AN APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD

August, 2010

Your Majesties, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Premiers, Chancellors and Excellencies,

Much of what is dear to us is at risk of being lost as a consequence of climate change. To be clear, we aren’t just talking about nature and the environment, but also about society as we know it, and in the long term perhaps even large parts of the planet itself. This is not just a loose statement but a very real possibility, as we hope is shown clearly in our book Earth Fever, Living Consciously with Climate Change.

That’s why we make this urgent appeal to you and call upon you to do the following:

1. To deepen your knowledge about the situation. We ask this not just to those of you who have to deal with the problem directly, but to all of you. It is not that difficult to learn the essential facts in a short time (reading the first two chapters of our book, for example, is sufficient to get the basics). But more than that, it requires courage to let the facts sink in. That is what we call for.

2. To create an image of a world in which we as citizens and politicians, both in our own countries and on a global level, collaborate to tackle the climate problem. To create a world in which cooperation and togetherness is our credo and in which we truly care about the wellbeing of all people and all creatures, now and in the future. And to demonstrate that concern in action. To create a world in which our attention is focused on what connects us, instead on what separates us, and in which sharp negotiations that quickly lead to concrete, far-reaching agreements have replaced the molasses-slow processes of today.

3. To communicate about the situation with each other, your staff, us citizens and in international meetings. We ask you to speak not only about the emergency we are in, but also about your vision, the opportunities we still have and the sacrifices that are necessary. Only thus can you escape the dilemma of vacillating between negative thinking and unfounded optimism.

4. And finally: to set much more radical steps than the ones already taken on the road leading to the new world and to do that now. Don’t be dismayed because other countries and the corporate world don’t follow you immediately. You can be an example for them, and be a vanguard in the technical, economical, ecological and social fields. Specifically, we ask you to take in the short term all the measures recommended in international plans and scenarios directed at achieving a maximum level of 450 CO2 parts per million-equivalent.

With these actions you will restore the dignity of your nation, and we, the citizens, will be very pleased. We know ecological policy is a priority though it is often insufficiently thought through and thus inconsistent.

This is what we ask of you, and it would be a radical break from politics thus far. With this you are giving back to politics–and with that to democracy–its rightful place in society. In the beginning you will no doubt encounter much resistance. But you will also encounter support from citizens who, like you and us, hope for a world worth living in: for us, for those who will come after us, and also for our brothers and sisters elsewhere on the planet. In short, we call for a leadership that radiates vision, courage and a love for Gaia, this glorious planet with everything on it.

That is not asking too much, is it?

Yours faithfully,

Judy McAllister, Erik van Praag and Jan Paul van Soest
Authors of Earth Fever, Living Consciously with Climate Change
www.earthfeverbook.com