Tom Stokes Speech to the Conference for West African Journalists

May 6, 2008, Bamako, Mali 

Mr. President of the African Network of Environmental Journalists; Our Malian Hosts and Dignitaries , and Assembled Journalists and Environmentalists .     

It is a great privilege for me to be attending this Conference for West African Journalists, organized by the African Network of Environmental Journalists. My work in the U.S. involves broadening public consciousness about the climate crisis and pushing for the needed policy changes at all levels of government – from the local to the international. My particular focus centers on making the links between climate change and social, economic and environmental equity. Since the climate change problems that Africa is already experiencing, with the prospect of much worse to come, has everything to do with the excesses of my country and other developed countries – the excessive consumption of resources and emission of greenhouse gases – I am especially grateful for your invitation to participate in this conference and for your hospitality.  

As the editor of an online daily news summary that is widely distributed to environmental leaders and concerned citizens, I am particular grateful for this opportunity to open up important channels of communication with African journalists committed to covering the ramifications of climate change and related environmental issues in Africa. We hope that the connections established at this conference will provide us with fresh sources of important news in our questto raise public consciousness, and indignation, about the completely unacceptable course that our country and others are on, a course which is robbing not just the future livelihood of all of our children and grandchildren, especially in Africa, whose citizens contribute a relatively small fraction of the greenhouse gases on a per capita basis, but end up paying a much steeper penalty. 

I am the Coordinator of the U.S. Climate Crisis Coalition, also known as CCC. We were founded in 2004 by a small group of social activists motivated by a compelling belief that this planet was indeed experiencing a climate crisis; that this crisis demanded strong and immediate action at all levels of government; and that we needed to reach out to all sectors of our society. We believe that climate change isn't just another issue in this complicated world of proliferating issues. It's the issue that – unchecked -- will swamp all others. Hence our call to action has been not only to environmentalists but also to peace, business, labor, agriculture, students, health officials, policymakers, and people of diverse faiths, ethnic and national identities. We also believe in the need to work toward a new paradigm of equity: equitable sharing of the earth’s limited resources and a shared commitment to sustainable living. In pursuit of these goals, we can no longer tolerate the growing disparity between the rich and poor, the exploiters and exploited, the over-consumers and the hungry.  

The climate movement has come a long way in the four years that we have been organizing. Around the world we are witnessing a vast awakening to the magnitude of the climate crisis. Although we have much farther to go, especially when it come to concrete solutions, we are heartened by this progress and we can draw strength from it. One person who has been particularly responsible for this awakening is our former Vice President Al Gore.   

I am very pleased to bring to you the following greeting from Al Gore: 

Sidi El Moctar Cheiguer, Chairman

Conference for West African Journalists  
The African Network of Environmental Journalists 
Bamako, Mali 

Chairman Cheiguer and Assembled Journalists: 

As many of you know it has become my mission to promote the public understanding of  the climate crisis, which threatens the well-being of people throughout the world.  

This understanding is essential if we are to convince our policy makers to make the  significant changes necessary to reallocate the way we use the planet’s resources and  control greenhouse gas emissions.  Enlightened and committed journalism has never  been more important, especially in Africa, which in so many ways is paying an unjust  price as the climate crisis worsens.

I began my career as a journalist, in my home state of Tennessee, before entering into  public life.  That experience helped shape my perspective both as a public official and  now as a private citizen advocating for what I believe to be the greatest challenge we  have ever faced.   It is journalists like you exercising the principles of accurate,  documented and balanced reporting that can make this happen. 

I was heartened to learn about the Conference for West African Journalists, in Bamako,  and I heartily endorse the principal objects of your sponsor, the African Network of  Environmental Journalists: 

I will eagerly follow your progress, and hope that “The Voice of the African Environment,”  is heard by as many people as possible. 

Best regards and good luck, 

Al Gore 

When Mr. Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, on December 10, 2007 (together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), he cited two nuggets of wisdom from non-Western cultures, which he has brought up repeatedly in his climate crusade over the past couple of years. He said: 

In the Kanji characters used in both Chinese and Japanese, “crisis” is written with two symbols, the first meaning “danger,” the second “opportunity.” By facing and removing the danger of the climate crisis, we have the opportunity to gain the moral authority and vision to vastly increase our own capacity to solve other crises that have been too long ignored.  

Mr. Gore also cited an African proverb that says: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  

We do need to go far, and we need to go quickly. And we must also keep in mind both the danger and the opportunities that we have before us. It is a journey that we must all take together: citizens, business leaders, and policy makers alike. Major changes – indeed revolutionary changes -- are needed, and journalists will play a critical role as informers, guides and motivators. Before discussing further the role of environmental journalism in driving needed policy changes, let me first touch on the enormity of the task and the three paradigm shifts that I believe need to happen. They involve 1) policy at all levels of government, 2) technology and 3) the hearts and minds of people. By way of explanation, why each is so essential, I would like to quote from the American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Ross Gelbspan, who has been a great inspiration to me and many other climate activists. (We are also very fortunate to have him on our CCC advisory board.) 

In the December 11, 2007 issue of the on-line magazine Grist, he wrote a seminal article called, “Beyond the Point of No Return.” He said: 

We have failed to meet nature's deadline. In the next few years, this world will experience progressively more ominous and destabilizing changes. These will happen either incrementally -- or in sudden, abrupt jumps. Under either scenario, it seems inevitable that we will soon be confronted by water shortages, crop failures, increasing damages from extreme weather events, collapsing infrastructures, and, potentially, breakdowns in the democratic process itself… 

Within the last two years, a number of leading scientists including Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), British ecologist James Lovelock, and NASA [the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration] scientist James Hansen  have all declared that humanity is about to pass or already has passed a "tipping point" in terms of global warming. The IPCC, which reflects the findings of more than 2,000 scientists from over 100 countries, recently stated that it is "very unlikely" that we will avoid the coming era of "dangerous climate change."… 

Virtually all of the national and grassroots climate groups are pushing hard to reduce carbon emissions. The most aggressive are working to change America's entire energy structure from one based on coal and oil to a new energy future based on non-carbon technologies -- as they should… 

But even assuming the wildest possible success of their initiatives -- that humanity decided tomorrow to replace its coal- and oil-burning energy sources with non-carbon sources -- it would still be too late to avert major climate disruptions. No national energy infrastructure can be transformed within a decade. 

The key to our survival as a civil species during an era of profound natural upheaval lies in an enhanced sense of community… We need to change the economic and political structures that determine how we behave. In this case, we need to elevate the ethic of cooperation over the deeply ingrained reflex of competition. We need to elevate our biological similarities over our geographical differences. We need, in the face of this oncoming onslaught, to reorganize our social structures to reflect our most humane collective aspirations. 

There is no body of expertise -- no authoritative answers -- for this one. We are crossing a threshold into uncharted territory. And since there is no precedent to guide us, we are left with only our own hearts to consult, whatever courage we can muster, our instinctive dedication to a human future -- and the intellectual integrity to look reality in the eye.  

Elsewhere, Mr. Gelbspan has written:  

Rewiring the globe with clean energy would do more than stave off the most disruptive impacts of global climate change.  It would create millions of jobs all over the world.  It could provide economic independence for developing countries. It would address the economic desperation that underlies anti-Western terrorism.  It would liberate the U.S. from its destructive military and diplomatic entanglements in the Middle East.  It would substantially expand the overall wealth and equity of the global economy.  It would begin to put democratically-determined boundaries around huge and unaccountable multi-national corporations.  It would mark a major step toward peace among people and peace between people and nature. 

When Ross Gelbspan first began to cover climate issues in the mid 1990’s, he was not primarily an environmental reporter, but had rather made his reputation covering stories on political and social justice. He started investigating so-called climate skeptics, initially thinking that they might be right -- that climate change based on anthropogenic influence was at best a theory and it was not supported by unbiased science. But Mr. Gelbspan is an experienced and skilled investigative journalist. He exercises the principles, advocated by ANEJ, of accurate, documented and balanced reporting.” And he soon learned that the accurate, documented, and balanced science was in fact coming from the scientists being derided as “alarmists,” and the bias was on the side of the “skeptics.” He went on to uncover the basis for much of the bias: the “scientific research” of some of the more outspoken “skeptics” was underwritten by the likes of Exxon-Mobil and Peabody Coal, the largest coal company in the U.S. Mr. Gelbspan went on to write two important books on Climate Change: The Heat is On, published in 1997, and Boiling Point, published in 2004. These books have documented the causes and the severity of climate crisis, pointed out the fallacy behind many of the “solutions” being offered, suggested concrete steps that must be taken and have been an important reference and inspiration for many of us in the climate movement, including Al Gore, who wrote a rave review of Boiling Point for the New York Times.   

I have quoted from Mr. Gelbspan so extensively in this talk, because he presents so succinctly the arguments that have been my own guiding principles as a climate activist:  

First, sweeping policy changes on all levels of government are critical. The Kyoto Protocol was an important first step, but the succeeding treaty forged in Copenhagen in December 2009 will have to be far more stringent, as will legislative proposals currently being debated in the U.S., the E.U. and in countries around the world. Firm limits, a reduction of greenhouse gases in the industrialized world by at least 80% by the year 2050, 25% by 2020, are essential. World-wide, this reduction, especially considering the vast economic growth projected for the developing world, must be at least 50% by 2050, and much greater if at all possible. Strong regulations need to be passed and implemented at all levels of government throughout the world. Carbon taxes can be effective tools, especially if they are implemented in the form of tax transfers so as not to be an additional burden on working people.   

Second, technology is key. The globe must be “rewired.” We can create many millions of new jobs in this world-wide greening effort by withdrawing government subsidies from coal and oil and redirecting them to clean energy. I included International taxes must be used to directly fund green technology in poor countries. New solar and other technologies will be key, but of even greater importance is the use of technologies we already have. 

Third, there needs to be a new era of cooperation between all of us, cooperation which is currently undermined by the economic inequities we now suffer. Too many of the rich feel entitled to consume a grossly disproportionate share of the planet’s limited resources. If everyone is to assume ownership of the problem and the solutions, there will have to be far more equity: both in terms of sharing resources and also in terms of sharing authority for decisions that affect all of humanity. Strong leadership inspired by great journalism will, of course be a key component of this transition, from the bottom up as well as the top down.     

Fourth, all three of these paradigm shifts, or revolutions, must happen quickly and simultaneously if we are to stand a chance. 

Fifth, unfortunately, even under the best of circumstances, all this will not be enough to avert catastrophic losses in ecosystem and human lives. And so we are all called to this cause because it involves moral values and ideals that go far beyond the mere measurement of emissions reductions. As daunting as climate change appears to be, hope remains that through the choices we make today, we can saves millions of lives in the years to come. 

There are, of course, many other journalists and writers that I could cite who have helped awaken climate and environmental consciousness and have motivated policy makers to start addressing the problem, but I would like to mention just one other: Rachel Carson.  

With her 1962 book, Silent Spring, and her dogged investigative journalism that led up to it, she woke up our country to the need for environmental stewardship. In my opinion she more than any other single individual, at least in my country, is responsible for the environmental awakening that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  

In 1990, as the 20th anniversary of Earth Day was approaching, I wrote a paper about the birth of the American environmental movement. I interviewed a number of advocates and policy makers who helped to define that era. They included David Brower (founder of Friends of the Earth); Pete Seeger (folk singer and environmentalist); John Adams (first president of the Natural Resources Defense Council); Barry Commoner (prominent scientist and author); Eugene McCarthy (U.S. Senator; and presidential candidate who in 1968 roused our country with his campaign against the war in Vietnam); Gaylord Nelson (U.S. Senator, [so-called] “Father of Earth Day” [and] sponsor of major environmental legislation); William Ruckelshaus (first Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration); and Stuart Udall (prominent conservationist and Secretary of the Interior [from] 1960 [to 1968] under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson). Each of these people who had so much to do with the social and environmental action of the time, and the passage and implementation of major environmental policy initiatives in the early 1970s, cited Rachel Carson as a major and galvanizing influence in their actions.

In her work she “exercised the principles of accurate, documented and balanced reporting” as she exposed the abusive use of herbicides and pesticides prevalent at the time. But she also spoke of an impending environmental crisis that would arise from the misuse of technology. And she spoke of the need to approach science from an ecological model rather than through a mechanical, reductionist lens: in “solving” problems, scientists, engineers and policy makers needed to be cognizant of their impacts on the larger natural and human social environments. 

Rachel Carson was a major influence in the introduction of a new paradigm in problem solving. This paradigm is particularly relevant today as we plan ahead for a more sustainable planet. When scientists and policy makers come forward with geoengineering “solutions” to climate change, they should beware and not forget her lessons. 

In June 1962, four days before the first installment of Silent Spring, and shortly before her death from cancer, she said the following at a college graduation in California:     

I used to wonder whether nature… actually needed protection from man. Surely the vast cycles… could never be touched... and the vast tides of life… would continue to ebb and flow. 

But I was wrong. Even these things that seemed to belong to the eternal verities, are not only threatened, but have already felt the destroying hand of man… Our streams are fouled with an incredible assortment of wastes… so that our planet, though dominated by seas that envelop three-quarters of its surface is rapidly becoming a thirsty world… so nature does indeed need protection from man; but man, too, needs protection from his own acts, for he is part of the living world. His war against nature is inevitably a war against himself. 

The new environmental movement in my country, which emerged forty years ago, was a confluence of several historical streams: a traditional conservation ethic which valued nature; the social activism of the 1960s; the emergence of a new ecological model for science and problem solving – and, most especially, increased public awareness because of environmental reporting. The role of journalists, like your own Singy Hanyona, whose inspired pioneering work with the Green Times of Zambia will long be remembered, cannot be overstated.  

In my country the environmental movement started out with great promise, but in many ways lost its way in the following decades. 

I believe that we are today seeing signs of a new and stronger word-wide movement. This time our calling is still more urgent. To those influences that gave us strength in the 1970s, I would add the following: the growing awareness, through good environmental reporting, of the climate crisis (in all of its pervasiveness and complexities); the growing awareness that this is an international global climate crisis demanding cooperation and ownership of the problems and solutions from all of us; and the growing awareness that it is far more than just an environmental problem. It is a problem that goes to the heart of economic and social equity, fairness, and the growing disparities that we are witnessing around the world.  

In accepting the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, Prof. Wangari Maathai said the following: 

We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own – indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process. 

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. 

There can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space. This shift is an idea whose time has come. 

If we did a better job of managing our resources sustainably, conflicts over them would be reduced. So, protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace." 

Amidst the despair that many of us feel about the climate crisis and the destruction of our environment, there are more and more hopeful signs. People on working seemingly everywhere on hopeful solutions and understanding the connection between social, economic and environmental equity. 

Let us call this new movement a climate equity movement. We need to see each other’s problems as our own in ways that we have never done before. We will be informed and assisted by good environmental journalism, of the kind advocated by African Network of Environmental Journalists. Together we must build this new equity alliance. 

Thank you very much.