Are the good guys part of the problem?

As the World Burns spares no one. In identifying the sources of our inability to save the climate, the authors of the graphic novel pointed to problems and faults on almost every level of our society, including in the environmental organizations that are supposedly lobbying the government for climate policy and pushing against corporations that are doing environmental damage. As Calliope pointed out, the organizers/activists in the novel who are concerned about the environment are illusioned by their efforts which include popular petitions, celebrity endorsements, and successful fundraising but are completely ineffective. I like how Calliope also highlighted some of the same problems in Van Jones activism efforts.

I am starting to see some hope, though, in the fact that Van Jones recognized this problem, because I think that means that activist organizations and non profits are one area that we can improve in. We may not be able to restructure the government or take down the corporations soon, but in the mean time we can make sure that real organizations are not blindly wasting money and effort like the one in the novel. If the activist organizations truly care about making change on the climate front, they should be willing to recognize what isn't working and try new methods to be more effective. Some organizations, frustrated by their inability to effect change through policy and conventional modes of protest, have restructured to cut out the government step completely are working directly with the people they want to help or the areas they want to help or directly against the thing they are trying to stop. Lots of organizations are founded on this idea of tangible, immediate change.

Tangible, immediate effects are what we need for short term benefit. But then the problem is that organizations do not have the power or scope to be effective on a wide scale, so we do need some people lobbying the government in order to get laws passed and federal money alloted for large scale, long term, enforceable policies. Unfortunatley both can be frustrating - localized efforts can feel like they arent doing enough or fixing anything long-term and big-picture efforts can feel like they aren't actually affecting anything - but we need people working on all levels to get both immediate and long-term wins for the environment (or any other issue).