Ōtautahi Christchurch March 1 Newsletter

ECan – is our public protector of awa and whenua doing enough?

In XR Ōtautahi’s first action we shut off the water to ECan’s office – a dramatic civil disobedience action that drew media attention to Canterbury’s dirty rivers and soon after led to ECan declaring a climate emergency. How we work –

We demand our elected reps protect people and whenua as we head into climate crisis
We dialogue with councillors and staff – we are inside and outside the building
We’re not afraid of being arrested, hunger-strike or any non-violent direct action that draws media & public attention to the crisis. We are driven by love and rage for our beloved Earth.
We love working with allied issue groups – AWA, SAFE, Malvern Hills Society, Sustainable Tarras ….

Come join us:

ECan and climate – Thurs 11 March 10am – 3pm – ECan’s monthly meeting open to the public. This will include ECan’s response to the Climate Change Commission’s report, with ECan’s response going public 2 days before. XRŌ will be outside and inside ECan – ask David to get onto his list for text alerts 027 222 5701
ECan’s long-term plan – Friday 26 March 6pm – 8pm at WEA – councillors Lan, Vicki and Craig present ECan’s revised Long Term Plan. Public meeting, all welcome!
Weekly vigil every Thursday 12.30 – 1.30pm, outside ECan 200 Tuam St (opposite the Bus Xchange)
Weekly vigil every Friday 10.30 – 2.30 outside Christchurch City Council (Worcester St entrance) with David Goldsmith. As with ECan, we are keeping an eye on CCC’s monthly agendas and engaging with councillors, staff and public. Text David if you’d like to be on his text reminder list 027 222 5701

The most important submission you can do this year

The one most important message to give the Climate Change Commission on its draft report is:

“Your targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions are too weak and too slow!!”

Why? Because the experts are saying so – a few examples:

Graham Townsend (350Ch) submission lists the climate science to back this up
UN report on lack of progress made by the 197 states who signed the Paris Agreement
Rod Oram’s early Newsroom response to CCC report, with good references
Bergstrom & other scientists – detailed evidence of collapse of Australian ecosystems
David Attenborough to Security Council on security threat of climate/eco crisis (video)
Submission template from coalition of organisations including Pacific Climate Warriors, SS4C, 350, GenZero, Forest & Bird, Oxfam, Coal Action Network etc

Do your submission NOW! Deadline is now 28 March.

Don’t be daunted by the detail – you can refer to others’ expertise (see links above).

Useful links:

CCC’s process & timeline for making submissions – fill in their form or send in your own.
Have a look at CCC submission form here before filling it in
Here’s the Executive summary of the CCC report (12pp Google doc)
James Renwick’s descriptive summary – climate scientist & CCC commissioner – a great explainer: What the Climate Change Commission is asking from NZ’s Government.
Notes from networking hui where XRŌ and 20 or so allied organisations shared ideas.

Submission sharing night – Friday 5 March 7.30pm at WEA – XRŌ rebels and other organisations will reconvene – all welcome, just come along!

XR visioning

XR Aotearoa is planning a digital hui (zhui) for local XR groups to talk through our common values and the broad direction forward for XR agreed at the national hui in December.

This included themes of –

Raising indigenous voices
Dismantling patriarchy – creating ways of relating that move away from power-over
Creating a radically different society that is based on nurturing people and the land.
XR throughout the world is moving to ally with indigenous groups as keepers of mana whenua.

In Aotearoa this is reflected in Te Waka Hourua – a group working alongside XR Aotearoa to decolonise our ways of working.

It also involves reconsidering what we mean by “citizens assemblies”/participatory democracy – eg. how does this relate to the ongoing Matike Mai project.

Covid has had a huge impact – in Aotearoa there is more openness to collective solutions, more questioning of endless economic ‘growth’ and more exploration of alternatives. XRŌ is actively seeking to work alongside other progressive groups on these questions (eg. Alternative Aotearoa).

Themes that keep coming up as we talk within XR include – degrowth, the commons, local sustainability, local food self-sufficiency, water protection, regenerative culture, relating in inclusive non-polarising ways, we are all in this together… And urgency, passion, rage…

A few resources – please share any you may have too

“Pivoting to the endgame” – Roger Hallam video and 2 page summary

“Visioning Extinction Rebellion” – online video webinar with Gail Bradbrook, Kofi Mawuli Klu, Roger Hallam & Clare Farrell

XR Global has a mass of resources and trainings from around the world that can be accessed through Mattermost – ask Dave Evans at a Heartbeat meeting how to join MM.