Monday 15 April 2019 7:00am, Carlton, Melbourne Corner Princess Street & Canning Street
To mark the beginning of the international week of rebellion, in Victoria will be blocking traffic for brief intervals during the morning peak. This is a major through way for bicycles but also a massive traffic sewer in Melbourne with cars coming into the city from suburbs with poor mass transit options.
Spokesperson Miriam Robinson says:
“We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, but still our governments continue to spend our wealth and waste our time pouring billions of dollars into ‘infrastructure’ – more gas hubs, ports, coal mines and roads, while sadly neglecting and degrading the natural world. Meanwhile emissions rise and so does the temperature.
“At the federal level the LNP is actively working to expand fossil fuel extraction and delay the transition to a cleaner economy. Tax breaks and incentives are still being given to extractive industries while only token gestures are made to help save our living world from extinction. Only last week the Federal so-called ‘Minister for the Environment’ signed off on Adani’s water licence, which would extract nearly 3 trillion litres of water from the Great Artesian Basin. That’s three Sydney Harbours.
“In Victoria logging continues unabated, threatening species and destroying precious habitat. Our government is proposing to remove yet more natural bushland to make way for the North East link project. We are still using brown coal to generate most of our electricity. Sacred sites and ancient trees are threatened on near Ararat for another unnecessary freeway project.
“We are done with asking nicely and waiting for gradual change. Time has run out. We are here to say ‘no more’. It is time our governments, at all levels, got serious about the climate emergency and start a full-scale, urgent mobilisation and re-shaping of our entire economy to meet this crisis.
Extinction Rebellion will continue to escalate disruptive actions in our cities all over the world until our demands are met:
1. Tell the truth – Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
2. Act Now – Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
3. Beyond Politics- Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
