This morning a crowd gathered on Melbourne’s St Kilda beach to pick up bottles washed up on the shore, with messages from Pacific Islanders in. The messages from across 11 different islands urged Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott to support the Majuro declaration that is being proposed at the Pacific Island Leaders Forum, which got underway in the Marshall Islands today (click here to see a photo from the event). Often people talk of the Pacific Islands as drowning and helpless victims of climate change. They’re right in one sense - climate change offers a threat to the Islands like none before, and they have done next to naught to cause it. But over the last four years we’ve been mobilising with young organisers all across the Pacific Islands, and we’re now seeing a very different story emerge. The new story is of the warrior spirit of the Pacific Islands awaking to fight climate change. Earlier this year, warriors across 14 island nations rose up to launch this new path for the Islands, by performing their traditional warrior performances. They are not drowning. They are fighting. It’s captured in this recently released three minute video summary. It might just send shivers down your spine. Just click on the image or here to watch the video on Youtube. Click here to share the video on Facebook To coincide with the Pacific Leaders Forum, the 350 Pacific network have launched an ambitious new three year plan to confront the fossil fuel industry. That strategy recognises that it’s either up to the Fossil Fuel Industry to back down, or the Pacific Islands to back down. So it is only natural that Pacific warriors rise as they have over centuries past to protect their homes, cultures, ecosystems, oceans and islands. They are rising to show that they will not back down. The Fossil Fuel Industry is on warning: backdown now, leave fossil fuels in the ground. This is unlike any warrior rallying cry ever made to the Pacific Islands. It’s not called for by political leaders, it’s not called for from one island, but it’s called for from the grassroots, or as we like to call it, the coconut roots. In the coming months teams of warriors across 15 Pacific Island nations will enter into training and preparations for the coming confrontation with the Fossil Fuel Industry. While in the past, warriors of the Pacific have taken up arms in their fierce fights, this fight against the Fossil Fuel Industry is fierce, but fiercely non-violent. They will fight the fossil fuel industry not with clubs and spears, but with a coordinated, focused wave of non-violent direct action, coupled with ongoing local organising and diligent use of social media. Over the coming months, there will be plenty of ways that Australians can support the rising up of the Pacific Climate Warriors. To start with, why not take a moment to share the Pacific Warrior Video? Kommol tata, Aaron and Koreti for 350.org Pacific and Australia
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 02:49:49 +0000
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