Why Climate Justice Fast?
Climate Justice Fast! aims to send a powerful message to members of the public who are as yet unaware of the urgency of climate action, as well as to inspire those who are already aware of climate change to become more politically active. In addition, our act will serve as a powerful reminder to our leaders of the importance, and moral consequences, of their decisions on climate change. We believe that hunger striking could not be more appropriate for the issue of climate change. We desperately need to bring attention to the enormity of its injustice, and to alert the general public to the urgency of climate action.
Climate change is a global emergency. Every leading scientific body on earth is warning that if we do not act now to rapidly reduce greenhouse emissions, we will cause an unprecedented environmental disaster, bringing famine, drought, disease, mass population displacement, extreme weather and extinctions.
Failure to heed this warning would amount to nothing less than a crime against humanity, and against all of life on earth. It would also represent an enormous injustice to the global poor and future generations, neither of whom is responsible for causing climate change, yet are predicted to suffer the most from its effects.
It is no exaggeration, then, to say that the current movement for climate action is the most important social movement in the history of humankind. Previous generations did not understand the problem, and future generations will be too late to change it. It is up to us.
What we seek is a better future- where people from all nations enjoy the same, fair, sustainable level of consumption. The developed world will undergo a fundamental values shift towards sustainability, and under-developed and poverty-stricken nations will be strongly supported to attain acceptable levels of well-being. We will recognise the limits to growth, understand wasteful materialism for what it is, and end the growth-at-all-costs ideology that has brought the global ecosystem to the point of collapse.
Our task is enormous, and we are fast running out of time to achieve it. All indicators of climate change are tracking at the top end of scientific predictions, and natural feedback mechanisms, such as the loss of reflectivity from vanishing ice sheets and the release of greenhouse gasses from melting permafrost threaten to force climate change beyond our control.
Our progress in achieving the political changes required to confront the crisis is far too slow. Politicians have shown time and time again that they will not act appropriately until public demand becomes so strong that it makes any other action impossible. We must somehow engineer a radical shift in public awareness capable of bringing about a political response unprecedented in both its speed and scope.
If we are to achieve this, it is obvious that we can no longer continue with “activism as usual”. Traditional methods of protest, such as marches, petitions, and direct actions, all lack the power to communicate the importance of the climate issue. These strategies have been used by environmental groups for years over countless different issues, and consequently are all too easily ignored by the media and the public. We need something more.
