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Citizens’ Assemblies, Climate Disaster, Parents For A Future: How Loving Our Children Can Prevent Climate Collapse by Rupert Read
Photo Credit: Parents For A Future
I hope [parents for a future] will be fuelled by rage—the righteous rage that springs from love for their most vulnerable. Rage that the world has left it too late to enjoy a smooth transition to a system that can last…. I hope they’ll be honest and courageous enough to face the dreadful reality that things are going to get worse for our children for quite a long time to come even if we now truly do our best…. [Climate disasters] are coming; they are worsening. We can only seek to mitigate them in the true sense of that word. Which means adapting to what is here and what is coming in a manner that mitigates the force of the blow, shrinks as fast as possible the ongoing harm we are doing, and transforms our system to a better one: more local in its economics, more resilient, less materialistic, slower, more equal, more caring and relational, saner…. I hope that you, parents of the future, take it into your own hands, together, to change things in this way, in this direction. I hope that you won’t wait around for [governments] to fix things, but that you’ll get on with transforming your community, and what you can; because y(our) kids can’t wait.
Excerpt from “A Proposal: Parents For A Future” (p. 150), Parents For A Future: How Loving Our Children Can Prevent Climate Collapse by Rupert Read, UEA Publishing Project, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, 2021.
PROFESSOR RUPERT READ is based in the Philosophy Department at the University of East Anglia. He is widely known in the UK for getting the BBC (in 2018) to change its policy of featuring climate-deniers to ‘balance’ the facts when reporting on dangerous human-caused climate change. He has been a national spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and for the Green Party, and was formerly a two-term elected Green Party local Councillor in Norwich. He is an expert on the Precautionary Principle, on which he has won AHRC grants and written reports for Parliamentarians. He is author of Philosophy for Life: Applying Philosophy in Politics and Culture (2007), This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the end of Empire and What Lies Beyond (2019), and Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside (2020).
Three Worlds One Vision 
I was having just such a conversation with my sister Jacqueline yesterday as our next generation is coming along
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Derrick, I’m happy to hear that you and your sister are giving this moving disaster some serious consideration. Ella and your other grands know not what lies ahead for them. Their future and the future of their children depends upon what we the parents do today. You can add your name to the mailing list of the Parents For A Future Movement for updates on campaigns, events, and collective action in your country at https://www.parentsforafuture.org/contact. The organization is headquartered in Norwich, Norfolk, UK.
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Thanks very much, Rosaliene. I have done so
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My pleasure, Derrick 🙂 I also signed up for updates.
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To be honest, I don’t think the problem will be our children. The gross polluters of the world have been long identified and I would envisage a scenario where they just continue into the foreseeable future, producing between the five of them,more than 60% of our global pollution (with this figure increasing year on year)
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Exactly, John! The global polluters appear intent to sucking the last drop of oil from the earth. The problem, then, is what kind of world are be creating for our children and their children as our planet gets hotter, sea levels rise and flood coastal cities, storms and flooding intensify, droughts affect food production, wildfires destroy both human and non-human habitats, and more.
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Thank you, Rosaliene, for always trying to awake the world as far as climate change is concerned and finally change habits so that new generations may also have a chance!
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Martina, I live in hope that my small contribution awakens more people to take action in mitigating the most dire effects of our global climate and ecological crisis.
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My husband and me live mainly on our vegetable garden and we are almost eighty!
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That’s amazing, Martina! My attempts at growing a vegetable garden have reaped little produce: herbs, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and hot pepper. But I haven’t given up 🙂
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Zucchine, stem chard or rocket are easy to do, Rosaliene! I keep my fingers crossed for you:)
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Sounds like an important book. Sadly, the people who most need to read it, won’t. And probably don’t read books at all.
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So true, Kim. It’s not a full-length book but rather “an essay proposing a new way to address the great issue of our time: how–even now, at the twelfth hour–we might turn ourselves away from our current path of self-destruction” (p. 11). Hopefully, concerned parents and other adults will click on the link provided, sign up for updates, and join the movement.
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I second Martina Ramsauer’s comment. Thank you, Rosaliene.
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Dr. Stein, you and Martina are both welcome.
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Humans are good at making a mess of things.
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We are, indeed, Neil. I cannot claim innocence or point fingers at others for creating the mess. Problem is, the mess is so bad, I cannot clean it up alone. It’s a communal effort. What’s more, time is running out to clean up before the next tenants move in.
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Time is a wasting. What this generation can do is protest!!!!!! And it has to be big enough to wake up those who have the resources $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ needed to attempt to save what is left of mother earth. The financial powers are pooping in their own nest, and they might be suicidal? GROG
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Grog, without a doubt, time is a wasting. In the book, Read proposes the formation of Citizens’ Assemblies as our best shot at rising to the challenge we face. He believes that “Citizens’ Assemblies offer a new model for democracy itself, one suited for this otherwise cataclysmic era of climate breakdown and extinctions. Their great task will be to lead the way in our society’s revolutionary adaptation to the reality of the world we inhabit, transforming us and our societies in the process, and mitigating as much as we can, along the way, the dire damage we’ve already done” (p. 100).
While “the financial powers are pooping in their own nest,” they live in a different world far removed from the filthy nest in which we the 99 Percent live. They are by no means suicidal. Rather, I believe that they have fallen victim to their self-delusion that they are gods, set apart from and above the rest of humanity and Earth’s web of life.
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This reminds me of the environmentalist Wendell Berry who is credited with the profound idea that we have not inherited the earth from our parents; we have borrowed it from our children. Thanks, Rosaliene!
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Wynne, thanks for mentioning Wendell Berry. His vision is born of a life lived close to the land. Read notes: “We are haunted by a dualistic separation of ourselves from nature, possessed by a fantasy of ‘having’ possessions, of ‘owning’ Earth” (p. 86). Such human mentality has no thought for ‘borrowing’ Earth from our children. Only our long-term economic plans seem to get attention, thereby separating the economy (a human construction) from ecology (nature).
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I hope we can come together and deal with Climate Change and gun violence. Someone has to stand up to big oil and the gun lobby.
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Don, as I understand our dysfunctional political system, we the people lost our political power when corporations gained personhood. Our greater numbers are no match for their monetary might.
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I honestly feel really good about the majority of this generation. They aren’t passive and aren’t afraid to speak their truth. Great read and a very important conversation to have.
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Thanks for dropping by, Belladonna. With time running out for immediate action, we the parents and adults of today cannot wait for this generation to grow up and take the lead.
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There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time! I didn’t know he wrote some books though, so I’ll check it out! I just read an article about kids teaching parents about sustainabilty, but there is a point in the article about education on sustainability in the UK. This change must have happened after I moved away, because I didn’t know about this. I know when the Tories came to power they were planning on “reforming” the education system. Read, make it worse than it already is since Margeret Thatcher gutted it, but I left before any changes happened https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/how-children-are-helping-to-make-their-families-more-eco-friendly-new-research/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2778831_Agenda_weekly-10June2022&utm_term=&emailType=Agenda%20Weekly
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Claire, thanks for sharing the link to the article. This is truly a positive development in generating the “shifts in being and doing” that we need.
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You’re very welcome!
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I agree with moving to more local economics, … less materialistic, slower, more equal, more caring and relational, saner. and doing what we can now – not waiting for the government. I need to go back to the nearby farmers market on Saturday. Thanks for the nudge and for sharing this excerpt.
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My pleasure, JoAnna 🙂 Changing what we eat and where we buy our food is a good start.
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Many years ago I read not a few books, one named Think Globally and act locally. another one was Diet for a Small Planet, and many from Gregory Bateson, and others, books that will recommend to read, to those who are interested on these issues.
Thank you Rosaliene to remind us from that urgent need to do something for our children, and future generations.💖
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You’re welcome, BurningHeart 🙂 The scientific community has been issuing warnings about climate change since the 1960s. Humanity missed the ball.
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This is my worst fear about the environmental and climactic change that are happening today — that I will have no way to protect my children from the fallout. Thanks for sharing this book, Rose. I hope the world will stop and take a pause and try to avert some of the snowball rolling down our giant globe of a hill before it takes us all out. Trying to dream a better future into reality over here. ;0)
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My pleasure, Pam. My fear is that I would become a burden to my adult sons when the time comes to move to a more habitable location. I believe that our children, grandchildren, and future generations will curse us for failing to take action.
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I’m sure your kids see how desperately you are trying, Rose. 🌹 I know mine do because I never stop talking about it (and taking action cause talk is cheap as we know).😂
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Sad to say, Pam, that I have a climate-change-denier son who laughs at my efforts to conserve on water and energy. On mentioning my concern about the drought, he claimed that our governor is lying about the situation. To maintain peace between us, I avoid discussing our climate and ecological crisis.
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Oh my gosh, that’s rough, Rose. People are going to believe what they want but gosh, it’s almost unimaginable to me that there are still climate deniers. My husband’s family is pretty far right of center and after learning the lesson the hard way, we steer clear of discussing politics and the environment. TBH, we’ve lost some friends over it but I find it hard to respect people who were all in on trump, for e.g., and at some point we needed to either stop talking about it or walk away to preserve our sanity. The push me pull you is hilarious in a way because when the planet is done with all our BS, she’ll shake us off like water and that will be that. The people who think they’re opinion actually means something as far as the planet is concerned are going to be the most shocked😳 because this avalanche has been building for decades and it’s about to get real, sadly.
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Pam, he’s my son and I love him dearly. It’s not been easy watching him change so radically over the years. Denial is a much easier stance than facing the fears and uncertainty of our reality. Indeed, this avalanche, as you so well describe it, will hit us with such force and speed that we will not all be able to get out of the way.
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You walk the razor’s edge that every mom walks at some time or other, Rose. I wish you grace in navigating such rocky seas. ♥️💕🙏
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Thank you very much, Pam ❤
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🌹
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Watching my grandchildren, how they’re educated about our global climate and the world needs that must be met, and listening to their reactions (from 9-13 years of age), I have HOPE for our future!
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That’s great news, Pam! Now it’s up to us adults of the present to take the necessary action to leave them a habitable world.
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Thank you for sharing!!.. I think that with today’s technology people will be able to get a better understanding of what is transpiring and what needs to be done and what one can do to help…. today’s technology also enable us to better work together world wide… believe the old “normal” is history and the new normal is starting to begin and while we cannot start a new beginning, we can start a new ending… 🙂
Until we meet again..
May you always be blessed
with walls for the wind,
a roof for the rain,
a warm cup of tea by the fire,
laughter to cheer you,
those you love near you,
and all that your heart might desire.
(Irish Saying)
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My pleasure, Dutch!! Here’s hoping that more parents and non-parents get on board in tackling this crisis.
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As usual, you open my reading list to a larger horizon. Thanks again.
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You’re welcome, Rusty 🙂
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So beautiful 😍
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Thanks for reading, Jeffrey 🙂
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