This is Part 1 in the CEC's new free e-book Climate and Ecological Delusions and Contradictions That Will Rapidly End Humanity, Unless…. 

The story about our collective Delusions and Contradictions picks up speed with a stunning revelation!

It goes like this: With the UN 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, all of the world’s leadership and nations have promised to hold-the-line on warming the planet and to stabilize our climate system at no more than 2° Celsius (3.6◦ Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures.[1] Yet, the way they have chosen to do this is to blast past that 2°C heat limit with hundreds of billions of tons of excess pollution, and then later to magically suck the polluting CO2 that causes a cooked and broken climate—out of the air. If you do not know this (perhaps because the world leaders are hiding behind what might be called the “Tinkerbell-Effect”) then you have not yet heard how the world’s leadership plans to actually implement this magical technology. 

Of course, events in and around our world have gotten so egregiously curiouser and curiouser, that we thought it important to lend some interpretation, call it briefing, before we all become mad-hatters! Now to be sure, we are lending to ourselves as well, because it is important to try to make some sense of events, even in the face of unrelenting non-sense.

Donald Trump has just given humanity a big push towards the cliff’s edge. By foolishly rejecting the Paris Climate Agreement, Trump will go down in history (if “history” endures) as the world’s worst leader and worst enemy of the future ever. He has chosen irreversible global warming as the world’s future. We now join the laudable company of Syria and Nicaragua, the only two nations that did not join the deal to begin with.

For growing numbers of Americans, tracking the exploding Trump-Russia scandal has become a necessity, like slowing for a major multi-vehicle pileup. Rachel Maddow delivers bombshell reports almost every weeknight, each plotline adding more gasoline to the conflagration that is consuming our political system. As Senator John McCain has offered: “There’s a lot more shoes to drop from this centipede.” 

"Donald Trump and his band of Banana Republicans are turning our country into a banana republic."
– Swami Beyondananda

Is the honeymoon over yet?

Perhaps a better question is, what kind of honeymoon follows a shotgun wedding? For the past two months, I have explored how the failure of neoliberalism helped fuel the perfect storm that put Donald Trump in the White House, and how given the choice between status quo and disruptive change, the body politic chose the latter.

OK, so here we are. Now what?

In the wake of the incredibly successful Women’s Marches around the country and around the world, we now have an even greater strategic window of opportunity for citizens to act in one accord and take our momentum to the next level.

Our window of time is just the next three weeks! Please stay with me – this is really, really important, and you probably were not aware of it.

At the same time as record numbers of Americans mobilized for the Women’s Marches across the country, another equally significant civic engagement event was just getting started and is now fully in process. It represents a profoundly important opportunity. Let’s not miss it…

For those who know we are in a real climate emergency, Donald J. Trump’s presidential victory comes as a devastating shock and blow, as he intends to eviscerate climate protection and ramp up fossil fuel extraction. The world needs to be cutting carbon drastically now, yet the United States is accelerating towards the brick wall of climate chaos. Is there any plausible climate emergency response worth considering in this deepening crisis?

A dramatic standoff in North Dakota continues between the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the Dakota Access oil pipeline project. This direct threat to the tribe’s drinking water, to their rightful sovereignty, and to cultural heritage sites that include a sacred burial ground are being closely followed and supported by the climate change and justice movements. 

With representation from more than 100 tribes in one of the largest Native American protests in history, violent attacks on protesters by security dogs and numerous instances of macing have drawn considerable criticism, profound concern, and a strong expression of solidarity with the tribe.   

When President Obama, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interior stepped in to temporarily halt the project, activists celebrated. 

But, this pause is no victory. 

 Today we already live in the middle of a genuine climate emergency. Yet is this perceived, understood, or discussed anywhere?  Despite the overwhelming case, little is being done to eliminate the fossil fuel Goliath and stabilize our climate.

With government gridlocked and business even adding more sand to the gears, policy responses are ridiculously inadequate. Can Philanthropy be the David to the fossil fuel’s Goliath? Where else can we find the influence and resources that could fulfill a David role and support a coordinated, broad-based people’s campaign? Who else could create the “slingshot heard round-the-world” to down the behemoth?