Family Climate and Ecological Emergency

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Having set up the web site www.familyclimateemergency last year both my extended family and by daughter-in-law’s family held family assembly’s over Christmas and all participants made a declaration in the terms

“ Family Climate Emergency Declaration

We, the xxxx’s and any others who want to join in, pledge individually and collectively to become informed about the climate and ecological crises and to act accordingly. We will:

  1. be informed, truthful and transparent about the state of the climate and nature and our individual and collective responsibilities to achieve climate justice,

  2. commit to the taking of effective actions in order to reduce collective carbon emissions to zero by 2030, with the most substantial reductions by 2025, and to enhance biodiversity,

  3. to campaign, lobby and rebel to reduce systemic emissions and enhance biodiversity,

  4. to encourage and care for those participating in the transition.

We (some individuals and some households) have since calculated our carbon footprints using the same programme www.footprintcalculator.org.

The family is spread across the UK, the US and Canada and the current footprints are revealing. The average in the UK is coming out at the equivalent of about 3 planets and the US at about 4. The family member treading most lightly at 1.8 planets is a vegetarian non-driver in the US with her father well over 4.

Display copies are being made of the ‘the declaration’ with the current footprint and ‘overshoot day’ (ie when we have used up our annual allowance of the earth’s resources; mostly in April or May, after which we will be stealing from the future.

There is little room for disagreement that we should all be living as if there were just the one planet and that this will require reducing our carbon emissions to net zero in short order. There is endless debate about how this could or should be done and working as family groups in the transition is just one experiment. I will keep you posted and would be pleased if other families could share their experiences. Get climate done Daniel

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Looks like your site is down or your weblink isn’t working

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Thanks Tom, Strange. The site works if entering www.familyclimateemergency.net If I can edit the link, assembly’s should also be changed to assemblies. Daniel