Extinction (or) Rebellion

Mon 13 May 2019, 17:56 (last edited on Mon 13 May 2019, 17:59)

The Climate Emergency has risen up the national agenda very rapidly. That’s partly because of the steady flow of research findings, including the UN’s IPCC report last autumn, but especially because of the actions of the group Extinction Rebellion (XR) who put forward three simple demands and are getting very prominent coverage for them, with support from many well-known figures.

The XR website is here. The group also produces podcasts which you can access here or on your podcast app, and which give excellent introductions to their thinking and demands

Some local people who took part in, or supported, the demonstrations in London last month will be meeting on Wednesday May 29 at 7.30pm in the Friends Meeting House, Market Street to share their thoughts and feelings with one another and with anyone else who would like to join them. 

The meeting will be open to anyone who wants to come along and think about what it means to live in a world where we threaten our own species with extinction as a result of our own decisions and choices. This is a process which (if we allow it) could be irreversible within 5 to 10 years.

And specifically, to ask what people who live here can do to mitigate that situation? Can we turn an emergency into an opportunity -- to create a new kind of world and a new way of living and relating? And if so, how? And quickly enough.

The meeting is not a talk or a lecture, nor is it intended to be an argument. It is for people to share thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas at what many find an extremely challenging time. 

And to look ahead, towards how we can actually change what we do (and the values we hold) both individually and also as a country and a global species, to prevent disaster.

Any answers are likely to be both personal and political. What we do know is that we don't have long to come up with them, and to ensure that where necessary the world's governments act on them.

You will be very welcome to come.