Climate Pledge
Citizens’ appeal to the governments of Planet Earth, the media and the public about the climate crisis. Download it, translate it, edit it locally and collect signatures to demonstrate public interest and build movement.
We Don’t Have Time!
On October 8, 2018, the scientific community issued an alarming opinion. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns clearly: we have only twelve years to transform society and move away from fossil fuels to keep global warming at the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark. Otherwise, we will not be able to prevent the worst consequences. This means that the commitments of the 2015 Paris Agreement will no longer be enough.
The collapse caused by climate change is in full swing: vanishing forests, droughts, fires, floods, severe water and air pollution, land desertification, mass extinction of animal and plant species, rising ocean levels, increasingly extreme weather fluctuations, ice cap melting, disruption of the balance of the oceans and the movement of global air masses (jet streams and polar vortex), just to name a few. If we do not act immediately, in a decade it will be too late to change, and our world may turn out to be unrecognizable. We will be facing a crisis of energy and food resources, an increase in mass migration or the spread of epidemics. In this situation, the economy will be doomed to collapse.
In our society we fight many legitimate battles – for freedom and democracy, justice, fair employment, quality health care, education, social justice. Once we lose the fight against climate change, we lose all the others, irreversibly. It is necessary to open up a whole-society debate about whether it is realistically possible to preserve life on Earth as we know it today, while current over-consumption, drawing on non-renewable energy sources, air and water pollution as well as massive clear-cutting of forests continue.
Let’s not let short-term economic interests prevail over ethics, solidarity and personal responsibility for nature and the world we live in. Most solutions to the climate crisis are known, but there is no general will to implement them in practice. Limiting the rise in global warming requires rapid and far-reaching changes and system solutions in all areas. We will all have to contribute to them, without exception, especially in rich countries. We must work together to find solutions to mitigate the climate crisis and its effects, so a dignified life of all of us, and especially the poorer southern countries, continues to be possible – and that is why we are demanding climate justice.
At the beginning of December 2018, the COP24 Climate Conference with the participation of more than 200 countries in the world was held in Katowice, Poland. Unfortunately so far politics and governments haven’t done really much of anything about it. so it is in our hands to spread the awareness, to get this into the minds of as many people as possible. This message is to all of us, so let’s spread it among all our friends, family and colleagues and anyone else you know! Also let’s start talking more to governments, institutions, corporations to take action now! We want as many people worldwide as possible actively fighting for an immediate slowdown in climate change, in the interest of all inhabitants of this planet.
THEREFORE:
We call upon the governments of Planet Earth to recognize climate change as a top priority as soon as possible and to present to the public ambitious, updated adaptation and regulatory strategies. For important decisions we are asking to invite experts and professionals who have long been active in areas such as nature conservation, circular economy, renewable energies, humanitarian, environmental, climate, hydrology, as well as social sciences, plus other areas to follow their recommendations and actively support their proposed solutions. We urge an accelerated end of the production of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) and their substitution with the most environmentally friendly sources of energy.
We encourage state and local authorities to work with environmental organizations, activist and volunteer associations and individuals who raise awareness, design and implement concrete steps to improve the current situation. Those who point to the urgency of the problem deserve support and not repression.
We urge all public officials, as well as personalities of social life not to underestimate the situation of climate change and the state of the environment. Their silence and lack of interest leads the public to an indifferent attitude, downplay and lack of interest in serious warnings by scientists.
We urge people in the leading positions of major companies producing the most emissions to take responsibility for the consequences of their activities. We urge them to take sufficient regulatory measures to halt devastating practices and turn to green solutions. Profit can not be the only measure of success, it is also about social responsibility and the will to change the direction of society for a better and healthier life. Air, water, and life can not be produced or purchased. The power to avert disaster is also in your hands today.
We call upon the academic community, educators at all levels of the education system to include the topic of the climate crisis and ecology more focused into the educational process to place sufficient emphasis on regular information on the problems and the possibilities of their solution, as well as on a joint discussion about the necessary changes in the life of each individual and family. It is the children and young people who are most affected by the consequences of climate change in the future. Let’s give them the opportunity to take a clear stance, find solutions and act.
We urge the media, especially public media, to address the topic of climate change intensively and regularly at the level of mainstream news as well as in form of professionally related programs in prime broadcasting times. It is inevitable to immediately and clearly inform the widest possible public about the urgency of the problem, to provide media with expertise, and to present opportunities for engaging in solutions, also at the level of individuals.
We call upon all of us to courageously stand against the practices of exorbitant exploitation of mother earth, long-term ignorance of expert voices protecting the environment, as well as the slow and inappropriate implementation of the inevitable measures against climate change. We must all immediately begin to work together to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases, waste, and participate together in the protection and rehabilitation of forests and farmland.
We thank everyone helping to contribute to a constructive dialogue and active cooperation of organizations and individuals across the political spectrum, ministries, scientific community, industries, interest and social groups.
Let’s not waste time with controversy, mistrust, and indifference, when our world is literally burns under our feet. Let’s not be subject to greed and comfort.
Let’s not waste time!