António Guterres says it is now inevitable that we will overshoot the 1.5C target set at the Paris climate agreement.
Every day, there are more stories of species becoming extinct, floods and storms and fires, lives lost and biodiversity destroyed.
Every day, more stories of politicians who still question whether we even need a net zero emissions target, or arguing that it is achievable it while they continue to approve new fossil fuel projects.
I potter around the balcony garden, trying to grow more seedlings in the greenhouse that I will plant in the reserve. I sort my recycling. I wear sneakers to work so I can walk to the express bus stop because driving an EV is less carbon efficient than public transport. None of my personal efforts matter. The environment that has sustained us is collapsing.
The annual State of Climate Action report, published last week, showed that despite the increasing proportion of energy use coming from renewable sources, the total amount of coal used for power generation hit a record high in 2024. We consume too much energy.
We were supposed to have a democratic system that responded directly to the community. Corporations were supposed to respond to their shareholders and customers.
Politics has failed us.
Corporate social responsibility has failed us.
The only people who can rebuild the world that we want is us.
This is how we will do it.
On Friday 28 November, I will be in Foreshore Park, helping set up for Rising Tide’s 2025 People’s Blockade. Newcastle is the world’s biggest coal port. The coal exported from that one single port creates as much carbon emissions as all of Australia’s domestic carbon emissions combined. It is equal to 1% of the entire planet’s carbon emissions.
And we know it can be shut down by people like me, and you, in kayaks. I can’t even swim, but I can block a coal ship. We did it in 2023 for over 30 hours. We did it in 2024 for over 30 hours. We will do it again in 2025.
We will form affinity groups, based on what city we’re from or our life stage or whatever common ground we feel drawn to. The affinity group representatives will come together each day to form a Spokes Council for democratic, people-powered decision making about what we’re doing and how we do it together, leaving nobody behind.
We will welcome the Hunter region workers who we’ve been talking with about how to fund a just transition to a renewable energy future, with a 78% export profits tax on fossil fuels.
We will come together on Saturday 29 November to share music on the stage in the park by the beach, with performances from Lime Cordiale and Montaigne and Dobby and The Herd and so many more. There will be kayaks out on the water all night.
We will cook and share food with each other, teach each other water safety skills, look after the collectively shared flotilla of kayaks, run legal briefings, lead wellness activities.
We will block the coal ships from Newcastle harbour.
We will do it until the industry and the government act on our demands for a just transition for workers, for a safe future for all of us, for a planet that is crying out for help.
We will come together on Monday 1 December to talk about what we’ve done, and clean up after ourselves.
We will be the change we wish to see in the world. We will do it with love, and joy, and relentless persistence.
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This post was submitted by community member Emma Davidson.
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