100 intellectuals from around the world, including Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, wrote an open letter following the unsatisfactory outcomes of Cop 24. A rallying cry for the climate against the indifference of world leaders.
The appeal for action signed by over 100 international figures, including the president of Navdanya International, Vandana Shiva, is civil society's response to governments guilty of irresponsibly seeking to downplay one of the greatest emergencies of our era in order to defend economic interests at the expense of those of all humanity.
"In the complex and interconnected global ecosystem, life is disappearing as species extinction increases. The climate crisis is worsening much faster than predicted. 200 species go extinct every day. This dramatic situation cannot continue.
The world's political leaders have proven incapable of addressing the environmental and climate crisis. If big-business capitalism continues to drive the international economy, global catastrophe is inevitable. The indifference and inaction of governments such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Brazil, Africa and Asia, among others, are a manifestation of the same political paralysis that circumvents and ignores humanity's grave responsibility in safeguarding and managing the planet.
It is essential that international political organisations and national governments immediately place the issue of the climate emergency at the top of their political agendas, urgently developing global measures to address it. The wealthiest nations must take on the task of financially supporting environmental protection programmes in poorer countries, to compensate the latter for the damage caused by unchecked economic growth — damage they are suffering as a consequence of the extractivist imperialism of economically more advantaged nations.
With extreme weather events already affecting food production, we demand that governments act immediately to prevent potential scenarios of famine and food crisis, by urgently investing in programmes geared towards an agroecological transition and agri-food systems capable of withstanding climate change. We further demand that an emergency summit be held to save the Arctic polar ice cap and to slow the loss of harvests resulting from the growing phenomena of extreme weather.
We also invite all concerned citizens of the planet to mobilise and organise against institutional inaction, each within their own local context, including the claims of indigenous peoples, the defence of their rights, decolonisation and restorative justice, and to join the global movement that is rebelling against extinction.
We must do, together, what is necessary, in a non-violent manner, to convince political leaders and industry to abandon their attitude of indifference and denial. Their "business as usual" is no longer an option. Citizens around the world will no longer tolerate this failure in our duties towards the planet.
Each of us, especially in the more developed countries, must commit to accepting a more sustainable way of living, consuming less, supporting not only the rights of human beings but also our responsibilities towards the Earth."
Among the signatories are: Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Anthony Clifford Grayling, Philip Pullman, Rowan Williams, Bill McKibben, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Esther Stanford-Xosei, Jonathan Porritt, Alison Green, Lily Cole Model, Chris Packham, Susie Orbach, Joy Carter, Jayati Ghosh.
Climate change represents the most dramatic expression of humanity's impact on planet Earth. The destabilisation of the climate is leading to an intensification of droughts, floods, cyclones and other extreme weather events, whose frequency and intensity increases year after year. Climate change is already a matter of life and death in many parts of the world that, tragically, are those which have contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions and which today suffer from them the most.
The latest Ipcc assessment warns that the impacts and costs of global warming will be far greater than expected and will have a significant impact on ecosystems, human communities and economies. Climate change is a wake-up call for humanity as it transitions from the age of oil and fossil fuels to the age of soil and land democracy. It is an invitation to change our paradigm and move from the mere assessment of economic growth to the care of the wellbeing of all species, including human beings.
The vast divergence between the path we need to take and the one we are currently taking became even more evident at Cop 24 in Katowice, Poland, where governments continued to water down the agreements reached in Paris at Cop 21. The agreement reached in Katowice is weak and inadequate for addressing these challenges. The conclusions of the Polish conference caused disappointment among citizens, scientists and movements calling for a change of system. A sentiment best expressed by fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg in her speech at the plenary: "You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this situation; you say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of our very eyes. If the solutions within this system are impossible to find, then we should change the system itself."
Read also: 12 years to act or the climate will spiral out of control
As explained in Regeneration or collapse, the latest report by Navdanya International, we have two paths for the future of our planet and of humanity. One path is characterised by the same linear and reductionist mindset that brought us to this planetary emergency. This is a dead end characterised by industrial food systems. It is a path that leads to the ecological collapse of ecosystems and the ecological processes that sustain life, to the economic collapse of rural economies and to the marginalisation of farmers who care for the land and provide food. The second path is based on a vision of interconnected systems, on the circular economy and leads to the regeneration of our planet, our soils, our biodiversity, our water tables, our rural economies, farmers' livelihoods, our health and our democracy. It is based on the diversity of knowledge systems, including knowledge of living systems and local economies. The future of the various species, our common human future and our daily bread depend on which path we take.