Energy of Change - #COP21

Energy of Change

Leaders of 150 nations, along with 40,000 delegates from 196 countries, are attending the conference in Paris, called COP21. COP stands for Conference of Parties, an annual forum to try to tackle climate change on a global political level.

Two things immediately come to mind. One; the word ‘try’ literally implies failure. Why do we continue to use the word try? Haven’t we discovered through the vast piles of good, peer reviewed, international science that we do not have any more time to ‘try?’  

In the 1970s, ExxonMobil’s own scientific documents disclosed that humanity was on a perilous path towards planetary temperature increases from continued fossil fuel extraction and consumption. Yet for over 40 years ExxonMobil officials lied to the world in order to continue their secret symphony of destruction, hell-bent on forcing the world into a toxic fossil fuel energy dependency. It is true the only promise the oil and gas industry will give you is a lie.  

ExxonMobil didn’t even try; they willfully and knowingly withheld the truth. ExxonMobil effectively harmed ecosystems and humans of the world. Should they be allowed to try and do better? Hell no. ExxonMobil and all global subsidiaries should be permanently prohibited from entering any form of commerce on Planet Earth.

And the second word that comes to mind is; climate change.  Climate change was yesterday, we are in a climate crisis now and all COP21 consultations should be centered on the immediate importance of building global solutions around a crisis and not merely a change.

COP21 leaders have one mission: Agree on legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions meant to hold global average temperatures short of a 2 degrees Celsius increase over preindustrial global temperatures. Can the laws of politics actually change the runaway climate crisis? Let the reversal of all favorable laws, exemptions, and corporate welfare be swift with accuracy to forever render the fossil fuel empire paralyzed -- just as we are.  Leave only room for grassroots energy democracy. We should have a choice to thrive with healthy, perpetual energies. COP21 should only make sound decisions that would favor a hundred generations of COP summits to come. 

Nature does not abide by the ‘laws of politics’ and should never have to take a back seat to its oppressive and exploitative economics. It is through the ‘laws of politics’ that Nature has become a prisoner and is now requiring immediate remediation from the continued exploitation of the ruling elite.

I believe the legally binding agreements should be based on natural laws of existence and include unequivocal rights of protection for water, soil, air, all ecosystems, both living and further protect those yet unborn into healthy perpetuity.

We are protectors not protesters. We are protecting our water and our lands. We are protecting our air and climate. We are protecting all ecosystems on earth that have the right to thrive. We are protecting the future of all life on Earth.

French President Francois Hollande noted that "never have the stakes been so high because this is about the future of the planet, the future of life."

For decades the oil and gas industry has set the world on fire with its massive amounts of pollution spewing in the airways, waterways and soil - all done legally under its personally designed legal framework, but illegal on all levels of symbiotic planetary existence. Will we listen to the laws of nature or the laws of failed energy politics run by corporate capitalists?

Will humankind accept a historical shift from protecting corporate industry to instead -- protecting humanity and honor the rights of natural laws? Will the COP21 consciously awaken commerce and politics to comprehend we can no longer use globally harmful fossil fuels?

I am honored to be in Paris at the COP21 where I will speak as a negatively affected citizen and first hand witness of the fracking industry’s planetary symphony of destruction. I will stand shoulder to shoulder with the righteous people of the good Earth. I will also lay my life on the line to protect the future of all life wherever it exists. We must be brave and stand on the only side of history that makes sense – the future.

Dr. Theo Colborn, founder of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange said: “Deep inside everyone, there is something bigger and stronger than we are aware of at this time that cannot be suppressed by man-made chemicals—something ---- that will prompt some very exceptional leadership to step forward with the courage to turn off corporate control of the government and the world -- and take back for society what it needs to thrive.”

"What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it," President Barack Obama said in his speech.

I’d like to see Obama and the rest of the world’s good leaders marshal the rogue fossil fuel industry into international, federal and state courts to stand trial for human and planetary rights violations.

We have an energy revolution at our feet and we are the boots on the ground that this revolution wants to be.  It is our life’s mission to change the toxic energy we have been enslaved into with viable forms of healthy energy democracy in every community across the world.  The power of one is exponential, so look in the mirror now and get started. We are the Energy of Change.

Shane Davis

Fractivist.org