There is an urgent need for a wake-up call for the green movement and social leaders.
The journalist and writer Naomi Klein and many others believe that part of the green movement had become too soft in the last decade, avoiding discussion on what a low carbon economy might mean in reality, helping companies to “greenwash” and avoid tackling the problems they had created, and giving people the impression that a sustainable future just looks like today but a bit cleaner by, for example, supporting limitless green consumption.
Some of the reasons for that softness, they say, are related to the fact that many NGOs (large and small) and environmental institutions receive direct or indirect financial support from the polluting industries. Similar softness has also been observed when trade unions and left wing movements engage for labor and human rights around the globe, say others.
Well, if this is right, things may change soon. And the much needed wake-up call for the green movement and social leaders may be coming from… Trump’s victory!
Donald Trump has been described by many as the icon of a socially unfair, polluting future where human rights are disregarded. This gives a voice and power to those who refuse to imagine that a fairer, greener future is possible (and necessary). His victory has been considered a great turning point, but also part of a global phenomenon, whereby large numbers of citizens have become tired of waiting for left and liberal politicians to improve their lives and decided to gamble on those offering more radical, even if sometimes unfair, solutions.
This phenomenon will certainly test the strength of environmental and social movements everywhere. And there is also a chance that such a movement – and the rise of leaders like Trump and others – will force those of us working for human rights protection and a low carbon economy to focus and finally realize what is really at stake: our fair, green and peaceful future!
Or should we give up and start re-thinking our future?! I don’t think so.
I do believe that all companies, politicians, policy-makers, activists, investors, pension funds, experts, global and regional civil society organizations, schools, universities, consumers, farmers, workers, and citizens who have fought for a future to live for, will not give up.
Would you?
By Nelmara Arbex
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