‘Ask not what your planet can do for you … ask what you can do for your planet’
This Friday sees what many campaigners hope will be a key moment in the UK’s response to the climate crisis.
It’s called The Big One – a peaceful mass protest around the Houses of Parliament aiming to make it impossible for the Government to ignore the people’s demand for urgent action on climate change.
Here, leading North East climate academic, activist, author and journalist Alex Lockwood (pictured), writes for Climate Post about the significance of the event – and why it needs BIG support from YOU.
How big is big? When someone invites you to The Big One, what should you expect? And not a big one but The Big One – it’s going to have a lot to live up to!
Although, let me say right now, that isn’t quite the right question (or attitude). Ask yourself, not “How big is The Big One going to be for me?” but, rather, “How big can I make The Big One if I pitch in”?
The Big One is this weekend’s big (huge?!) event in London, organised by people who are asking the Government to act, not next year, not even tomorrow, but now, on the climate and ecological crises we face as a society. (It is also the biggest fairground ride on Blackpool pleasure beach, but we don’t mean that Big One!)
It brings together a whole bunch of groups and organisations, from Extinction Rebellion to Whale and Dolphin Conservation, from healthcare workers to animal lovers, from teachers to lawyers and parents and families, all of whom are desperate to do something—and something big—to properly get the attention of those with their hands on the levers of power.
Which is why The Big One is outside Parliament.
The big march is this Friday 21st but the events go on all weekend across London. Yes, London.
Everyone who lives in the North East knows that the Westminster bubble exists and often it feels like they don’t even know where the North East is.
But again, that isn’t quite the right attitude. And drawing on the energy of many from the North East over the last century, a march on London really can work to draw attention to the things that matter to people beyond the Houses of Parliament.
This is the opportunity to be heard. That’s why it has to be big.
We know there’s no doubt left that the climate emergency is real, it’s here, and we have work to do if we are going to avoid the worst of its impacts. They’re already here, of course – remember last summer’s unprecedented and deadly UK heatwave? – but it is only going to get worse, before it gets at all better.
It can get better.
Can it?
Yes. The science still says so.
But more importantly, it can only get better if people come together to turn private worries into a public chorus for change. That is what The Big One is about. That is what it is for. And if you don’t pitch in, your voice, your fears, cannot be heard.
That’s why I, as a North East academic, co-wrote The Work We Need To Do, a manual for our time, as my part in making our public chorus for change as loud as possible. We know that we are going to have to work incredibly hard to change society in ways that support our continued life and sustainability.
But that’s okay. Perhaps especially in the North East, where the industrial revolution began with Stevenson’s rocket, people know the value of hard work.
And because the fossil-fuel powered industrial revolution began here, perhaps we also have an added responsibility to lead the next revolution, a post-fossil-fuel, green and clean economy, that leads us to a healthier future.
But before we go there, let’s all get to The Big One.
Join me and 100,000 other people in a (completely peaceful! And fun!) day of telling our Government they need to listen, to act, and to work, not for themselves or their VIP-lane mates, but for us – the people.
We have a voice. A Big One. Make sure yours is heard.
For more information on The Big One, click here.
Alex Lockwood is a senior lecturer in creative and professional writing at Sunderland University.
He is the author of The Chernobyl Privileges, a novel shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award in 2019, and The Pig in Thin Air, a memoir about climate change and the food we eat.
He is also a professional writer of novels, memoir, essays and the author of other forms of creative writing such as video script, podcasts, and journalism.
You can read more about Alex’s work on the Sunderland University website here.
