A protest for peace

According to our new Chancellor, Labour might no longer be a party of protest but l still think there’s room for people to voice their concerns – whatever their politics – and so l am happy to give some publicity to those doing just that in a non-violent way.

Members of Bath Stop War, Extinction Rebellion Bath, Bath Climate Choir and Families for the future joined forces in Bath at the week-end to highlight the links between war and climate change as part of the Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice.

The following is from their press release:
“The groups held a vigil and petition signing outside Bath Abbey, followed by a ‘die-in’, speeches and singing from the Choir.  The group then marched to Southgate, accompanied by samba drumming.

The message that the event is promoting is that war causes climate change….

• War has a massive carbon footprint.  The first two months of Israel’s current action in Gaza alone released more than 281,000 tonnes of CO₂ – more than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.  
• Experts estimate that, even without emissions during wars, the world’s militaries are responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If the world’s militaries were a country, they would have the fourth largest carbon footprint: higher than that of Russia. But militaries are excluded from current climate agreements, so face no accountability for their pollution.
  
  And also climate changes causes war…
• In a recent major feature on BBC news, Justin Rowlatt, BBC Climate Editor highlighted how recent floods and droughts in Somalia (largely caused by climate change) have heightened armed disputes over water and driven normally nomadic peoples into refugee camps.  Here they find one of the few ways they have to make a living is to join an armed militia.  

The groups are calling for:
– swifter action to cut emissions that drive climate change.  Whilst the new Labour government has made some positive steps, some areas of policy are out of step with the climate emergency that the UK government declared back in 2019.  The Labour government recently greenlighted a massive expansion of London City Airport and many other airports are waiting in the wings with similar plans.  These expansions mean that aviation related climate emissions will soon exceed more than 10% of the UKs total.

– And for stronger action on arms sales
The UK’s recent embargoing of arms exports to Israel excluded parts for F35 fighter bombers which Israel has used to bombard displaced Palestinians.  15 percent of each F35 fighter is made in the UK.  

– And an end to UK financing of  the arms trade
The March ended outside Barclays, as the Bank is a major investor in the arms industry. According to a 2022 report by War on Want, Barclays Bank owns shares worth over £1.3 billion in and provides over £4 billion worth of loans for companies supplying weapons and military technology used by Israel in its ongoing bombardment of  Gaza, such as Raytheon and Elbit.

Diana Francis, spokesperson for Bath Stop War said “War, with or without the nuclear threat, is the enemy of our planet. Saving the future for the world’s children will require a radically different form of ‘foreign policy’.  We live in one world.  We must give up the quest for military dominance and cooperate to save our planet.”

David Searby, spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion added “We know that war directly causes death and destruction on a vast scale.  But it also results in huge climate emissions which accelerate climate related drought, flooding and famine globally.”