I don’t march. Until last February, I’d never protested about anything. But this Sunday, I’ll be bringing my family and every friend I can find to the Climate March in Dublin. - It’s part of a Global Climate March taking place all weekend throughout Ireland and the world.
Scientists aren’t the first people you’d picture on a protest line – We usually prefer to influence by generating evidence instead. Until now, I never saw much value in taking to the streets, but so much has changed this year. This march has taken on a significance I never foresaw when I joined the fight for climate action seven years ago as part of the Ben & Jerry’s Climate Change College.
Scientists aren’t the first people you’d picture on a protest line – We usually prefer to influence by generating evidence instead. Until now, I never saw much value in taking to the streets, but so much has changed this year. This march has taken on a significance I never foresaw when I joined the fight for climate action seven years ago as part of the Ben & Jerry’s Climate Change College.
Polar Explorer, Marc Cornelissen (1969-2015). Photo: ColdFacts.org On a personal level, I lost my first mentor in the climate arena, Polar Explorer Marc Cornelissen, last April as he fell through thin ice while doing research in the Canadian High Arctic. Joining my Ben & Jerry’s colleagues at his memorial in The Hague last month, I was reminded how hard Marc fought to save the Arctic, and I came home feeling the need to fight even harder myself to continue his good work.
This year, I’ve also watched record after record broken as the climate crisis worsens. 2015 is “unlike any other year in human history”:
 Indians seek relief from heat wave by sleeping on roofs. Photo: cnn.com  ems solutions inc. |
|
The fact that the 21st year of United Nations’ climate negotiations (COP21) begins at the end of this month adds to the urgency for climate action. When it comes to getting a global agreement for climate action, “it’s now or never”. Those are my reasons for joining the Global Climate March, but they may not resonate with everyone.
Here are ten reasons for you to join a climate march this weekend:
| 1. Your money: Last month, Alan Kelly announced that Ireland will not meet its 2020 emission targets. He argued it was because the targets were too strict, but the reality is that the government just couldn’t be bothered trying to meet them. After all, you’re the one who will pay the fines, not Minister “AK47”. And just how much money will you have to pay for his inaction? The latest estimates are that we could pay up to EUR 400 million per year for the government’s failure to meet their EU commitments. That’s about EUR 185 per adult each year. Compare that to the EUR 160 per adult that we pay for water charges, and you’d expect the 30,000 people who marched against water charges this past summer to be out in force this Sunday. |  Right2Water protest. Photo: Independent.ie |
| 2. Your life: Our government has failed to act on climate as it maintains the status quo to suit vested interests. Climate change and the resulting sea level rise in Ireland could displace 45,000 families and businesses, make insurance premiums prohibitively expensive, and cause major damage to our agricultural sector. Your presence on Sunday sends a clear message to our government that they can’t ignore climate change any longer and must address this long term crisis instead of always focusing on short term gains. |  Photo: breakingnews.ie |
| 3. Your children: The world is already beginning to experience the impacts of climate change and it will take hundreds of years to reverse the damage we’ve already done, so climate change will be a reality for our children. To prepare, they need to know what they’re facing. They also need understand how to influence change and strengthen democracy. I’ll be bringing my 5-year-old to the march on Sunday. – She’s already making her placard of a mosquito because it’s the climate impact she’s most afraid of coming to Ireland. Sunday’s march is an opportunity to educate our children in an exciting way about the importance of climate and people-power. |  Photo: cnn.com |
| 4. Your future: The G7 countries all agree that transitioning to a fossil free energy system is an essential move to combat climate change. Such a transition would have loads of other benefits too, like clean job creation and removing our dependence on imported, insecure fossil fuels. Ireland has yet to get on board – We’re supposed to have a low carbon development bill to help make the transition. All the current government had to do was pass the bill drafted during the previous government, but they’ve sat on it for four years even though Enda Kenny told the United Nations it was a “priority” over 14 months ago. |  Dublin Divestment March, Feb. 2015 |
Here we are, a few days away from United Nations’ climate negotiations, and still no climate bill. We urgently need to get on the road to transition to a low carbon society. Sunday’s march tells our government to get off their behinds and get busy on that transition.
| 5. Your energy: Ever wonder why you don’t see many solar panels in Ireland? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not due to lack of sun or cost, but because the government doesn’t buy solar energy from small producers. Nor do they facilitate communities in developing renewable energy. So big developers benefit from renewable energy generation while the little guys get nothing. |  Photo: Friends of the Earth Europe |
If we had a price on solar and prioritised community power generation, you’d see every school in the country installing solar panels to lower their energy bills and make money selling that power back to the grid on weekends and holidays. These policies should be in the Energy White Paper that was due to be published last September. Once again, we’re a few days away from COP21 and we’ve yet to see an evolution of our energy sector. Sunday is the perfect time to ask Energy Minister Alex White, “Where’s the White Paper, Minister White?”
| 6. Your politicians: I often hear politicians say climate is “not a doorstep issue” and use that as an excuse to do nothing about it. Having been on the doorsteps, that excuse drives me nuts. Since when are people’s concerns limited to the two minutes a politician spends trying to charm them out of a vote at a door? Most people I’ve met are concerned about climate change at some level, but understandably, it’s not the most immediate issue they’d want to discuss with a politician. Now is the best time to convey to politicians that just because we don’t talk about climate change on a doorstep, doesn’t mean we don’t care about it. |  Photo: finfacts.ie |
| 7. Your leader: Gene Kerrigan was right when he said, “We need to talk about Enda”. - I used to like Enda Kenny. -I come from a Fine Gael family and Enda seemed like a nice guy in his TV appearances, but the more I listen to him speak about climate change, the more I see him as nothing but a snake. One minute he’s in front of the United Nations telling them how urgent and important climate action is, and a month later he’s asking the EU for special concessions so Ireland doesn’t have to do as much about the climate crisis. |  Taoiseach Enda Kenny Photo: journal.ie |
Ireland is one of only two countries in the developed world that has failed to pledge any money towards the Green Climate Fund to help developing countries survive the changing climate we helped cause. The country that was always so generous in helping others has become an international embarrassment, but Enda’s still saying Ireland will do it’s “fair share” to address climate change. It’s time to call Enda out on his climate rhetoric. Let’s talk about Enda at Sunday’s climate march.
| 8. Your world: The Global Climate March has been scheduled just before the United Nation’s climate negotiations (COP21) begins in Paris. It’s a bit scary to think the world has been trying to get a global agreement to stop climate change for twenty-one years and has had almost no success thus far, but COP21 could be different. Some aspects of COP21 give us hope that this time a successful global agreement is possible, namely the fact that some of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters (USA, China, and India) are finally on board and that the urgency of the climate crisis means the problem can no longer be denied. |  Earth from International Space Station Photo: guardian.com |
However, a global agreement on anything is no easy feat, so there are no guarantees on the outcome of COP21. One thing that would help encourage its success is if the world’s leaders who gather there understand that we have no tolerance for failure this time. Joining the world in a climate march this weekend tells our leaders that they must come to an agreement at COP21 to keep the Earth below 2 degrees average warming.
| 9. Your Paris: It may sound odd that I refer to Paris as “yours”, but almost everyone has some affinity toward the “city of love”. Paris belongs to everyone, which is part of the reason why the outpouring of international support following last week’s terrorist attacks on the city was so strong. The Global Climate March was supposed to be centred on Paris as they prepared for COP21. Over 200,000 people planned to march in the city this weekend to send a message to the leaders attending COP, but due to security risks, that march has been cancelled. |  Photo: ktla.com |
March in solidarity with the Parisians who experienced the terror of ISIS. -ISIS gets most of their revenue from selling 9,000 barrels of oil per day to neighbouring countries and made $100 million on oil sales last year alone! Asking the world to become fossil free has become as much about ending the revenue stream that funds terrorism and creates war and conflict than it is about saving the climate. On Sunday, march here because Paris can’t.
| 10. Your guilt: When I start talking about climate change with friends or neighbours, I often see a guilty look across their eyes. They’re all well aware of how they contribute to the problem. So am I. – I blame myself every time I choose to drive instead of cycle or opt for a hamburger over a veggie burger! But I’m fed up with the guilt trip laid on me by the “power of one” campaign. Even if you want to do your part to save the climate, our government has made it almost impossible not to have an impact on global warming. – Our public transport system is a disaster; You take your life in your hands when you try to cycle; and our houses seem to be built to consume as much oil/gas as possible. |  Photo: youtube.com |
That doesn’t give us a free pass to be ignorant and pollute, but it is time to place the blame back fairly in the government’s court. Last summer, climate activist Bill McKibben told Ireland, ““If you’re keeping your powder dry for a special occasion, this is the occasion.”. He’s right. Toss whatever guilt or self-blame you may have about your impact on climate by taking one easy action this Sunday and put that blame back where it belongs -in the hands of a complacent government.
Why this Sunday could change everything
 People's Climate March, New York 2014 Photo: nydailytimes.com | Walking the streets for climate change may seem pointless, but it’s been demonstrated to work. Obama’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline was directly attributed to the non-violent protest of 1,252 people outside the Whitehouse in 2011. When 400,000 people marched for climate in New York last year it was hailed as the equivalent of “throwing a stone in a pond”, with a ripple effect that fuelled an effective global fossil fuel divestment campaign and many other social climate movements around the world. |
The secret to the success of a march is critical mass. Without the numbers, marches don’t get press coverage. The media already has a history of ignoring climate change, and press coverage is an essential part of influencing public opinion, national politics, and global policy. It’s no secret - Once politicians feel the pressure of a critical mass, they are forced to act or face the consequences at the polls.
Over 1,000 people have confirmed their attendance at Dublin’s climate march, but we can and must do better. We need to show the world that the people of Ireland are still the compassionate and generous souls they always were, despite the selfish nature of our current government. We need to show the world that the “best little country to do business in” wants to be the best little country in far more noble and modern respects too.
Over 1,000 people have confirmed their attendance at Dublin’s climate march, but we can and must do better. We need to show the world that the people of Ireland are still the compassionate and generous souls they always were, despite the selfish nature of our current government. We need to show the world that the “best little country to do business in” wants to be the best little country in far more noble and modern respects too.
Your presence at the global climate march shows the world and our politicians that you know Ireland can be the best at addressing the biggest environmental crisis the world has ever faced if we finally begin to act on climate.
Please join us for a few hours on Sunday to fight the good fight and help change everything.
Please join us for a few hours on Sunday to fight the good fight and help change everything.
People's Climate March 2014, New York Photo: flickr.com
Follow Stop Climate Chaos’ updates for Dublin’s Climate March here. The Dublin march begins at 2pm, Sunday November 29th at Custom House. Parallel events will occur in Cork, Galway, Kildare, Belfast, and around the world. These events are not affiliated with any political party, and all groups (political, religious, businesses, etc.) are encouraged to attend and showcase their own reasons for demanding climate action.
RSS Feed
