So I went to a Climate Rally ... Now What?

Friday I attended the climate rally at Capital city Park in Denver Colorado which was attended by about five to seven thousand people. The various speakers included indigenous people, local school children the young woman striking every Friday, Haven Coleman and the most recent climate hero Greta Thunberg as the headliner.

Photo: JK | Location: Climate rally at Capital city Park in Denver Colorado

I think it is great that people are willing to gather and communicate about these issues on a large scale, on a regular basis and I think it needs to happen more frequently. I really appreciate how this effort is including school children because I believe educating them on these issues early will enable all of us to make tough decisions in the future.

As I left the city center and was walking back to my apartment I was considering 'what's next?'

Being that 99.9% of "activism" takes place on social media and generally is being bounced around an echo chamber, I found myself at a bit of a loss as to what we should do now that we are actually being "active." Is there a grander takeaway than the standard "keep calling your politicians" and "keep showing up to these rallies" and "keep spreading the word," is there something more actionable we can do? What can each and every individual do today and everyday to actually make a difference? Maybe it's the genes of my colonial ancestors begging me to strap on a bayonet but I know that's too extreme and probably short sighted so I'm left feeling with a bit of emptiness.

During the rally one of the speakers said "every single day we vote with our dollars." Which got a big cheer from the crowd, full of people wearing brand new Nikes and holding Starbucks cups. Please don't take this as me being holier than thou as I was sporting an alpaca scarf at the time. I just like to point out the irony of all of us cheering for action from our point of comfort, including our collective ability to escape our obligations in the middle of a work day (the rally took place at Noon on Friday October 11th). I saw several people holding up signs with a message like "Save Earth Go Vegan" and "less meat = less heat." The reason I point this out is because these rallies and colorful posters can start to feel like action but in reality we are still not having the tough conversations we need to. 

The harsh truth is that we are still at the inception of citizen inspired action on climate and because we are still in the early stages of this most important process we need to be operating with the mindset that: 

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND

We must take on this approach because our power will come from numbers and the numbers need to come from every corner of the planet.  As parents and children, vegans and vegetarians, hunters and anglers and anyone else who enjoys our wildspaces, we must unite behind the planet and not hide behind our keyboards.

 

Unfortunate truths:

 
 

Truths:

  • WE ALL CARE

  • None of us are not perfect

 

conservation funding Considerations:

 

Courtesy of CPW

Looking at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) fact sheet 54% of funding, $125,000,000 ($125M), comes from licenses passes fees and permits. In March of this year the Secretary of the interior released $1.1 billion dollars into State conservation efforts this money was raised from the dingell-johnson and pittman-robertson acts. Which may you may be surprised to find are funded from an excise tax on guns, ammunition, bows, arrows and fishing equipment. Hunters & anglers anglers contribute nearly $800,000,000 ($800M) annually solely through excise taxes not including the purchases of hunting and fishing licenses. Compared to any other entity governmental or not, hunters and anglers contribute the vast majority of conservation dollars in this country.

(But every dollar counts so donate anything you can!)

Climate Change Considerations:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency agriculture accounts for 9% of greenhouse gas emissions. Although I think we should be innovating in every direction to solve this issue it seems to be more sexy to talk about giving up meat then it does to talk about our highway system or our electrical grid or industrial use of our public lands and utilities.  I also think it's ridiculous that this country does not regulate livestock waste. Which is one of the largest contributors to the toxification of are aquifers. 

Courtesy of US-EPA

One of my favorite moments of the rally however was when one of the young female speakers told the audience to use their privilege as a platform to spread a good message and to inform people as to the realities of climate change and the needs of our planet. This is the first time in recent history that I've heard someone use the 'woke' word 'privilege' as something positive and not just to demean people who “seem” to have it easier.  We should be using our status in life, whatever that status maybe, to promote a message of goodness of kindness of warmth and community. We are all one people that have the same desires of safety, security, and hope for the future for our children. I like the idea that if you were born with a microphone in your hand you are allowed to use it.

In summary, I think it's beautiful that people care and are willing to meet and sacrifice and discuss these issues. I just hope that there's actually a discussion.

Ways to take action TODAY:

- I LOVE YOU

~JK