Climate Strike Preston, Lancashire 20 Sep 2019

The most uplifting of days, made lovely by all those in this video... we went from where this video starts at Preston railway station to the square where we talked, played music, discussed issues and as a community - enjoyed the feeling of empowerment that being amongst so much beautiful determination, joy and peaceful action brought with it.

Then we went on to Lancashire County Council where peacefully the young campaigners went in to ask if ONE PERSON from the Council could come and acknowledge our presence, acknowledge our reasons for being there and perhaps say they might act in some way... but alas, almost in their enitrity, Council staff humiliated and shamed themselves. Their behaviour was for the most part, ignorant, rude and emarassing to watch. In the cold, clean light of youthful eyes and the hope they brought with them - LCC staff looked like juveniles with bad attitudes.

I can't describe how appalling it was when they replaced receptionists with security guards, placed police at barriers and refused to interact at all with this small, peaceful, happy group of young climate strikers taking part in a global event of historic importance and necessity.

Then came Lancashire Police in heavy boots, ridiculous numbers and equipped with 'Evidence Gatherers' to intimidate the young strikers and give them a sense of wht it will feel like to be criminalised for your activism. The Police Liason Officers (in blue) - achieved nothing of note and nothing to be proud of - their interactions were futile and they did nothing to make the situation better... allowing the influx of the meaner looking cops and evidence gatherers, refusing to assist a young crying child aged 9 who urgently needed the toilet and constantly trying to tell young strikers what they could and couldn't do - when the information they were providing wasn't true at all. They treated them like they were fools - rather than young Lancashire people in need of adult assistance at a time of environmental emergency.

I was bereft for how it ended... it started with such beautiful promise and could easily have been the best damned protest on the planet if ONE PERSON had walked out of the elevator at LCC and said ...
"I get it, thanks for caring, I'll see what more can be done."

... I GUARANTEE that ONE PERSON would have been cheered and admired... and we'd have left with smiles. INSTEAD... many campaigners now plan to returnto LCC Monday 3:30pm to see if that ONE PERSON exists yet... and if not, there's Tuesday 3:30pm, Wednesday 3:30pm etc.

To all who came - it was a huge honour to be in your divine company

Striking times...

 

Our PM is discussing the Hulk, the US President is using a sharpie to pretend away his stupidity and on the news right now… well-dressed people are calmly chatting about the rights and wrongs of a day off from school or work, as if it’s some massive act of revolution… maybe it is? Maybe when we genuinely ‘revolt’ for the greater good (rather than individual grievance) it doesn’t have to be bloody and vicious – it can be the withdrawal of our participation in the mechanisms of life as we currently live it? “We are many, they are few” and as long as we keep hanging on for ‘democracy’ to save us in the form of a new colour at the helm of government – we’re doomed to keep on this suicidal road… we ARE many and those very few with the power who are in (or manipulating) government can’t be the solution ...when that’s where the problem lies.

All around is fear and anger and it’s overwhelming… the sense inside is to run and hide but the knowledge we have means we know – nowhere is safe from the threat to our very existence as a species that depends on nature’s ever-more polluted, poisoned, diminishing resources to survive. Across the world this Friday, our children are calling for us to join them for a day of peaceful response… if we don’t act now, the responses will eventually grow uglier. There is a choice for every one of us this week – to stand up for the life we all want to go on having ...or to abandon the children to a game of Russian Roulette where the gun is fully loaded.

Extinction is a real possibility (probability) unless we work each day to stop environmental and societal harm – even if we do take it from different angles and take our activism in different ways – it's the action that matters… the becoming ‘activist’. No ONE way of responding being right because with problems as big as we face – a diverse approach by people in different arenas (on the streets, in parliament, in academia, in the arts etc) is needed… to have us all though on ONE day, standing together in our communities is, I think… essential if we’re to get past our ridiculously far less consequential divides of borders, genders, roles, beliefs (none of which will need to be defended if we can't breathe the air, drink the water or exist in the climate).

I have been stuck focusing on fracking because it’s an incredible act of self-harm by our government and it’s happening before our eyes in the here and now. There are many more issues too of course that are making our future existence a gamble - but if we stop this one ... then explore how on earth it ever ended up for consideration and worse still, getting a cheery and enthusiastic 'Yes' from government, then we can begin to untangle our way out of the processes that trap us in this mess.

For me… I see fracking is a big, ugly and dangerous symptom of a disease that's rampant and unchecked in the places where power lies - single symptoms tell clearer stories but are never the full picture - the ‘disease’ is exhibiting in so many other cruel and dangerous ways ie:
-privatisation that's forcing the monetisation of all the things ie: education and health to be measured for profit rather than the greater values of a healthy, educated population
-austerity used as a tool to shape the economy and society to favour those with the power
-phoney media owned and controlled by those who design the news rather than reporting truths and investigating lies
-academic institutions where reports are paid for by industries with a planned outcome to make them look favourable and bury otherwise negative facts that as 'purveyors of knowledge' ...academics should be obliged to share

I recall reading about a well-respected academic who committed suicide in 2014 (search: Stefan Grimm) and being shocked at the way our academic institutions function – I had been in awe of places of learning and knowledge. His suicide note was sent a fortnight after his suicide as a delayed email and tells a story that sadly resonates today as the incidence of academic suicides grows:

“This is not a university anymore but a business with very few up in the hierarchy…profiteering and the rest of us are milked for money. You are targeted if your grant income is deemed insufficient. Those submitted to the research assessment hence support those colleagues who are unproductive but have grants. Grant income is all that counts here, not scientific output. This leads to a interesting spin to the old saying ‘publish or perish’. Here it is ‘publish and perish’.”

Grimm’s death is just one from the world of academics where financial pressure was key… there are many, many more and the situation is growing worse. For climate researchers and scientists, there are additional issues that are impacting mental health and leading to depression and suicide. A really, really long article (www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/07/weight-of-the-world-climate-change-scientist-grief) shares how it feels to KNOW the truth of the threat that all life on this planet faces… and then watch as governments across the world do nothing as a response... and worse. The intro to the research says:

“Are scientists, then, canaries in a psychological coal mine? Is understanding their grief important because their anxiety could become more widespread within the general population? That’s why, I chose them as a research sample. Put another way, climate scientists often resemble Sarah Connor of the Terminator franchise, who knows of a looming catastrophe but must struggle to function in a world that does not comprehend what is coming and, worse, largely ignores the warnings of those who do. “An accurate representation” of the Connor comparison, one scientist darkly notes, “would have more crying and wine.””

Below are the words of some of those interviewed for the article:
……………………………………………………
“I’m tired of processing this incredible and immense decline—and I’m a contributor to the problem. I have to walk away from the papers and don’t want to face myself in the mirror. I feel profound sadness and loss. I feel very angry.”
…
She had been taking these sorts of research trips for two decades, and over recent years she had witnessed about 85 percent of the island’s reef system perish due to rising ocean temperatures. “I was diving with tears in my eyes,” she recalls.
…
At 27 years old, realized she was “emotionally exhausted” by the toll of constantly scrutinizing the “huge tragedy” happening in the oceans. “I did not want to experience that fatigue,” she says, “because then I wouldn’t want to do this work anymore.”
…
“Studying earth science and thinking about climate change is a totally different ballgame than thinking about astrophysics. Astrophysics was pure science. I was looking for gravitational waves. It had no implication for the possible collapse of human civilization. But the unrelenting momentum of climate change does. I’m always thinking about it. That can be a burden. Whenever friends talk about flying off to vacation, I feel compelled to point out the large carbon cost to flying. I’d like to take a vacation from thinking about it. I’m not sure that is psychologically possible.”
...
“I have no child and I have one dog, and thank god he’ll be dead in 10 years.” Afterward, people asked Wilkinson if she truly believed that. “The truth is, I do,” she says. “And it’s only going to get more intense—the emotional nature of this work—as climate change happens and the necessary actions become more urgent.”
…
“I lose sleep over climate change almost every single night. I can’t remember how long this has been happening, but it’s been quite a while, and it’s only getting worse. I confess: I need help. I went to see a counselor and the therapist seemed unprepared for my emotional crisis. His simple advice was, ‘Do what you can.’”
……………………………………………………..

...please strike on Friday – do it for yourself or for Greta or for your kids or nature or any living thing you can think of – because that’s how bloody important this is. Why not? There is little risk or issue as it’s just ONE day where you make a ‘vote’ with your body and time that is actually seen and heard, then let’s see where we go from there. Unity of purpose that forces change, starts with one in-step step together and then in one day at least – the barriers between us don’t divide us x

Global Climate Strike - September 20th #ClimateStrike

Applying a straight-jacket

Bit by bit our rights are being taken away - there is no denying this, no escaping the reality and no way that our futures can in any way be an improvement on our pasts if this continues - in fact probably not much of a future worth having if it does.

My greatest fear is what we leave behind - not just environmentally but what the 'normal' will become for our children. The erosion of rights is steady and ongoing and we grow accustomed step by step to the limitations and the young.. grow, knowing the situation as their 'normal' and not realising how much was lost.

In 2017 activists built towers, slept in the entrance and caused daily impact to the fracking company – and next-to-no-impact on everyday folk... but legal case by legal case that we can't afford to challenge - we've been held back, slowed down and stunted. Rights, like much else are facing extinction or re-thinking - so they don’t have any true meaning any more. Recent times I’ve watched the loss of:

-the right of residents (through local democracy of their council) to say NO to planning applications like fracking - that threaten their homes, health and well-being. Westminster simply stepped in and overturned Lancashire County Council's rejection and here we are... shaken, shattered and virtually helpless in the face of the power that imposes this.

-the right of Parliament to hold current Government to account and reign them in - a 'no deal' Brexit (never on the referendum as a potential) and the prorogation (halting of Parliamentary activity) so that solutions can't be found in time. Those saying honour the 'will of the people' please consider that our population is 66 million+ people - 16,141,241 voted to REMAIN and only just over a million more voted to LEAVE and since the Referendum, much new information has emerged. What bit of where we find ourselves now, is the government interpreting as 'the will of the people'?

-the right to legally challenge decisions made by courts that although not 'removed' has now been set at such a high financial cost... we have little-to-NO hope of ever accessing the justice system. Today even Friends of the Earth could no longer continue in a challenge to the 'draconian injunction' that prevents peaceful protest having any impact at the opposed fracking site near Blackpool. (link: https://drillordrop.com/2019/09/01/priced-out-of-justice-environment-organisation-forced-to-withdraw-from-injunction-challenge

-the right to protest in any way other than standing quietly with a banner - the rights of free expression and freedom of assembly literally limited now to being still and being quiet. Swearing will get you arrested, in a cell and charged – as well as ‘bailed away’ from the protest area… meaning less who can be there. Case after case, costs after costs and all the time it takes – takes a mighty toll on activists who are already fighting for environmental justice – without having to re-define what the hell ‘justice’ is too.

We've discovered over 968 days in protest that the application of a straight-jacket can be done... without even being noticed if you stitch us up, one legal thread at a time.