July 28, 2014
Steven D. Low
I’m an aspiring Buddhist. Something we really enjoy thinking about when we’re meditating (imagine incense, chanting, levitation—the usual) is the topic of change. Everything is changing: our identities, our relationships, our communities, and our climate.
This post is the namesake of Sam Cooke’s classic 1964 composition. A Change is Gonna Come gave voice to the courageous transition toward racial and economic justice long denied to a large portion of the citizenry. This just transition was made possible by those communities most disenfranchised by society. The voice of Sam Cooke is just as relevant today.
‘Transition’ is often a word of choice among my lefty/Buddhist associates. There are many ways to denote change. The question before us now: whose change (for our climate), whose transition (for our economy)?
It’s been a long time comin, but a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
The petroleum industry gets dirtier as it extracts the final drops of crude oil from the ground. And the economic benefits? Well, remember that Christmas gift packed in a box that was bigger than you? But inside was something better suited as a stocking-stuffer?
In California, out of ten industrial sectors surveyed, the fossil fuel industry was dead last as a job provider. From the site of extraction, along thousands of miles of train tracks, to the refinery, the health and safety of residents and workers, and the stability of our climate takes a steeper descent.
Will we choose to maintain our free-fall into an era of climate chaos? Or will we choose a Just Transition toward clean energy that powers a green economy, where thousands of green careers are generated; where public monies are no longer bled into the electoral war chests of the 1%, but are instead invested in the health, infrastructure, and environment of our communities.
A Just Transition toward clean energy and a renewed economy is becoming a reality, thanks to CBE and visionary allies. By 2025 one million Californians could be driving electric vehicles, shutting off a source of particulate pollution especially prevalent in low-income communities of color. Green careers and green energy are being produced in Los Angeles, right now, as residential buildings transform their rooftops into mini solar power plants. More municipalities are joining Community Choice Aggregation, where local governments secure clean energy as a dominant portion of their energy supply.
A change is gonna come, but whose change will it be?
Photo credit: ca1951rr, Flickr.
Design: Steven D. Low