Calls for urgent action to tackle climate breakdown were heard in Newcastle and at hundreds of rallies around the world, on the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice. Thank you for all the feedback - snippets below - and ideas for 2025 events very welcome, including COP30! Email contact@climateactionnewcastle.com.
Protesters from around the North East marched as world leaders battled over future policy at COP29 in Baku. And vital local and national battles were spelled out by speakers at Newcastle Civic Centre and the Climate Stalls event that followed. This annual gathering from around the region was organised by North East Climate Justice Coalition.
Speakers and stalls representing wildlife organisations, churches, political groups, health and anti-war campaigns and a wide range of community groups highlighted the reasons to lobby and protest:
the UK's dramatic decline in wildlife, insects and plants - we must lobby our MPs over the Climate & Nature Bill before its second reading on 24 January
new oil and gas extraction plans in the North Sea - the court challenge is now underway in Edinburgh
rising fossil fuel emissions - the failure to comply with the Paris Agreement is accelerating temperature rises and the risks of tipping points that make climate breakdown irreversible. Individually and together, we must "green" our finance, ending the fossil fuel links of banks, insurance companies and pensions (including the huge investments of our local Tyne & Wear Pension Fund).
boost national, regional, local progress towards net zero - Government must get UK back on track, organisations must take responsibility
links between war and ecocide - as well as humanitarian disasters, current conflicts are adding to environmental destruction and greenhouse gas emissions, and diverting huge sums needed for positive improvements for future sustainability
placing climate justice at the heart of decision-making - in the UK as well as global decision-making
NEWCASTLE CIVIC CENTRE RALLY: speakers
Nick Hartley, Green Party
Gareth Kane, Lib Dems (pictured below, right)
Paul Miskin, Planet Action Street Arts
Lucy Twigg, Young Peoples Forum for Northumberland Wildlife Trust (pictured right)
Gordon Port, Natural History Society of Northumbria
Pam Wortley, Stop the War Coalition
Rev Tim Mayfield, Bishops Advisor on Environment (pictured left)
Tony Waterston, XR
CLIMATE STALLS AND NETWORKING: speakers
-Vikki Gilbert, North East Passenger Transport User Group (NEPTUG)
-No to Hassockfield statement (read out by Gill Turner, pictured)
-Hollie Mildenhall, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
-Rev Robert Lawrance (pictured) spoke about climate grief and hope - read his uplifting words below.
CLIMATE STALLS:
Climate Action Newcastle;
Divest Tyne & Wear;
Fairtrade (Newcastle); Green Party; Greenpeace; Hexham Climate Cafe; Keep our NHS Public; MedAct;
North East Passenger Transport User Group (NEPTUG);
North East Animal Rights; Northumberland Wildlife Trust; People's Assembly; St Francis Church Eco Group; Stop Incinerator North East (SINE); Stop the War Coalition; Viva! vegan charity; XR (Extinction Rebellion)
CLIMATE STALLS AND NETWORKING: other events
Mothers Rebellion Circle:
Circle outside hall in Northumberland Rd, involving mothers, grandmothers, sisters and allies
XR Listening Circle event:
Ralph Pettigrew from Extinction Rebellion led a Listening Circle in a separate quieter space.
Celebration screening - Climate Action 2024: round-up of scores of climate events and groups around our area - will be updated and
available from Climate Action Newcastle towards the end of 2024.
***Evening Chronicle: coverage and pictures here
***GALLERY OF PICTURES ACROSS THE DAY OF ACTION
CLIMATE GRIEF, ACTIVE HOPE
Revd. Robert Lawrance, St Francis Church, High Heaton
"Good day good people! We live in a time of climate grief, and grief can paralyse us. I want to encourage us not to allow this paralysis to take hold, and for us to encourage others, too, in our families, workplaces and places of leisure, worship and volunteering.
We have already reached the point where global warming is changing the climate; we see this with rising sea levels, increasing desertification, and the resulting migration of people and increased competition for resources.
It would be easy to give way to despair. I want to encourage you not to succumb to your climate grief, but use it as a spur to change our behaviour. This means, first, that we have to acknowledge that we are grieving, and acknowledge that we are the cause of the changes that are happening. Perhaps it might help if we could be attentive to one particular thing and see it afresh. Perhaps that is the first step to changing what we do, which might change the way we live, in relation to the creatures around us?
Once acknowledged, climate grief is also something that can be shared: we can discuss it and begin a dialogue with other people, and begin to pay attention to those who are victims of it and those who suffer most because of it. This is the first step in what Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone describe in their book as "Active Hope". This is the conviction that we can engage in a spiral of activity that will actually change things! It works because, by allowing ourselves to be attentive to our grief, four things follow.
First, we derive a greater sense of self, identifying ourselves as part of the system which needs to be transformed.
Second, by facing our grief, we change our relationship with it and begin to take power over it, which enables us to conceive of the transformation we long to see.
And the third step is that we begin to discover that others share this grief. We then begin to build a new kind of community, of which today's march and stalls fair is a foretaste: a community of people who are prepared to take action for the change we all long to see.
The final consequence of this change in attitude is that we also acquire a greater sense of time, and appreciate that our actions are not for ourselves or even our children and grandchildren, but for people in generations and centuries to come.
We are bits of stardust in a cosmic universe, but what we do now has consequences for the future - if we allow our perspective to be changed in these ways, we will be part of the solution!
FEEDBACK ON COP29 EVENTS:
" a big thank you for organising the event last Saturday. I came down ... feeling rather despondent about things and returned feeling much more positive. Thank you for your part in that transformation!"
"A massive ' Thank you' to everyone who organised today - everything I saw worked very well. Our listening circle was excellent and well attended, leading to some great conversations and follow up.. I've come away from the day very encouraged and more connected with other people and their projects."
"a social justice event in the wider sense".
"It was great to see lots of banners, placards and representatives from many groups. Anyone taking part would feel like they are part of a bigger movement. I certainly did!"
"The event in the church was great. Lots of opportunities to see what groups are doing, make links (which I did) and get a FREE tea and biscuit! So welcoming and a really positive message too."
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