Climate Justice Fast

About us

We are a group of concerned people inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. We are from various nations, and are supported by an ever-growing number of people, all over the world.

We are offering the strongest form of moral protest against climate inaction, and standing up for true climate justice. We call on both the global public and their political representatives to fulfil their moral responsibility to halt and reverse climate change, and to protect the world’s most vulnerable people and our children from its effects.

To find out more about the fast and our demands, click here.

Who are the Climate Justice Fasters?

Long-term fasters

The following people completed a water-only fast of 43 days, as part of Climate Justice Fast!

Anna Keenan (AUS)

Anna began fasting on November 6 at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, along with Sara Svensson, and continued fasting until the end of the Copenhagen climate talks, with a presence inside the conference.

"I am 23 years old, from Brisbane, Australia, and I am a youth climate change activist, a 1940's jitterbug swing dancer and a former circus acrobat. I have attended the Bali and Poznan UN climate meetings, and am a proud member of the growing international youth climate movement.

To reach the UNFCCC COP14 in Poznan last year, I travelled with four other young Australians from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) on a great 'overland journey' through Asia and Russia to reach Poland, instead of flying. In 2009 I have been a freelance climate activist in Europe.

I graduated from university in 2007 with two degrees - Science (Physics and Mathematics) and Arts (Economics and Environmental Studies). One could say that I have had a diverse activist experience - from writing government advisory papers to being arrested in direct action against coal. But in the same way that business-as-usual is leading us all to catastrophe, I now feel that activism-as-usual is clearly not forcing politics to change fast enough.

This is a race between a political tipping point and a scientific one, and currently science is losing. We have now reached the time when a new and higher form of activism is needed, hence my participation in Climate Justice Fast! I intend for this moral, principled action to give politics a major wake-up call - we can't ignore the science any longer."

Sara Svensson (SWE)

Sara started fasting in Barcelona on 6 November in the UN climate talks, and continued in Copenhagen, drinking water only until the end of the COP15 summit.

"I was 5 years old when I decided to devote my life to the creation of a sustainable future. I'll celebrate my 25th birthday during CJF, and I'll be 65 in 2050."

Paul Connor (AUS)

Paul began fasting in Canberra, Australia's capital, on November 6, where he continued fasting on the protest lawn outside Parliament House.

“I am 29, and currently studying Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Melbourne. I have long been uncomfortable with the inequality of our planet, and after studying global justice issues at university and traveling through Asia and Africa found myself becoming more and more passionate about fighting for a better world. I am involved with CJF mainly because of the incredible injustice at the heart of climate change: that those who it effects the most are those who have the least ability to cope with it, and who have done the least to cause it. That is something I cannot be complicit with, and to me, CJF represents doing just about everything I can about it.”

Diane Wilson (USA)

Diane began fasting on November 6, and planned to fast until the end of COP15 in Copenhagen.

"I’m a fourth generation fisherwoman that has been fighting environmental issues on the Texas Gulf Coast for over twenty years but this hunger fast is just the second time I’ve did anything on global warming.

My environmental activism started after the county where I live, Calhoun County, was ranked No. l in the nation for toxins to the land, according to the 1989 Toxic Release Inventory. In twenty years of what I call my baby-like naivety I have seen something that I never expected to see in my lifetime and, in fact, is what is currently spurring my hunger strike.

In one lifetime, I have seen the consequence of what unclear thinking, tunnel vision, and short term unsustainable living can inflict on a community, town, fishery, and a bay. WHAM! Fish houses shut down. Boats rotting in the harbor. Business shut down. Bay full of mercury. Crabs full of mercury. Cattle’s DNA mutated. Rampant cancer. I have seen everything from dolphin die offs, to political buy-offs, kick-backs, worker deaths, fraudulent reports, exposures, stressed out oysters, mercury superfunds, contaminated seafood, and everything you never wanted to know about super-sized industries hell bent on destruction.

So you see, when the reports and statistics and the stories come out about global warming and the message is clear that we need to cut our greenhouse emissions, I understand. And I understand because I live with inaction and misinformed scepticism all the time. It lives and breathes where I live in Texas. We are bringing the roof down over our heads – but yet, what do we do in Texas? My home counrty is bringing in two coal burning power plants, a nuclear power plant, a liquid natural gas terminal the size of three football fields that will require dredging up a bay where hundreds of thousands of pounds of mercury were lost by a malfunctioning Alcoa plant. That is the reality of my home.

I am a co-founder of CodePink, women for peace and justice; Texas Jail Project, changing jails in Texas, one jail at a time; Injured Workers Union, an advocacy support group for injured chemical workers. I am been a shrimp boat captain all my life and now write.

Michael Morphett (AUS)

“I am a musician who was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. I have been very aware of and concerned about climate change for 25 years. I have involved myself in the science and psychology of the issues throughout this time. I have been growing more and more anxious about where we are heading and what role I can play in making the necessary changes happen. When I learnt about Climate Justice Fast! I welcomed the opportunity to make the strongest possible statement that I could. I immediately signed up to be a long term faster.

In 1993-1994 I went to India where I worked for Mother Theresa in Calcutta at Kalighat for six months. This was one of the most rewarding and humbling times in my life.

I first became aware of climate change and the greenhouse effect in the mid-1980s. It seemed dangerous that climate change should continue unabated and I was so concerned that I wrote and published three items about climate change, including pamphlets about the greenhouse effect, its solutions, and a song about the possible consequences of climate change called Worldwide. I have also registered a patent for a solar energy system.

We are now in a climate emergency situation. I firmly believe that greed and consequent consumption and materialism have enabled us to get into this mess. We have taken the universally recognised defect of character, or sin, and enshrined it as a virtue along with greed. We have made this the operating principle of our time.

God says 'No'

The whole cosmos says 'No'

Climate change is a physical manifestation of a spiritual illness.”

Chuck Cain (USA)

Chuck began fasting on October 7. From November 6, he will fast on water only along with the other long term fasters. He plans to fast through until at least the end of the Copenhagen summitt to support other fasters in their cry for justice.

"I am a speck - a part of this dust. The details of my life are insignificant. What is important are the multitudes that suffer because of our own greed. St Augustine said if you have more than you need, then you are stealing from the poor.

The world is in desperate need of change. If we don't change, we will all suffer the consequences. The only real solution is a spiritual revolution. Not a spirituality of our own making suited to our own taste, but one born out of seeking the face of God. And that is why I fast.

I am nothing. Once I know that, I will be God's empty vessel. Be still and know that I am God."

Daniel Lau (AUS)

Daniel joined CJF on Nov 13 and fasted for 30 days while in Copenhagen.

"I was born in Hong Kong, grew up and citizen of Australia, now studying in Denmark. I volunteered for 4 years on poverty issues with Oxfam, mostly, but have slowly awakened to climate change being a key development issue. I have only been reading and involved on climate for six months, so there are only few things I feel I can do that are serious and urgent enough to mirror the seriousness and urgency of the issue. Am otherwise preparing for a PhD in ecological economics, but that's not going to make the required difference quickly."

Matthieu Balle (FRA)

Matthieu began fasting on November 22nd and continued until the conclusion of the Copenhagen talks on December 18.

"I am 27 years old and work installing solar panels (heating/hot water/Electricity) in Paris."

Solidarity Fasters

The following people, and many more, completed shorter fasts, ranging from one day to three weeks, joining the call for climate justice and showing solidarity with the long term hunger strikers.