No Neutral Positions on a Moving Train: A Template for Responding to Climate Denial
An open source template for responding to those who are not convinced that we are in a climate emergency. Please edit and distribute as you see fit, and as always; tell the truth, the whole truth, and speak with kindness.
I want to challenge you to reassess your ideas about this situation, to reconsider the available evidence, and to act in accordance with your highest personal ethics. I hear your concerns, and I understand that there are many competing views on this subject. I’d like to invite you to consider the information to come and to take some time to reflect and engage emotionally and rationally with what’s there, in the hope that we can discuss this in mutual good faith, and on common ground. I am not trying to convince you or sell you on anything, only to share with you what I have found and what has led me to take action.
We know that in Australia, we were ready to act on this issue 25 years ago, and would have without the interference of wealthy corporate interests with money to make from denying the problem:
We know that large corporations have been funding anti-intellectual misinformation campaigns to discredit legitimate science for at least two decades, in many cases for far longer:
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2019/04/25/global-climate-coalition-gcc-un-climate-change-ipcc/
We also know that they understood the risks and contnued to suppress our attempts to ensure appropriate safety measures were taken in time to prevent the worst of the crises:
They are now working to make it illegal for us to challenge their control in this space by lobbying for legislation which criminalizes protest and democratic action against polluters:
And hiring private militaries in the anticipation that they’ll need to shoot and kill us when the collapse, in their minds inevitably, occurs:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/10/magazine/climate-change-pinkertons.html
They are paying for this using our tax money:
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/17/18624740/fossil-fuel-subsidies-climate-imf
And while they’re using our money to harm us, they’re blaming us for their actions:
We know those same companies are making record profits while cutting our wages, our job security, our benefits and our rights as working people:
We know that they know the system is broken:
And that it couldn’t have existed without our tax money propping it up:
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/17/18624740/fossil-fuel-subsidies-climate-imf
The effects of all this are devastating.
We know that soil loss is happening at 10–100 times the typical rate. We know that the background rates of extinction are in places 1000 times the usual, a situation unseen outside of the fossil record. We know arctic permafrost is melting; it’s called perma-frost because it isn’t supposed to melt.
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/sr15_headline_statements.pdf
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
We need to take action on this while we can. This position is supported by tens of thousands of relevant experts.
https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming
https://www.who.int/heli/risks/climate/climatechange/en/
Inaction is action. There are no neutral positions on a moving train. By spreading the propaganda of these large corporates and by discrediting legitimate democratic movements seeking to safeguard our future from corporate and government predation, pollution and the extreme environmental crises which arise from such behaviour; you are creating a more dangerous world for yourself, for your loved ones, your family and friends, and all of us trying to get by on this earth. Your actions have consequences. I urge you, sincerely, please reconsider your views on this matter, please come and join us and help us act for truth, for justice, for peace and for unity in a time of increasing suffering and division. Help us create the more beautiful world we know is possible.