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Today I formally left @greenparty_ie - I was a member for over 10yrs, its primary researcher in opposition from 2016-19 & an advocate for climate justice/just transition within and outside the party. It was a wonderful adventure but much wasted potential (Long thread).
I made many lifelong friends, and am grateful for the opportunities I was given to advance the principles above. I now believe the time has come for independent, evidence-based research & advice on climate change action. I can best serve this without political affiliation.
I am also deeply disappointed at the party's decision at #GP2020 to oppose a just transition. Argument was focus on rights delay climate action. This is ignorant of the IPCC's calculations (AR6) which show achievement of SDG Agenda 2030 is the fastest way to reduce emissions.
I organised a panel on just transition 3 years ago at the GP convention. I convinced my wonderful dad, the playwright & filmmaker Paul Mercier, to speak at it. It was the most beautiful speech on turf-cutting, black carbon & the importance of Meitheal - of care for one another.
I was also blessed to have speaking Adrian Kane, SIPTU organiser for energy and utilities. Who gave one of the greatest speeches I've heard on climate, the pride of Offaly bog men & the transition we face amidst the great crisis of inequality & lost faith in old institutions.
Others were @think_or_swim @kruddock & Comharcumann Fuinneamh Oileáin Árann. I later wrote one of the 1st pieces of JT legislation internationally (with Ryan). I worked for months with trade unions to ensure our work was in line with UNFCCC principles https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2018/118/
From 2016-19, I bought & delivered solidarity food & pizzas from the party for striking @SIPTU public bus workers & @MandateTU Tesco workers. I was not reimbursed (though Eoin Wilson personally contributed). Since I left, the party privatised bus routes & ignores @DevilDebenhams
This vote by the GP is bigger than Bord na Móna, or Moneypoint. It is a rejection of Meitheal - of the common ordinary offerings of care that underpin our relationship with one another. A turn from the generous tapestry of 'comhshaol', to a reductive, colonised, 'environ-ment'.
The global wave of climate action - from @climatecaseire , school strikers, Green New Deal to @Pontifex - have no time for such an ungenerous, small-minded, 'I'm alright Jack' vision of the world. Maybe I've read too much sci-fi &so can still dream of new& better civilisations...
...maybe I've experienced enough of this planet to know it's tough enough without making it worse for each other. Either way, the future is elsewhere.
Oh, and I'd like to highlight the shade my dad appears to have given me (& the room) in his incredible speech at the time: "and in the minds of many boggers, the people who forced us not to burn the bondholders are the same people telling us not to burn turf"
