Today there have been between two and three thousand global alert events worldwide. At Parliament Square in London, there was a flashmob. I had to be there.
The alarms on our phones were set to go off at 12.18pm. We moved into the centre of the square holding our phones aloft. There was then a repeated chant of "tick, tick, tick" and then we all tried to call numbers we had received over the internet for Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Peter Mandelson. For the most part, people did not manage to connect and leave a message.
But then this young woman, Iris Andrews, was put through to Gordon Brown and had a converstaion with him for several minutes. (I thought I was filming it, but I'd only managed to get a still.)
The aim of the exercise was to get Gordon Brown to go to the climate conference in Copenhagen in December and reach an agreement which will really make a difference to the catastrophe that is enfolding the planet. He told her he would be going.
When you look at the latest disaster hitting the world - the horrendous drought that is killing people, livestock and wildlife in Kenya - we just can't wait any longer to stop destroying Earth. And dear US readers, your country is the worst polluter, so please do every little thing you can to reduce your carbon emissions and persuade your government at state and federal level to get their fingers out and help save the planet. That long-sought-after North-West Passage has almost opened up, and the lands that will sink under the rising sea levels caused by the melting ice, not to mention the polar bears that will starve or drown, may already be doomed. We can no longer say we can't afford to do it. We cannot afford not to.
When you look at the latest disaster hitting the world - the horrendous drought that is killing people, livestock and wildlife in Kenya - we just can't wait any longer to stop destroying Earth. And dear US readers, your country is the worst polluter, so please do every little thing you can to reduce your carbon emissions and persuade your government at state and federal level to get their fingers out and help save the planet. That long-sought-after North-West Passage has almost opened up, and the lands that will sink under the rising sea levels caused by the melting ice, not to mention the polar bears that will starve or drown, may already be doomed. We can no longer say we can't afford to do it. We cannot afford not to.
Switching to environment-friendly technologies is still very expensive for small and medium-sized enterprises. That's just one of many things our politicians have to change. But I'm afraid the "green environmental tax" we have to pay is just made to feed our politicians, instead to support environmental technology.
ReplyDeleteThe parliamentary elections in Germany will take place next Sunday, and the Green party didn't come up with a "reduce pollution programme" yet.
Great post, Val.
The same thing was done here in
ReplyDeletePittsburgh. I don't know if they
got through to anyone. The news
media was calling it the first of
many "protests" planned for the
G20. I'm just glad they didn't
turn the hoses on them. This is
usually a pretty peaceful city,
but I get the feeling they are just
itching to do it to someone before
the weeks out.
If doing this influences just one politician I'd say it was a result, although I would hope it effected many more.
ReplyDeleteI know...I heard on the radio today that the US and China are the worst offenders.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, Americans are very selfish. I am the first one to admit that I will NOT do w/o my air conditioner at home or in the car. At least the home a/c runs on natural gas, not freon. I did the commuting by bus thing for many years when I worked in San Francisco. It sucks. I'll never do public transportation again to commute to a job. I realize that my attitude is very selfish, but at this point in my life, and after all the stress I have to deal w/, I need my creature comforts like my car so I don't spend 2+ hours one way on a bus, and my a/c....and my clothes dryer (it's not practical to have a clothes line in a region where it rains 9 mos. out of the year).
:/
JoJo, I have little rails like double towel rails that I hook over my radiators for drying my washing. It's nice and cheap. Driers are some of the greediest machines in the home.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. is soooooooo behind when it comes to environmental awareness. It is only within the last year or two that a significant number of people in Chicago seem to be becoming more aware of the problem and the devastation. This really needs to become a higher priority for our Federal government, too. Unfortunately, with multiple wars, a lousy economy, and the selfish corporations lining the pockets of our politicians, we are losing this war on environmental devastation ... rapidly!
ReplyDeleteYeah but a dryer is way more convenient and faster than air drying. We don't have radiators in my house anyway...we have "forced hot air" (natural gas heat) which comes out of vents in the floors upstairs and in the ceilings downstairs.
ReplyDelete