Image: public-domain-image.com
Have you ever stood on a beach, watching the waves come in?
One. By. One.
The rhythm is mesmerising.
One. By. One.
You can stand there for a long time.
One. By. One.
In they come.
Seemingly without end.
Because they just keep coming.
One. By. One.
If you stand there a long time, you can detect the subtle changes that indicate which way the tide is running.
Gradually, the waves come just that bit closer to you: the tide is coming in.
Or maybe the wave crests are ending a little farther away: the tide is going out.
One. By. One.
The waves continue.
If you stand there long enough, the tide will turn.
But will you see it?
On most beaches I’ve been to, the changes have been so subtle that it’s almost impossible to pick when the tide turns. But you can tell it’s happened after the event.
What if you could speed it up? If you could turn the tide?
When you’re standing on a beach, you can’t turn the tide. King Canute found that out.
That’s because it’s not the waves that are causing the tide. It’s something much more powerful : the moon.
But in other aspects of our lives, it’s different.
It may seem that nothing changes.
Or if it does, it’s very slow and there’s nothing you can do about it…especially when it’s a monolithic organisation or system you would like to see change.
Because it just continues doing. What. It’s. Always. Done.
And because of that, it can seem very powerful. And important.
Just like waves.
Steady. Reliable.
Or so it may appear.
At least to those that aren’t looking.
Just like waves, colossal organisations and systems might seem to be benign…or building assets (like beaches ;))
And, just like waves on a beach, sometimes they are destroying the very thing for which we like them.
Bit. By. Bit.
If you’re standing on a beautiful beach that the waves are steadily destroying, don’t you wish you could stop their destructive behaviour and keep the beach? (We might be thinking that a lot more, as sea levels rise with climate change.)
The good news is, you can.
Well…you might not be able to save the beach directly…
But you can save it indirectly.
You can turn the tide.
Because we all have the power of one.
And one plus one plus one…equals many.
Together, we can turn the tide.
One. By. One.
Working together.
When each one of us – working together – takes away our money and social licence, we can stop the relentless march of a massive system like the fossil fuel industry that is destroying our planet’s ability to support life as we know it.
We can take our money out of coal, oil and gas.
And we can do it any time we want …for whatever reason we want – despite what some people say.
We can do it one by one.
Or we can do it together…and speed up changing the fossil fuel tide that’s destroying our world.
If you’re in Australia, the next few days are a really good time to join with others to help turn the tide of the expanding fossil fuel industry.
Companies wanting to build massive new fossil fuel projects are looking for finance, especially since major international banks are no longer willing to lend to them.
The ‘big four’ Australian banks (ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac) play a crucial role in enabling major new coal and gas projects to go ahead.
Get involved in Divestment Day and tell the banks that if they choose dirty fossil fuels, their customers will be taking their money elsewhere!
Market Forces and 350.org will coordinate what’s set to be Australia’s biggest ever day of divestment action on fossil fuels! We’re calling on thousands of Australians to turn out at bank branches around Australia and publicly close their accounts in protest if the big banks won’t stop funding the dirty fossil fuel industry.
We know from divestment that’s already taken place that the industry is feeling the pressure.
So get involved – sign up for divestment day by filling in the form here.
Till next time…be gentle to yourself and our world!