The Final Trek

I haven’t eaten for seven days. To walk up stairs is like climbing Everest and I have almost forgotten what food tastes like. However, while this week has been a challenge to my daily routine, I woke up reeling with a combination of sleep deprivation and dizziness this morning knowing that this day marked an important moment for my future. This is the day that I have been waiting for, December 7^th, the start of the international climate talks in Copenhagen.

I am accompanied in my hunger strike by about fifty Williams College students and faculty, and countless others, who are fasting in solidarity with the Climate Justice Fast! team in an effort to make a strong impact on leaders in Copenhagen at the COP15. We are hoping to convey the extreme significance of climate change and the critical need for progressive action internationally. Officially starting on November 6^th and running until the end of the negotiations on December 18^th or longer, the Climate Justice Fasters will consume (or have consumed) only water for periods ranging from 24 hours to 42+ days.

When I started last Monday night, no one really knew that I was going to fast for a week. On Tuesday, my friends, and even a few people I had barely met, came up to me to give of encouragement. ‘You’re so strong, I could never fast for that long.” “Wow! That will be hard… I’m glad someone is doing something about climate change.” While I was thankful for the support, I was frustrated that people would tell me I was strong for this. I DO have a choice about whether or not to eat now, but if climate change continues to disrupt ecosystems, weather patterns, and agriculture, I may not have that choice in the future and neither will those who surround me.

I joined this fast because I feel like something radical has to be done. I’m fasting to make a statement about the seriousness of the issue. I’m fasting because it is one of the few things in my power to control as a student who can’t be in the center of the actions taking place. But, most of all, I’m fasting because I want to know what hunger feels like. I want to feel what I have the luxury to not.

We are in an environmentally and socially precarious situation because those with privilege don’t have the same experiences as those who live at risk for their survival. Most of us do not understand what it’s like to be starving, to not have clean water, or to not have a means to escape bad circumstances. If we did, perhaps taking small steps or encountering minor inconveniences in our daily lives to minimize our environmental impact wouldn’t be a sign of ‘green-ness,’ it would be common sense, and far more. With this fast I’m asking, like so many others in the climate movement, that we take a stand politically against corporations and industry lobbies that are standing in the way of a global agreement on combating climate change. I’m also asking myself what is actually necessary for my daily consumption and what I can do without. Obviously, people are stronger than they think.

As many well know, today marks the start of negotiations in Copenhagen, and on the 18th millions of activists who have been working day and night to influence the debate will finally see the results of their efforts. I have worked with the amazing people of 350.org and Avaaz, and I know that hundreds of other groups have come together on this issue to make sure legislators know climate change is our number one priority. Now, it’s our leaders’ turn to get to work. However, in an expression of solidarity with those of us fasting, I ask that we all take a step back and examine whether we are living in the same manner that we are fighting for change. If I have learned one thing from this whole experience it is that I do not want to be the cause of another person’s hunger, whether now or in days to come, just so that I may throw away half of my oversized American meals or sit on my laptop and write about fighting for change.

More information about the Williams College fast can be found at williamsfasts.blogspot.com or see our local press in the North Adams Transcript or The Berkshire Eagle.

"We are as gods, and we might as well get good at it" - Stewart Brand

My body is shaky as I take half an hour to roll out of bed. It's another half hour convincing myself to stand up, taking first small drink of water, shower, and finally donning the black t-shirt that has become my form of a fashion statement. "Hungry for Justice" proudly blazed in white and green across my chest. It's day 4 of a 7 day fast that myself and four other Williams college students are partaking in as a statement to our surrounding community that we strongly believe there needs to be more action taken to mitigate climate change through a reduction of greenhouse gasses by various means. This morning I must admit that I have to remind myself of the greater reasons behind this shirt, my shaky achy body, behind not eating. When my classmates absentmindedly munch on cookies, sandwiches, and slurp down beverages of many different varieties, I question my choice to only consume water and air for a whole week. What good is it doing? After all, I must admit that water is not my beverage of choice (milk is far better, I'm from VT after all) especially not the plastic tasking junk you can buy bottled at a store or the stuff chocked full of chemicals that freely gushes out of the local tap. That's not water to me, water is what you drink when you put your lips directly into a clear crisp mountain spring. So why am I doing this? It's because if we continue with our consumerism society that is spewing vast quantities of pollution into the atmosphere and is making a significant contribution to climate change there are countless people and whole nations who will suffer fates far worse than my current hungry plight. Not only will unnatural extensive drought conditions in some areas cause an inability to grow crops and make drinking water really scarce, but continued monsoon conditions will cause increased crop failure (like the resulting tomato blight in the US this year) and also increase contamination of drinking water through flooding. So not only will there be scarcity of food that will make people go without food for far longer than one measly week, but they won't even have water to drink. As backwards as the logic might be, I'm putting on this same black shirt again because I have a choice. It seems that the only way to get others at all concerned about an issue is through federal mandates or by people making self-sacrificing choices that seem so unnecessary or extreme that it causes the people around them to wake up and question their own beliefs. Will I cause anyone wake up in this week? I'm hoping so.

It frustrates and disgusts me beyond my ability to express, the quantity of food and other products that we throw away daily as a community and a nation. Food, no matter organic or not, uses large quantities of resources to produce. Fossil fuels burned to grow, fossil fuels burned to transport it conveniently to your local store, and when we throw it away even more fossil fuels burned to discretely remove its unwanted presence from our sight. Other products, such as the latest IPod, fashionable clothes, etc are even more of a global burden because they often come from much farther away than our food, thereby increasing the quantity of fossil fuels used in transport. Not to mention the gross environmental impact that occurs when the materials used in these widgets and gadgets are extracted from the ground. Furthermore, I am quite disturbed that we believe so heavily in technological solutions instead of personal sacrifice as a means to solve problems. For instance, the push in the US for "green" vehicles drives me completely batty. Not only does it take energy to scrap the existing "dirty" cars, more energy and even more resources to create the new cars, but most importantly people are actually likely to drive more because each trip doesn't have as much of an impact. We have lost sight of the big picture, if we even saw it in the first place. Quite frankly, right now we don't need these new "green" technologies, we need a change of personal action. Take a bus, ride a bike, carpool for christsake! Turn down the heat and put on a sweater. Shut off the lights. Realize that the newest techy gadget is not always needed. But most importantly WAKE UP! and realize that each and every one of your actions has a global effect. If a butterfly can cause a hurricane simply by flapping its wings, so too can you have a large impact through small actions. Buy locally made products instead of imports to reduce emissions from transportation. Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. Together we can make a difference.

Of all the possible reasons for fasting ranging from the global to the personal, this hyper awareness of personal consumption is the most convincing to me. That it is making me aware of every action that I'm taking, of the value of every bite of food (through not eating any), the value of every sip of clean water, every bit of natural resources that goes into the materials that I use and wear everyday. After all, there is no Planet B, no magical ark that can save us from ourselves. Even if someone made such a vessel large enough for all critters to float two by two across our flooded and polluted world, we'd still be without enough food to eat. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink because it would all contain too much salt.


I am in awe of everyone else participating in this fasting movement, especially those who have dedicated themselves to a fast that started on November 6th and will continue until they have a commitment from world leaders to take strong action on climate change.

Messages
"Well I know you are strong
May your journey be long
And now I wish you the best of luck"
-Xavier Rudd