Wellington 5 November

Peace Action Wellington is planning non-violent direct action/civil disobedience for November 5th. We invite you to join us and take meaningful action to protect the climate.
 
Parihaka Day Friday 5th November – Join us at the Loaves and Fishes hall beside the Wellington Cathedral at 9am for a day of action.
 
 
The 5th of November is the day colonial troops invaded Parihaka as part of the war for land. This war has never ended. The day is a profound reminder of the intersection of racism, colonisation and the ongoing extraction of resources for profit which has led to this climate crisis. The 6th of November is a Global Day of Action for climate justice.
 
It is clear that the government is unwilling to do what is necessary to stop climate polluters from continuing to destroy the climate. These climate polluters are not individuals, but giant corporations that profit from continuing to emit carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen at rates that will raise the climate well above the essential 1.5C limit for protecting life.
 
Friday 5th November Action
Meet at 9am at Loaves and Fishes Hall at Wellington Cathedral. We will do a short training in non-violence, as well as a briefing for the action. From there, we will move to various climate polluter targets around Central Wellington to engage in non-violent direct action and civil disobedience in defence of the climate. If you are interested in working with us to plan the action in the next two weeks, please get in contact via DM on the facebook page or email peacewellington[at]riseup.net. For more updates go here 

South Taranaki 6 November

Join Climate Justice Taranaki, Taranaki Energy Watch and others in taking direct action against major climate polluter Fonterra, to demand that they and the government make urgent, just transformation to get to carbon zero by 2030!
 
We’ll be meeting at the giant cow sculpture, 11 Whareroa Road, Te Hāwera, South Taranaki from 10 am to about 3pm.
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The 5th of November is the day colonial troops invaded Parihaka after 21 years of bloody war across the country to take land and resources from Māori. A war which has continued through systemic racism and an extractive economy which has now led to the devastating social and environmental crises before us. The colonial legacy of Aotearoa, claimed by Britain as their farming outpost, is <10% of native forest left on the Taranaki Ringplain, <8% of wetlands remaining and many awa, lakes and estuaries damaged or destroyed. We are in the midst of a major species extinction with ecological habitats on the verge of collapse and the planet’s atmosphere choking on carbon. The dairy industry’s infinite growth model has left it $40billion in debt, struggling to raise new generations of farmers and has left rural communities gutted.
 
Fonterra exports 95% of their product overseas, heavily relying on fossil fuels to make fertiliser, to dehydrate, process and package milk and to transport products nationally and internationally. Rather than downshifting to providing for a sustainable local economy urgently, the farming and petroleum sector have lobbied government to support more biological meddling of animals and plants, and new hydrogen plants that will use gas or inefficiently waste renewable energy and water to make more urea fertiliser and continue exports.
 
We want an end to fossil fuel extraction, industrial fertiliser, dairy exports, and false solutions like hydrogen. There is much to gain by downsizing our export economy and energy consumption while shifting to localised renewable energy systems, diversified food production and other investments that restore nature and community well-being.
 
We have no more time to waste! We will be joining protests around Aotearoa and the world in a Global Day of Action. The international climate negotiations (COP26) will be happening then, and we want to be clear that if they don’t take the actions required to keep temperature rise below 1.5C, then we will.
 
What to expect: A safe, family friendly, colourful demonstration of the kind of collective action that will ultimately help us to overcome the Climate Crisis. There will be tree planting, chalk drawing and music.
 
What to bring:  A packed lunch and drinking water, a mask, hand sanitiser, and a placard with your message to Fonterra. Dress for all weather conditions. Bring a native tree, spade, chalk and musical instruments if you can.

Join the actions online on 5-6 November

Climate organisers are calling on people across Aotearoa NZ to take action in support of real climate justice for days of action on Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th of November. By taking action collectively to shut down our country’s biggest climate polluters, we can affect meaningful change. 

Climate polluters rely on their social license to continue to operate business-as-usual. Companies like Fonterra use buzzwords and social media slogans like #DoingGoodTogether to hide what they are actually doing to our climate, water and land.  Fonterra spends a lot of money to try and convince us that the devastating impacts of industrial dairy are beneficial and economically necessary to New Zealand.  They also spend a lot of money to avoid being properly regulated by central and local government despite agriculture being NZ’s single largest contribution to climate change. In the past, they have succeeded – with dairy being exempted from having to make any real change in their business, and with goals for cuts to emissions always off in the future, when they say there will be a ‘technological fix’ for cow methane and nitrous oxide.

We say NO MORE. The era of big dairy is OVER. The time for regenerative systems is here. Really being #GoodTogether means that those who have profited from destroying the climate must now take responsibility for that, and must change.

ONLINE ACTIONS

  • Colour your hand red and take a photo holding a leaf as your wero (challenge) or if you are culturally trained, film yourself, whanau or friends doing a traditional wero to big climate polluters, then share it on social media with the 4 demands: 
    • End extraction of fossil fuels
    • Ban industrial fertiliser & PKE
    • End dairy exports
    • No false solutions

and add link to https://riseupforclimate.nz/our-demands/ so people can learn more about why. 

Take action against industrial dairy giant Fonterra   

Using your social media & hashtags disrupt the dairy Industry’s corporate messaging “Doing Good Together” (#GoodTogether) by exposing how fraudulent that messaging is alongside images of mudfarming, synthetic fertiliser, river pollution, deforestation, animal welfare, etc. You can use social media to send a message to Fonterra about how you feel about them destroying our climate, water and land. Make sure you tag in #GoodTogether and #RiseUpForClimateJustice

See here are some examples of images you could share:

  • EMAIL the board of directors and tell them how dismantling industrial dairy would feel #GoodTogether        https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en/contact-us.html
    • Peter McBride, chairman
    • Clinton Dines, Board member
    • Brent Goldsack, Board member
    • Leonie Guiney
    • Bruce Hassall
    • Holly Kramer
    • Andy Macfarlane
    • John Nicholls
    • Donna Smit
    • Scott St John
    • Cathy Quinn
  • RING the company and tell them you could feel #GoodTogether with an end to industrial dairy’s climate devastation:  09-374 9000
  • COMMENT on their website contact page to let them know what you think of their climate destruction: https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en/contact-us.html

 

  • SIGN the Petitions on our website which have been collated from several campaigns working to stop fossil fuel extraction, synthetic and imported fertiliser, and terrible farming practices like winter intensive grazing. View them by clicking HERE.

Background:

The Dairy industry likes to say they are the most carbon friendly in the world – see here – but this ignores transport and processing emissions, and costs to the wider environment. 

See here for the impact on rainforests through the use of PKE as a supplement feed.

See here and here for the environmental cost of dairying on our waterways

See here for and here for Fonterra’s too little too late goal of 2037 to get out of coal.

See here and here for how Fonterra is kicking the ball down the road in terms of addressing methane and other emission cuts.

Coal Action Network Aotearoa and Greenpeace Aotearoa have been working for many years to address coal use by Fonterra and the impacts of synthetic fertilizer and industrial dairying on our environment.

If you have an action or event to add, please contact us as soon as possible so we can share it here and help people join you.