NSW IS BURNING, SYDNEY IS CHOKING – CLIMATE EMERGENCY RALLY
The climate emergency has arrived in NSW, with unprecedented fires raging across the state. Now millions in Sydney and surrounding regions are choking on toxic clouds of smoke, ash and dust, rated as hazardous by the NSW Health Department, and set to poison us for months ahead as conditions worsen.
For year after year governments have denied the approaching climate emergency and expanded the fossil fuel industry while cutting funding to fire and other essential services and mismanaging vital river and water systems.
Now the result is here: unprecedented drought, bushfires, and now a massive health crisis, with millions choking, with no escape, and severe consequences for people’s immediate and long term health.
We acknowledge this protest will be taking place on stolen Gadigal land, that sovereignty was never ceded, and that these kinds of bushfire disasters never occurred when the land was managed properly by Aboriginal people!
WE DEMAND:
1. Climate action now!
– No new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine.
– 100% publicly owned renewable energy generation & exports by 2030
– Fund a just transition & job creation for all fossil-fuel workers & communities.
2. Fund fire services!
– Reverse the funding cuts and increase funding immediately to the RFS and NSW Fire and Rescue
3. Action to address toxic smoke and protect workers!
– All employers required to cease operations immediately in areas where air pollution reaches dangerous levels for workers.
– Special allowances made for additional, paid, sick leave for people suffering from the effects of air pollution.
– All hospitals, aged care facilities, schools and child care centres to be fitted with proper HEPA filters or air conditioning.
– Those particularly vulnerable to respiratory conditions offered government-supplied HEPA air purifiers, or fully funded evacuation to clean areas for the duration of the crisis.
– Publicly funded, free P2 masks.
**We encourage participants to wear a P2 facemask as a symbol of the climate crisis and public health disaster we’re facing**
Media contact:
Chloe 0435 951 585
