Guest post: “Climate breakdown will affect us all.”

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

TLDR: The Mothers’ Climate March is on 12 May; Hyde Park corner to Parliament square. Come and join us.

I am not usually the sort of person who organises marches - I’ve never been an activist or a campaigner.

I really, really hate conflict. And asking people to do stuff.

But being a mother has changed me in some quite profound ways. If my kids are threatened, you can bet I’ll be there to protect them. If they need me to advocate for something, I’ll make myself do it; I’ll arrange meetings, write letters and have difficult conversations. In my time, I’ve thrown everything into getting them into good schools or trying to get my DS help for his SEN. And now I’m organising a march with a group of mums called Mothers Rise Up. This time it’s not just for my kids - it’s for everyone’s kids.

I’ve known our kids’ futures are threatened for some time now. For me, this knowledge has mostly manifested itself as an underlying sense of dread, humming in the background alongside a feeling of absolute powerlessness. A desire not to look. I’m talking about the C word.

Climate.

Climate breakdown, more specifically. You may not have heard of the IPCC report (it didn’t get loads of press)  -  it’s a collaborative report commissioned by the UN and worked on by hundreds of climate scientists. These scientists make predictions about how the climate will change and recommendations for what to do about it.

Historically they have always underestimated the speed and severity of climate change. Their most recent report is the first one I’ve read all of. I’d known about climate change - as much as we all know - and knew things were bad, but I hadn’t let myself realise quite how bad.

This report, I believe, is what has inspired the recent protests and documentaries such as the Youth Strike, Extinction Rebellion, and the recent David Attenborough documentary. The narration is in plain language, but it paints an alarming picture of what will happen to the world in our lifetimes if we do not all act quickly.

This is not about polar bears. Without rapid, systemic and far-reaching change there will be serious loss of human life. Climate breakdown will affect us all. Our food supplies, our homes and the other resources that we need to live are all under threat. Rising sea levels, ocean acidification, spreading deserts and natural disasters like forest fires, floods and typhoons will become more and more commonplace. This scenario is on track to happen in my old age, when my children are in their thirties and forties. Their kids, if they have them, will face threats and hardship unlike anything our generation has known.

This will not be solved by individuals diligently separating their recycling. Arresting climate change is possible, but it will require radical, systemic and rapid change.

Our children are already out there on the streets protesting, striking from school and demanding government action, but this mess is not theirs. We wholeheartedly support them, but they are too young to take this burden alone. It should be us who are out there demanding change and protecting them. This is something the current government needs to act on. It’s time for us to sort out this mess.

A group of us have come together to form Mothers Rise Up. On our own, we felt worried and powerless. As a collective, we are not powerless. We are organising. Our first step will be a march to demand government action: The Mothers’ Climate March is on International Mother’s Day, 12th May and will go from Hyde Park Corner to Parliament Square in London.

This guest post is your invitation to join in. To come to the march on Sunday 12th May, to email your MP, to make your change, to find a community that shares your concern over the future of our shared home. You can find us on Facebook or follow us on twitter @MothersRiseUp

Join us! Everyone is welcome. Like Mumsnet, we are powered by mums but we are not only for mums; anyone who cares about the future of our shared home will get a warm welcome. My DD is making cookies for the march so if you spot me and give me the Mumsnet wink I might persuade her to part with one.

This post is also your invitation to chat. I’ll be back in a few days to answer your questions. I also have a personal Mumsnet account @traynorbird where I generally lurk about giggling in AIBU and Classics. I’m happy to have a conversation there too.

First though, I have a question for you. Should there be a climate board on MN where we can form community around this issue? I think there should be.

Catherine will be returning to the guest post on 26/04/2019 to answer some of your questions

[Anna1717]

Watch the Sir David Attenborough 'Climate Change the Facts' for information on the subject. You can also follow Parents for Future for more information, look for us on Facebook or the website below:

www.parentsforfuture.org.uk