What is a Climate Emergency PetitionSTORM? It’s what happens when members of different climate campaigning groups want to collaborate on a Climate Emergency Petition and discover that they all want slightly different content and wordings. However, there is general agreement that the petitions involved in the climate emergency petitionSTORM should include words to the effect that:
1. We face a climate emergency
2. We call on our political leaders to declare a climate emergency
3. We need the government to follow through with the necessary resources and action to fully address the crisis at emergency speed.
Use of similar petition images provides visual links between the various petitions. Some petitions are incorporating the NASA’s temperature graph in their petition image, and some use images of the dying coral reefs or burned Tasmanian forest.
Join the ‘storm’: Start your own petition
Is your group planning to run a climate emergency-themed petition in the lead-up to the election? If so, and if it fits with Points 1-3 above, please let us know so we can plan joint delivery as a petitionSTORM as soon as we have around 100,000 signatures. The petitions will reflect your focus and preferred messaging, but a visual similarity between the various petitions would be a plus. There is an ‘open source’ version of the temperature spike graph here. Feel free to use the image as is, if you want, or to take the graph element from it to incorporate in your own image. Or, if you like the wording of any of the existing petitions – for instance: www.corenafund.org.au, www.climateemergency.good.do, or www.climatesafety.info – your group might prefer to link to one of hem and help promote it. If your group likes the petition at climatesafety.net, that one can be embedded in your group’s website, if you wish, either with or without the surrounding context. It has a centralised Google Drive mechanism that automatically takes care of recording signatures and updating counters at all sites where it is embedded. The WordPress code for embedding the petition is here. It can quite easily be converted into ‘clean’ html-code. See more suggestions and download graphics from this toolbox.
Rationale behind the petitionSTORM
It’s a bit like when 60,000 people attend a climate rally. Chances are there are significant differences in messaging and focus between participating groups, but they all agree they want action on climate. Even though they disagree on details of the message, they are all very pleased to have everyone at the rally supporting the key common ask. When the petitionSTORM is delivered, an MP or Senator can announce, for example, “I’ve received not just one, but fifteen separate climate petitions, all asking that parliament declare a climate emergency and take Australia-wide action. Altogether there are signatures from x,000 people.” Here is a graphical representation of a ramp-up strategy to get – over time – the necessary large number of signatures:
A perspective
Declaring a climate emergency and acting on it is a top-level ask that fundamentally encompasses the various campaigns climate-motivated people in Australia are currently campaigning on. If we win this ask, then automatically there’d be no more coal mines, no more onshore gas mining, fracking or drilling for Coal Seam Gas, existing dirty power stations would be closed down, renewable energy would snowball, energy efficiency appliances and companies would thrive, forests would be regenerated, hopefully even the Great Barrier Reef, habitats would be protected, air pollution health effects would vanish, public transport, cycling and EV’s would flourish.
Proposed timeline
• Mid April–May: launch of other petition versions
• Early May: launch of politician and eminent person sign-on statement
• Mid May till election: campaigning using the petitions and the politician and eminent person sign-on statement
• Mid June: eminent persons and candidates letter in the Age
• On-going: campaigning and candidate sign on during State and Local Council elections; launch of other petitionSTORM climate emergency declaration petitions; seeking statements of support from federal and state MPs and local government councillors; continuation of petition until the overall total reaches around 100,000 signatures. If you have questions, seek advice or need the graphics in high resolution, contact us on [email protected]