Top Ten Leap Posts from 2016
Last year, in connection with the Leap Manifesto, this blog was re-launched as The Leap: System Change on a Deadline. It was envisioned as a home for cutting-edge thinking and debates to advance the vision behind the manifesto internationally: a bold and rapid leap away from fossil fuels, towards a way of life far more desirable than what our current system can offer.
We look forward to expanding this work in 2017, including here at the blog. In dialogue with communities leading the fight, we’ll focus on amplifying stories and tools to help ensure that the global green transition is based on principles of justice, inclusion, and care.
Here are 10 of our favorite pieces from the past year that point the way forward for the Leap blog, in chronological order.
1. “Fever Pitch: This Crucial Moment In The Fight To Stop Fossil Fuel Infrastructure,” by Kaitlin Butler and Patrick Robbins
In every corner of society, the battle between fossil fuels and renewable energy is reaching a fever pitch.
2. “We Are Mother Earth’s Red Line: Frontline Communities Lead The Climate Justice Fight Beyond The Paris Agreement,” by It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm
We are the frontlines of the solution: keeping fossil fuels in the ground and transforming the economy with innovative, community-led solutions.
3. “‘I Work There, I Know What They Do’: The Testimony Of An Indigenous Oil Worker In Patagonia,” by José Manuel Rojas
The story of a Mapuche oil worker, who has worked in the heart of Argentina’s fossil fuel industry for three decades.
4. “Climate Change’s Iniquitous Transmission of Urgency: The Gulf South,” by Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
No US region is experiencing environmental injustice more profoundly than the Gulf South, and no entity is creating this calamitous condition more than the fossil fuel industry.
5. “We Are The Peace We’ve Been Waiting For: Meet The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers,” by Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik
An interview with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, who organize against the linked crises of war, inequality, and ecological destruction, about their vision for a just and safer world.
6. “Our Poisonous Economic System Needs A Grassroots Intervention,” by Taj James
The fight for democracy, peace, and climate justice is accelerating. It is time to join the chorus of voices insisting that national governments do their part.
7. “Five Takeaways from Trump’s Win for Canadian Progressives,” by The Leap Team
How can our social movements emerge stronger and more interconnected from this fight?
8. “As National Action Stalls, Social Movements On a Deadline Are Winning Local Victories. That’s Why TiSA Must Be Stopped,” by Simon Davis-Cohen
Local communities today find themselves at the nexus of a global confrontation with neoliberalism.
9. “Petro-Gotham, People’s Gotham,” by Daniel Aldana Cohen
Will a red-green coalition transform New York into a democratic mural, showing other cities how to slash carbon in an effective, democratic, and egalitarian way?
10. “The Fossil Fuel Industry Needs Our Consent. We Can and Must Refuse to Give It,” by Emily Johnston
We all have to do something. Because otherwise, we’re passively consenting to the devastation of most life on earth.
