Public Resource
Why the climate movement is actually close to winning
Nick Engelfried. Waging Nonviolence
Despite widespread discouragement among climate activists, a tested blueprint for successful movements shows immense progress being made. There are patterns movements follow as they expand from the political fringes to start shaping national decisions. One framework for identifying these is the eight-stage “Movement Action Plan,” or MAP, articulated by activist and scholar Bill Moyer in 1987. According to Moyer, during Stage One of the MAP unjust conditions “are maintained by the policies of public and private powerholders, and a majority of public opinion.” During the MAP’s Stage One, the status quo is reinforced by the public’s misconception that if something were seriously amiss, officially sanctioned forms of advocacy like lobbying should be sufficient to rectify the problem. The next stage of the MAP involves conditions aligning to create a political environment where the birth of a broad-based movement becomes possible—this may involve national or global events over which activists have little control. Then, all successful movements experience a moment when they enter the public consciousness and become a potent political force, usually after a trigger event that grabs people’s attention. The climate movement has already progressed through most stages of the MAP can provide activists with a sense of clarity about what work has already been done.