We call on all people to leave their homes, walk out from their schools and take a break from their workplaces to join the Global Climate Strike on September 20th.
Why join the Global Climate Strike?
There is a “Climate Emergency” and we need to act now. Climate scientists said we are almost at a tipping point. The global surface temperature is heating up to a degree that is life threatening to all life forms. It will be difficult to undo the fate of our planet if global carbon emissions hit above 1.5 °C. Thus, even our environmental advocacies cannot be on “just-the-same” and “business as usual” mode. We need to step-up and do more than a hundred fold.
We, from the Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc. (PMPI), a network of civil society organizations, rights groups, peace and faith-based institutions joins other Climate Strikers to demand from government leaders and big businesses, locally and all over the world, to act with urgency and address the enormous ecological crisis we face today.
In a climate emergency context, all peoples and nations should act altogether to avert the catastrophic fate of the earth. Individuals, families and communities should do their share to minimize activities causing the atmosphere to heat-up. However, greater responsibility and accountability should be demanded from those most responsible for global warming – the big corporations and rich countries whose maniacal drive to use fossil fuels, propping-up methane emitting large agribusiness and transport systems for the sake of development, cause the atmosphere to heat-up.
Humankind have done enough harm and injustice not only to its kind, but to the whole congregation of living creatures in the ecosystem. Corporations and governments that hold money and power have caused rapid deterioration of our ecosystems and depletion of resources, without much regard to the other life thriving in these ecosystems. They emit pollutants to the air, bore through the mountains, clear the forests, and drill into the seas in search of “resources”, to produce commodities and products for the convenience of humankind, but which ultimately, failed to deliver the promised better quality of life for people in the world.
Majority of the world’s population remains poor! They are the most vulnerable and at the receiving end of climate change’s most brutal impact. Thus, justice demands that they are given just compensations and enough support to help them withstand the shock of the impact and bounce back to a life that is at least decent.
True, the climate change impact won’t discriminate in terms of color, race, age or boundaries and calling it an emergency or disaster as scientist say is an understatement. The fate of our mother earth is in our hands, and we owe it to our future generations that they can inherit a livable planet. We need to act steadfastly because there is no Planet B to talk about.
OUR DEMANDS AND CALLS:
1. We call on world leaders specially the United States of America, Japan, China and European countries to adopt policies that would reduce their carbon emissions, particularly by reducing the use fossil fuel and investing into clean energy. We call on these countries also to immediately set up funds for the most vulnerable people and countries so that they may be able to mitigate and withstand the climate change impacts this early.
2. We, call on the Philippine government not to take a development path like those big polluting countries. We, encourage Philippine government to explore using alternative source of energy that are abundant in our country – solar, wind and water while ensuring that other parts of the ecosystem are not harmed.
3. We call on good loving individuals, groups and institutions to divest and keep away their money from dirty investment like coal, mineral mining and fossil fuel exploration.
4. We call on all people of the world to do their share, by adopting a sustainable lifestyle. To check how you use energy at home, transportation means and production of waste.
5. We strongly echo the call for an ecological conversion and protecting our common home by our Pope, Francis. The need to regard nature as equally important as human beings. That we are part of nature and they are not just something outside us or a place where we live. There is a need to push for a recognition of the Rights of Nature in the legal, political, economic and social spheres of society which can further enhance the rights and well-being of humans.
Our power lies in the people’s collective struggle and fortitude, so we can move to action our government leaders and big corporations which continuously refuse to acknowledge the perilous situation brought about by climate change, and which mostly is of their making.
To the government leaders and big corporations, spare us your lack of cooperation and unyielding positions, we are coming to get you.
To the people of the world, unite to Defend our Common Home. Act locally, think globally for the future generations of all Creation.
