Hi friends,
Last weekend I saw a movie called How to Blow Up a Pipeline as part of the Boston Underground Film Festival. It was based on a book by Andreas Malm, an academic and activist who argues that nonviolent civil disobedience in the face of climate change and an entrenched fossil fuel industry is an ineffective tool for the urgency of this moment. He argues we need to be blowing up pipelines and Gulfstream jets instead.
I haven’t read the book, but rather than present an airtight argument for sabotage and property destruction, the film asks the question: is violence justified in the case of the existential crisis we’re facing on our increasingly fragile planet? Will violent acts force the outcome the many climate activists want to see, which is rapid disinvestment from fossil fuels, coupled with rapid development of renewable energy sources?
I appreciated how the film also showed us what motivated a small crew of 20-somethings to come together and execute a plan to blow up a pipeline in Texas with the goal of disrupting the oil markets. The leader of the plot, Xochitl, lost her mother in a heatwave and is watching her childhood best friend slowly succumb to a form of leukemia whose cause is suggested to be linked to growing up near an oil refinery.
The bombmaker, Michael, a Native American from North Dakota, is angry at what the oil and gas industry is doing to the land he calls home. Dwayne, a Texan and a father-to-be, has been trying to stop the industry from seizing his land by eminent domain to build a pipeline though it. If the fossil fuel industry is killing and displacing people and poisoning our land, air, and water, then surely it deserves to take a hit, in these characters’ logic.
I see their point. You could see the futility some of the characters felt in participating in their campus divestment movement, or in a seed-saving conservancy - the feeling, which we’ve all maybe felt: will this activity, whatever it is, actually make a difference? As someone sympathetic to the cause, I could understand their need to act with urgency, to DO SOMETHING.
At the same time I think the question of what we do and what actions we take in the face of climate disaster is really a question of how we want to live our lives on this planet in this moment. I remember a conversation with my partner and mother-in-law a few years ago, talking about what felt like the futility of recycling. She said she thought of it as a kind of mindfulness practice - an act not framed as doing her part to “save the planet,” but to remind her on a daily basis of what’s at stake. Sometimes it’s the stacking up of those daily tasks that can change how we live and respond to climate change - and maybe even inspire others.
The news on climate is almost never good, and sometimes it’s hard to know what one person or a few people can do when facing the dearth of political will, the might of the fossil fuel industry, and the other insurmountable factors pushing us toward climate disaster with increasing regularity. Maybe it’s a matter of where we put our attention.
It’s corny I know, but if we focus our small daily acts of faith on the things we love about our world - the sounds of birds coming back in the spring, the look of sprouting seeds pushing up the dirt, the feel of sun-warmed soil in our hands, low heating bills - we can build joyful practices that connect us to our planet and spur us to act on its behalf.
Does this include sabotage? You could argue that the characters in this movie also acted out of love - it was love overlaid with rage, which is often a useful combination. But the outcome is questionable. Did the action have its intended impact? Did it disrupt the oil markets without disrupting, say, working people’s lives? Did the action inspire more sabotage and property destruction? Did public opinion sway in the direction of the saboteurs and their cause? Will these activists be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives? (Maybe - or maybe they’ll become university professors like the co-founder of the Weather Underground.)
I’m grateful for artists who create work that forces these questions - specifically, where do we draw an ethical line when it comes to taking action against climate change? And following that, if and when fellow humans feel compelled to use violence as a means to an end, can we support their decision?
What do you think? Feel free to share in the comments.
XO,
Leigh