“Obviously the destruction [of the planet] already occurring hasn’t been enough to bring us to the tipping point [of resistance]. What will it take for the masses to unite behind an effective solution?”

* * *

My reply:

“What will it take?” is something I wonder about all the time. How far does the murder of the planet have to go? Do we really have to be starving and gasping for breath before we break through denial? We’re almost at that point now, and denial is still rampant.

Part of the problem is that most people in this culture don’t have any idea how to live without industrial production — without water from the tap, without food from grocery stores. If the only source of basic necessities is this system, and people don’t know any other way to live, then they will continue to defend the system that provides them.

It’s like the demand for jobs. In the context of this society, most of us can’t live without jobs, though they’re the arena in which our exploitation takes place. So until we understand that the whole system must be done away with, and until we can live some other way, we end up demanding that the system provide more jobs.

I saw a TV program where someone showed common vegetables (eggplant, tomato, etc) to schoolchildren, and none of them could identify them. In the last couple generations, most of us have lost the ability to grow food (even when we can still identify it). More importantly, most people have no access to land.

A lot of people argue that we should form communes, permaculture “eco-villages,” community gardens and so on to serve as examples of how we could live sustainably. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing those things, but they’re not going to be what’s needed to defeat this system.

There were many cultures who used to live sustainably on this continent, and they’ve been systematically all but wiped out. So it’s not enough to withdraw. As soon as the system wants what you have, or demands your participation, they will violently destroy anyone who doesn’t cooperate.

What will it take? The same things it’ll take to make revolution to uproot all forms of exploitation and oppression.

In the first stages:

* Broad realization that this system is killing the planet, and that to save all life, including our own, we need to defeat and dismantle the system.

* A recognition of who the enemy is.

* The sense that it is more dangerous to let things go on as they are than it is to rise up and fight back.

* A vision of a viable future.

These ideas are spreading, and we need to spread them more, to unite as many as possible in a powerful movement to take this system on. We need to connect the struggle for saving the planet with the struggles for social justice — the enemy is the same.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-code-green-comic-07232010,0,2408768.htmlstory

Please spread the word!
Thank you.

If a lot of people click on it, perhaps they will continue to run it in the future. So please, if you like my Code Green cartoons, and would like to see them animated, please watch it on the Sun-Sentinel website and let them know.

Thank you!
Stephanie

Cartoonists and video journalists pitch stories to them, and then anyone is welcome to vote (pitches are displayed in the “newsroom” section) on which ones they would like to see made. Those are the ones that then receive funding. Media democracy in action!

The Gulf of Mexico has been destroyed. Immeasurable, irreparable damage has been done to wildlife, the health of the ocean, and people’s livelihoods. We have been cursed for years to come. It can not, as BP promises, be “made right.” In fact, even after this utter catastrophe, crimes against the planet and its inhabitants continue without pause.

We are told that the government is supposed to guarantee the rights of the people. But when a big corporation decides our rights are not in their interests, then POOF! They vanish into thin air. In a clear violation of our rights to free speech and a free press, government agencies have assisted BP’s lies and cover-up by restricting media access, threatening journalists with felony charges and $40,000 fines. Uniformed police officers in Louisiana have harassed photographers at public beaches. BP has threatened workers with firing if they talk to anyone about anything.

We are also told that the government’s purpose is to protect the country and us. But instead the government helps big corporations plunder the country and trash our lives. The Minerals Management Service allowed BP to cut corners and violate safety regulations, leading finally to the fatal decision to save a few hundred thousand dollars by not installing a backup valve.

When BP ignored an order by the Environmental Protection Agency to stop using the dispersant Corexit 9500 (a poisonous compound banned in Europe), the EPA did absolutely nothing. Millions of gallons are still being dumped into the Gulf, even as it has been shown to evaporate and fall as toxic rain, and is damaging plants far inland.

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates during the past 20 years, with the biggest portion going to Obama. It also spent $15.9 million on lobbying last year alone, for the purpose of controlling energy policy.

What does all this tell us?

The government repeatedly sells us out to corporate interests. It sells out our rights, our health, our safety, our livelihoods, our lives, and the natural world. The government is merely a tool to facilitate the conversion of life into profit.

The BP spill is not an accident. It is an inevitable consequence of a global economic system that values profit over life. The BP spill is not unique. Oil companies have ruined large areas of the Niger Delta, Ecuador and other parts of the world, and they will continue to do so until they are stopped.

The ruthless pursuit of profit has caused 98% of old growth forests to be cut down. 99% of the prairies are gone. 80% of rivers worldwide no longer support life. 94% of the large fish in the oceans are gone. 120 species per day becomes extinct. Now the Gulf of Mexico has been ruined. Clearly, a global economic system based on perpetual growth is unsustainable. Yet those who run this system do not stop, will not stop.

At what point will we stop accepting this?

We can not stand by while big corporations like BP, with the assistance of the US government, destroy our lives and our planet. We should have stopped them a long time ago. Now we must stop them before they do even more damage, before they kill everything. We depend upon the natural world — we must now urgently come to its defense.

2) I’m participating in an eBay auction of webcomics originals to benefit Gulf cleanup efforts. Get a “Code Green” original and print. At this point it’s pretty cheap! Here’s the whole auction:
http://shop.ebay.com/whirringblender/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

***
Here’s the Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=135485193148140&ref=mf

Mass Organizing Meeting to Stop the Gulf Ecological Disaster
Date: Saturday, July 10, 2010
Time: 10:30am – 12:30pm
Location: St. Maurice Catholic Church (Hospitality Room), 2851 Stirling Road, Dania Beach, Florida

Description

Building on the heels of June 26th’s huge Hands Across the Sand protest and numerous local initiatives protesting BP and offshore drilling, a number of activists and people new to activism are starting to combine forces to begin building a powerful MOVEMENT demanding action against the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, full immediate compensation for all those affected, an end to offshore drilling and support for clean, renewable energy sources.

We’re just starting out and we’re having our first MASS PUBLIC MEETING. We’re looking at building support for a variety of creative tactics to channel our outrage, our sadness, our commitment, and our determination to win. THIS IS A LONG-TERM FIGHT! It will need to be a huge mass movement if it’s going to go anywhere. It’s taken the ongoing ecocide in the Gulf to take this organizing to a whole new level. But we also realize the problem is much larger than just BP or any single company.

You have an historic opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this newly emerging movement. We’ve yet to decide on how we want to organize ourselves, what we want to do next, even what we call ourselves. Because we’re in South Florida, what we say and do can have a national and international impact. We’re making connections with folks organizing in the Gulf Coast and beyond. But we need YOU if we’re going to make this into a large and powerful force that can actually win.

Our mission is nothing less than saving Planet Earth. Help make history on Saturday, July 10th. It’s up to you.

************************************************************
St. Maurice Church is located at 2851 Stirling Road in Dania Beach (Broward County), FL. From I-95 Stirling Road exit, go west about a mile to the traffic light at Lakeshore Dr. Turn on Lakeshore and the parking lot is immediately there on your right. The Hospitality Room is on the first floor of the only two-story building on the campus, right next to the Chapel (not the Church).

This cartoon is scheduled to appear in the LA Times on Sunday, June 27, 2010.

1)
Image: A bunch of protesters stand in front of BP, sweltering in the hot sun, holding signs that are lame because they are overly polite: “If you wouldn’t mind…” etc.
Person to friend: We’ve got them where we want them. Only 10000000000 more hours of protests to go before they *have* to listen.
Person 2 (kneeling and praying, reading a book: “Obama’s Prayer Manual”): Don’t forget praying.

2)
Obama (dressed as general with opulent uniform and hat, rubber boots and sword held aloft, standing in oily water): Because war rhetoric usually suckers the American people: JOIN MY GLORIOUS WAR ON ERROR!

3)
Caption: BP committed at least 760 “egregious” and “willful” safety violations
during the last 3 years.
BP official (yelling at the sky): It was a tragic, random, accidental act-of-God accident. Damn you, God!

4)
Image: Person (standing on dead planet covered with corpses and toxic waste, indignant): Sure, civilization has its costs. But it’s so convenient. Hey – got any food?

5)
Image: 2 people are at the edge of the oily Gulf.
Person 1: This is nothing new. Oil companies already wrecked huge areas in Ecuador and the Niger Delta.
Person 2: When I demanded an end to outsourcing, I meant jobs.

6)
Image: BP and US officials hold up large banner with photo pristine beach scene, hiding real oil-poisoned beach behind them.
One: We don’t block media access.
Other: Take all the photos you want.

7)
Image: 2 people stands in ruined landscape, with mushroom cloud, toxic water, fires, etc.
Person 1: *THIS* catastrophe is *FINALLY* going to make everyone understand that our way of life is unsustainable.
Person 2: I think I need one more oil spill.

8
Image: Person stands in ruined landscape.
Person: Technology will fix it.