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Greenpeace climbers prepare message above Beehive
Greenpeace climbers prepare message above Beehive for US Secretary of State
Tuesday, June 6: Four Greenpeace climbers are preparing to hang a large banner from a crane next to the Beehive to protest the arrival of US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who is in Wellington.
The action
takes place days after the Trump Administration withdrew
from the Paris Climate Agreement, causing global
condemnation.
Hundreds of people are also expected to
gather on Parliament lawn to “unwelcome” Tillerson, in a
peaceful protest organised by climate group 350
Aotearoa.
The US Secretary of State is meeting New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English and Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee.
Greenpeace climate campaigner, Kate Simcock, says while world leaders have blasted the Trump administration’s isolationist stance on climate change, one of the few who has been notably silent is New Zealand Prime Minister, Bill English.
“If there was ever a time to show leadership, it is now. But instead, our Prime Minister is engaging with one of the world’s biggest climate deniers,” she says.
“Before he started doing Trump’s dirty work, Tillerson was the CEO of ExxonMobil, the oil company that systematically funded climate-denying propaganda and misinformation with the sole purpose of delaying global action on climate change.
“English needs
to choose what side of history he’s on when it comes to
climate change – on the right side of history, or the
Trump side of history.
“While the Trump administration
tries desperately to keep the most destructive industries in
the world alive, the New Zealand Government is doing pretty
much the same – relying on carbon-intensive 1950s-style
economic strategies that promote coal mining, oil drilling,
fracking, road building, and dairy intensification.
“The scariest part about this is that unlike the US, New Zealand’s clean energy sector is not thriving. In practice, New Zealand’s climate policy is actually worse than the States’ because our per-capita emissions are increasing at a greater rate.”
Denying climate change and the rapid rise of clean energy is “desperate and futile”, says Simcock. The world is already making the transition at breakneck speed - renewables now make up more than half of the world’s new power capacity, and are growing by the day.
“The world is moving forward
without the US, which has now essentially surrendered any
global leadership. We are witnessing a huge shift in the
global order as places like Europe and China begin to lead
the way forward. If New Zealand continues to align itself
with Trump’s USA, we’re going to be left for dust,”
she says.
Images and video available here.
http://greenpeace.nz/resist-banner-wellington
ends
Greenpeace
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice.
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.
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