This picture is a collage of things I
collected at different moments in my MEND YOUR FUELISH WAYS sticker
campaign. There are many, many more but these are the most on topic for
a peak oil show.
I was at a
street fair on Haight street and I traded a MEND YOUR FUELISH WAYS for
the STOP OVERFISHING NOW. They were promoting a documentary about the
issue. That sticker reminded me of a coworker in my AOL days that once
talked about dating from a "there are too many fish in the sea" point
of view. That made me wonder about where the traction is in language.
Recently I've noticed that since the "peak oil" termanology caught soil
activists have begun talking about "peak soil", and debt activists have
"peak debt". It has also become clear in various ways that there are
less fish in the sea then there used to be.
The NO MINING sticker came from New Zealand. They are battling
electricity addiction just as we are. I started thinking about how
fishing connects global issues to local solutions when I learned that
Orange Roughy (a long lived fish that's severely overfished) mostly
comes from waters off New Zealand. The funnest part of their NO MINING
campaign is a semi-viral uTube video of Lucy Lawless (former porn
starlet who is most famous as Xena) fondling a coal face as if it was a
corporate executive that was paying her well for her attention.
Change Chevron and 350.org are grass roots campaigns I see over and
over. That CLEAN ENERGY NOW sticker was part of a campaign that got the
City of San Francisco to install a lot of solar panels. The
Mobilization for Climate Justice seems to have only been around for a
couple of years, but they are heir to many activists that have been
working against toxic waste in California. Going for "climate justice"
is an evolution of their previous message against toxic racism. There
are few things in our ecosystem that are more widely shared than the
atmosphere.
I put the World Series sticker on the "LEGALIZE IT - YES ON 19" button
because they came from the same recent political moment when San
Francisco shined beautifully. Also, enjoying marijuana is much more of
a global game than baseball, all things considered.
The River City Bicycles sticker was from another sticker trade. I used
that
instead of
something else, because it scales the message of the other corporate
logo. Whether you are part of a small business in Oregon or the biggest
company
in California, eating less fish is a good idea. Whether you are part of
a small business in Oregon or the biggest
company
in California, using less oil is a good idea. If the real problem
behind fish declines is that plastic trash gyre, just saying no to
another bag helps to. The poster in the background I got from the
artist's opening in San Jose. He is another person that traded his
"gimme object" of the moment for a MYFW
with me after hearing my speech. I like it because it brings that
"religious art" quality into the picture. That "these problems aren't
going to go away if we ignore them" feeling.