http://www.climatejusticefast.com/index.php/blog/ en paulrobertconnor@gmail.com Copyright 2011 2011-03-16T05:51:36+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/climate-hero-faces-10-years-in-jail-support-tim-decristopher/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/climate-hero-faces-10-years-in-jail-support-tim-decristopher/#When:05:51:36Z Two weeks ago Tim DeCristopher, the US climate activist charged with disrupting an auction of land parcels for fossil fuel exploration by entering the auction and bidding for land, was found guilty in a Salt Lake City courtroom. He now faces up to 10 years imprisonment, with his sentencing scheduled for June 23rd.  During his trial, Tim’s defence was not allowed to mention that the auction he disrupted was itself illegal, and that all of its sales were later overturned. They were also not allowed to mention that he had in fact been able to raise enough money from supporters to afford the initial deposit on the land he had bid for. And finally, they were also not even allowed to mention Tim’s motivation for entering the auctions – to stand in the way of the enormous threat of climate change, and to protect his future. Tim took a courageous stand. As Naomi Klein has noted, it is ironic that he stands to be imprisoned because he had no intention of paying for his bids, while oil and gas companies are free to profit from the use of fossil fuels with absolutely no intention of paying the costs of the climate change they cause. Bill Mckibben has said of DeCristopher ‘he should be getting a medal, not a sentence….He was brave by himself; we need to be brave in quantity.’ Tim is a complete bloody hero, and just what each of us needs to be as members of what Simon Sheikh from the Australian group GetUp calls ‘the last line of defence for mother nature’ – the very last generation with a chance to act on climate change. Tim needs our help and solidarity right now. Please go to his website to donate towards his defence fund and find out how else to help him, and join this facebook cause calling for Obama to pardon him. During his trial, Tim’s defence was not allowed to mention that the auction he disrupted was itself illegal, and that all of its sales were later overturned. They were also not allowed to mention that he had in fact been able to raise enough money from supporters to afford the initial deposit on the land he had bid for. And finally, they were also not even allowed to mention Tim’s motivation for entering the auctions – to stand in the way of the enormous threat of climate change, and to protect his future. Tim took a courageous stand. As Naomi Klein has noted, it is ironic that he stands to be imprisoned because he had no intention of paying for his bids, while oil and gas companies are free to profit from the use of fossil fuels with absolutely no intention of paying the costs of the climate change they cause. Bill Mckibben has said of DeCristopher ‘he should be getting a medal, not a sentence….He was brave by himself; we need to be brave in quantity.’ Tim is a complete bloody hero, and just what each of us needs to be as members of what Simon Sheikh from the Australian group GetUp calls ‘the last line of defence for mother nature’ – the very last generation with a chance to act on climate change. Tim needs our help and solidarity right now. Please go to his website to donate towards his defence fund and find out how else to help him, and join this facebook cause calling for Obama to pardon him. 2011-03-16T05:51:36+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/sentiment-with-action/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/sentiment-with-action/#When:15:48:13Z This article was published in Adbusters #91, the 'I, Revolution' issue. Right at the back. But that's cool, because I read magazines back-to-front. Don't know why, just do. It’s late. Maybe 2, or 3am, and I’m scanning my email inbox for anything important I might have missed. Eventually I notice a message that lists the names of two famous activists – Bill Mckibben and Naomi Klein – in its subject header. The email is a ‘call to action’ soliciting support for Tim DeCristopher, a climate change activist who faces 10 years in jail after disrupting an auction of oil and gas leases in Utah. I’m interested in this, and not just because of the facts – that by his fake bidding, DeCristopher prevented the Bush administration selling off 14 parcels of land for fossil fuel extraction – and is being prosecuted despite the new US administration ruling that the land had been inappropriate for sale. I’m actually interested largely because I’ve recently been thinking a lot about jail, and wondering about what role it might play in the peoples movement for just action on climate change. So I want to know more about Tim DeCristopher.   This article was published in Adbusters #91, the  'I, Revolution' issue. Right at the back. But that's cool, because I read magazines back-to-front. Don't know why, just do. :) It’s late. Maybe 2, or 3am, and I’m scanning my email inbox for anything important I might have missed. Eventually I notice a message that lists the names of two famous activists – Bill Mckibben and Naomi Klein – in its subject header. The email is a ‘call to action’ soliciting support for Tim DeCristopher, a climate change activist who faces 10 years in jail after disrupting an auction of oil and gas leases in Utah. I’m interested in this, and not just because of the facts – that by his fake bidding, DeCristopher prevented the Bush administration selling off 14 parcels of land for fossil fuel extraction – and is being prosecuted despite the new US administration ruling that the land had been inappropriate for sale. I’m actually interested largely because I’ve recently been thinking a lot about jail, and wondering about what role it might play in the peoples movement for just action on climate change. So I want to know more about Tim DeCristopher. On his website (www.bidder70.org) there is a video of DeCristopher speaking at a climate rally in Salt Lake City last October. An athletic-looking 26-year-old with a shaved head and intense eyes, he speaks loudly and succinctly, like a charismatic churchman in full swing. At times he even breaks into gospel song. There is more than a hint of spirituality in his speech, too. He tells the crowd of his personal awakening – that every day since his action, despite knowing he may soon be behind bars, he has walked a little taller, and felt a little more free. He also offers them a form of salvation, promising that it will be the social struggle for a safe climate and sustainable future that will make us the truly noble beings we were meant to be. In an interview with Democracy Now, DeCristopher quotes the late US environmentalist Edward Abbey, who said that ‘sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul’. For much of his time as an activist on climate change, he explains, he felt a nagging disconnection between the scale of the issue and his actions upon it. But when he began to bid at the auction, and risk imprisonment, he says, he became profoundly calm. I feel I can understand this. As a climate activist, I have felt this disconnection, and also its absence. I know that as I signed on, again and again, to a never-ending parade of online petitions, wrote letters to politicians, and chose ‘eco-friendly’ options at the local supermarket, I was aware that such token actions betrayed my true feelings about the importance of the issue. In a way, they were a lie, both to myself and to the world. And they didn’t feel good. But there have also been times when my actions did honestly represent my convictions. Last September, I was arrested for trespass during a mass civil disobedience action against one of the world’s most polluting coal power stations. And from early November till mid-December, I fasted on water and salt outside Australia’s parliament house calling for action on climate change with Climate Justice Fast!, an international hunger strike I co-founded. On those occasions, I experienced just the feeling DeCristopher describes. Riding in the back of a police car after my arrest, I felt a warm contentment, and strangely enough, an enormous sense of freedom. And weak and hungry from my fast, I often puzzled the journalists who asked how I felt by responding that I felt very good indeed. What I found, and what I believe Tim DeCristopher and Edward Abbey found, was the same thing – we cannot be at peace if our actions do not reflect what we truly believe. But when they do, our spirits soar. Then, we’re alive, and we are free. This is no groundbreaking revelation. Mahatma Gandhi probably had the same kind of feeling in mind when he said that ‘happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are all in harmony’. Yet while it is nothing new, there may be few more important concepts for our society to grasp. In his recent work The Freedom Paradox, The Australian thinker Clive Hamilton argues that within free-market capitalism, corporate interests actively discourage us from acting in accord with the values, preferences and desires we would endorse after careful consideration. Very few of us, he writes, would upon deep reflection say that it is our innermost desire in life to work incredibly hard at a job we dislike in order to possess the latest consumer products. Yet this is precisely the life our society encourages. From our young childhood onwards, advertisers expertly instil within us a set of values, preferences and desires that are not our own, but those that corporations wish us to have. As a result, our true ideals become increasingly neglected and stigmatized. This denial of our moral selves, Hamilton believes, can largely explain the discontentment increasingly prevalent in affluent societies. Some empirical support for these ideas can be found in the work of Martin Seligman, the world-renowned psychologist and expert in the study of happiness. After years of research, Seligman has proposed that a major component of happiness is having ‘meaning’ in our lives, which is achieved, according to his definition, by being devoted to something larger than ourselves. This complements Hamilton’s arguments well. The things we devote ourselves to and derive meaning from, will doubtlessly be linked with our inner values. And if devoting ourselves to things we deeply value is an important part of happiness, it seems only obvious that failing to do so – and living in societies that actively discourage us from doing so – would lead to unhappiness. Which is all just a complex way of saying that that if, deep down, you feel like you should be taking certain actions, or that you are not living up to your true ideals, then you will probably be a happier person if you take those actions, and live up to those ideals. Simple, really. Well, simple, but important. We, alive today, are very likely the last generation that will be able to mitigate climate change, and stave off global ecosystem collapse. So our responsibility is enormous. Yet while our politicians procrastinate, and our polluting industries and lifestyles continue to expand heedless of the risks, many of us still remain dormant. A small section of our society is alive to the issue, and politically active upon it, but its numbers are still far too small to bring about the changes we desperately need. Our greatest hope, then, may be that Hamilton and Seligman are right, and that our societies harbour an enormous number of people who are failing to live up to their inner ideals, who are unhappy as a result. Because if that is the case, then the salvation offered by Tim DeCristopher in Salt Lake City is real. Standing up and acting upon our deeper ideals and fighting back against the forces systematically destroying our environment would not only allow for our species to continue to survive and flourish on planet earth, it would also make us happier, and more free. Matching our sentiments with actions, as Edward Abbey may have said if he had been more optimistically inclined, will make our souls sing. So if you feel that maybe you should be doing more, my advice is simple- do more. Take that step that your real self, your moral self, has been pulling you towards. Contact that group you have been meaning to contact, or start that group you have been meaning to start. And feel that life pulsing through your veins.   On his website (www.bidder70.org) there is a video of DeCristopher speaking at a climate rally in Salt Lake City last October. An athletic-looking 26-year-old with a shaved head and intense eyes, he speaks loudly and succinctly, like a charismatic churchman in full swing. At times he even breaks into gospel song. There is more than a hint of spirituality in his speech, too. He tells the crowd of his personal awakening – that every day since his action, despite knowing he may soon be behind bars, he has walked a little taller, and felt a little more free. He also offers them a form of salvation, promising that it will be the social struggle for a safe climate and sustainable future that will make us the truly noble beings we were meant to be. In an interview with Democracy Now, DeCristopher quotes the late US environmentalist Edward Abbey, who said that ‘sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul’. For much of his time as an activist on climate change, he explains, he felt a nagging disconnection between the scale of the issue and his actions upon it. But when he began to bid at the auction, and risk imprisonment, he says, he became profoundly calm. I feel I can understand this. As a climate activist, I have felt this disconnection, and also its absence. I know that as I signed on, again and again, to a never-ending parade of online petitions, wrote letters to politicians, and chose ‘eco-friendly’ options at the local supermarket, I was aware that such token actions betrayed my true feelings about the importance of the issue. In a way, they were a lie, both to myself and to the world. And they didn’t feel good. But there have also been times when my actions did honestly represent my convictions. Last September, I was arrested for trespass during a mass civil disobedience action against one of the world’s most polluting coal power stations. And from early November till mid-December, I fasted on water and salt outside Australia’s parliament house calling for action on climate change with Climate Justice Fast!, an international hunger strike I co-founded. On those occasions, I experienced just the feeling DeCristopher describes.Riding in the back of a police car after my arrest, I felt a warm contentment, and strangely enough, an enormous sense of freedom. And weak and hungry from my fast, I often puzzled the journalists who asked how I felt by responding that I felt very good indeed. What I found, and what I believe Tim DeCristopher and Edward Abbey found, was the same thing – we cannot be at peace if our actions do not reflect what we truly believe. But when they do, our spirits soar. Then, we’re alive, and we are free. This is no groundbreaking revelation. Mahatma Gandhi probably had the same kind of feeling in mind when he said that ‘happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are all in harmony’. Yet while it is nothing new, there may be few more important concepts for our society to grasp. In his recent work The Freedom Paradox, The Australian thinker Clive Hamilton argues that within free-market capitalism, corporate interests actively discourage us from acting in accord with the values, preferences and desires we would endorse after careful consideration. Very few of us, he writes, would upon deep reflection say that it is our innermost desire in life to work incredibly hard at a job we dislike in order to possess the latest consumer products. Yet this is precisely the life our society encourages. From our young childhood onwards, advertisers expertly instil within us a set of values, preferences and desires that are not our own, but those that corporations wish us to have. As a result, our true ideals become increasingly neglected and stigmatized. This denial of our moral selves, Hamilton believes, can largely explain the discontentment increasingly prevalent in affluent societies. Some empirical support for these ideas can be found in the work of Martin Seligman, the world-renowned psychologist and expert in the study of happiness. After years of research, Seligman has proposed that a major component of happiness is having ‘meaning’ in our lives, which is achieved, according to his definition, by being devoted to something larger than ourselves. This complements Hamilton’s arguments well. The things we devote ourselves to and derive meaning from, will doubtlessly be linked with our inner values. And if devoting ourselves to things we deeply value is an important part of happiness, it seems only obvious that failing to do so – and living in societies that actively discourage us from doing so – would lead to unhappiness. Which is all just a complex way of saying that that if, deep down, you feel like you should be taking certain actions, or that you are not living up to your true ideals, then you will probably be a happier person if you take those actions, and live up to those ideals. Simple, really. Well, simple, but important. We, alive today, are very likely the last generation that will be able to mitigate climate change, and stave off global ecosystem collapse. So our responsibility is enormous. Yet while our politicians procrastinate, and our polluting industries and lifestyles continue to expand heedless of the risks, many of us still remain dormant. A small section of our society is alive to the issue, and politically active upon it, but its numbers are still far too small to bring about the changes we desperately need. Our greatest hope, then, may be that Hamilton and Seligman are right, and that our societies harbour an enormous number of people who are failing to live up to their inner ideals, who are unhappy as a result. Because if that is the case, then the salvation offered by Tim DeCristopher in Salt Lake City is real. Standing up and acting upon our deeper ideals and fighting back against the forces systematically destroying our environment would not only allow for our species to continue to survive and flourish on planet earth, it would also make us happier, and more free. Matching our sentiments with actions, as Edward Abbey may have said if he had been more optimistically inclined, will make our souls sing. So if you feel that maybe you should be doing more, my advice is simple- do more. Take that step that your real self, your moral self, has been pulling you towards. Contact that group you have been meaning to contact, or start that group you have been meaning to start. And feel that life pulsing through your veins. 2010-09-19T15:48:13+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/great-news-ted-glick-avoids-jail/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/great-news-ted-glick-avoids-jail/#When:17:03:55Z Fantastic news today for all climate activists around the world: Ted Glick, Climate Justice Faster and policy director of the US NGO Chesapeake Climate Action Now was spared the ordeal of a jail sentence for peacefully unfurling banners reading "GREEN JOBS NOW" and "GET TO WORK" inside the U.S. Senate Hart Office Building last September. Hundreds of fellow activists and climate concerned citizens from all over the world wrote letters in support of Ted to his judge and packed out his courtroom in solidarity, and it seems to have some effect. What was looking almost certainly like at least a few months, and quite possibly years, of jail time became simply a good behavior bond and community service, as Ted walked free from the court amongst friends and supporters. To anyone who helped this cause by writing a letter in support of Ted, thank you! Here is the poignant and powerful statement Ted read out in court: Ted Glick’s Sentencing Statement, July 6, 2010 Your honor, I’d like to focus my statement on the “why” of the September 8th action, about which I was not able to testify at my trial. I’ll begin with a quote from a March 4th, 2010 press release from the U.S. National Science Foundation. It concerns the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas 70 times as strong as carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere. This release begins: “A section of the Arctic Ocean seafloor that holds vast stores of frozen methane is showing signs of instability and widespread venting of the powerful greenhouse gas, according to the findings of an international research team. . . “The research results show that the permafrost under the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, long thought to be an impermeable barrier sealing in methane, is perforated and is starting to leak large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Release of even a fraction of the methane stored in the shelf could trigger abrupt climate warming.” This melting of frozen methane on the sea floor is one of several climate tipping points that scientists have long identified as of great concern. The others are: the release of methane frozen in the permafrost in the earth’s northern latitudes, the accelerated melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets such that sea level rise would be much more rapid than currently expected, and the drying out of the Amazon rainforest because of drought and the release of much of the estimated 120 billion tons of carbon sequestered there. What is a climate tipping point? It’s a point at which there has been so much heating up of the atmosphere that we experience drastic and runaway heating with truly catastrophic implications for the whole world, especially for the poor people of the world who are most vulnerable to respiratory diseases, heat stress, droughts, floods, major storms, water scarcity and disruption of agriculture. We may well be on the verge of one of these tipping points. I hope we haven’t passed one already. We are literally running out of time to make the dramatic changes, to shift rapidly from fossil fuels to clean energy, that will give us a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. I hope that in the thinking you have been doing about my sentence, this dire situation in which we find ourselves has been taken into account. Faced with such a planetary emergency, we must speak up and take action. And as citizens of a democracy, we must nonviolently urge, in the best ways we know how, our elected representatives, our Congresspersons and Senators, to do the right thing. That is what I did on September 8th of last year. As the country responsible for the highest percentage of greenhouse gases that are up in the atmosphere, the United States must begin to give leadership on this issue. We haven’t done so yet. And time is running out. Time is running out. All of us, in our own ways and for the sake of those being affected by climate change right now, for our children and grandchildren, must speak out and take action now.    And here is a quick video that shows Ted's action. He's the one at the end unfurling the long green banner. Hardly deserving of time in jail!  Ted, Climate Justice Fast! is inspired by your efforts, and truly happy for you and your family today. 2010-07-07T17:03:55+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/cjf-supports-the-climate-9/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/cjf-supports-the-climate-9/#When:14:51:27Z 2010-06-13T14:51:27+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/cjf-faster-ted-glick-faces-jail/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/cjf-faster-ted-glick-faces-jail/#When:11:09:17Z Despite the Gulf disaster, no one from BP has been arrested and sent to jail. But today I write to inform you that one of America's best global warming activists, and a Climate Justice Faster, is probably facing several months of jail. Why? Because he peacefully dropped two banners on Capitol Hill that said: "GREEN JOBS NOW" and "GET TO WORK." Ted was convicted by a jury May 13th of peacefully dropping the banners inside the U.S. Senate Building last September, and is due to be sentenced on July 6th. You can see a three-minute video of Ted's September "crime" right here. He's the guy toward the end simply lowering the banners. Period. Now Ted is facing up to three years in jail. Based on the judge's comments, it really does appear that he will be incarcerated for at least a month or two. So here's what you can do: Please write a respectful but firm letter to Judge Frederick H. Weisberg telling him why you think Ted should not go to jail (below is a letter a few of us have sent on behalf of all Climate Justice Fasters around the world). The judge's address is Judge Frederick H. Weisberg DC Superior Court 500 Indiana Ave., NW Washington, DC 20001 The letters should be respectful. Describe the urgency of the climate issue and the need to pressure the US government to take action on it; Give your views on what would be a justice-based approach by the legal system toward nonviolent actions of the kind Ted took part in. You can email Ted at ted@chesapeakeclimate.org, or you could send by regular mail to Ted's attention at CCAN, P.O. Box 11138, Takoma Park, Md. 20912.   CJF Letter Dear Judge Weisberg, We are writing this letter to you on behalf of all the participants of the Climate Justice Fast, an international fast which took place from November 6 to December 19 2009, and included Ted Glick, who is due to be sentenced by you on July 6th. Over 10,000 people from all over the world participated in the fast, and together, we would like to plead with you for leniency in Ted's case. We are deeply saddened at the prospect that while the corporations that are creating massive environmental catastrophes face no criminal penalties, Ted, this peaceful, compassionate and honest man, could soon be locked up in jail, simply for peacefully unfurling a banner that held a positive message about climate change – the most pressing issue our generation faces. We would like, if possible, to draw your attention to the scientific and political consensus that unless global warming is constrained to an increase of less than 2°C, our world will meet with a disaster of unprecedented magnitude, and to the absolute failure of world governments to safeguard us all from this tragedy. And we would like, if possible, to draw your attention to the fact that it is the political stagnation of the USA, home to only 5% of the world's population but producer of 25% of its greenhouse emissions, that is the primary obstacle in the road of humanity meeting this crisis, whose current victims are largely disadvantaged people in poorer nations who have done little to bring the crisis about. Somehow, and someway, we have to urgently wake up our politicians, and our populations, to the gravity and the urgency of the terrible threat we are all facing. That is why 10,000 of us took part in the Climate Justice Fast last year – three of us drinking water only for over 40 days. And that is why Ted Glick, peacefully, and with dignity, decided to unfurl his banner and its all-important message. It was an act undertaken out of love for humanity, and love for our beautiful earth. And it was an act that did not harm a single soul. Please protect the freedom to peacefully protest against injustice. Please don't put Ted Glick behind bars. There are few who deserve such a fate less. Sincerely, Anna Keenan, Annalies Aerts, Anthony Gleeson, Chuck Cain, Clare Hanrahan, Jean Sireyjol, Joanna Dafoe, Kathryn Blume, Keely Boom, Marcella Brassett, Neel Bannerjee, Paul Connor, Paul Thompson, Rowan Barber, Ruah Swennerfelt, Satya Vayu, Siobhan Leslie, Sue Lennox, & Uygar Ozesmi 2010-06-13T11:09:17+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/before-and-after1/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/before-and-after1/#When:04:15:55Z Hi all. I'm just posting this photo to head off any 'CJF denial' (there has been some- misinformation on the net claiming that the long term fasters weren't really fasting, or that we were still taking in nutrition other than water). Such statements are just lies. It's hardly surprising that this has occurred, however, given that we are climate change activists, and there is such an unseemly rash of lies all over the net about our cause. There is, however, an antidote to this rash, which is to spread onto it, as widely as possible, a generous amount of TRUTH.  Please watch, and share, the following videos as widely as you possibly can, and make a point of checking for new ones from their authors at regular intervals. You will find that once a rash sufferer has sat through a few of them, they will be forever cured. OOOOOOOOOOOO 2009-12-23T04:15:55+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-44-one-day-fast-ends/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-44-one-day-fast-ends/#When:10:52:36Z *Today, at 10AM, I ended my fast, after 43 days and 11 hours of taking in nothing but water and salt* One day.Could any two words hold more hope than these? They precede our dreams, our longings, and that which we need to believe. One day I’ll get that dream job, we say. One day I’ll have that family. They are a prayer, holding us up, and calling us on. Through these words, we fill the unknown future with everything our hearts desire- love, happiness, and security. And through these words, we find the strength to make our dreams come true. I used to have so many of these prayers. One day I would travel the world. One day I would be a successful musician. One day I would own my own home. Today, I have only one. Because I know that if this prayer does not come true, the rest will mean nothing. Today, my only prayer is that one day we will look back upon the current period of history and we will remember a time when the threat of climate change rendered our future uncertain. We will remember feeling fear as we watched the desperate warnings of scientists ignored by our leaders at COP15, and disbelief as our irreplaceable planet was sacrificed for meaningless profits. And we will remember our frustration as we worked to awaken a world that often seemed willfully ignorant of the enormous danger it faced. But this will not be all. I believe that one day, when we look back, we will also remember something incredible. We will remember how our generation made a collective decision to rise as one, all across the globe, and refused to let shortsightedness and greed destroy our future. We will remember that even when the situation seemed hopeless we never gave up, for there was just too much at stake. And we will remember how finally, our movement, once a whisper, grew before our eyes into a roar so deafening that it could no longer be ignored. On that day, our children and grandchildren will look to us with gratitude. Just as young Westerners pay their respects to the enormous sacrifices made during the great wars, one day we too will be thanked, for doing whatever it took to ensure that our descendants on this earth could have prayers of their own. I know that this is possible. I have seen for myself that when our message is one of truth, and we are driven by love, justice and compassion, amazing things can happen. Last December, Climate Justice Fast! was only an inkling of an idea in my mind- and I had never organized a dinner party before, let alone an international political action. Yet this past Thursday, over 10,000 people all around the world, including Naomi Klein, Mary Robinson and Bill McKibben fasted for a day for climate justice, inspired by CJF. So I know that this prayer can come true. But I also know that to achieve extraordinary results, we must be willing to do extraordinary things. To inspire a generation, we ourselves must be inspirational. We cannot afford to wait around for miracles. We must be the change we need to see. Scientist Tim Flannery was a keynote speaker at the June Australian youth climate conference Powershift. Looking out over the thousand young people present, he asked whether we are really willing to make the sacrifices required to solve the climate crisis. I know that we are. And by fasting for climate justice we sought to show this to him, and to the world. Our generation has been handed an unprecedented challenge. But together, we can overcome it. Together, we can mark a turning point in human history, away from centuries of environmental destruction and global inequality, and towards a just, sustainable future. We must reclaim the future, so that one day it can be filled with all our prayers once more.  2009-12-20T10:52:36+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-43-deal-qe/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-43-deal-qe/#When:12:31:15Z 2009-12-19T12:31:15+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-42-message-to-fasters/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-42-message-to-fasters/#When:13:07:31Z This is a special message I wrote last night to the over 3000 people around the world who are fasting today for climate justice. The text is here. 2009-12-17T13:07:31+00:00 http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/melbourne-vigil-on-one-day-solidarity-fast/ http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/melbourne-vigil-on-one-day-solidarity-fast/#When:11:30:14Z Climate Justice Fast! Yarra Climate Action Now! and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition present: A Melbourne event – A silent one hour lunchtime vigil for Climate Justice. Come and stand in support of the long term climate justice fasters and for decisive, meaningful action on climate change at Copenhagen. * Meet at 12:30pm Thursday 17th December outside Myer on Bourke St Mall. * Wear black. Bring a climate related banner if you have one * We will have masking tape to put over our mouths, in an X to reflect the climate justice fast logo (optional). === Climate Justice Fast is asking people to fast for a day in solidarity, as part of international 'Hunger for Survival'. http://www.climatejusticefast.com === Come along to the Melbourne event regardless of whether you are fasting, to show solidarity, and to highlight the climate emergency to Christmas shoppers on Bourke St Mall. Details here 2009-12-16T11:30:14+00:00