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I was asked by a local journalist to summarise why we demonstrated on Friday. This is what I said:
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In the words of Greta Thunberg “We have an existential crisis on our hands”. This has been very real for my generation (who were probably the first to learn as children that the Earth was in trouble) but is even more terrifying for the children we are now bringing up. The state of our planet is spiralling rapidly out of control, right as they are beginning their lives; as they plan for their future. And even though it has been made undeniably clear (we have 12 years to find a solution) that we will not have air to breathe or food to eat, we see the likes of Donald Trump still publicly denying climate change. The most powerful man in the world pulling out of the Paris climate agreement in 2017. We get U.K. government policies going against everything we know we need to do to stop, or at least drastically slow down global warming. The greed in the West is literally killing Earth and it’s hitting the poorest and most innocent people (and animals) first.
We are a family that tries to do our best for the planet. We eat a vegan diet, we try not to buy plastic, shop local and second hand, we grow our own veg, we walk and cycle lots and spend time researching the most eco-friendly option with every choice we make but scarily, this is still no where near enough. And even if most people were living like us - it would still not be anywhere near enough. We need global action at government level. We need panic; we need extreme changes in culture and society e.g. forget a bag tax - let’s just not make any more plastic bags! Forget meat-free Mondays - ban beef! Ban fossil fuels, ban fishing, ban fast fashion, ban cars if we have to. Then we’d all HAVE to change. We’d have to adapt to a new world and we would do so and we’d be fine. We’d survive without these luxuries because, well, we’d save the planet. When most people don’t even see or believe in the issue, we will get nowhere without extreme governmental change dictating the action. And we only have 12 years to do it all in! *continued in comments*