OccupyToSustain

Mission of the Climate Action, Sustainability and Environmental Justice Working Group

"This primal cry for democracy sprang from young people who could no longer ignore the angst in their gut — the premonition that their future does not compute, that their entire lives will be lived in the apocalyptic shadow of climate-change tipping points, species die-offs, a deadening commercialized culture, a political system perverted by money, precarious employment, a struggle to pay off crippling student loans, and no chance of ever owning a home or living in comfort like their parents <and> that unless they stood up and fought nonviolently for a different kind of future, they would have no future at all." Kalle Lasn and Micah White

Two hundred species die each day. Ninety percent of the large fish in the ocean are gone. Climate change causes 150,000 deaths each year. The energy industry, backed by the financial services industry, resorts to wholesale clearing of native forests and the obliteration of entire mountain ranges in search of dwindling energy reserves needed to power an economy that works only for the elite 1 percent, leaving behind a land base that will never again support life. In the process of clearing the land, cultural diversity is wiped out. Our food, health care and transportation systems are based on unsustainable consumption patterns, the fragility of which will soon be revealed as energy reserves are exhausted.

The Occupy Boston Climate Action, Sustainability and Environmental Justice Working Group seeks to provide a space where members of the Occupy/99% Movement and their allies can come together to help create a more just and sustainable world, locally and globally.  We will accomplish this goal by:

• Educating ourselves and our communities about climate change and the environmental issues and solutions before us;
• Building Coalitions within and beyond the Occupy/99% Movement, without regard for ideology or tactical preferences, to increase our collective power; and
• Taking Direct Action to confront the social, economic and political forces causing environmental injustice and highlight a new paradigm for life on earth, both human and non-human.