Taking action
‘The Seas are rising: Take action on Climate emergency’ were the messages of a vibrant gathering at Market Square, Dover, on Thursday 10th June to mark the start of the G7 meeting in Cornwall. Scores of climate campaigners, dressed in blue sea colours, from Ash, Sandwich, Deal, Shepherdswell and Dover, met at the ‘MAKE THE WAVE’ event then marched with banners down Snargate street to Shakespeare Beach for a vigil with poetry and music as the tide rose and the sea mist came in.
Similar MAKE THE WAVE events happened earlier in the day in Ramsgate and Folkestone.
In Dover, planning for the event was done by Joanna Jones, a Dover artist, whilst the links across East Kent were coordinated by Helen Lindon and Marcelle Coburn.
Joanna Jones said, “I felt moved to take action in Dover to reflect on the enormity of the situation facing us and our planet. I was delighted to support the idea of a friend, fellow artist, Kent climate campaigner and XR rebel, Helen Lindon, on MAKE THE WAVE, a mass of local coastal actions to tell G7 leaders, don’t let us down.”
Liz Hayes of Transition Dover commented, “For our children’s sake, we beg government leaders, especially our own, to invest in the genuine, serious action that’s needed, instead of palming us off with promises. The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill describes the scale of what is needed.”
Implement KCC report on Nature-based solutions
Paula Farrell and Sarah Gleave who went with Canterbury Greenpeace to 2015 Paris Climate (and hope to go to the Glasgow 2021 Climate Summit too) agreed. “Time is running out and Kent councils and government need to do so much more to work with communities on the urgent climate actions we need in the next couple of years.
Implementing the KCC report of March 2021, ‘Nature-based solutions on climate change’ would be a good start, but the signs are that Dover District Council will shelve it.”
