Friday Nudge: Nonviolent Movement for Climate Action

After a conversation with a new climate activist group in Ottawa today, I am feeling some hope

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I had coffee today with Francine and Michael, two members of the new climate activist group in Ottawa, On2Ottawa. On2Ottawa describes itself as:

a non-violent civil disobedience campaign designed to encourage Canadian governments to take urgent and meaningful action on the climate crisis.

They are taking nonviolent action in Ottawa, the national capital of Canada, to call on the federal government, along with provincial and territorial governments across the country, to take significant climate action. So far, in our name, the Canadian government has not been doing so. Canada is currently one of the worst emitters of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and our emissions keep going up - precisely in the wrong direction.

On2Ottawa feels that nonviolent civil disobedience is now necessary to make the government sit up and take notice of its citizens and what we need to be doing for our sake and the sake of the entire Earth community. We have seen that such movement around the world is having a good effect on moving the needle of climate action.

I agree with them and, at their invitation, met with them to talk about how we can invite faith communities across the city to become involved. We will be hosting a meeting on November 23, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. (in person) to introduce On2Ottawa, talk about the need for faith-based nonviolent direct action, and how to encourage faith communities to get involved. If you are interested, please email me to find out more. The place for the meeting is yet to be determined; once we have finalized the details, they will be here, on my website, and on On2Ottawa’s website, too.

In the meantime, I want to draw your attention to a book that explores how nonviolent movements are shaping our current era. Check it out below.

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Book Recommendation

This is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt is Shaping the Twenty-First Century, by Mark Engler and Paul Engler, with a foreword by Bill McKibben (New York: Bold Type Books, 2017)

This book explores the nonviolent movements shaping our current century and the inspiration and examples that are behind them. Occupy, BLM, protests for immigrant rights and climate change, and more; the authors examine how the power of ordinary people can “harness the power of nonviolent movements to create lasting change.”

If you are looking for a book that can both inspire and challenge you to move into the sphere of nonviolent direct action, find a way to support those who are able to risk arrest at this time, or at the very least to help you understand its impetus and role in the movement for progressive change, this is one for you.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Considering Nonviolent Direct Action?

In the congregational settings I have served to date as a minister, the idea of taking nonviolent direct action is not something we have talked about! It may be something unfamiliar, or outright uncomfortable, for some of my readers. Here is On2Ottawa’s reasoning on the need for such action at this time:

Non-Violent Civil Disobedience has a proven track record of delivering stable, long-lasting outcomes in a short period of time and with a relatively small number of people while also being compatible with democracy.

Non-violent civil disobedience exposes the implicit violence of the state and makes it explicit for the whole world to watch. Nonviolent civil disobedience aims to raise the cost of disruption above the cost of meeting our demands.

In short, non-violent civil disobedience is the most likely method to get the change that is needed within the time that we have.

We simply don’t have the time, anymore, for incremental change. Because most governments seem unwilling to do anything but the smallest of incremental actions, that is why we are seeing amazing images of people taking to the streets around the world in response to the climate emergency, getting arrested in Britain, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.

Have you ever taken nonviolent direct action or civil disobedience? What are your feelings on the subject?