On Friday environment activist Violet (Deanna) CoCo faced the Magistrates Court, at the Downing Centre in Sydney for peacefully protesting climate inaction. She was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of eight months for engaging in non-violent protest.
Fireproof Australia have condemned the sentence as being both shameful and draconian.
Protests have been held each day since the sentence was handed down with more planned from today and continuing this week, from 1 pm in Sydney – NSW Parliament, Macquarie Street, followed by a March to the Downing Centre Court; Canberra at Parliament House, then at 3pm at the Perth Magistrates Court and 6pm King George Square, Brisbane.
Fireproof Australia say they are a politically unaffiliated group of ordinary citizens calling on our federal government to respond urgently to the climate crisis by rehoming the survivors of floods and fires and securing an Australian-owned large aerial tanker fleet.
A Fireproof rep said Ms CoCo was charged with offences of disrupting vehicles, interfering with the safe operation of the Harbour Bridge, possessing a bright light distress signal in a public place, failing to comply with police direction and resisting or hindering police.
Peacefully blocking one lane of traffic
‘All of these charges arose from her peacefully blocking one lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for approximately 25 minutes with three other Fireproof Australia campaigners,’ said the rep.
‘Disastrous climate change is already here. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made clear we need immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors to limit warming to 1.5°C. This gives humanity a chance of stopping a runaway climate catastrophe.
‘Yet we are fast approaching 1.5 degrees of warming and the world’s 20 largest fossil fuel companies are planning to invest US$932 billion in developing new oil and gas fields over the next nine years.’
Catastrophic events such as wildfires and floods
The Fireproof rep said that in this country, our governments want to open up 110 new coal and gas projects and continue to give away $22,000 a minute to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies. ‘Catastrophic events such as wildfires and floods are now commonplace and it’s no longer just young people experiencing climate anxiety.
Violet CoCo said the reason the group blockades in public is to sound the alarm. ‘It is about letting people know that we’re in an emergency. As much as we don’t want to disrupt the public, they have a right to know how urgent the issue is.
‘Governments are criminalizing and imprisoning peaceful protesters rather than solving the climate crisis. State governments are introducing anti-protest laws to make ordinary people fearful of protesting.’
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