Forty years. More.
However you count it, from whichever moment this started, our so-called
leaders have been aware that we are living on borrowed time for decades. And
what have they done?
For forty years we have known that this big blue ball, our
planet home, the Earth, the natural and human systems which function in it and
on it and form all that it means for us to exist, our home is suffering. We,
the people of the World, are steadily and inexorably brutalising our home, and
now the foundations are trembling.
Now we know, our intelligence and science and experience
shows us, our victim, our much-beaten servant Gaia, has a fever. This fever is
the warming climate to which we are already committed and which will continue
to rage for many decades to come.
We know, as our ‘leaders’ know, that for decades we have
been borrowing from the future to pay for our present prosperity. Our capacity
to exploit the resources of nature and the resources of our poorer neighbours
has now extended to include our ability to exploit the resources of time.
And so the time has come round once again, when our leaders
will gather together for the 21st time to talk about what is
happening, what might happen, and what might be done. To talk, yet not to act.
To argue, yet not to decide. To show us, their citizens, their mandate, that
they are ‘taking this problem seriously’, and yet, in making the face and
making the noise, doing too little, too late.
If we let them, they will go away from these talks, like all
the others, with no agreement, no commitment, no decision to take action. They
will set aside the urgency of our problems once again and pass the problem on
for future generations.
We need to let them know, in clear terms, that we
will not tolerate their indecision any longer. Not in our name, not with our
mandate. We are no longer just concerned, no longer worried, we are angry.
In our human history, there have been crimes so brutal, so
appalling, that even now, many years after slavery has been abolished and so
nearly eradicated, many decades on from the abomination of the Holocaust, these
crimes still resonate so strongly that we are reluctant to recall them, we are
almost afraid to mention their names. Yet here and now we must.
The evil that is slavery costs the lives of millions of
people, and the liberties of millions more.
The evil that was the Holocaust, six million Jews and five million more
human lives.
And we see the figures, the statistics and the estimates of
those who will be displaced, whose lives will be cut short by disease, famine,
drought. The lives already lost and yet to be lost. The dead people, the
innocent victims of our polluting, destructive, acidifying, climate changing ways.
Hundreds of millions.
Hundreds of millions.
If we do not demand action to prevent this now, we are
signing up, in advance, to another, most brutal, most evil of crimes against
humanity. And we should shout this out loud and clear for all to hear:
Not in my name.
Not with my consent.
We must make it clear to our leaders that we hold them to
account. This appalling future of suffering, this crime against humanity, can
be resisted. It can be reduced. Millions of lives can be saved. But only if we
act now. The time to talk is done. We have heard the talk. We are sick of the
talk. They must act.
Our leaders have on their shoulders the heavy burden of
responsibility for the well-being of us all. But let us be clear; doing
nothing, at this point in time, with the cost so transparent, is a conscious decision
to permit evil. And so we say to you our leaders; by this measure we will see your
true worth. By your decisions we will see the colour of your souls, and pray
that they are not as black as oil.
And we must tell them, again, and again – not in my name.
Not with my consent. Not with my mandate.
You are not our masters, you are our
representatives. We have entrusted you with the power and the means to act for
us. If you will not act, we will judge you, as history will judge you, and
we will see you as you truly are, to the depths of your souls. And you will
lead us no longer into darkness.
We want you to take action now, in our name and in the name
of generations to come. We want you to turn away from the path of evil and
fight with us and for us to protect our fellow citizens, our brethren.
This is
our World, our home, these our lives, and we are angry. And if you resist us,
we will bring you down. In all the nations of the Earth, we the people will
stand for what is good and what is right. You can stand against us, or you can
stand with us.
This glorious, magnificent, vital, big blue ball that is
Gaia, the Earth – this is our World, and we will fight for it. This
planet is our home, and we will defend it. These children are our
children, and we will stand before those who threaten them and cherish and
protect them. We are the citizens of the World, and we want action. We sisters
and brothers, parents and children, rich and poor, we call you now to account,
and say to you; we are your justification, your voters, your mandate, and we
are telling you our will.
We want you to take action to protect us all against the
ravages of exploitation and the abuse of the planet and our climate.
We want
action, and we want it now.
