They pour black paint in the City of Arts

2023-12-11 18:11:16

Scientists of the international movement Scientific Rebellion (RC) and of Rebellion and Extinction (XR) They chained themselves this Saturday in the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia, while pouring black paint in an area of ​​one of the ponds in front of the Science Museum to denounce that the United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP28) es “a failure” in the fight against the climate crisis. The water has completely recovered its natural color this afternoon.

The creation of a “permanent state citizen assembly” is called for to “accelerate and improve participation in the urgent ecological transition”

With this, they have demanded the creation of a “permanent state citizen assembly” to “accelerate and improve participation in the urgent ecological transition,” as indicated by both organizations in a statement.

A harmless and ecological liquid

Scientists and activists who have participated in the protest action have dyed one of the ponds in front of the Science Museum black with a harmless and ecological liquid, while displaying a banner with the motto United against climate failure to protest against “false promises and greenwashing” at the COP28 that is being held in the United Arab Emirates, as well as the “delays in government action“.

“United Nations climate change negotiations have failed for 30 years”

“We cannot wait any longer. We need to drastically reduce our consumption of natural resources through fair and equitable degrowth, respecting planetary limits”

A spokesperson for Scientific Rebellion has lamented that “the United Nations negotiations on climate change have failed for 30 years.” “We cannot wait any longer,” she urged, and highlighted that, “to achieve a world that is sustainable and fair, a radical change in the political process towards participatory democracy is necessary.” “We need to drastically reduce our consumption of natural resources through fair and equitable degrowth, respecting planetary boundaries,” she said.

Record presence of fossil fuel lobbies including the president of COP28 himself

Along these lines, activists have denounced the “record presence of fossil fuel lobbies, including the president of COP28 himself, who He is the head of the country’s main oil company-ADNOC“. “The sultan has caused more than one scandal by promoting denialist arguments and using the summit to obtain contracts that expand oil and gas production”they have censored.

“Governments plan to continue investing billions of dollars each year in the production of fossil fuels, like Spain, which has subsidized this industry with more than 10 billion in 2022”

Likewise, they have criticized that “governments plan to continue investing billions of dollars each year in the production of fossil fuels, like Spain, which has subsidized this industry with more than 10 billion in 2022.”

The year of temperature records and the multiplication of extreme phenomena

In this context, more than 1,000 scientists have signed a letter to urge the population to “take action” and launch a message “coherent with the urgency of the moment.” “In the year of record temperatures and the multiplication of extreme phenomena, the record for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is going to be broken”, they have pointed out, and have stressed that “in the European Union, The richest 10% emit as much as the poorest 50%“.

Science “has fallen short”

CSIC scientist Fernando Valladaresone of the professionals in this field who participated in the action this Saturday in Valencia, has warned that science “has fallen short” in the face of “the situation of chaos and serious climate risk” which in 2022 and 2023 has exceeded “all expectations”. “Drought, water stress like never before seen, high temperatures… Science was not able to predict all of this, although it pointed to that risk,” he said.

Faced with this scenario, he has demanded, as a scientist, “more attention” for “a hard and a difficult situation that requires courage and the best version of everyone“. In this sense, he has defended that the private sector “cannot do business with everything and at any price” and that the political sphere “does not fully represent us because it does not care about what threatens us.”

Thus, he has warned that Currently “100 times more people die from climate change than from war conflicts.”so it has been considered that politicians “are not up to the task”. For this reason, he has opted to “push them to be brave and say things to the private sector that they may not like.” “May they feel supported by an informed and brave citizenry”has added.

The scientist has insisted that the planet and citizens “There is a lot at stake with climate change”, although, in his opinion, “it seems that we do not fully accept it”. In this regard, he has pointed out that the latest advances to mitigate the consequences of climate change “have barely covered scientific expectations and have barely served to slightly reduce or flatten emissions, which continue to grow and, with it, our problems.”

“We cannot continue on this path and that is why many citizens, men and women scientists from around the world are constantly demonstrating so that much more priority be given to what really threatens not only the well-being, but the very survival of millions of people”

“There is a lot at stake and we don’t want to see it”

COP28, “an international exercise in hypocrisy”

“We cannot continue on this path and that is why many citizens, men and women scientists from around the world are constantly demonstrating so that much more priority be given to what really threatens not only the well-being, but the very survival of millions of people,” he stressed, while warning that it is estimated that “more than one billion people would be at risk between now and the end of the century.” “There is a lot at stake and we don’t want to see it,” she stressed.

Finally, he has taken advantage of the celebration of COP28 to brand this conclave as “an international exercise in hypocrisy” that, at the same time, has censured that “we all accept and see well.” “We cannot sit on a couch waiting to see if the news finally gives us the miraculous news that they have agreed to reduce emissions, that is not going to happen alone, we have to support it together,” he argued. .

“We cannot sit on a couch waiting to see if the news finally gives us the miraculous news that they have agreed to reduce emissions, that is not going to happen alone, we have to support it together”

For all this, has defended actions like the one developed this Saturday in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valenciawhich explained that it consisted of “converting water into black oil, something that symbolizes what we are doing with something as precious as water.”