Telling the truth to the Pension Fund Committee

Last Thursday we interrupted the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund Committee with a 2min speech…

All except 3 committee members walked out and the only member with voting rights on the committee who stayed was Ashfield councillor Lee Waters – who clapped at the end of our speech.

Here is the text of the speech…

We welcome the new committee members Andre Camilleri, Mike Introna, Sam Smith, Lee Waters & Jonathan Wheeler who we hope may bring new impetus to the committee.

We applaud the County Council’s declaration of a Climate Emergency and the commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in all its activities by 2030.

We noted that the leader of the County Council Ben Bradley specifically identified council investments and Pensions as part of the carbon neutrality target.

This new positive direction of the County Council creates an exciting opportunity to boost the local economy and create thousands of sustainable jobs whilst at the same time helping to save future generations from a miserable uncertain future.

We strongly believe that the people of Nottinghamshire and the pension fund members would support a shift from the immoral funding of the very industries that have knowingly caused this crisis to the creation of a strong local economy that will help mitigate against its worst consequences.

We believe this is the stated intent of the new leader of the Council so we are particularly disappointed at the postponement of the report and discussion on “financial investments in relation to climate risk” This demonstrates a lack of urgency once again when asked to face up to the reality of pension investments.
This now appears to be completely at odds with stated County Council policy.

An emergency clearly requires urgent action

It is your duty and responsibility to all pension fund holders and on behalf of the people of Nottinghamshire and future generations to act with integrity and honour the commitments that you have made to Carbon neutrality.

History will bear witness as to whether you make the right choices or continue to find reasons for not acting now with all due urgency.

Thank you for your time.

‘Not the Sun’ newspaper

On Friday 23rd July, we handed out copies of cheeky tabloid style ‘Not the Sun’ at Nottingham and Beeston railway stations.

Except for our very independent and supportive LeftLion Magazine Nottingham, no press in Nottingham and hardly anywhere else in the country reported on this. 

Creating ‘Not The Sun’ offered an unsettling glimpse into the iron grip of fear that Murdoch exerts over an entire industry. Two major printers and their lawyers refused to print our tabloid after seeing our hard-hitting front-page exposé of Murdoch’s environmental crimes

Could it be because…

Three-quarters of British newspapers are held hostage by three billionaires such as Frederick Barclay, who (from his private island) makes sure we only ever read the stories that keep profits growing. 

While people die in floods in Germany, China, and America and the UK bake in a deadly heat wave, the ultra-rich media barons Rupert Murdoch, Viscount Rothermere and Frederick Barclay run headlines such as “green hysteria” – despite being riddled with false claims.Not the Sun is sharing the truth that the media and politicians from all political parties don’t want you to know: that this is the worst crisis that humanity has ever faced, and that our leaders are failing to protect us.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: there’s a jokey Page 3, a problem page, and hope for a better tomorrow if we take action and all together tackle the crisis with Brit grit and spirit.

Read a copy of ‘Not the Sun’ online here…

March for Wildlife

An amazing ending to the tour of the East Midlands over the last few weekends.
Chesterfield, Leicester, Derby, Lincoln and then Nottingham!!
Over hundred rebels and supporters joined a very sunny march through the city centre – to bring a colourful, entertaining and noisy parade…. with a serious message.
We are in the middle of the sixth mass-extinction on this planet – and human activity is the driver of this situation.
🦊 Of all the mammals of the world
4% of wild animals
36% are human
and a massive 60% are farmed animals who exist just to feed us!

⚖️ Why is nature out of balance?

Pollution, overfishing, pesticides, erosion of soil, destruction of wetland/peatlands, factory farming, deforestation and fossil fuel driven climate change.


🦋
 Why do we need nature?

Insects pollinate the food we eat.
Nature is complex, take one species away, it impacts many others.
Nature recycles nutrients, essential for life to flourish.
It is literally our life-support system.

Letter to County Councillors

Open letter sent to all new or re-elected county councillors

Congratulations on being successfully elected to represent your ward on Nottinghamshire County Council.

As you are probably aware Extinction Rebellion Nottingham organised a Climate Camp between Trent Bridge and the County Council offices for 9 days leading up to the elections. While we were there, we spoke to many people walking alongside the Trent travelling to or from work or taking their daily exercise. Many of them were extremely concerned about the climate change emergency and wanted us to send you their picture with the frame caption that captured their feelings at the time. 

 Your tenure, whether you are newly elected or a seasoned councillor, comes at the most crucial time for taking the action that will give the planet the best chance of keeping with in the 1.5oC above pre industrial temperatures – we are currently at over 1.2oC and counting. Scientists are telling everyone that unless we actually reduce (as opposed to only talk about reducing) our CO2 emissions into the atmosphere significantly every year from now on, then the impact for us all including you, your family and your constituents will be catastrophic. 

The County Council with its strategic and wide-ranging responsibilities and influence has a crucial part to play and we urge you to do everything you can, working cooperatively with all councillors from all parties and none, to make a difference. This temperature rise is caused by humans and human activities, including us all in Nottinghamshire, and humans are capable of slowing it down, but only if elected representatives such as yourselves take the necessary emergency action now. 

What you do as an individual in the next election period in terms of the climate emergency will be your lasting legacy. 

Every decision you make from now on will have its own impact on the climate. 

Please consider this prior to all votes and in all discussions that you have on the council starting with the very welcome possibility of the council making the first step of declaring a “Climate Emergency” on Thursday 27th May.

Best Wishes,
Extinction Rebellion Nottingham

Climate Camp – Day Eight

the busiest day !

Firstly we were still at climate camp, but also had an XR speaker at the Trade Union’s May Day rally at the Forest Rec and also on the march from John Carroll leisure centre to support the campaign to save it from closure and also headlining in the news with our participation with a UK wide action called Rebellion of One!

rebellion of one

1st May marks two years since the UK Parliament declared a climate emergency. Two years on and the Climate Change Committee and National Audit Office have said the government is doing next to nothing.

The government have missed even their own weak and irresponsible targets and the head of the Environment Agency warns us we are already hitting worse-case scenario levels.

Clearly visible behind this government’s coat of lies and greenwash are their real priorities: stay in power; bail out polluting industries; protect their own interests; and lie to us about it. Their move further towards authoritarianism with the Police and Crimes Bill makes it clear that not only do they have no plan to fix the mess we’re in, but that our actions have rattled them.

This is the desperate act of a government in denial, to censor the voices of dissent rather than face the reality of the situation we are in.

So we took action alongside hundreds of rebels around the UK

UK livestream
BBC local News
Nottingham Post
Gedling Eye
West Bridgford Wire

Climate Camp – Day Seven

ACTION DAY

First a Climate Crime Scene
In the very early hours of the morning – Nottinghamshire County Council’s offices at County Hall were declared a Climate Crime Scene!
All entrances sealed off until they #TellTheTruth by declaring a Climate Emergency! 
AND #ActNow follow our other demands of divesting the pension fund from fossil fuels and stop backing massive CO2 emitting projects like the incinerator plans for Ratcliffe-on-Soar.
AND go #BeyondPolitics by supporting the CEE bill !! 😀

Pull the plug on climate lies

The people of this country deserve to be told the truth. But the governments both national and local are failing us.

We’ve had enough of greenwashing form all sectors and it’s time to expose the lies of the big oil companies and the complicity of the banking sector.

And no day would be complete with a little friendly conversation with a giant slightly scary puppet!

Climate Camp – Day Six

News just in of Conservative-led Devon County Council voting to support the CEE Bill. This is fantastic step forward in the campaign, which also now has the support of 108 MPs and 40 councils. This gives even more strength to our third demand to Nottingham County Council to follow this lead and pass a motion to support this bill.

Thursday spontaneously became a day of culture!  There was a Samba workshop just after lunch and then Stella’s haunting musical and theatrical ‘Violin in flames’ (video coming soon!) which was an “Evocative & poignant burning violin performance, stunning costumes” (rebel reviewer!)

As the sun set over the river and home cooked culinary delights brought to feed the campers we were treated to some fabulous storytelling by Steve, Catherine and Pete. Tales set in the future, exploring different visions of living in a changed world. These stories gave a glimpse of hope for a more gentle, communal and respectful life, but acknowledging the grief and loss of rising sea levels, mass migration and extinction of many species.

The performers were from the group ‘The Storytellers of Nottingham’ and they have a family friendly zoom event on Sat 8th https://fb.me/e/7IqgFTqyr

Climate Camp – Day Three

More press today with Notts TV paying a visit and doing some interview. Watch HERE from about 1.5mins in to the program.
Also in the Nottingham Post, with a slightly misleading/misrepresented main quote which is slightly more ambitious than we had plans for!

We had some great feedback from rush hour traffic and also some time for some crafts.

Slightly quieter on the riverside today, but still meeting lots of people and having great conversations.