1. The climate crisis: Politics, values, and activism
My qualifications: I’m a citizen of the planet, and I’m terrified.

2. Temperatures 1880-2014 14 of 15 hottest years since 2000
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), we’re on track for 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit)!

3. Greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions
Carbon dioxide (from burning fossil fuels)
Electricity generation
Transportation
Animal agriculture
Methane
Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)
Nitrous oxide

4. Contribution of coal to overall electricity production
Speaking of California …
Alabama?
Shows it’s possible to have electricity without coal
Los Angeles Times

5. consequences Extreme weather events Rising sea levels
Melting of Arctic sea ice
Disintegration of West Antarctic ice sheet
Species extinction
Persistent drought
Decline in food production (famine)
Displacement of populations, refugee crisis
Poor nations will be hurt first and worst
This list is not exhaustive.
Feedback loops here:
Melting arctic sea ice releases methane
Disintegration of West Antarctic ice sheet accelerates rise in sea levels (irreversible)

6. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING:
Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein (2014)
Read the Introduction, and you’ll be hooked.

7. The climate crisis: contributing factors
Really bad timing
Extreme extraction methods
Rather than reducing carbon emissions, we’re dousing the fire with gasoline.
Social justice = climate justice
Energy independence
Magical thinking
Stranded assets
“Really bad timing” (Naomi Klein’s term)
At slide title: Read passage, p. 18

8. Extreme extraction methods
Bitumen from Alberta tar sands
Keystone XL
Coal from mountaintop removal
Deep water drilling for oil
Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)
Natural gas as a “bridge fuel”
DAPL
Collateral damage:
Tar sands
High carbon process (use carbon to extract carbon)
Damages aquifers and local water supply
Devastating to the environment
Produces dirty oil
Mountaintop removal
Pollutes water supply
Health threat to Appalachian communities
Environmental damage
Deep water drilling
Think BP
Fracking
Water intensive
Threat to aquifers
Releases methane
Earthquake risk
Stranded assets: Fossil fuel industry has made huge up-front investments in these extreme extraction technologies which will pay off only if the market for fossil fuels persists. They are doubling down on carbon-based energy.

9. Animal agriculture – the sustainability secret
70 billion
9 billion
970 – 2,700 billion
18%
660
349 pounds

10. obstacles Globalization Power of the fossil fuel industry
Power of big agriculture
Tension between rich and poor nations
The China problem?
Corporate focus on the bottom line
Requires thinking in the long term
Too many of us
Globalization
Transporting goods over long distances (using fossil fuels)
Tension between nations
Poor nations want more aggressive reductions from developed nations, as well as financial assistance in adapting to damage and transitioning to clean energy.
China (also India)
China is playing catch-up to U.S.
Who is to blame for China’s emissions? U.S. has outsourced manufacturing and is biggest customer.
U.S. hopes to profit from expanding nuclear energy in India
Fossil fuel industry
Doubling down with extreme extraction methods to prolong age of oil and coal
Corporate capitalism’s focus
Quarterly profits
A culture of grow or die
Long term thinking
Something our political system is not very good at
Too many of us
Underlies everything
World population 3 billion during JFK’s presidency
7 billion now
11 billion by 2050!

11. A typical fossil fuel executive
Issac Cardal
Fossil fuel executive

12. Leading the fight against climate change
Recognize any members of Congress?
Issac Cardal
Leading the fight against climate change

13. Recognize any members of Congress?
Issac Cardal

14. Positive developments
U.S.-China climate deal
Paris Climate Accord, December 2015
San Diego Climate Action Plan, December 2015
California SB 32, September 2016
Elon Musk
Galvanized resistance, January 2017
U.S.-China climate deal
U.S. and China account for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions
U.S.: Cut greenhouse gases 26% by 2025
China: Cap carbon emissions by 2030, including 20% from renewable (as much as from coal now, and as much as U.S. total electricity generation)
Straight path to 80% reduction from 2005 levels by 2050 (not soon enough per Naomi Klein)
Demonstration of seriousness
Brown’s 2030 goals for California
2020 goal of 33% renewable energy will be met
50% from renewables by 2030
Reduce petroleum use in cars/trucks by 50%
Double energy efficiency of new buildings
Challenges
Coordinate new power with needs of the grid
Power storage technologies
California is currently third in wind power and first in installed solar capacity
Drop in oil prices
Per Naomi Klein, a temporary window of opportunity
Economics of extreme extraction are bad right now
Opportunity to pass a progressive carbon tax

15. What we must do
Fundamentally change the way our free market economy operates, i.e., CAPITALISM
Leave carbon in the ground
Eat plants
Adapt - Invest in infrastructure to mitigate damage from extreme climate events
Easy, right?
Coal generates more carbon emissions than oil (chart later).
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 but doesn’t persist in the atmosphere as long (20 vs. 100 years).
Universities, local governments, pension funds, churches
A tactic
Klein: “The fossil fuel business model is at war with life on earth. Their profits are illegitimate.”
Even if we take these actions NOW, we still face adaptation to cope with levels of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

16. Strategies for activism – demanding change
Global / national / state / local
Inside game / outside game

17. Orange county for climate action (occa)
Origins
What we’ve done
Current projects
Challenges
Engage with us
occlimateaction.org
Facebook group: OC for Climate Action (OCCA)
livingubuntu.org

18. What we’re fighting for now is each other:
Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Justice
by Wen Stephenson (2015)
Read the Introduction, and you’ll be hooked.

19. Final thoughts We messed up; you have to fix it.
We have the technologies we need to survive; politics and economics are the problem.
“How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn’t listen.” – Victor Hugo, 1840
Final statement (this has become my worldview):
I believe that climate change will do us in. When and how badly depends on how aggressively we can address the challenges.

23. Two Content Layout with Table
Group A
Group B
Class 1 82 95
Class 2 76 88
Class 3 84 90
First bullet point here
Second bullet point here
Third bullet point here