Extinction Rebellion Queenstown Lakes are undertaking our first action on Wednesday 24th at the Wanaka lakefront –
specific location will be announced at 7am.
We are taking this disruptive action in order to highlight the disconnect between the high value we place on scenes such
as those we are blessed with in this town, and the apathy and disincentives around the legal action needed to save them,
and ourselves.
Our beautiful world is in a crisis of our own making and disruption to the status quo is needed to engage governments to
make the necessary law changes. Nonviolent civil disobedience is a proven tactic towards positive change. The civil
rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ movements were all bought to the attention of our lawmakers by real people. Real people
who braved standing up against the tide of the status quo and demanding changes to laws that were immoral. Nowadays,
looking back, we say – of course those immoral laws were wrong and had to change. But at the time, those people were
disruptors. We are today’s disruptors and we ask you to join us. When things get worse, and they will, will you be able
to look yourself and your children in the eye and say ‘I did all I could’?
Governments and corporations have been piddling around the edges of this issue for 30 years. They’ve been trying to find
solutions that won’t affect the bottom line of economic growth and a seat at the next table. Well, we are well and truly
out of ‘piddling’ time. The changes we need to make now are more painful than the changes that would have been effective
30 years ago. But the changes we can make today are nowhere near as painful as they will need to be if we delay any
longer. We now have a decade to turn this around and anything other than the uprising of normal people to pressure
governments for real, bipartisan dramatic law change is not going to do it.
Examples of actions our local government could take today would be:
• Ditch large airport expansion plans – need we say more.....
• Remove all covenants demanding minimum size house builds.
• Immediately put a stop to all terraforming of new subdivisions and recognise our soil as an essential element of
water retention and management in our landscapes.
• Put every council decision through the lens of considering the planet as an affected party. This first action is
expected to wrap up about midday.
With love and rage, Extinction Rebellion - Queenstown Lakes
Extinction Rebellion demands are;
1. Government must tell the truth about the real state of our current and upcoming ecological crisis
2. Implement WWII-scale climate mobilisation for zero emissions and drawdown by 2025
3. Implement participatory democracy in order to ensure the painful changes necessary are decided upon by real people
and not the ruling classes.