The Irish Silver Museum in Waterford has a pair of candlesticks on display that depict a kneeling slave, chained at the feet and neck, holding out the handles in a position of humiliation and cruelty. This design was common in the 18th century, before the shift in public opinion against slavery which led to most of these candelabras being melted down due to embarrassment.
In a hopeful example of moral progress, over a few short decades, there was a dramatic shift in public opinion, brought about by the sustained efforts of the abolitionist movement. By the turn of the 18th century, 300,000 people in Britain had boycotted “blood sugar” to demand the outlaw of slavery in the colonies.
The point is that there once was a time when slavery was acceptable, legal and even fashionable. Abolitionism succeeded because the movement connected the sugar in the teacups of people who thought of themselves as decent to the distant suffering of strangers.
This is the basic appeal of the climate movement: stand with the victims, appeal to ordinary people’s sense of justice, and persuade the political system to act
Political leaders bowed to public pressure and outlawed an exploitative, dehumanising practice. This was one of the first examples of what we might now call a successful social justice movement. Despite the obvious differences, this is the basic appeal of the climate movement: stand with the victims, appeal to ordinary people’s sense of justice, and persuade the political system to act.
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To a certain extent, the movement has had many successes following the anti-slavery playbook. Built on a solid scientific foundation, we have treaties, national laws, new agencies and countless policies and initiatives to drive down carbon emissions. However, global greenhouse gas emissions have yet to even stabilise and the overall prognosis for just about every environmental indicator is bleak and deteriorating.
Given the stakes, isn’t a teeny bit of moral outrage warranted at this stage? Are we just going to let billionaires and autocrats wreck our beautiful planet? Climate change is very likely to cause extensive death, suffering, and hardship within our lifetimes. It is possible to join the dots between the devastating effects of carbon pollution back to the fossil fuel industries, and their defenders, and beneficiaries in the corporate and political arenas.
But that is where the moral courage of our political and business leaders often fails. After what felt like a wave of public support and policy progress over the past decade, the climate movement now faces renewed political indifference and hostility. Our new Government claims it is climate-friendly, while committing to a liquefied gas terminal for north Kerry, amid reports of undocumented side deals with Independent TDs. Just like our US counterparts, victories that we thought were secure are being torn up before our eyes.
All this is happening at a time when the public sphere itself is polluted with extremism, conspiracy theories and mindless cat videos
And frankly, many of us are tired and burned out. The climate movement has been weakened by the sheer weight of what needs to be done, by fragmentation, a loss of direction and 100 theories of change that in turn compete for public attention. And all this is happening at a time when the public sphere itself is polluted with extremism, conspiracy theories and mindless cat videos. We are truly living in a narcissistic age.
The very idea of social justice and collective action in pursuit of a common purpose seems to have fallen out of favour, reinforced by the collapse of the traditional media as a shared source of news and public debate.
There are still important lessons to be learned from the anti-slavery movement, however flawed and imperfect the motives of the abolitionists might have been. The first is that it shows that change – moral progress even – is possible. We should recall the words of Czech president and dissident Vaclav Havel in his essay the Power of the Powerless and remember that no matter how impotent we feel, this is just what the “system” wants us to believe. Socially, psychologically, and physically, conditions still exist for the expression of opposition in situations where people have no power, he writes.
We must return again and again to the basic idea that it is profoundly wrong that a tiny number of people and corporations are seeking to profit from the suffering of others
Public opinion and small actions – like not putting sugar in your tea, or riding your bike to work – matter. But we must simplify our core appeal to the public. We must return again and again to the basic idea that it is profoundly wrong that a tiny number of people and corporations are seeking to profit from the suffering of others.
The slave owners are long gone. But today fossil fuel companies and other industries profit from pollution and despair. The richest 1 per cent globally burn through their annual shares of the carbon budget in just 10 days. As Oxfam’s Jim Clarken put it recently, this is not just bad policy: it is theft. It is the theft of our collective future, and it must stop.
- Sadhbh O’Neill is a researcher and activist
