organizations like the Sunrise Movement and Fridays for Future. We are also heartened to see growing numbers of elders stepping forward to take part in the direct action that young people have been taking for years in organized efforts like the fight to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Can we defeat Manchin and his MVP corporate cronies? Can we defeat Trump and MAGA? Can we overcome the criminal fossil fuel industry and create truly justice-based and nature-connected human societies? We don’t know, but we do know based on our decades of experience that taking part in the struggle for all of these things, despite all of the hardships and ups and downs, is without question a better way to live.


Ted Glick and Jane Califf have been married for 45 years. Jane is a retired teacher and author of the book, How to Teach Without Screaming. Ted is a volunteer organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy and author of the books Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More information can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Youth and Elders Together: Strategically Key?

Future Hope, , , ,

In my first couple of years of progressive activism in the late 60’s, many of those I worked with who were also young took a pretty dismissive view of elder activists. And it wasn’t just elders. “Don’t trust anyone over 30”– that was a widespread point of view.

As I experienced it, I think a large part of the reason for this belief was the reality of an “old left” that was not just small but top-down and bureaucratic in its ways of functioning. In addition, McCarthyism and attacks on members of the Communist Party, the major national group on the Left, begun in earnest under Democratic President Harry Truman soon after World War II ended, had a huge impact. Also impactful was the revelation by the Soviet government after Stalin died in 1953 of what had been obscured up to that point in time about what life was like under his 25 years as Soviet strong man.

As a result, many of my generation believed we could be most effective more-or-less on our own, with our own youth culture and our own ways of taking action against injustice and war.

Today it is different. Within more than a few sectors of the overall progressive activist movement, the young and the old and those in between are increasingly joining forces. One big example is the climate justice movement where, last September, an age-diverse and racially-diverse coalition of groups successfully organized upwards of 70,000 people for a massive, spirited and impactful March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City.

Another example is the movement to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline, planned to carry fracked methane gas through West Virginia, Virginia and into North Carolina. As reported in a recent article in Inside Climate News:

“The opposition to the Mountain Valley Pipeline has attracted an age-diverse base, including older Americans who have been strong proponents of the nation’s climate movement. Some groups, like Third Act and Elders Climate Action, are explicitly focused on mobilizing older activists while others, like Extinction Rebellion, have strong contingencies of movement elders, who sometimes have greater time and resources to engage in civil disobedience.”

Another group, Radical Elders, has emerged in the last couple of years. It played a leadership role pulling together progressive elders’ organizations into a contingent of hundreds marching during the March to End Fossil Fuels. As its name suggests, Radical Elders explicitly views the crises we are experiencing as systemic in their source and, therefore, systemic change is needed to solve them.

But is it really “strategic” to have a movement in which a significant number of youth and elders interact and work together? It’s a good thing, without question, but is it essential?

My view is that what is most strategic when it comes to building a movement which can bring about systemic change is the overcoming of the racism, sexism and other ideologies and practices that keeps potential allies separated. As I put it in my 21st Century Revolution book, “We must build a broadly-based, multi-racial, multi-issue, multi-gender popular alliance, uniting people of color, women, youth, LGBTQ people, trade unionists, farmers, small business people, people with disabilities, professionals and others.”  (p. 91)

But young people, especially in large numbers, bring an energy and a determination that is sometimes lacking among elders and others who have been beaten down, if not beaten up, by the oppressive, corporate-dominated system. And energy is critical, strategic.

Activist elders, conversely, even if feeling their age, can provide hope and inspiration to those much newer to progressive activism. They can show in practice that it is possible to avoid burnout and to stay in the struggle against injustice, inequality and war for decades.

It is so easy to feel despair in the world today given what is happening to it. Youth and elders joining together in action is a definite antidote, a practical application of Joe Hill’s famous words, “don’t mourn, organize.”

Elders who are retired and youth who are just getting started sometimes share being less weighed down by family or job obligations. They have more flexibility in terms of demands on their time. As stated by 81 year old Karen Bixler, arrested at an MVP action in Virginia in early March, “You get to a point where you really have nothing left to lose. We don’t have to worry about, ‘if I go to jail who is going to take care of my kids [or] if I’m looking for a job, how’s an arrest going to look on my record?’”

Or as the Radical Elders say, “we ain’t done yet!”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.