We’re facing a Climate Emergency! Together with friends across the political spectrum, we have to show Hereford that the risks from global warming are deadly, and that systemic change – not incremental change – is needed to stop climate change spinning out of control.
Following the lead shown by Rising Up and Extinction Rebellion, the rally on 1st December will be hard-hitting, peaceful and fun.
Organisers will be meeting at De Koffie Pot, Hereford Left Bank 6pm to 8pm on 23 November to finalise plans for the Rally. Come along to help in whatever way you can.
From Friday 16 November there will be leaflets at The Rocket Cafe in Church Lane Hereford. Please go along to say Hi to Ben and collect some leaflets to give to friends, neighbours, people in the streets…you get the picture. We need as many people invited to this rally as possible. Let’s make it big so that the powers that be take notice of us. Thank you.
Rising Up say
Together we are irresistible!
We are facing many crises resulting from the system we live under (it’s a form of extreme capitalism called neo-liberalism). The system is based on unsustainable and increasing amounts of debt It is causing gross inequality, poverty, mass misery, and species extinctio. It gives a lot of money and power to a very small number of people, who use that money and power to shore up their position. This system is destroying our planet’s capacity to sustain life by destabilising the climate. There are many issues and to change anything, we have to change everything. We have to change this system in support of the most basic of universal values – the right to life.
There are loads of brilliant, detailed proposals for how things could change, how problems could be solved. But we can’t make changes without taking our power back, getting more connected to each other and to the wider world. We reckon system change needs a mass movement of people willing to take disruptive, loving and effective direct actions, saying no to the destruction and sickness and yes to life sustaining alternatives. An inclusive uprising will have many ways for people to get involved. It must be effective and sustainable, it must be fun!
Extinction Rebellion is a recently formed completely Non-Violent movement, which believes in Mass, Peaceful, Civil Disobedience. It has started in the UK, fittingly as here is where the industrial revolution began, but is now growing at a fantastic rate and spreading abroad. ER launched outside Parliament on 31 October this year.
They say:
Position
- We are in an ecological crisis caused by climate change, pollution and habitat destruction; a mass species extinction on a scale much larger than the one which killed the dinosaurs is underway. Our course is set to societal collapse, the killing of millions, likely billions of people – human extinction is possible. The future is bleak and our children are not safe.
- Change to avert the worst of the disaster is still technically and economically possible. The changes won’t be simple but there is nothing more important or worthwhile. It involves creating a world which is less frenetic and more beautiful; making the necessary changes will also create jobs. This is an emergency situation – action is urgent.
- Our Government isn’t acting in accordance with what science and history tells us. Therefore our Government is criminally negligent. We have a moral duty to rebel, whatever our politics. Social science shows us that peaceful civil disobedience is an effective way to bring about change. Our lives have meaning and purpose when we follow our conscience and are willing to make sacrifices to protect what we love. We ask others who feel the same way to join our peaceful Rebellion.
Demands
- That the Government must tell the truth about how deadly our situation is, it must reverse all policies not in alignment with that position and must work alongside the media to communicate the urgency for change including what individuals, communities and businesses need to do.
- Good intentions and guidelines won’t save the ice caps. The Government must enact legally-binding policies to reduce carbon emissions in the UK to net zero by 2025 and take further action to remove the excess of atmospheric greenhouse gases. It must cooperate internationally so that the global economy runs on no more than half a planet’s worth of resources per year.
- By necessity these demands require initiatives and mobilisation of similar size and scope to those enacted in times of war. We do not however, trust our Government to make the bold, swift and long-term changes necessary to achieve this and we do not intend to hand further power to our politicians. Instead we demand a Citizens’ Assembly to oversee the changes, as we rise from the wreckage, creating a democracy fit for purpose.
Further Reading
Here’s a video called ‘Heading For Extinction and What To Do About It’ . It’s the kind of video you might like to watch with a good friend, while the children are out, so that you can assess what you’ve seen and heard. They pull no punches about the state our global climate is in.
A video to end on – John Jordan on Creative Activism
explores how the group Liberate Tate came into being and how they WON…The Tate has stopped taking sponsorship from BP! What does that feel like after about 6 years of work?
