January 20, 2014
Dear
Climate Activists:
I write because I understand that many
in your movement are presently disillusioned, even despairing, of the current
state of affairs in the United States regarding climate protection. And, maybe, you have every right to be
so.
The hour is late with regards to the
well-being of the Earth and its inhabitants.
Scientists have concluded that we have ten, maybe twenty years at the
outside, to avoid the unfathomable – the world’s climate lurching into instability, causing destructive super-storms, famine-inducing droughts, ferocious wildfires, flood-causing sea-level
rise, numerous species die-off, and system-altering ocean acidification. The ecological devastation to God’s Creation
will be accompanied by widespread harm to human populations around the globe, many,
of course, being marginalized and economically poor
peoples who are least blameworthy for their horrific predicament.
And despite the dire predictions of
science, the vast majority of the world’s governments have done little to
nothing to encourage a rapid transformation of their fossil fuel-based
economies to ones based on clean renewable energies. Meanwhile, the powerful private interests – especially
the energy companies, some of the wealthiest corporations in human history – openly
flout the apocalyptic warnings, pushing ahead to exploit the very last of the
climate-wrecking carbon fuels, seemingly in a concerted effort to push the
world beyond the point of no return vis-à-vis its climate.
However, when I look back at the early
years of our civil rights struggle in the U.S., I recall that we faced the same
frighteningly low odds of success. Standing
in our way defiantly, was a white power structure that had codified a system of
segregation, bolstered by a long tradition of brutal racism among some and placid
acceptance among others. Yet, through
toil and suffering, we reached the mountaintop, overcoming what had earlier
seemed nearly impossible to defeat. And
we did so through marches, sit-ins, and nonviolent direct actions, including, at
times civil disobedience, all the while showing, as Jesus would have done, love
toward our opponents even in the face
of their terrifying beatings and bombings.
And in time, as the moderate forces in our society slowly embraced the righteousness
of our cause, the hardened walls of segregation and racism began to crumble.
So, I offer the following advice
gleaned from the struggle of an earlier time with the hope that it is helpful
to your cause.
First,
when your more restrained colleagues and supporters counsel you to be patient
as victory will surely come with reasoned negotiation without the unruliness of
marches and massive resistance, remember what I wrote to my counterparts from the
Birmingham City Jail in 1963: ‘We have waited for more than three hundred and
forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights.’ And ‘we know through painful experience that
freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.’ In a similar vein, climate activists can
fairly argue that 20-plus years (since global warming science was first
introduced to the American public) is long enough to wait for the country’s governmental
and corporate leaders to address the environmental crisis that threatens our
way of life, if not our very existence.
Clearly, reasoned negotiation through the political process has been an utter
failure, a reality that portends a colossal intergenerational injustice about
to be knowingly given to the young and unborn.
It is beyond question that widespread nonviolent direct action is now
warranted to protect the Earth’s climate.
Second,
I have heard that many in your movement express concern over those who advocate
breaking the law in order to further the cause of protecting the climate. Advocates for civil rights faced the same concerns
in our time. The concern is groundless. I maintain that ‘there are two types of laws:
just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has
not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one
has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that
"an unjust law is no law at all."’
Those fighting for climate protection can rightly argue that the laws
that support and promote expansion of fossil fuel use are unjust – they are
fostering environmental injustice on whole populations of virtually powerless
peoples. As such, activists have an
ethical imperative to refuse to abide by them. Activists must take to heart that ‘nonviolent resistance
is … based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice.’
In
close, I say that your cause to preserve a stable climate is noble and just,
and that ‘to suffer in a righteous cause is to grow to our humanity’s full
stature.’
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
