We must phase out fossil fuels as quickly as humanly possible for a livable climate.

ExxonMobile Refinery, Torrance, CA. Photo: Michael Light. 

WE MUST PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUELS NOW!

Few people, even in the global warming movement, understand the scope, scale, and urgency with which we must now operate to protect our livable planet. A pervasive pluralistic ignorance keeps people from admitting we are in a crisis. We now need a compelling multi-faceted Mobilization Campaign to inform and activate a critical mass of Americans, so we can: (1) achieve US leadership in an Emergency Climate Mobilization, (2) price carbon-based fuels and eliminate their subsidies, (3) incentivize for renewable energy, and (4) keep fossil fuels in the ground. 

The gravity of our situation is clear and convincing. Our task ahead is clear: we either phase-out fossil fuels now or we end civilization and humanity. Here is the tough reality: we have an emergency and we must mobilize now. All hands on deck!

We must build a large Climate Emergency Coalition to demand an immediate emergency mobilization as an over-riding US priority. The aim is Zero Net Carbon within a decade in the United States, feasible with a WW2 type mobilization.

The Paris Agreement won't save us

It is important to realize that the Paris Climate Agreement itself makes the case for emergency response. The Agreement merely gives the impression that the crisis is being addressed. It is good that the nations agreed on a major target (1.5-2°C)—but the deal allows them to pollute for decades, leaving us on course of 3.5°C warming, threatening humanity and most life. There is no requirement to upgrade commitments before 2030. 

So what gives? The Agreement is counting on miracles and magic to save us. Really. Rather than requiring dramatic reductions starting now, the Agreement assumes that unproven technologies (Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage) will down the road “suck carbon” from the atmosphere. Pollute now, clean up decades later. The idea: grow lots of trees and biomass to absorb carbon (every year, an area 1-3 times the size of India), burn it in special power plants that capture the carbon emissions, compress the CO2 and pipe it long distances to then bury it. Kevin Anderson describes the absurdity of these proposals.

Bottom line: Paris’s target can only be possibly met with an immediate carbon phase-out, with reality-based carbon drawdown methods of regenerative land practices, while understanding current drawdown limitations.  

Carbon dioxide stays in our atmosphere for centuries, so it is a cumulative problem.

Chart: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

THE EMERGENCY CASE:

• First, warming from CO2 emissions is irreversible on any human timescale—it takes centuries for CO2 to be re-absorbed back into the earth.  So CO2 is a cumulative problem. Each decade we keep emitting carbon at this rate adds another 0.25°C / 0.5°F, increasing our risk of runaway heating. 

• We are already committed to further inevitable warming even if we quit all fossil fuels today. Two reasons:  (1) Particulate pollution (another pollutant from fossil fuels) actually masks some warming—so when we DO eventually quit fossil fuels, an estimated 0.5°C more warming is coming. (2) Further warming will come from the oceans, called “thermal inertia,” when they finally give their absorbed heat to the atmosphere, adding an estimated 0.6°C. Added to the 1°C existing warming, we are already past Paris’s target.

• Warming is already dangerous at 1°C increase above preindustrial levels, as described in David Spratt's report “Recount: It’s Time to do the Math Again.” 

• 
  

  The 2016 off-the-charts temperature spike even alarms climate scientists. Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research responded: "We are in a kind of climate emergency now."

  Chart: Stephan Rahmstorf

  Warming is in overdrive. Like a broken record, global heat records are being repeatedly shattered, month after month, year after year. January 2016, then February were the hottest months ever. 2015 was the hottest year, as was 2014. 2016 is on track beat 2015. The current El Nino weather pattern only partially explains this temperature surge. 

• Sea level rise will swamp coastal cities.  New research on sea level rise portends complete catastrophe if we do not slash fossil fuels now. James Hansen has warned that without “emergency cooperation among nations,” Greenland and Antarctica could melt ten times faster than formerly known, “resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years.” Irreversible ice-melt thresholds are being crossed now. It looks likely that we face 3-6 feet of sea-level rise this century, so we will have to move inland. This interactive map, shows the effects on Miami, from 1-10 feet.

• Oceanic threats await marine life. If we continue to dump CO2 into the atmosphere, the oceans will collapse. Recent research clearly shows that even if we could magically pull CO2 out of thin air in the future, it would still acidify our oceans, poisoning marine life (explained here and here). Ocean warming is causing two major threats to marine ecosystems: (1) coral bleaching (a major bleaching event is going on now), and (2) deoxygenation. Only dramatic emission reductions starting now will save the oceans. No ocean life, no us—it’s that simple.

• Methane “natural gas” use is a catastrophic bridge to climate tipping points. Its greenhouse gas impact is far stronger than previously realized: over 100-times more potent than CO2 when first released. In our climate emergency, what happens in the next decade that matters most. New research shows massive methane leakage across the US in recent years (coinciding with the fracking boom). So this methane increase matters a lot. All fossil fuels must be kept in the ground, methane included.

• Clouds provide far less cooling than assumed. New research shows that clouds contain more water and less ice than previously thought. Watery clouds reflect less solar light than icy clouds, heating the planet more. This discovery suggests that temperatures will rise faster from greenhouse gas pollution than previously forecast.

• Large impacts pose high risk. Michael E. Mann’s “'Fat Tail' of Climate Change Risk" article makes it obvious that the risk of runaway greenhouse warming is so high that any able person would be motivated to help with an Emergency Climate Mobilization.

The over-determined conclusion one would have to draw from these best-expert sources would be that YES!, we must dedicate ourselves to completely phase out fossil fuels in the US within ten years, and realize that the route toward such a radical transformation of our culture is an Emergency Climate Mobilization.

For a more in-depth examination of the emergency case, see David Spratt’s “Climate Reality Check” report.

 

No Carbon Budget Left

The stated function of carbon budgets are to provide an amount of "burnable" carbon, while maintaining a likelihood of staying under the 2°C heat ceiling.

Yet the carbon budget concept is a dangerous illusion:

• Major impacts are becoming apparent at just 1°C warming.
• There is an unacceptable risk that feedbacks will be triggered before 2°C. 
• Budgets assume unacceptably high risks of failure. 

For more details: No Remaining Carbon Budget: Zero Carbon In a Decade Is a Must!

Image: Jos Hagelaars, adapted by Breakthrough - David Spratt / further adapted by Climate Emergency Coalition

ESSENTIAL ACTIONS

For climate stabilization well under 2°C, we must start now to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by about 10 percent each year, until fossil fuel phase-out is complete in a decade, and globally in fifteen years, quickly transitioning from fossil fuels to low carbon energy.

The time for energy democracy has come: wherever possible communities should collectively control the conversion to clean energy.

Photo: Black Rock Solar / Rainshadow Charter School.

To achieve this, several essential actions are now needed: 

• Price carbon pollution and remove fossil fuel subsidies. To drive broad-based emissions reductions, we must account for the true societal costs of fossil fuels.
• Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Oppose their exploration, development, new infrastructure, and export through collective action. There is no remaining carbon budget.
• Incentivize renewable energy. Create policies that support their development, production, and roll-out as quickly as possible.
• Assist developing nations with clean energy so that they “leap-frog” fossil fuel development. 
• Reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere. Invest globally in reforestation, biochar, land/soil restoration, and agroecology.
• The US must lead. The US must embrace the 1.5-2°C limit, and lead the global low carbon mobilization. Fossil fuel reductions must begin now in industrialized nations,[1] and within a few years in developing nations.[2]

Enacting effective policies to facilitate this transition within a decade will, in effect, catalyze a wartime-speed mobilization effort. The first step is to get the emergency situation into the cultural conversation, so the emergency is perceived, declared, and acted upon with an Emergency Climate Mobilization. This is aim of the Climate Emergency Coalition.

RESPONDING IN EMERGENCY MODE

Importantly, humans can and do rise above fear and respond. The climate movement has mistakenly believed that people would panic, become paralyzed, or fall into resignation if they understood the looming climate threat. The widespread notion that people panic in emergencies is not corroborated by evidence, research, or human behavior. 

Research shows that we behave cooperatively and rapidly—even with extraordinary teamwork and collaboration—when trained or given accurate information about disasters and constructive response options. Emergency mode is characterized by an extreme focus of attention and resources on working productively to respond to the emergency.

So awakening citizens to the danger and providing responses that deal with the scope, scale and urgency of the crisis is necessary. If that is done effectively, we can expect constructive cooperation and mobilization to avert climate catastrophe.

Knowing what to do and preparing facilitates “eustress” (a positive form of stress) in emergencies. The seemingly impossible can be accomplished in extreme situations when emotion, purpose, and enthusiasm are combined.

Some emergencies last years, and we are in such a “long emergency” now. Examples have included: wars, the Great Depression, nations under occupation, and collapsing empires. In long emergencies, a combination of purpose, pacing, and persistence is needed. Human societies have often exhibited heroic persistence in very long emergencies, even when situations were very dire.

Humans evolved in tribes, and group success was vital to the survival of each individual. Very importantly, it’s within our nature to work together in groups.

MOBILIZING FOR RAPID TRANSITION

The type of emergency response needed in our situation is called mobilization. We refer to it as an Emergency Climate Mobilization.

What is mobilization?  Mobilization is a coming together as a people with a common cause—a rapid emergency restructuring of a modern industrial economy. It involves all citizens and impacts all areas of society. It’s nothing less than a comprehensive social and industrial metamorphosis. 

Mobilization summons a sense of collective destiny and moral purpose. Importantly, it is not an indiscriminate use of government power. Rather, it is a specific economic approach that directs the collective force of industry away from petro-consumerism towards a complete fossil fuel phase-out and transformation to a zero carbon society. 

We are calling for a society-wide Emergency Climate Mobilization aiming to achieve zero carbon emissions in the US within a decade and globally in fifteen years. We see this as the fastest possible phase-out of fossil fuels in a “long emergency” mobilization mode, in which we can achieve far more than what is now commonly thought as possible.

First Phase

To respond effectively to the climate crisis, we need an all-hands-on-deck Climate Mobilization to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions at wartime speed. Because of the nature of the looming climate crisis[2], the fate of civilization and of our living systems hinges on a Climate Mobilization response. The over-determined data shows that there is actually no remaining carbon budget, therefore we must phase-out fossil fuels now! 

Informing, Engaging, and Galvanizing Americans

Relating for Real Change

It is through our web of associations and relationships that we best develop understanding and emotional response—by arriving at a social interpretation of the data. Sociologist Robert Brulle, Drexel University, says that engaging people face-to-face is "the only way to achieve real, lasting change [for the climate]."[3] We are relational creatures, and we get involved when people that we know and respect are involved. Explaining climate change must be personal and interactive—virtual or social media are insufficient for organizing citizens and expanding the movement.

Photo: Julie Nerbonne, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, climate conversation event.

A consensus on US Climate Mobilization must come quickly. If achieved within a couple of years, the US can achieve the target of Net Zero Carbon within a decade. To achieve the degree of transformation required—even including the conservative Congress—we only need 3-4% of the population joining the call for mobilization with us. That means recruiting enough mobilizers through an Education and Advocacy Campaign that provides personal, face-to-face dialogue, and moral conversations. There are already tens of thousands of faith social halls and civic auditoriums ready to host this cultural conversation. The initiative galvanizes those most concerned about the climate threat, thus building a decisive Climate Coalition with partner organizations. Change of this magnitude can only happen through organizing while raising and deepening public awareness.

Citizens need to understand how quickly and effectively we must respond to avert climate chaos. They must appreciate the details of the encroaching climate crisis, the necessity of an all-out mobilization, the advantages of a carbon price and its affordability, climate justice issues, and why US leadership is crucial. We explain the scope, scale and urgency of the crisis; in addition we explain why the Coalition is the necessary response to uniquely meet these daunting challenges.

The curriculum is riveting and inspiring. It is designed to catalyze action and precipitate appropriate responses.

First Phase of the Climate Emergency Coalition Campaign

The First Phase of the Climate Emergency Coalition Campaign will employ the existing southwest network of Interfaith Power and Light to coordinate the necessary personal conversations and education at their disposal through the thousands of venues available: congregation social halls, civic auditoriums, and public meeting places across those states. The states include Utah (convening), Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Tennessee.[4] 

The $500,000 budget includes salaries for a Project Coordinator and six State Coordinators, consulting fees, and curriculum development (includes the guidance of leading scientists).

The Demonstration will quickly lead to the adoption of the full CEC Campaign nationwide to achieve consensus on mobilization within a two-year period.

See the petition and notable signers below

Some of most vexing and unresolved aspects of the climate crisis involve issues of justice and equity. No climate strategy has a moral center without including the call for Justice. The Association for the Tree of Life and the Climate Emergency Coalition agree with Pope Francis’s call for justice, both for the underprivileged and for our Earth itself, highlighting climate chaos as an environmental, economic, equity, and moral crisis. His demand for the rich and powerful to care for the earth fits well with how we ask philanthropies to fund the march to climate mobilization. We also endorse the Fair Shares approach to applying equity.

Climate justice is complex—here we explain the necessity of climate assistance for poor nations, why an effective response must start with the United States, and the importance of citizen action to accomplish this.

The Paris Agreement and Justice

In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted by nearly all nations as the foundational agreement for equitable international climate negotiations. However in the quarter century since, weak and stalled international climate talks have continually postponed effective responses, nearly closing the window of time available to avert the worst aspects of looming climate catastrophe.

While the UN 2015 Paris Climate Agreement provides a significant “what” (a 1.5-2°C target in response to demands by certain nations vulnerable to sea level rise), its “how” and “by when” do not provide any pathway to accomplish the target. The bottom-up approach, with nations’ pledges (INDCs – Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) resulted in highly unequal levels of commitment and effort, far too little assistance for poor nations’ climate mitigation and adaptation, and a dangerous course towards 3.5°C this century, far above the 1.5-2°C goal. The Agreement’s five-year schedule to review pledges also makes staying within the target highly unlikely.

So given Paris’s varied shortcomings, how can the world possibly move forward cooperatively and fairly in meeting the true scope, scale, and urgency of the climate crisis?

Differing on Differentiation

Cumulative CO2 Emissions 1850-2011
(% of World Total)

Combined, the US and EU were responsible for 52% of cumulative CO2 emissions from 1850-2011. India, with a much larger population, was responsible for only 3%.

Image: World Resources Institute

One of the most contentious divisions between wealthy and poor nations involves “differentiation”—how to fairly assign responsibility among nations for curbing emissions. Fairness requires two major considerations, in accordance with the UNFCCC principles:

• Historical responsibility: Since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, nations that industrialized and burned fossil fuels earliest bear the most responsibility (see box). They are accountable for far more of the overall burden of climate stabilization. Poor nations have contributed little to the CO2 problem, yet they are most vulnerable to climate impacts.
• Capacity: Some nations have much more capacity to act than others. National income beyond what is needed for basic living standards would be a good measure of response capacity.

Wealthy nations have such large historical emissions, that equity cannot be achieved just through their own emissions reductions. They must also offset their historical emissions with assistance for developing nations for both climate mitigation and adaptation. The mitigation that poorer nations will need to implement, with international support, accounts for a substantial portion of the global reductions required.

Climate Justice as Necessary

Percentage of CO2 Emissions by World Population

In a recent report, “Extreme Carbon Inequality,” Oxfam finds that the world’s richest 10% emit half of all fossil fuel pollution, while the poorest 50% contribute a mere 10%. The richest 1% may emit 175 times more per person than the poorest 10%.

Image: Oxfam

The imbalances of wealth and consumption between the wealthiest of humanity and the poorest are simply unconscionable. The majority of citizens within developed nations enjoy abundant “luxury emissions,” while many in developing nations lack even “survival emissions” for basic necessities. Consider that 1.3 billion people globally have no electricity and 1.2 billion have unreliable electricity—a third of the world’s population. That portion of humanity both desires and deserves the right to lift itself from destitution. Additionally, poor nations are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. They want to fight it and prepare for it. For these reasons, they need help from wealthy nations.

Crucially, if wealthy nations do not provide massive assistance to impoverished nations (financing, technology, and capacity building), then they will continue to take the cheaper, dirty fossil fuel development pathway. In that case, no matter how quickly rich countries cut their own greenhouse gas pollution, the Earth and her human community will face climate chaos and ecological ruination.

As Africa leapfrogged past landlines straight to mobile phones, developed nations must help the poor nations to leap over and beyond  fossil fuel economies. In what little carbon budget remains, we must include developing nations’ need to alleviate poverty. 

Replacing Kerosene Lanterns

“In February 2014, in rural Kenya, we toured the front lines of oil eradication in African lighting, with a SolarAid field team. We saw that it is not difficult at all to replace a whole sector of fossil fuel use at the bottom end of the energy ladder.”

—Jeremy Leggett, “Winning the Carbon War”

Photo: SolarAid

In 2009 the world established the Green Climate Fund at Copenhagen, within the framework of the UNFCCC, as a mechanism to assist developing nations with mitigation and adaptation. The goal by 2020 is $100 billion per year, an amount that is far too little. Even attaining that funding is in doubt. For an updated status of financing, see: Status of Pledges and Contributions to the Green Climate Fund.

In spite of this, from the widest perspective justice is not a “nice thing to do, the right thing to do, or even the morally correct thing to do.” Beyond helping the poor, equity and justice must be understood as necessary for our collective survival. Each of us must be included on the “survival boat.”

A Way Forward

The shortfall of developed nations’ commitments amply demonstrates that equity is not something that each nation can decide for itself. It must be defined in a robust, rigorous, transparent, and scientific manner anchored in the core principles of the UNFCCC—an agreement that would produce a dramatic reduction of emissions, even while allowing the developing world to expand energy use to relieve poverty. The Fair Shares approach provides such a mechanism. An equitable system such as Fair Shares should be employed to determine all nations' responsibilities for carbon reduction.

Fair Shares also addresses the vast wealth disparities within countries. Nations such as China and India have growing numbers of wealthy citizens with high levels of carbon consumption.

What Does This Mean For “US”?

What does all this mean for “us,” the United States? The US is key to turning the situation around. The United States must lead the world's transition; as no other nation can—given our unequaled wealth, our role as the largest historic carbon polluter, and our capacity to remedy the situation.

To sum it all up: wealthy nations—especially the US—must pay up big time to assist developing nations reduce emissions, while at the same time drastically cutting our own. The reality is that it will demand enormous financial help, human resources, and technological transfers to developing nations. At the same time, we must see this as an urgent priority. We seem to manage hundreds of billions of dollars for military fighter planes, even though climate change is our biggest national security threat. A good response would be to end fossil fuel subsidies—$700 billion annually in the US—and apply that money towards climate assistance and our own climate stabilization efforts.

In spite of our role as the largest historic perpetrator, Americans are mostly unaware of the crisis, and of our continuing fossil fuels excesses. We are 5% of the population but emit 15% of the world's CO2—one of the highest rates per capita. In our ignorance, we continue in our historic consumption patterns, and we continue to foster fossil fuel dependency. Therefore, we continue to burn up what little carbon budget remains.

However, we cannot expect the US to lead without informing Americans about the necessity of climate justice for the survival of us all. A Climate Emergency Coalition Campaign across the US, with personal face-to-face dialogue and moral conversations in our “communities of meaning,” can inform and galvanize citizens on this crucial issue. We must grow a substantial people’s movement, a Climate Emergency Coalition that demands justice and equity as part and parcel for protecting a livable climate.

Resources:

Climate Equity Reference Project – basis for the Fair Shares approach.

Extreme Carbon Inequality, Oxfam, December 2, 2015

Fair Shares: A Civil Society Equity Review of INDCs – a new analysis from a diverse mix of civil society organizations seeking to ascertain the fairness of the Paris Agreement. Association for the Tree of Life and Climate Mobilization Coalition are both signatories.

First steps to a safer future: Introducing The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The Core Convention-Based Equity Indicators – Climate Action Network, September 2013

What Is Equity in the Context of Climate Negotiations? – Edward Cameron and Wendi Bevins, World Resources Institute, December 14, 2012

Jean Arnold
Development Director
jean [at] tree-of-life.works

First Phase

To respond effectively to the climate crisis, we need an all-hands-on-deck Climate Mobilization to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions at wartime speed. Because of the nature of the looming climate crisis[2], the fate of civilization and of our living systems hinges on a Climate Mobilization response. The over-determined data shows that there is actually no remaining carbon budget, therefore we must phase-out fossil fuels now! 

Informing, Engaging, and Galvanizing Americans

Relating for Real Change

It is through our web of associations and relationships that we best develop understanding and emotional response—by arriving at a social interpretation of the data. Sociologist Robert Brulle, Drexel University, says that engaging people face-to-face is "the only way to achieve real, lasting change [for the climate]."[3] We are relational creatures, and we get involved when people that we know and respect are involved. Explaining climate change must be personal and interactive—virtual or social media are insufficient for organizing citizens and expanding the movement.

Photo: Julie Nerbonne, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, climate conversation event.

A consensus on US Climate Mobilization must come quickly. If achieved within a couple of years, the US can achieve the target of Net Zero Carbon by 2025. To achieve the degree of transformation required—even including the conservative Congress—we only need 3-4% of the population joining the call for mobilization with us. That means recruiting enough mobilizers through an Education and Advocacy Campaign that provides personal, face-to-face dialogue, and moral conversations. There are already tens of thousands of faith social halls and civic auditoriums ready to host this cultural conversation. The initiative galvanizes those most concerned about the climate threat, thus building a decisive Climate Coalition with partner organizations. Change of this magnitude can only happen through organizing while raising and deepening public awareness.

Citizens need to understand how quickly and effectively we must respond to avert climate chaos. They must appreciate the details of the encroaching climate crisis, the necessity of an all-out mobilization, the advantages of a carbon price and its affordability, climate justice issues, and why US leadership is crucial. We explain the scope, scale and urgency of the crisis; in addition we explain why the Coalition is the necessary response to uniquely meet these daunting challenges.

The curriculum is riveting and inspiring. It is designed to catalyze action and precipitate appropriate responses.

First Phase of the Climate Emergency Coalition Campaign

The First Phase of the Climate Emergency Coalition Campaign will employ the existing southwest network of Interfaith Power and Light to coordinate the necessary personal conversations and education at their disposal through the thousands of venues available: congregation social halls, civic auditoriums, and public meeting places across those states. The states include Utah (convening), Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Tennessee.[4] 

The $500,000 budget includes salaries for a Project Coordinator and six State Coordinators, consulting fees, and curriculum development (includes the guidance of leading scientists).

The Demonstration will quickly lead to the adoption of the full CEC Campaign nationwide to achieve consensus on mobilization within a two-year period.

Microsoft Wizard and richest man on this planet, Bill Gates—leader of the dominating philanthropy in the world—would probably be the last person anyone would believe would “bet the world” on miracles.  Energy Miracles that is……….  But, he did almost 6 years ago and doubled down recently—even though no miracle has been seen since the first big wager.  

Lessons for the Climate Crisis?*

We are out of time for any gradual phase-out of fossil fuels. We need an all-out Emergency Climate Mobilization to completely cut emissions within a decade. Is America’s World War 2 mobilization a good example for our situation? How can we create the “Pearl Harbor” urgency and society-wide response needed?

THEN:  The Axis nations—Japan, Italy, and Germany—threatened world freedom, stability, and security in the late 1930s. For years, Americans denied this real peril, believing the US could somehow stay on the sidelines, even as Axis Powers invaded country after country. But the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shattered the United States’ denial. National sentiment flipped overnight from isolationism to mobilization. Most Americans then enthusiastically participated in a rapid transformation of the US economy and society.

NOW:  As before Pearl Harbor, Americans today are caught in denial and apathy, obstructing and delaying any response to our global emergency. We are still beholden to the “non-negotiable American way of life” that actually threatens our very survival. How to create a “Pearl Harbor moment”—to wake up Americans—remains the central burning question of the climate movement.

Help build the Emergency Climate Movement: join the Climate Emergency Coalition.

PHOTO:  San Diego Rally for Mobilization, March 2015. Jerry Phelps, courtesy of The Climate Mobilization.

THEN:  The war munitions industry in the US was diminished after WW1. Upon our entry into WW2, the federal government both required and supported a rapid conversion from consumer to war production. For example, private auto manufacturing was completely halted in early 1942. By mid-year, nearly all major industries and some 200,000 companies had converted to war production, making the nation’s wartime “miracle” possible—shattering all previous levels of war production. Astonishing the world, it exceeded the combined production of the Axis powers and made all the difference between victory and defeat. Pressing even further, the government collaborated with scientists and with universities for breakthrough research that contributed to the war effort.

Lockheed Ventura bombers built for the Royal Air Force under construction at the Lockheed Vega division, Burbank, California (USA), in June 1941. The factory originally made explorer aircraft, but was converted for the war effort.

To combat climate change, we need a similar-scale mobilization of our culture.

Photo: David Bransby, Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).

NOW: We need a complete reorientation of our economy to facilitate a wartime-speed deployment of renewable energy, smart grid technology, electric-based transportation, mass transit, zero waste, retrofitted buildings, sustainable agriculture, and more. Industry must maximize efficiency and produce the post-carbon energy infrastructure—the “armaments” in the climate war. Funding for clean energy research must be stepped up more than 500%. Since we have postponed action for so many years, as with WW2 we must now exceed our expectations of what can be accomplished.

THEN:  Everybody helped. On the battle front, young men gave their lives. On the homefront, women surged into factories and over 10% of the population relocated for a war job. People grew Victory Gardens that supplied 40% of America’s produce during the war. To channel maximum resources towards the war effort, the government called on citizens to invest in war bonds to help finance the war, to ration goods, and to use resources carefully. Communities held scrap drives to recycle goods like tin and rubber. The government imposed a speed limit of 35 mph, and outlawed pleasure driving and auto racing. People willingly sacrificed for the cause, and sacrifice was expected of everyone. 

NOW:  As with WW2, we need the participation of all. Initially, we must enact policies that incentivize low-carbon choices, however, policies cannot accomplish all the needed changes. A metamorphosis of culture—from individual consumerism to cooperation and sacrifice—can only come through the public’s perception and understanding of our crisis, and through a transformative vision of a better, just world. As before, citizens must throw themselves into the collective effort.

Courtesy of Northwestern University's WWII Poster Digital Repository.

THEN:  Still a major issue since the Great Depression, unemployment rates were slashed from 14.6% to 1.4%, while wages grew 55%. Full employment, higher wages, and progressive taxation brought far greater income equality. The war effort also brought gains in social equality, especially for women and African Americans. Corporate profits boomed, however, profit-seeking was channeled towards the national mission. Government, not corporations, led the transformation.

NOW:  Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy will create many more net jobs. However, workers losing jobs in carbon-intensive sectors will need training and placement in the new economy. Climate mobilization will bring greater social and income equality, as did the WW2 mobilization. Corporations can no longer drive the agenda—the people and government must lead the way. This is our opportunity to create a just economy and a world that works for all.

THEN:  Defense spending rose from 1.4% of the Gross National Product in 1939, to 45% at the peak of the war effort in 1944. This was financed primarily through war bonds, excess corporate profit taxes, and raised income taxes, especially on the highest earners (their rate was 94% in 1944).

Courtesy of Northwestern University's WWII Poster Digital Repository.

NOW:  Combating climate change will not be cheap, as some advocates claim, but it will be affordable with the right priorities and measures: (1) ending dinosaur government subsidies—such as for fossil fuels, corn biofuels, and non-sustainable agricultural practices, (2) cutting military spending, (3) ending corporate welfare, (4) reversing the immense transfer of wealth to the rich, and (5) ending fossil fuel externalities through a fair carbon tax that distributes revenue to citizens—to account for costs borne by society.

THEN:  Wartime agencies, given broad powers to plan and prioritize, guided the war effort. The mobilization required large-scale deficit spending, higher taxes and price controls to contain inflation, extensive regulations, and government control over the distribution of basic goods and raw materials.

NOW:  This mobilization effort will require an expansion of public sector powers, expenditures, and planning. Government must make substantial investments in clean energy research, public transit, smart grid investment, electric vehicle charging stations, job transition, building retrofits, land-soil-forestry restoration, and many more projects that reduce greenhouse gases. The US and other developed nations must also finance low-carbon assistance for developing nations who would otherwise burn coal and chop down trees, thus eventuating climate chaos no matter what wealthy countries do. 

The WW2 mobilization provides an inspiring example of what is necessary and possible, given our best efforts. In less than four years, the US achieved the unimaginable: it fought and won a two-front war against two powerful military empires, forcing each to surrender unconditionally. For humanity’s survival, we must mount a similar heroic effort. In our two-front war on climate chaos, we must phase out fossil fuels within a decade, and draw down atmospheric carbon to safe levels.

Mobilization clashes with today’s dominant paradigms: corporatism, anti-government, deregulation, privatization, hyper-individual consumerism, perpetual economic growth no matter the cost, tax cuts, and diminishment of the public sphere. This neoliberal capitalism is trashing the planet, and its era must end before it ends us.

Yet it is hard to imagine the level of cooperation and revolutionary change needed now. So how can we create this complete mobilization, when the climate crisis has no clear, galvanizing “Pearl Harbor moment,” and the dominant worldview is completely opposite of what is needed?

The public must perceive that: (1) we must phase out fossil fuels as fast as humanly possible, not gradually over decades, which would cook us, (2) individual actions are insufficient—we need a collective, united mobilization to fight humanity’s common enemy, climate chaos, and (3) we can win this war and avert catastrophe.  

Only a Climate Emergency Coalition Campaign with personal, face-to-face engagement and moral conversations in tens of thousands of faith and civic spaces across the nation—to awaken and galvanize citizens—can change the cultural conversation and quickly generate the public will necessary to create such a society-wide Emergency Climate Mobilization. Additionally, a Climate Emergency Coalition supports groups and citizens calling for emergency mobilization.

Fear is empowering, when experienced in community and coupled with a vision of collective action for a better world. Moreover, we are not innately selfish; we are capable rising up with the needed response. It is time to face this existential threat to civilization and the natural world, and to use fear to spur us to responsible action.

Importantly, history has repeatedly demonstrated that culture can transform dramatically, especially in times of emergency. And it only takes 3-4% of the public to trigger that transformation.

The question we face is simple: will America quickly mobilize against climate chaos on a massive scale, or will we remain stuck in denial and passivity until it is too late to avert impacts that will devastate civilization and our living systems? Unfortunately, few people understand that we are in a planetary emergency, demanding urgent response. Decades of rising emissions, while scientists clearly explained the crisis, have closed the window of non-disruptive, gradual reductions. While an incremental, decades-long emissions reduction scenario (which the world agreed to in Paris) may seem “politically realistic,” it is not “scientifically realistic.” 

The US now needs an all-out emergency climate mobilization similar to our mobilization effort for WW2 to reduce emissions at wartime speed. The goal must be Net Zero US Emissions within a decade; Net Zero Globally within fifteen years. 

Yet in the face of endemic denial and passivity, how do we catalyze an Emergency Climate Mobilization quickly enough to protect a livable Earth? It will be impossible to achieve without public support and pressure. Importantly, it only takes 3-4% of engaged, impassioned citizens—those most concerned—to transform the situation. 

We must move quickly to tell the truth and drive a cultural conversation, to achieve a US consensus on an Emergency Climate Mobilization within two years. A broad-based people’s campaign is needed to catalyze the mobilization. To ignite public pressure and build the “Emergency Climate Movement,” a Climate Emergency Coalition (CEC) warns and motivates groups and citizens.

About the Coalition

The Climate Emergency Coalition furthers the public conversation so the need for mobilization is quickly perceived; additionally, it creates a pathway for organizations to shift their missions to mobilization. Critically, the CEC provides coordination, talking points, and curriculum for groups who understand that only an emergency mobilization can suffice. The CEC seeks to dramatically expand the size and urgency of the existing Climate Movement, while focusing its efforts on Net Zero US Emissions within a decade. The Climate Emergency Coalition Fund attracts more funding opportunities than groups might find separately. Join by taking the Climate Emergency Coalition Sign-On (organizations / individuals). Then ask others to join in.

National Campaign Director: Cliff Cockerham

The Coalition has 501c3 sponsorship through the Association for the Tree of Life.

Download PDF: Climate Emergency Coalition flyer

"It’s Time to Stop Waffling So Much and Say that the Evidence is Pretty Strong…
Multi-meter Sea Level Rise is an Issue for Today’s Public, not Next Millennium’s."
-- James Hansen, July 27, 2015