…and the zombies have come to get them!
The Zombies of the Climate ApoCOALpse have today swarmed around Queensland’s Parliament House this morning to highlight impending climate chaos.
XR spokesperson Rachel says the Zombies represented undead billionaires, workers, scientists. ‘Everyday people have come back from the future to warn of the environmental perils of inaction during this crisis.’
The group chased politicians around gates to block and disrupt their personal and car entry to the building and swamping them with climate zombies as they went past.
Just after 8.35am (QLD time) people breached the gates of Parliament House briefly before they were ushered out by police and security.
‘The Queensland government has failed to take any meaningful action on the climate crisis that we are facing. They have yet to declare a climate emergency. They continue to invest in destructive industries and prioritise profit over people, the COVID-19 gas led recovery plan if just one recent devastating example of that,’ says Rachel.
The spectacle of zombies lurching around the streets in gruesome blood soaked costumes, depicting an apocalyptic scene of destruction and devastation sent a strong message to politicians. The activists are portraying a future of immense human suffering if we continue to sleepwalk to catastrophe.
The message is act now
The message is: If we don’t act now there will be fires and floods, food and water shortages, mass displacement of people across the world, global health crises and irreversible loss of biodiversity.
At 8.42am the group took the road outside Parliament House at the intersection of Alice and George St, for just under 10 minutes before police threatened to move in an arrest the crowd. Traffic was at a standstill and choked up quickly in the busy peak-hour as the swarm of zombies spilt out on to the road to do the Zombie Dance, a booming rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
‘We take roads because Extinction Rebellion will continue a campaign of mass civil-disobedience led by everyday people until we experience real change led by real democracy. Other tactics, such as petitioning, door knocking, going to marches and voting are not working for us in a system where the fossil fuel industry provide the largest source of political donations to both major parties. Our government is compromised and deadlocked,’ said Rachel.
There is still time
‘There is still time, if politicians act in the interests of the people – 75% of the population want urgent action on managing the climate crisis.’
Amy MacMahon, MP for the Greens, was the only politician seen to engage with the protestors. She came out filming the protest, and when Zombies told her they were hear to warn politicians, to tell them to listen to the climate science, because they weren’t she agreed: ‘That’s exactly right,’ she said. ‘Most people in there aren’t listing to the people and climate science, and we’ve got politicians inside here who are still defending coal on a daily basis.’
XR are demanding that decision-making on the climate and ecological crisis be led by a binding Citizen’s Assembly – informed by scientific fact, First Nations knowledge of ecosystems care, climate justice advocates and other knowledge holders – in order to formulate a plan so we can halt biodiversity loss and reach net-zero emissions by 2025.
Extinction Rebellion will stage their next act of mass disruption, Free the Truth on March 5 in the centre of the Queen Street Mall https://fb.me/e/7QrxGwptv followed by a national week of action from March 22 to 28 across all major cities: https://fb.me/e/2wHezgYN5 .
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