ALEX MARSHALL: WE ASK OUR COUNCIL TO FOLLOW THE LEAD OF OVER 400 OTHER COUNCILS
Podcast 1: Advocating for council action on the climate emergency in Surf Coast Shire, Australia
19-year-old Alex Marshall from CACE Surf Coast & Geelong was guest in The Sustainable Studio on 20 March 2019, where she called for “proper council action on the climate emergency”. She leads the charge on the Surf Coast Shire Coouncil to follow the lead of over 400 other councils around the world that have declared a climate emergency – five of those in Victoria, 15 in Australia.
In the same program, the radio team also talked over the phone with the officer at Darebin City Council whose job it is to get the practical stuff of a climate emergency sorted and making the Council’s decisions work for the community and the officers: Samantha Green from the municipality’s Environmental Education & Promotions Office.
Sustainable Hour co-host Anthony Gleeson interviewed Maribyrnong Councillor Simon Crawford in the fifth Victorian council to declare a climate emergency, and Darebin Councillor Trent McCarthy, who has been a strong supporter of Darebins climate emergency initiatives since his climate emergency motion — the first of its kind in the world — was carried in 2016.
» Listen to the interview with Alex Marchall: Click on the player above, or download this excerpt of the podcast
» Listen to the full Sustainable Hour no. 259 on 94.7 The Pulse
TRENT MCCARTHY
Sign petition
» Support Alex Marshall’s and CACE’s campaign: sign the petition on
www.surfcoast.climateemergencydeclaration.org and www.geelong.climateemergencydeclaration.org
JANE MORTON: TIME TO TELL THE TRUTH
Podcast 2: Advocating for telling the truth about the climate emergency
Psychologist Jane Morton, author of the booklet ‘Don’t mention the emergency?’, talks about how non-violent direct action can make more people aware of the urgency of the climate emergency.
From early involvement in the declaration of the climate emergency and the spreading of the extinction rebellion in Australia, the road of taking action has at times been a risk to her. ‘Don’t mention the emergency’ was penned from her knowledge of psychology and understanding that other campaigns, like smoking, told how harmful the current situation is and urges the climate leaders and scientist not be afraid to state the truth about the dangers of climate change. The emergency is real with our planet.
American Rev Chris Hedges from the pulpit talks about death of the individual and the collective death of humans. He lifts up the issue of sixth great move of destruction due to our binge on fossil fuel.
An excerpt from David Wallace-Wells being interviewed by Tom Clarke in ITV News
» Listen to the interview with Jane Morton (35 minutes excerpt) or download the audio file
» Listen to the full Sustainable Hour no. 258 on 94.7 The Pulse
“This is the moment for peaceful but disruptive rebellion.”
~ Jane Morton, Australian psychologist
“Humans are basically heard animals, and part of how we judge whether something is an emergency is by looking and seeing what are our leaders doing…”
~ Jane Morton, psychologist
> Here are the powerpoint slides which Jane Morton presented the same evening at Beav’s Bar in Geelong.
The vision of what it will look like when our governments declare a climate emergency
“Taking part in ‘WHAT IF?’ – the trailer to relaunch amazing blockbuster Age Of Stupid – was really emotional. Imagining what it would feel like if we really *do* get off collision course with climate chaos is so powerful. Let’s do it! Watch the film.”
~ Caroline Lucas
My piece in RenewEconomy today on polling in Melbourne which finds strong majority support for declaring a #climate emergency. https://t.co/ELxcKGoivd
— David Spratt (@djspratt) March 8, 2019
EXTINCTION REBELLION IN AUSTRALIA
Declaration Day in Australia is on 22 March 2019 in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney where Australian rebels simultaneously will gather at government buildings to demand that their government declare a climate emergency.
» More details, including meeting times and specific locations, are on their Facebook event page
» www.facebook.com/XRAustralia
If #InternationalRebellion is not the beginning of the beginning it will be the end of the end. It really is as simple as rebellion or extinction: https://t.co/JdvNSaBWyS pic.twitter.com/IypAPk6uQN
— Extinction Rebellion Global (@ExtinctionR) March 30, 2019
⚠️ THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ⚠️
Posted on EXTINCTION REBELLIONs Facebook page on 21 March 2019
☠️WARNING: Climate breakdown and ecological collapse are a direct existential threat to us all. You, your family, and everything you love are at risk. Without immediate and decisive action, we face extinction.
‘The Extinction Rebellion is a necessity. Our political establishment has failed to protect its people from pollution, prevent further mass extinction of species on earth and prevent the possibility of human extinction in the near future. Therefore we must rebel to protect the livelihood of citizens and our natural world, or risk losing everything we cherish. ’
We are already in the 6th mass extinction of life on Earth, with 200 species lost every day. Every month, there is more extreme weather – floods, wildfires, droughts, and crop failures which could soon lead to famine. Hundreds of thousands of lives are lost to climate breakdown every year. Ecocidal industries continue to profit over this destruction without care for human or non-human life. The media have failed to tell you the full, brutal truth of how dire the environmental crisis is. And your government has failed to act accordingly, instead prioritising money and profit over life. They have us all headed for extinction – this toxic system is killing us.
Another world is possible, and the solutions are within reach. All that is missing is the political will, and a true democracy in which our voices are heard. To save ourselves, it’s going to take everything we’ve got. So we have to join together and act now, uniting in Rebellion to protect life on Earth.
On October 31st 2018 we declared ourselves in Rebellion against the UK Government for its criminal inaction on tackling climate breakdown and ecological collapse. We repeatedly shut down London’s streets and targeted government buildings with acts of mass civil disobedience, challenging and disrupting the Business-as-Usual that has us and nature headed for extinction.
Since then, hundreds of independent XRebel groups have formed in dozens of countries. Each is organising and taking action to pressure their local Government bodies, and disrupt the industries that are destroying our planet and our future for the sake of profit.
We won’t stop until society changes course,
Until true democracy comes to these lands,
Until we all start heading for a better world and a brighter future.
> How you can get involved: Visit our website where you find your local group and sign up for the Rebellion. Like and share the Facebook page and come to the events.
Follow XR on social media: on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Mastodon and Snapchat (@xrebellion-uk), and we have a blog. Read an interview with us and our diary.
If you can’t come to our events but still want to support us, you can donate here, or PayPal payments can be made to info@risingup.org.uk. We’ll see you on the streets on April 15th 2019 for the International Rebellion.”
> See the Facebook post
DAVID WALLACE-WELLS
REV CHRIS HEDGES
MARK BUTLER MP
“The world is facing a climate emergency. Our country is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Government action and policy matters. Labor is not just ready to take action here; we are impatient to take action. We know that this is in the national interest, that this is in our children’s interest, and that this is in our grandchildren’s interest.”
~ Member of the Australian Parliament for Labor Mark Butler in a speech he gave on 4 December 2018
» RenewEconomy – 8 March 2019:
Poll finds strong majority support for declaring a climate emergency
LOCAL FIRST
Feature forum at the National Sustainable Living Fesival in Melbourne in February 2019 with some of the remarkable councillors who are at the forefront of the world’s first climate emergency mobilisation effort, acting locally and spreading globally.
“City governments around the world are on the move. In the space of just 12 months, a growing number of city councils are showing extraordinary leadership as the climate crisis escalates. Now spreading into an international movement that started in Australia, city councils are stepping forward as the first level of government to declare a climate emergency. In this extraordinary development, government officials are facing up to the true level of climate risk and are stridently developing climate emergency mobilisation plans and advocating to protect their citizens.”
FEATURED CITIES
Cheryl Davila – Berkeley (USA)
Eduardo Martinez – Richmond (USA)
Chris Krohn – Santa Cruz (USA)
Doina Cornell – Stroud (UK)
Carla Denyer – Bristol (UK)
Kim Le Cerf – Darebin (AUS)
Natalie Abboud – Moreland (AUS)
Belinda Coates – Ballarat (AUS)
Hosted by: Gay Alcorn, Melbourne Editor Guardian Australia
Impassioned request made City of Powell River declare a climate emergency
“We are the leaders of this community and everybody is looking at us to make a difference. I just can’t sit by anymore and do these piddly things that we’re doing. We know it’s going to be expensive; we know it’s going to take staff time to build these into our financial plans but we have to start putting money into reserves. We have to make plans so at the very least if we can do this we’re taking a step forward and we’re telling the community that this is an urgent matter and we are getting in front of it as best we can at this late date.”
~ Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman, City of Powell River
City of Powell River councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said she is losing sleep over climate change. At one point during her impassioned argument on the subject at the regular council meeting on 21 February 2019, she broke into tears over her desperation.
She requested that within 90 days, city staff prepare a report outlining the greatest threats to the city, both corporate and community, with respect to climate change impacts.
It includes: estimated sea level rise, wildfire threats, increased flooding events, potential contamination of the watershed and other immediate perceived threats; beginning discussions between the city, regional district and Tla’amin Nation for establishing an advisory committee for disaster and emergency response planning with the regional manager of emergency services taking the lead; establishing “Climate Action Plan 2020 and Beyond” for a carbon-neutral City of Powell River; beginning to track financial implications of climate change impacts not only in city asset management plans but in all city departments; and becoming carbon neutral in the city’s corporate operations from 2019 and beyond.
» Powell River Peak – 6 March 2019:
City of Powell River councillor makes impassioned call to address climate change
“Council decides on its definition for ‘emergency’ plan”
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Song: ‘Extinction or Rebellion’
By Kuki and the Bard
We are facing an unprecedented global emergency
The Government has failed to protect us
To survive it’s going to take everything we’ve got
Like it or not, it’s time to rise up
Extinction or Rebellion, rise up, rise up people now
Rise up by the billion, shake this system down
Extinction or Rebellion, stand up for your nature
Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up
Shake this system down
We need to take action in this world
We need to take care of ourselves
This rebellion is fuelled by our love
Sisterhood, brotherhood, elders, young people
It’s time to rise up
Extinction or Rebellion, rise up, rise up, people now
Rise up by the billion, shake this system down
Extinction or Rebellion, stand up for your nature
Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up
Shake this system down
» www.kukiandthebard.bandcamp.com