The Earth is an Environmental crime scene. The scenes in the shots this week are not. They are just things people have cast out as rubbish and the council have slapped bright yellow stickers on them. Their phrase is overly dramatic for the situations you see before you and is terminology that should be reserved for what is currently occurring on this planet.
Exactly two years ago in April 2017 I posted up photographs from the same series to highlight the fact that no-one was talking about climate change. It had practically disappeared from the news and all attempts to deal with it had evaporated into thin air. Today the situation is even worse and still almost nothing is being done and still people don’t want or can’t talk about it. At least it is being reported again in the media, mainly as a result of extreme weather becoming the norm and massive amounts of scientific data showing that the planet is warming at an accelerated pace even the most pessemistic predictions didn’t come close to. And yet, it is still not making headlines and is still way down on most publication’s and people’s agendas.
The Extinction Rebellion (the XR for short) have also done a great job in the last six months of getting the press to report their actions and have successfully managed to get it back on the discussion table and yet still it hovers way below celeb gossip, country politics, box sets and people’s own social media output. The question is, how do reduce the dominance of trivialities in our lives and how do we get it to the forefront of conversations? We live in the ultimate era of outrage, where ever 5mins someone is losing their shit over some insult to their identity group or whatever and yet the biggest outrage of them all, the fact that we are allowing a tiny percentage of people to render our entire planet to the point of total dysfunction because of the fallout from their industrial activity? The air we breathe, the oceans we swim in, the crops we eat, everything is being contaminated by a fraction of our species purely for their own profit and we are all allowing them to do it. Shouldn’t we be getting on our high horses about that more than anything?
Apparently only 100 companies (almost all fossil fuels) are responsible for over 70% of ALL emissions. There is a campaign to make them liable for ecocide which is what they are absolutely guilty of. They are destroying everything and nothing is being done to stop them. We must get our governments to stand up to them. To reject their money. To invest in green new deals instead. They spent hundreds of billions bailing out the banks in 2008. Does our environment not deserve to be bailed out as well? Isn’t that worth it more than saving the necks of the wealthy and the utterly irresponsible? So why aren’t they doing it? They could invest in emission free energy and infrastructure which woud reinvigorate the economy and the climate at the same time. They could put us on a path towards a solution instead of continuing to ignore the problem which will ultimately be our downfall.
I watched the film Bohemian Rhapsody this week and it culminates in the Live Aid show, which shows how powerful people can be when mobilise together to initiate positive change and come to the aid of those who need it the most. What I can’t quite work out is why this same spirited action is not happening with climate change? This is a potentially much more dangerous situation that affects literally everyone but people just don’t seem to want to engage with this very real disaster which is already well underway. Is it because it feels too big or too complicated to tackle? The Ethiopia crisis was horrendous but simple. They need food. We raise money and send them food. Job done. The climate situation doesn’t require donations, it requires a much greater sacrifice – we have to change everything we do in order to even have a chance in hell and that’s maybe the problem? But if we don’t deal with it now our problems will be so much worse and for generations after us, infinitely more so.
I know you might read all this and think its too much to take on but even the acknowledgement of the situation would be a start. Just by admitting we need to deal with this above and beyond everything else and just talking about it would be the first step towards a better future. As I speak to people about this I feel them glaze over, I see the shutters coming down, and as I write these words I feel the same. That is why being around the people who have also joined the XR is a relief in many ways, as you can talk about it, you don’t have to worry about mentioning it for fear of being brandished a downer, a mood hover or a kill joy. You can cry out to the ‘elephant in the room’ and help initiate a stampede which will waken those in power to the needs of all of us to do something tangible, to actually deal with the problem, not just shunt it away.
The XR are gathering together at 11am on Monday at 5 key places in London: Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Parliament Square.
See this link here for more details: http://tinyurl.com/y2mhsg5n
Its time to stand up and be counted!
Love and Rage!