Fridays For Future Aotearoa, Te Upoko o te Ika (Wellington, New Zealand)
We protest at the Parliament Lawn on Tuesdays, from 12.30 to 1.30pm. And at Midland Park on the last Friday of each month. Join us!
The Ministry of Justice wants to hear your views about possible changes to the political donation rules in the Electoral Act 1993.
For example:
Should there be a cap on how much someone can donate to a political party?
Should political parties have to identify donors for donations less than $15,000?
Should businesses be able to donate?
More details are on the Ministry of Justice website.
Consultation is open until Tuesday, 25 January 2022.
On Friday 28 January, the Fridays for Future group is helping to clean up the Wellington waterfront. It will be a great way to get out in the community and raise our profile – and do something practical at the same time!
The clean-up is organised by the Museum of Wellington City and Sea, through Sustainable Coastlines.
Specifics:
You will need your Vaccine Pass. Children under 12 years old need to be accompanied by an adult.
Wear close-toed shoes and dress for sun/rain protection. Bring your own filled drink bottle. Gloves are provided, but if you have your own, please bring them.
You don’t have to be there for the whole two hours, but it’s best to get there for at least the first half hour, for the health and safety briefing.
Note: if you would prefer to protest on the Parliament Lawn on Friday 28 Jan, that’s fine too. Some Fridays for Future protesters will be at the Parliament Lawn 12.30 – 1.30 as usual.
With the end of COP 26 on 13 November, Glasgow seems to have been yet another missed opportunity to take decisive action and keep global temperature increases under 1.5C.
Climate scientists say that, based on concrete commitments before and during COP 26, Planet Earth could be affected by global temperature increases of 1.8C – 2.4C, leading to catastrophic impacts.
We are particularly concerned about:
Climate Action Tracker estimated the promises made at the Glasgow Summit would warm the planet by 2.7C and it rated Aotearoa New Zealand’s response to climate change as ‘Highly Insufficient”, among the worst, lumping us in with Australia and Japan. New Zealand even won a Fossil Award on the penultimate day of COP26 (see https://www.newsroom.co.nz/cop26/pro-talks-nz-awarded-humiliating-fossil-status-at-cop26
A slow start, last minute targets and a 5 month delay to the implementation of carbon budgets under the Zero Carbon Act have been underlined by the Prime Minister’s failure to attend in Glasgow. It is also hard to see how Aotearoa will meet its commitment to methane reduction given its selective treatment of agricultural emissions.
It seems to us that the Government is not getting the message that “Go Early Means Now”
To dive into the details of our last minute commitments, we recommend reading COP26: New Zealand’s new climate pledge is a step up, but not a ‘fair share’ by Robert McLachlan, Professor in Applied Mathematics, Massey University published by The Conversation.
So Fridays for Future Aotearoa NZ will continue our protests for climate justice outside Parliament House in Wellington every Friday from 12.30 – 1.30pm. We started our protests in May 2019 with a call for a Climate Emergency. This call was answered in December 2020 by the Government by declaring a nationwide Climate Emergency. The lack of meaningful climate action orchestrated by our Government – or how Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Earth System Science Centre at Penn State University calls it, – the Implementation Gap – is the reason why we continue protesting. Click the link below to hear the voices of protesters who joined the Global Climate Strike earlier this year.
We will continue to protest at the Parliament Lawn over the holiday period, including Christmas Eve.
So if you are in Wellington at this time, come and spend an hour with us. Take a break from all the consumption to stand for something real.
We will bring some signs but you are welcome to bring your own (we love seeing climate protest art).
Every Friday at the Parliament Lawn, 12.30 – 1.30pm
Just a note about Friday 17 December – there’s an anti-vax protest expected on Thursday 16th. If they return to Parliament Lawn on the Friday and are still there when we FFF protesters arrive, we will set up further along the Lawn. So look out for our FFF flags!
I’ll leave you with a list of climate-related podcasts from the Fridays for Future Action Network, here. I’m especially looking forward to listening to Suzanne Simard talk about how trees communicate with other!
Some of our Fridays for Future members who took part in Extinction Rebellion Wellington’s recent Week of Action (in October), made it into an article in the online magazine The Conversation.
We are big fans of Joanna Macy and The Work That Reconnects (WTR). The WTR network joined forces with award-winning film makers Emmanuel Cappellin and Anne-Marie Sangla to launch the documentary ‘Once You Know’.
Several of the registered WTR Network Facilitator Members will be hosting screenings of this moving film and facilitating post-screening WTR experiences to support us in processing the emotions the film stirs and help build resilience and solidarity.
‘Inspired by the Work That Reconnects, Extinction Rebellion and Collapsology, this film is a deeply personal exploration of coming to terms with crisis, collapse and active hope in these troubling times.’
Work That Reconnects Network website (WTR)
So please follow their invitation to this special online event series, the last screening is on Monday, November 22nd (NZ Time).
Please note, registration comes with a minimum US$15 donation, which will support the filmmaker and the film production and distribution companies that have made this international screening possible, along with covering the cost to the WTR Network.
We hope this excites you as much as it excites us.
Check screening times for NZ timezone.
A one-day workshop for creative rangatahi (that’s you) to come together and envision what
Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s food systems could look like by 2050 — the wilder and more
whimsical, the better!
When and Where?
Saturday,
20 Nov 2021
10 – 6pm
Innermost Gardens, Matairangi/Mt Victoria
We’ll also have:
– interactive installations
– delicious kai
– big fun!
There’ll be urban agriculture experts, artists, and speculative designers (future thinkers) there to guide the generation and communication of future food ideas. Decision-makers will arrive in the evening to hear about the day’s outcomes and meet our young changemakers over a BBQ futures feast produced by local chefs.
The garden will be an in-context site for all of these groups of people to meet, listen, share, and potentially collaborate, moving ideas beyond this initial workshop.
It’s shaping up to be a hugely impactful youth event. We’re looking for young people between the ages of 15 and 25 who are interested in:
– community gardening and urban farming
– indigenous food sovereignty and climate action
– waste minimisation and creative reuse sustainability-focused cooking, foraging and mahinga kai
– eco architecture and urban planning (edible green spaces) storytelling for social change
Please RSVP via email to Alex alex@bgi.org.nz!
Please note FFF Aotearoa NZ isn’t involved in organising this event, we are simply standing in solidarity with BGI, Grow Space Wellington and The Sustainability Trust.
In response to requests for a Fridays For Future event on the weekend, there will be a Picnics For Future!
Date : Sunday, 21 Nov 2021
Start time :12 noon
Finish time: due to the rain we have packed up early, at 1.30pm
Venue : For reasons beyond our control the picnic will now be at the Amphitheatre, Frank Kitts Park. Apologies for any inconvenience.
We are the people . We have a voice. We are the people. We have a choice!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJyvE-e5Njk
Bring your lunch and share kai & korero with people who want more action on climate justice . We will sing action songs and there will be chalk so we can leave our messages for the politicians at parliament.
IF YOU WISH WE CAN CHALK UP MESSAGES TO HOLD PARLIAMENT TO COP26 COMMITMENTS FOR PLANET AND PEOPLE
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-59155537https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-59155537
Be inspired by the thousands of Climate activist marching through the streets of Glasgow. We are the people. We have a voice.
Join our Picnic for Futures at Frank Kitts Park on 21 November. See you there!
Taranaki is the ‘energy centre’ of Aotearoa and a major industrial dairy region.
Join Climate Justice Taranaki and a host of other social justice and climate groups for local and online actions during the COP26 international climate negotiations in November, to take direct action against major climate polluters and demand urgent, just transformation of government and big business.
Their demands are:
Due to the Covid-19 situation there will be an online webinar followed by local and online actions across the motu from 3-6 November. The national in-person event is postponed to Easter in early April 2022.
The two days of protest are:
Please check for updates on the Rise Up For Climate website.
Please note FFF TUI is not involved in organising this event, we are simply standing in solidarity with Climate Justice Taranaki.
During last month’s Global Climate Strike we asked fellow activists ‘Why are you protesting today?’ Watch their reasons in this 90 second video.
Close to 1,000,000 people in over 100 countries across 1,900 strikes took their climate concerns to the streets. For the Global Strike in March 2019 it was less than 1,000 strikes; 900 strikes more is a huge leap forward, considering we are still facing the challenges of the global pandemic.
It wasn’t an easy task to get the message out to as many folks as possible for our local strike on Parliament Lawn. The delta outbreak, moving alert levels, the uncertainty that comes with it and the need to keep all of us safe were weighing on our shoulders. Surely you can all sympathise with the difficulties around decision making during these times.
Yet, it felt like a responsibility (at least for us) to do something, even if it is little.
First of all to send a positive message to our fellow New Zealanders in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland who couldn’t protest. Kia kaha Tāmaki Makaurau 💜
And secondly to keep the Climate Crisis in everyone’s mind, especially when witnessing the recent delay tactics from our government despite having declared a Climate Emergency in December last year, that is 9 months ago. Rod Oram found some clear words for it in his newsroom comment article ‘Govt lacks integrity, skill and will on climate’ from September 17, 2021.
With some last minute Fast Chalking action in Pōneke CBD, a social media and email mahi, and support from other wonderful grassroots action groups – a green shout out to Alex and the awesome humans from Picnic in Parks 💚 – we were an energetic crowd of 30. We sang together, we chanted together, we cared together. Sending gratitude to everyone who had a chance to come along and support the action. Ka pai team!
A massive thank you again!
PS You can find us every Friday from 12.30 Noon protesting on Parliament Lawn. ✊