Aid & Abet

West Coast Climate Convergence

So, I’ve been trying to write this post for weeks, and I’m finally doing it. I also have this post about the RNC/DNC and Obama rattling around in my head, and I’m hoping to get that on (virtual) paper this weekend. Since, you know, pretty soon the conventions will be over. Regardless…. we were talking about Climate change, right?

So, in late July/early August I headed up to Coburg, OR to attend the West Coast Climate Convergence, part of a series of Climate Camps happening around the world at the same time. You can read a report from the UK camp in this recent Yes! Magazine article, which also gives a list of the camps around the world.

I found out about the West Coast Convergence through the group Rising Tide, which was one of the major sponsors of the U.S. camps. The point of the camps is to bring together activists working on climate change and related issues for training, networking, and action. Almost all the camps culminated in a direct action in the area where the camp was located. More on that later.

I’ve been impressed with RT because of a few things, tops of which is the organizational focus on linking climate change activism with communities that are directly impacted by climate change issues, such as working in coalition with local groups fighting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in their neighborhoods. Their mission statement is just so right on: “Rising Tide is a grassroots network of groups and individuals who take direct action to confront the roots causes of climate change and promote local, community-based solutions to the climate crisis.” and “Rising Tide North America’s strategy is based on a no-compromise approach of stopping the extraction of more fossil fuels and preventing the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure.” Um, yeah. Hell yeah.

And I like their organizing model, too, of a decentralized network that allows local “chapters” to differentiate… from working against mountain-top removal mining in West Virginia and the Southeast U.S., to supporting efforts that draw out the links between climate change and war here on the West Coast.

The West Coast issues & actions

One of the afternoon plenaries

The West Coast convergence and the actions following focused on two main issues: opposition to the proposed Liquified Natural Gas facilities on the Oregon coast, particularly in Coos Bay, OR, and opposition to the proposed expansion of the Columbia River Crossing bridge that spans the Columbia River on Interstate 5 and is a point along the NAFTA-driven route of goods from Canada to Mexico.

RT has info on LNG on their site with a lot of great links to other resources on the web, as well as some info on the Columbia River Crossing.

You can read about the actions related to these issues here, they received a lot of local media coverage.

The Camp

Solar-powered sewing!

The camp was on a farm outside of Eugene, in Coburg, Oregon. It was great. I really respected that the camp was self-sufficient and off the grid – all the power needs were met through solar panels. I also liked that a large number of people camped (in tents) at the farm for the duration of the convergence. When conferences are held in big cities, I often feel like you have less opportunities to interact with people you don’t already know. If this had been in Seattle, for example, people would come during the day and then go off to different restaurants or to see friends or whatever in the evening. When you’re camped out with people for a week, you really get to know them and that is a plus. That is why I really liked having the Allied Media Conference in Bowling Green, Ohio when we first started it – you really didn’t have any choice but to hang out with the other participants.

“The Gap”

Overall, I had a great experience. I met nice people, learned stuff, and hung around the campfire at night with people playing music – live and informal music is one of my favorite things.

Anyway, I did notice that as a 30-something, there were not a lot of other 30-somethings around. There were a lot of people 30 and under, and quite a few people 45 and over, but there was this distinct gap in the 30-45 range. My friend and I started making jokes about “the gap” and identifying members as we came across them.

We speculated a lot about why we think that is, and here’s an outline for a much larger discussion at some point:

• For a lot of people, their 30’s are when they are starting and focusing on a family, or when their career is kicking into high gear. Are our communities not compatible with families and jobs? Should they be?
• Some activists who were politicized and built skills in their 20’s, who know work for non-profits. That is a good and bad thing.
• And there is a whole other set of people who were burnt out in their 20’s, and no longer do activism – which begs the question of self-care within our communities.
• And of the people who were politicized in their teens and 20’s who “grew out” of radical politics and either were sucked into the electoral/reform system or out of activism completely… what is the radical community not offering them that they sought elsewhere

Expect more thoughts on all this from me soon. Now back to work instead of writing blog posts.