Climate movement gets disobedient

We've been seeing the rumblings for a while. Factions of the climate movement are splintering off and getting into civil disobedience. Gore and Hansen have advocated it. Chesapeake Climate Action Network members keep trying to get themselves arrested. Now there's a website: Capitol Climate Action. The site is done by DC51 artist RVLTN in a Shepard Fairey agitprop style with the Obey logo replaced by one with the propeller of a wind turbine and another with Gandhi. The intersection of the climate movement with this type of street art and this level of direct action is a real indicator of the desperation that many feel regarding the climate issue. Nothing is happening fast enough. The image is from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. I think someone is taking their cues from the worker revolt of France 1968, where the artists coordinated messages with the unions and put their grievances in poster form in the streets.

We are living in uncertain times. As a fan of street art, I love to see these intersections, because they are powerful, and because art is elevated beyond indulgence. But the dissatisfaction at the root of the art and the direct action will be difficult to channel, as many have learned in the past.