My prayer is that it may be a contribution to the environmental crisis - a crisis which goes much wider than climate breakdown. And that it will alert others to the international Extinction Rebellion protests beginning on 15th April and in which Christian Climate Action will be participating in London. We ask for prayers for all involved in these protests and all who are affected by them. Their aim is to let Government - in fact all political parties - know that half-hearted action will no longer be accepted; and to alert citizens to the utter urgency and seriousness of what is being done to the Earth, processes in which we are each involved and have a responsibility to turn around.

Blessings in all that you do.

Phil

Facebook: www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2569422879769224
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea3nEOoNv_w


 
 

Dear friends, I am in London with Christian Climate Action as part of the Extinction Rebellion protests.
Greta Thunberg (who initiated the school strike for climate movement) had come from Sweden and I was asked to speak alongside her to make it an intergenerational event.
Below is what I said - more or less.

Phil


Dear companions,

Our generation has a belief that we are the most educated people who have lived.
In the materially rich countries, many of us believe that we have freedom of speech.

Yet there is in Britain and worldwide the suppression of a debate which it is absolutely essential to have.
It is the relationship between the current global economy and the destruction of the Earth.

Who most suppresses this debate?
Leading it are the top people in the biggest financial and commercial organisations.
Who most works with them to suppress this debate?
Virtually all heads of mainstream media. And tragically almost all politicians.
We are told the lie that our security lies in being a consumer and therefore more economic growth is essential.
I and many others in my generation fell for some of that.

We are not consumers. We are human beings and citizens.

Research by WWF tells us that we are now using the Earth as though we have 1.7 Earths.
Striking school children are letting us know that the lies which led us astray are now fully exposed.
Their focus and ours is upon the breakdown of climate ecosystems.
But many other ecosystems are breaking down: forests and other habitats; the enormous depletion and extinction of other-than-human life; the warming and acidification of the oceans.
We must break the silence surrounding the destructiveness of this economy.
It was never possible to have never-ending economic growth on a finite planet.

This economy has to be replaced by one which has two aims: the care and regeneration of the Earth and its life-forms; and the common good of all people, with no-one excluded. And hard as it may be to accept, this 'no-one excluded' must include those we may regard as enemies. They too are human beings, ones who have lost their way.

Be in no doubt that those who lead and support the current economy will do all that they can to avoid this debate.
They have the power to back that up. We have something greater than power. We have authority: the authority of truth and love.

Thank you.