Fellow Anarcho Communists of this forum, today I’m gonna write some actual truths about climate change and how we can take action, and NO not in the usual way. Well as you probably know, the most important thing that we can do as citizens is to change the systems that pollute the Earth. As with any new system, there might and will be complaints from various people. Some of the stupidest criticism came from those who were sharing their bins with neighbors, a practice that is widespread despite being actually illegal.

These bin-sharers argued that the new system, which required each household to

pay for its own bin to fairly distribute operational costs, discouraged conservation and was unduly expensive.

Why, I wondered, would some of my neighbors keep standing on the remote possibility that a few households might produce more trash under the new system when, as a city, we were drastically slashing diesel emissions from garbage trucks? Couldn’t they see that this focus on individual behavior was misplaced next to the significant environmental benefits of putting an end to the parade of trucks? The desire to become a more ecologically responsible consumer and citizen is admirable, but it kinda falls really short of the environmental change we need.

Even if more capitalist Americans pack their groceries into reusable bags and brought their metal water bottles to the gym like I do, Biden passes no actual or real environmental legislation that will have any effect. By giving the meaning of environmental citizenship to responsible consumption, sustainability, in my opinion, only downplays the need for mass action to start a revolution for structural change. Fortunately, a new generation of leaders is coming out of the shadows with a much more effective environmental agenda, the Green New Deal to name one.

Of course, I’m absolutely not saying that we shouldn’t encourage personal environmental responsibility. Because modifying our individual diet, travel and consumption habits can lead and will to reduced pollution and better air quality, among other benefits. We should still keep on making these smaller improvements but not at the expense of a lot more needed focus on revolutionary environmental changes.

In the end, the most important thing that we can do as citizens is to change the systems that pollute the Earth. Those in the front lines of the environmental revolution that we need so desperately won’t spend their waking hours discussing the finer points of useless plastic straws.

Come on comrades, let’s pound on the doors of our local municipalities and representatives to demand the wide-ranging changes that only government, directly or indirectly, can deliver!