Guest guest Posted November 28, 2004 Report Share Posted November 28, 2004 I thought this was a marvelous idea to share... If it speaks to you, please pass it along... Be Well, Misty http://www..com BLACKOUT FOR PEACE http://www.sunengineer.com/blackoutforpeace.htm (Temporary web page for publishing a working draft of this new anti- war action concept) Open Letter to All Those Opposed to the Iraq War: In the wake of our immense disappointment with the election and the war in Iraq, an intriguing idea surfaced: Blackout for Peace. What if a group or a coalition of groups with a huge email list like United for Peace and Justice or MoveOn.org organized a voluntary electrical blackout? For example, maybe we pick a night when most people are at home and tell everyone to power down and stand in solidarity with those forced into darkness by the U.S. war machine. We live the rest of the evening by candlelight to show our compassion for the victims of war and terrorism. In 2003, 71% of all electricity consumed in the US came from burning fossil fuels. A significant portion of this fossil-fueled electricity comes from directly burning petroleum products (like fuel oil, etc). And 5% of our petroleum imports came directly from Iraq in the year 2003. While we certainly do get our electricity from a variety of sources, most of it comes from dwindling fossil reserves and a measurable percentage comes at gun point directly from Iraq. How We Imagine the Blackout Working MoveOn, United for Peace and Justice, and/or many other groups circulate emails calling for a Blackout for Peace on a given day— maybe a Monday 7-10pm when most people are home (coordination between time zones probably not necessary). Or maybe it's looser, like dinner time until you go to bed. Then on the day, everyone participating turns off as much electrical stuff in their house as they can bear except their computer and connection to the internet (if they have one), fires up some candles, and goes on with their business as best as possible (just like you would during a real blackout). Hardcore people can even turn off electric heating, etc, but those who really need heat, maybe they leave theirs on. If people are concerned with the candle thing for fire safety, then we could promote flashlights or solar powered lanterns—the point is just to not use electricity. Then immediately upon initiating their blackout, the participants log on to blackoutforpeace.org (or MoveOn or whatever) and go to the participation page where they click a button indicating " voluntary blackout starting now " (and if you wanted to really get into it, you could also have them enter their previous month's electricity bill amount so you could calculate the total amount of energy saved by the blackout). The screen would show the entire US (or hopefully the whole world) and each voluntary blackout makes a black dot. As more people blackout of course more black dots appear to let you see how connected you are to the others participating. Then of course when you're done, you click the " power up " button. The screen would also keep a running total of the number of participants, the amount of energy being saved, how much money we are not sending to support the destructive energy economy, and the percentage of the goal reached (see goals below). There could also be live streaming audio from some central organizing office giving updates, etc. Goals Based on the conservative assumption that each participating US household will save 4 kWh of energy[1], our goals could be something like this: 1. 4 million participants for one blackout only = total amount of electricity provided in the US per day by directly burning petroleum from Iraq[2] 2. 16 million participants for one blackout only = total amount of electricity provided in the US per day by directly burning petroleum from the Persian Gulf[3] 3. 81 million participants for one blackout only = total amount of electricity provided in the US per day by directly burning petroleum from all sources 4. 525 million participants for one blackout only = total amount of electricity provided in the US per day by directly burning petroleum and natural gas = 19% of ALL electricity required by the US per day = major pain for the oil & gas industry. The Action Resonates on Many Levels Based on our conversations with friends and fellow Guerneville MoveOn members, we've come up with the following list of why this action could be very successful: 1) Stand in Solidarity: We voluntarily put ourselves in the dark to stand in solidarity with those forced into darkness by the U.S. war machine and light a candle for the victims of war and terrorism. 2) Reduce Fossil Fuel Electricity Demand: If enough participate, we will actually cause a dip in energy demand which helps to punish the oil & gas industry for their pursuit of bloody oil and their reckless contribution to the warming of our planet (see below for how easy it will be to achieve enough numbers to be successful). In 2003, 71% of all electricity consumed in the US came from fossil fuels[4]—that is, 71% of the electricity consumed by us, the American people, came from burning fossil fuels. 3) Vote with Our Dollars: We are the consumers that are consuming these fossil fuels. We are sending a loud and clear message to the US government that we want them so bad that we are willing to watch people die so that the US can dominate the economy of the Middle East in order retain control over the last great reserve of oil. And we also have the power to power down and vote with our dollars for peace. 4) Easier than Driving Boycotts: While some have tried to organize " no drive " days or similar boycotts, they haven't been very successful because we Americans are way too addicted to gasoline. On the contrary, an electricity boycott during non-working hours is something that can easily be done by whole families in the safety, comfort, and privacy of their homes. Even partial participation is effective. 5) Very Mellow, Low Key: This is the ultimate couch potato protest because you don't have to go anywhere! And you can participate without anyone else knowing, unlike street protests. Plus how bad can it be to have to have a romantic candle light dinner? 6) We Save, They Lose: A user initiated blackout enables us to save money and help reduce pollution, greenhouse gases, and the demand for a product which has caused the deaths of over 100,000 innocent people just in the last year alone. And while we save, the oil & gas industry loses money! If we really do it well, we may even effect revenues enough to wake some people up! (See below for the number of people required to cause a total cancellation of all electricity provided by petroleum). 7) Build Communication & the Movement: Without lights and TV, friends and families will have the opportunity for conversation, games, and candlelit dinners. Being a part of a large and possibly continuing demonstration will help foster a sense of community and power. 8) Repeatable and Potentially Global in Scale: If the blackout is successful, we could continue to do them. For example, maybe we start some rhythm to it like first Monday of the month, or every Monday, or better yet, we do it Ghandi-style and say we're not turning our lights back on until you stop the war! If it goes well, there's no reason why others around the world wouldn't want to coordinate a massive worldwide blackout with us. 9) Media Attention: If we have any success at all, it will certainly garner media attention (due to the unexpected nature of the action) which will help to send a message to the rest of the world that there are still a lot of us in the US that do not agree with Bush Administration policies. 10) Fasting Brings Awareness: Like a fast, this act of inflicting a small amount of suffering on ourselves may help to make us all reflect on the energy we use every day, where it comes from, and the suffering caused by our pleasure-filled and convenient lifestyles. 11) Economic Sanctions Work: While marching in the streets can certainly be effective, the possibility of actually impacting the opposition's wallet may be even more effective. Let's not forget that Gandhi combined effective street actions with clever economic boycotts to rid India of imperial rule. If we want to rid ourselves of the new imperialists—aka multinational corporations—then we have to use the only weapon that is guaranteed to work: stop giving them our money. Ethics & Values At the most fundamental level the progressive movement is an ethical movement, very similar in many ways to the abolitionist movement to end slavery in the 1800's. And while the abolitionists did finally succeed in convincing most Americans that enslaving another human being is a violation of ethical principals, so too will our movement eventually succeed in convincing most Americans that any action which permanently diminishes or eliminates any part of the complex and interconnected web of life on earth is indeed a violation of ethical principals. Furthermore, the ethics which we are striving to articulate directly translate into the basic American values which most Americans to. " Polling data make clear that the vast majority of the US electorate wants peace, fairness, a healthy environment, opportunity, freedom, democracy, and security for all—a world centered on people, not profits; on spiritual, not financial, values; and on international cooperation, not domination. These are not distinctively liberal or conservative values; they are the universally shared values on the which the United States was founded " (David Korten, Renewing the American Experiment). Blackout as General Purpose Action Technique Upon reading our initial email on this subject, our friend Steve Robertson suggested use of the blackout technique as a general purpose means. Since many agree that the war in Iraq overshadows most other progressive concerns at the moment, then maybe the first series of blackouts are for peace. But once we create peace in Iraq, why stop there? Blackout to End Global Warming, Blackout for Fair Elections, Blackout to End Corporate Takeover of Politics, Blackout to Dismantle the WTO, NAFTA, etc., and on and on! Conclusions The Abolitionists won their battle by fighting on many fronts: spiritually through churches; grassroots activism through letter writing, petitions, etc; politically through creation of the Liberty Party which evolved into the Free-Soil Party and almost won the presidential election of 1848; and, unfortunately, militarily via the Civil War, though very few of the movement's founders believed in violent means (in fact, slavery was not adopted by the US government as a war goal until well into the war). But one important lesson emerges: the slaves were eventually freed by a main stream Republican politician, Lincoln, only after decades of grass roots work which clearly expressed the ethical principals of the people. While we do believe that expressing our ethical principals via the ballot is important (by either voting for Green Party candidates or truly progressive democrats), we believe that a Blackout for Peace would be a new and innovative mechanism for showing our mainstream leaders, and indeed the rest of the world, that we do have ethical principals and we're willing to do something more than just talk about them. Furthermore, we can use the enormous amount of press that we'll get as an opportunity to express to the American people how our ethics are indeed aligned, not counter (as is currently bantered in the media), with core American values. Our government is killing people so that we may bask in the luxury of a fossil fuel powered paradise. We have the power to power down and send a message to the world. Thanks for your time, and if you are interested, please let us know your thoughts on this concept. In Peace, Jack West & Christina Manansala Guerneville, CA jack – at – sunengineer – dot – com christina – at – sunengineer – dot – com What Next? We have currently contacted MoveOn and United for Peace and Justice and proposed this idea, but have not heard back yet probably because they are really busy right now and may not have seen it yet. We are trying to send this link out to as many people as possible now to see what people think and if they have any ideas to add to or improve what's here. We also discussed the idea with our local Guerneville MoveOn group and got some very good feedback. Some of which we've incorporated into the letter above. Please email Jack at the above address if you have questions or would like to discuss further. We also have video chat capability or would be interested in trying to get some people on a conference call to discuss further. Ideally we'd like to start big by having some large progressive groups help kick it off. But if necessary we'll start it small and watch it grow. At this point there are only three of us trying to spread the word and we don't have any connections with activist groups, so if you'd like to get involved, please drop us a line. If you made it this far, thanks for listening. --- ----------- [1] This is only 12% of the average US household electricity use in 2003 which was 33 kWh/day. Data shown is calculated from 2003 US census data and US DOE Energy Information Administration " Annual Energy Review 2003 " and Petroleum Supply Annual 2003, Vol 1. [2] In 2003 5% of all imported petroleum came from Iraq and this calculation assumes that the same percentage applies to the petroleum that was burned to make electricity in 2003 (since there is no data available to validate). [3] Persian Gulf region is defined as Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates and is home to two of the three original members in the " Axis of Evil " club. [4] Energy Information Administration, US DOE Annual Review 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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