Settle 2nd Global Climate Strike

Since the first strike two months ago in September, things have moved rapidly. Extinction Rebellion Events in London in October raised the profile of the environment catastrophe.

The media has become SO much better in reporting the climate events.  

The magnitude of events are increasing exponentially.

My list of changes in the past two months has gotten so long that I have had to put it at the end of this post.

SO: The second Global Climate Strike we have had a Settle, North Yorkshire, UK took place from 1pm-2pm Friday 29th November. (Settle and Giggleswick have about 3,500 people and the surrounding villages about the same.). Neighbouring Skipton 16 miles away had a strike at 9am on this day.

Again we were blessed by sunny weather.

We were joined by Andy Brown (of the Green Party) and Andrew Murday (of the Liberal Democrats).

One lady came with her two young children.

One young lady, a singer, who works in Germany, said how in Berlin there would be thousands of people striking.

One man wanted to strike with us, but for job reasons did not want his face put up on social media, so did not stay

Here are the two carols we sang: They come from the Christian Climate Action Carol Book by Grace Thomas of the Manchester Hub. https://christianclimateaction.org

I wonder when we look back at this "Twelve year's of crisis" carol in three years time whether we will laugh or cry.

We have had scientists warning us many years that these things were going to happen if we did not look after the climate.

They predicted bigger things such as the reversal of the Gulf Stream. That still has not happened. It will make Britain a much colder place if/when it does.

Perhaps when people picked the Ladies Slipper Orchid to extinction (bar one later discovered plant,) 150 years ago, they thought the world was "infinite". Now we know it is not.

Here are the words of the carols.
Twelve years of Crisis:..

Here is just the last verse - the twelfth year:

On the twelfth year of crisis, inaction gave to me,
Eleven wildfires raging,
(sing slowly) No turning back (pause) Ten displaced peoples, Nine glaciers dwindling,
Eight coral die-offs, Seven flood disasters, Six nations starving. Five rising seas.
Four crop failures, Three heatwaves, Two hurricanes And a forest without any trees
------------------------

The second carol is:

We wish for a greener Christmas

We wish for a greener Christmas

We wish for a greener Christmas

We wish for a greener Christmas

And a Low Carbon year

Sad tidings we bring To you and your kin

We wish for a greener Christmas

And a Low Carbon Year

We all want meaningful action We all want meaningful action

We all want meaningful action So bring some out here
We won’t stop until we’ve got some
We won’t stop until we’ve got some
We won’t stop until we’ve got some So bring some out here

We wish for a greener Christmas…

words from https://christianclimateaction.org

For news of Settle Climate emergency events

visit the Facebook page of of Settle Action on Climate Emergency.

Here is a LIST of

Events that have happened since the last climate strike just two months ago: (I just write this because this blog is a sort of diary)

We have burning fires in the forests in Australia. 

We have melting ice sheets. 

"Just down the River Aire" - (The Aire  starts six miles away from Settle), just down the River Aire, (c 80 miles) after it meets the Ouse, where the River Don meets the Ouse there has been drastic flooding, last month, especially in a village called called Fishlake.

We have reports (from non-NE individuals) of the Natural England staff (those that are left) struggling with their work because of lack of staff (due to cutbacks, and people being sent to work for Brexit.)

Reports of increased deforestation on the Amazon.

I went on a lichens "holiday", and learned how lichens on trees in Devon and Cornwall that should show pure air, actually show that there is SO2 in the air.  It is coming from the huge ships.

We are going to have an election on 12 December. We had a hustings with (only) "Environment Questions" for our candidates on 16 November in the Victoria Hall

 and then another Hustings with other questions on 27 November 

We have had sudden promises from all the parties that they will plant millions / billions of trees. - I worry a bit about this - This may wreck lots of good valuable wildlife sites. The landowners will choose to plant on the poorer soils and these are often the only good places left for wild flowers and wildlife. Restoring peat bogs is a much better and more permanent way of storing carbon.

 Yet that is not mentioned.  We have lots of peat bogs in Yorkshire.

Well, That's where we are now.

  

Must go away and practise my carols now so that I don't need to have sheet music to help me in future.