What the Civil Rights movement can teach us to fight climate change
In 1893, a 23-year old Mahatma Gandhi set sail for South Africa from London — and, before that, from his native India. He would go on to spend the next 21 years of his life in that country, very much solidifying his socio-political worldview in the process. One of the key aspects of this experience was Gandhi’s understanding of discrimination — Indians being second class citizens in then-English ruled South Africa — which would form the basis for a newfound philosophy based on non-violent protest. This philosophy would famously go on to radically change the course of India’s history — and then some.
When looking for a way forward in the Civil Rights fight, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. notoriously studied Gandhi’s example. The debate of the era among African-American activists focused on how to most effectively trigger change, with many in favor of guerrilla-style actions promoted by groups like the Black Panthers. King, on the other hand, pushed for a plan based on peaceful action as a way to bring in more people, black or white, thus creating the societal change needed for such a fundamental issue. That is the context for his seminal 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech and the pivotal reforms that followed.
The same way King looked to Gandhi in finding a course of action, we should look to both these groundbreaking change makers in the fight of our era — to protect our planet from the worsening effects of climate change. In many ways, the dilemma is very much the same: many people today will opt for the more violent approach, which includes radical slogans, spectacular actions, extreme political theories… This translates to end-of-the-world storytelling designed to instil fear in people, political activists calling for an end to the very regimes that are being accused of making climate change happen in the first place, i.e. industrialized countries.
While there obviously is validity in imagining the worst case scenario of what the climate crisis can bring on humanity — and beyond that the planet, let us not forget that it is luckily just that for now, a worst case scenario. While it obviously makes sense that some people would want to overthrow the entire political structure that favored this change for the worse, let us not forget what is also brought: economic growth, quality of life, individual freedoms — including the very ones Gandhi and King were fighting for…
The very same way previous major societal hurdles got improved upon through more explaining, more communications and more hope, today’s challenge calls for a peaceful approach if we actually want to build a more sustainable, more progressive and more inclusive new world.