Several weeks ago, after Tim DeChristopher received a two-year jail sentence for climate monkey wrenching, the outrage in various quarters was palpable. Some, like Jeff Goodell at Rolling Stone, saw a potentially historic moment in the making:
For climate activists, this is a Rosa Parks moment. Or should be.
In other words, the jailing of DeChristopher should be a similar kind of epic spark, one that would launch a movement of protesters rallying to the climate change cause. But equating the DeChistropher episode with a seminal event in the Civil Rights movement is problematic, because as sociologist David Meyer noted yesterday in The Washington Post, "anger doesn't make a movement "” organizers do." Meyer's essay is not about climate activism, but he provides an instructive history lesson for budding climate activists:
Social movements are products of focused organization. Even the icons of activism in American history wielded influence through larger ...
