Paul Bibby
Last week, Extinction Rebellion protesters brought central London to a standstill, undertaking a series of non-violent protests that gained global attention.
Now the movement is coming to the Northern Rivers.
The group had its first information night last week, with about 50 people in attendance at the Mullumbimby Civic Hall.
‘What we’re saying is that there’s no time to hesitate,’ a member of the Northern Rivers Extinction Rebellion group Ben Mccorquodale said.
‘We’re fighting for our species, it’s not just the loss of other species as bad as that is, it’s ours.
‘We need to take action now and potentially be willing to be arrested’.
Central to the Extinction Rebellion movement is the belief that the world’s leaders are failing in their duty, and that direct action and acts of civil disobedience are essential to achieve change.
Three key demands
In light of that they have three key demands: That governments firstly ‘tell the truth’ by declaring a climate and ecological emergency; and secondly act now by halting biodiversity loss reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
This means that the amount of energy used is equivalent to the amount of energy created through renewable means; and thirdly, ‘Create a citizen’s assembly on climate change and ecological justice, which would lead government action’.
‘They looked at the rebellions around the world and which were effective and realised it has to be really strong, direct non-violent action,’ Mccorquodale said.
‘If things don’t change, then our children will inherit a planet where they can’t live in anything like the comfortable way we do now.
‘Eventually we will wipe ourselves out.’
The Northern Rivers group is still in its infancy, but Mr Mccorquodale says there are good signs the community will get involved.
‘Mullumbimby is a really progressive town, one of the most progressive places in the country,’ he said.
According to www.ausrebellion.earth, ‘One of three mammals that have gone extinct in the last 400 years were Australian’.
‘The signs of ecological collapse are all around us.
‘The Great Barrier Reef is continuing to suffer back-to back bleaching events, and is predicted to die off completely if we reach a 2oC degree rise in global temperature.
Globally, we’ve lost 60 per cent of all wildlife since 1970.
‘Scientists have declared that the sixth mass extinction is well under way, and it’s human driven’.
For more info visit www.ausrebellion.earth or the XRbundjalung Facebook page.
I can’t NOT agree with this. Thanks for making
the information a forum we can all attend.
#climageddon approaches.
In relation to climate change we are currently “dead in the water” talking about what we doing for the weekend like it’s important. We need to wake up to the fact that we don’t have rights only responsibilities.
Our true datum resides on the fact that we live on a planet that spins around a sun.
It’s time we stepped off our pedestals and stand on the ground we came from.
“For individuals prepared to think for themselves, with the intellectual integrity to shake off both their theological and secular prejudices, who will explore outside the cultural box, are able to stand against the tides of tribal, peer, group think, and all fashionable thought and spin, who have the humility to accept correction and the moral courage to learn something new, who will TEST, discover and confirm this new insight for themselves, an intellectual, spiritual and moral revolution is under way; where the once impossible becomes inevitable, by the most potent, political, Non Violent Direct Action never imagined until now. One able to advance the highest aspirations of human idealism and which entrenched elites, religious institution, media filters, bureaucratic control, nor the modern corporate/national security, surveillance state can corrupt, dilute, stop nor interfere with. Even if they dare try. More at http://www.energon.org.uk