Dear Governments... your move, because we won't

Hey Governments,

We can't go on like this... I won't tolerate your abusive behaviour any longer and although I've been raging and rampaging for a good few years - I KNOW it can't go on and will NOT be resolved in bloody conflict. So where do we stand now? And what do we do next? How on earth do we go from this point in history - to one where we aren't fighting to survive extinction-by-industrial-processes?

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Somewhere in the background of the entire 57 years of my life, you've been there pulling strings in one guise or another; whatever party colour you wore, you ARE complicit because you DID NOT stop this, DID NOT raise the alarm, DID NOT act!

You've obviously been lying to me, clearly shirking your responsibilities and failing on every level because the world is a bloody mess. You were supposed to utilise the precious, beautiful and (once) bountiful resources of our planet - to enhance and enrich the lives of us all... instead you were stealing away into darkened corners to negotiate away our land, our wildlife, our children's health.

You're NOT a 'government' - I believe you were hijacked long ago to appear as if we chose you and had a say... but reality is, whichever Party we had in power, the harm kept coming and mostly, to those least able to cope with it.

How did this happen? What and how did our 'system' get corrupted? Is it the revolving door between industry and politics? Is it the funding by industry of politics? Is it that it's rigged so that whatever the outcome of electons, the power still rest with industry due to infiltration of politics? Whatever it is, it's a dangerous shambles driving us off a cliff right now.

At some point the truth is just too overwhelmingly, suffocatingly, toxically in our faces, around our ankles, in our water, in every breath we take and amassing under our oceans in the bellies of suffering beasts... a climate catastrophe of life changing proportions is literally upon and around us - 60% of species extinct - YOU did that!

YOU with your inaction, blind-eye turning, self-serving deals with fossil fuel companies, plastics manufacturers and tyrants. You sold out and bought out even our revered Universities in order to manipulate reports that could be paid for by private businesses to serve their needs and bury actual truths.

The harms done by your consistant, short-sighted planning to stay in power - rather than long term planning to ensure the health, safety and well-being of those you are supposed to represent is sickening.

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Extinction Rebellion and other uprisings are acts of self defence - necessary and natural reactions to continued pain being inflicted on all the living things.

Now though (or at least very soon) there will come a time where you can't keep roughing us up in the streets, criminalising kind and caring humans, exhausting over-exhausted police officers, rewriting 'rights' to shut us up... then what? History shows that conflict is resolved in negotiation after the realisation that neither side is physically stepping down... we're surely at this stage? But I would hesitate to call it 'negotiation' we have DEMANDS THAT MUST BE MET in order to save ourselves - and that means we are unstoppable...

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3 ESSENTIAL demands:

1- Tell the truth

Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

2- Act Now

Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

 

3- Beyond Politics

Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

 

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