photo by Alex Garland
Thanks so much to the hundreds of you who came out in the cold and the driving rain to acknowledge that given the inadequacy of the political process, it falls to the rest of us to exert the pressure necessary to stop business as usual, and give the world a real chance at the no-more-than-1.5°C-temperature rise mentioned as the aspirational goal in Paris.
George Monbiot aptly called today’s Paris agreement, “by comparison to what could’ve been, a miracle. By comparison to what should’ve been, a disaster”. So it’s a good thing we here in the Northwest know what we need to do…
And that we’re getting good at it.
Thanks so much to our speakers (Ayanna, Aji, Mike, and Zarna), our chant leader Laurie, and especially Hodan, our emcee. And, of course, to the fabulous & dedicated people that pulled this all together in 13 days, and all of you who came out today in the (admittedly seasonal) lousy weather.
As Council Member O’Brien, just back from the talks, said, “The agreement is both unprecedented and inadequate. We may finally have commitments from all countries to significantly reduce carbon emissions, and yet those levels of commitments are not enough to save us. And we have not committed enough to help the Least Developed nations who did nothing to create the catastrophe that they will bear the brunt of. It is once again on activists to draw a red line that we as a planet cannot cross, and then defend that line with everything we have.”
So sign the Pledge, and help us plot a new way forward.
