Cost of Climate Change

Turning Down the Heat Part 3: It’s Time to Kick Some Ass  (ie – Mobilize People Power)


By Max Thaysen and the Cortes Island Climate Action Network

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal… To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

We’ve got the receipts, we just need to break the door down (aka build and wield power). 

A little background.

In early July of 2024, a few climate organizers on Cortes screened the film “How to Boil a Frog” for the community. It is about the five-pronged emergency that life on Earth is currently facing — overpopulation, a war on nature, wealth disparity, peak oil, and climate change.  You can watch the film here.

The film offers five actions that can help delay or reverse our tragedy: 

  1. boycott Exxon (they’re the worst, but boycott as many as you can!), 
  2. change your “life bulb” (reduce consumption), 
  3. a change of heart (loving a new life of service), 
  4. one kid per couple (limiting the number of high-consuming humans), and
  5. kick some ass. 

This article is the third in a series focused on each of these five solutions and we’ll be looking at #5: kicking some ass. You can read Maureen Williams’ first article on a change of heart here. You can read Carrie Saxifrage’s second article about changing your “life-bulb” here.  

So, ass kicking.

When filmmaker Jon Cooksey talks about kicking ass in his frog-boiling film, he’s referring to the application of pressure, embarrassing, shedding light on the people and institutions that are doing bad things. He points to the fact that we have massive access to video and publishing resources, so we can be ass-kicking youtube stars (or tiktok if that’s your jam). 

The theory is, if businesses or politicians get bad press coverage, they will change their ways because they have strong self-preservation instincts.  And the opposite may be true: if no one is paying attention, then many of these people will do whatever they can get away with. 

The enemies of fairness, safety and progress would have us believe that this is basically ‘clicktivism’: the act of doing activism online. This term is used in a derogatory way, as in, “It’s online, it’s not ‘real’ so it can’t have an impact, right?” 

Well… wrong. And I can prove it.  

Know your enemy. 

The fossil fuel industry and their allies have demonstrated the power of community organizing and narrative shaping (aka framing). They’ve also shown that lies work, but we won’t stoop that low. 

Exxon knew all about climate change. They were leading the charge on understanding the problem in the 70s, and they understood it very well. They didn’t love the implications for their business model, so they teamed up with their buddies to embark on a great mission to thwart a reasonable and realistic response to the situation. 

The playbook has been well laid out by many researchers.  Grace Nosek and Amy Westervelt have done a lot of work in this department – here’s an article.  (Or check out: a book, a film or the lecture.) 

The lessons we can learn from our enemies are many. Let’s look at a few. 

Showing up to a public meeting and speaking—matters! Fossil fuel corps have even been known to pay actors to go to meetings to speak in favour of a project. They spend a lot of money on this kind of thing—because it works. They aren’t stupid. Flip the script: flood the halls of power with messages of progress, of sufficiency, of fairness and safety!

Public opinion is powerful. There are paid online influencers promoting methane appliances because these have a powerful effect on society which has a powerful effect on decision-makers.  We can flip-the-script by creating our own influential videos.  (This has and does happen—you can promote these!)  

How does this influence work?

The public narrative is key. Fossil fuelers have funded “thinktanks” to produce denial and delay stories and ‘alternative facts’, which they feed to their media monkeys, who put it out as news. This gets into the public psyche and builds pressure against climate action. It has worked so well that, despite an overwhelming scientific consensus and a majority of folks with major climate-concern, the US has recently elected a science and climate denier to be the president!  

This shows the power of narrative and identity and the success of those who seek profit over safety, fairness, health, and justice (mostly fossil fuelers and the politicians who serve them). 

If you’re just showing up to the Anthropocene party, you might think that people were always divided along political lines regarding scientific questions.  Republicans in the 90s accepted the science and ran their campaigns partly on climate action (though they sadly reversed course in office).  

(Side-note on apathy… in case you think that who we elect ‘doesn’t matter, they’re all the same’, notice that Biden passed truly groundbreaking climate legislation, and Jimmy Carter was on his way to fixing climate in the 70s before it got dangerous!)

Further evidence… 

Another clue that the baddies don’t want us to know our own power is that they have been caught pushing on our tender spots to push us from outrage into apathy.  Trolls farms have been found to get folks to not vote, vote for a third party or even direct them toward the wrong voting procedures. 

This is the power of the narrative and of social media! It has been used to change the world and even elected Donald Trump which is some kind of miracle because it is so illogical for anyone’s preferences. 

This starts to give us a sense of our power.  And I know, social media is a dumpster fire at times. And I don’t want to say that everyone should be on there, but it is a place where we can do some work to get a better, more true story to be active in the world. 

People power works

So, we’ve seen that our enemies have proven that people power works. And they’ve shown us a variety of ways to make it work. 

And, when our team does this kind of thing in a big enough way, we know it works, too!  It can be easy to sink into apathy when we’re sitting at home and we don’t see the immediate impact of our actions. This is something we just need to learn to live with like healthy eating or exercise — results are not instantaneous and do not make us into sexy immortal gods!  

Sometimes we take fifty different actions in a campaign and we don’t know which ones led to a victory.  And sometimes we lose in one particular campaign, but the loss makes victory easier the next time around even if it’s other people on an adjacent issue. 

Recently, we heard from an activist who helped successfully get fish farms out of salmon highways. They told a few of us that they met with government officials after a call-in campaign (where activists call the elected officials’ office to make their voice heard… and tie up some resources).  The officials said, “please don’t do the call-in thing again”.  These tactics work. 

People on the front lines—those with the most to lose and most awareness of how winning works—are constantly asking for our help to put the spotlight on issues.  This is because it is an important part of how we win. 

A local example of ass-kicking:

In 2012/13, the corporate natural-world-to-money conversion machine set its sights on Cortes Island. Cortesians, being a rather unruly bunch, capable of organizing themselves when necessary, decided that this was not acceptable. 

They got together and mobilized all kinds of ass-kickery. Blockades, petitions, awareness, letter writing, corporate embarrassment including dressing up as aliens on MTV (it was a tv channel about music). 

It was a win!  They didn’t log here. Cortes Island was declared defacto protected from industrial logging, which the corporate deforesters called “socially inoperable”. 

Another case of ass-kicking:

Sometimes even small simple lone-wolf actions can have a big effect. 

One often cannot know beforehand which actions will have an impact.  As mentioned, fossil fuel corps and their conglomerated public-relations associations spend a lot of money trying to shape public opinion, usually with lies.  They do this because public opinion matters—it’s worth the money!

So, there they were, Canada Action Coalition, running pricey front-page ads claiming that producing LNG in BC was a climate win.  This is a thoroughly discounted claim.  And so, a few concerned citizens reported false and misleading advertising to the Canadian advertising industry’s self-regulatory body.  The regulator ruled in their favour!  The regulator even got a bit judgey about it, saying the ads amounted to “greenwashing”. 

But, because they don’t want to embarrass their own industry, they keep their rulings ‘confidential’ (as in, they ask in a legalistic way for complainants to keep the ruling a secret). 

Then, someone leaked the result and it made national headline news across the country, embarrassing the fossil fuel liars and putting a spotlight on the LNG industry and the governments that continue to support them. 

And so, an important contribution to the public narrative on LNG was won by small low-cost actions by dedicated truth-defending citizens. 

Read the story here, or watch it here. 

So, how do we kick major ass?

I know, you’re feeling super inspired to get out there!  But wait!  These are giants we’re taking on—major fossil fuel corporations and all those who benefit from them (like most banks). How, as little people, are we going to put a dent in their asses?

Climate leader Bill McKibben says, “The most important thing an individual can do is be a little less of an individual”.  So, find a group and join up.  (Join us!)

We are many, and in democracies, we do kinda have the power. When we join forces and push in the same direction, at the same time, that is a lot more effective than each pushing in different directions. 

FOCI is a member of the West Coast Climate Action Network. You can join too.  They’ll keep you up to date on the latest new and best campaigns to join. Consider committing an hour or two per week to these activities (or a day or two if you’ve got it). 

We also can be smart about how we target and mobilize.  Consider this: power in society is actually rather wobbly. 

“Like an upside-down triangle, unjust power and authority is unstable and will fall.  To prevent that, they rely on supports to keep them upright—we call them pillars of support.” Understanding people power: the upside down triangle” from https://trainings.350.org 

This is from a li’l course on how to kick some ass by 350.org.  Check it out. 

So, what pillars are holding up our giants? 

There is a lot more to understanding power and change.  Try making a power map for your goals.  Who’s on the sidelines that you can bring on to the field of play?

The media is a big pillar.  And the media is quite sensitive to feedback. 

More on power mapping, here. 

Try it!  There are side-benefits… 

Taking action (especially with others) can be therapeutic.

And you might need to kick your own ass a bit (i.e., face the scary reality and know this is hard work that takes time and brings up a lot of hard emotions—processing them is “inner activism”). 

This is growth, meaning and belonging.  These are three of the most satisfying things about being alive—might even be the point of it all. 

See more here. 

Where to start?  

Find the overlap between your skills, your passions, your audience/network and what is needed!  Then start crafting a message in a medium that resonates with your audience. https://www.ayanaelizabeth.com/climatevenn

Look! Here’s a guide in the form of a choose-your-own-adventure.

Maybe you think the World Bank is the worst and your passion has you aiming at replacing leadership with a climate-reasonable president. Well, pick something else, we already did that one. 

In case you’re worried you don’t know enough to speak up, here’s a pep talk:  Information helps us make decisions and orient ourselves to the world, a bit.  But far more impactful is peer to peer, self-reinforcing social drivers. We are influenced by each other strongly.  Knowing you care will make others care.  Do that with your peers and use your outside voice like these awesome moms.  

Here’s a handy little guide for supporting your local gov’t (or kicking their ass, if needed). 

Lots of people kicked some ass in New York this past summer. Their work serves as a bit of a playbook for pressure on corporations. 

Maybe you’re a bit more laid-back or living remotely?  Try writing letters to the editor, or encourage a business that needs to act up, or your local emergency responders and healthcare workers (those who keep us safe are the among the best advocates). 

You may find this “What can I do?” document helpful. 

Wrapping things up

Let’s end with wise words from a long-time ass-kicker, Bill McKibben: 

“I think it would be nice if we knew that if we did all the things we should do that we’ll win this fight. And I think people have had some of that comforting thought sometimes in other things.

Dr. King used to end speeches by saying the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice, which I think translates to, this may take a while, but we’re going to win. The arc of the physical universe is short, and it bends toward heat. And if we don’t win soon, we won’t win. Which is why the urgency level is so high. I wish I could provide some comforting statement like that. All I can say is this is a drama whose final act we do not know yet. And it largely depends on how many of us do how much work to change the political equation as fast as we can.”

You are needed. Let’s kick some ass. 

Let’s chat about it! Let’s work together!  Or if you go off on your own, let us know how it goes!  Tell your people that you’re doing it!

Reach out – [email protected]

Links of Interest: