Jill Whitmore of G-Force writes:

My granddaughter and I and her parents will be on the steps of Parliament for two afternoons, starting on Wednesday.

On Thursday 1 March from 12 noon until about 2pm, we hope to be joined there by many other grandparents and grandchildren, also great-aunts and –uncles and other mature New Zealanders – “G-Force”, and all those who would like the opportunity to protest against our continuing slide towards runaway climate change.

For almost the first time, the human race has the power to extinguish our planet’s capacity to support life. All we have to do to accomplish this ultimate catastrophe, is to continue to burn all the world’s coal reserves. According to a recent study, this would result in global temperature rising at least 15 degrees Centigrade!!.

The authors of this study conclude that we are not going to “run out” of fossil fuels; long before then, we will run out of liveable planet.

As “props” we will have a large blue ball, painted to represent planet Earth, with its green and tawny land masses and its ice caps. And a sign saying “Too Precious to Fry”. And a few other signs, many of them relating to coal, e.g. “Save the Climate / No New Coal!”.

Those joining us, feel free to bring your own signs. We will gather under a banner saying “We Care What Sort Of World Our Grandchildren Inherit!”

We are hoping that we will hear briefly from Green MP Gareth Hughes, and from Dr Martin Manning of Victoria University’s Climate Change Research Institute.

It would be great if Wellington people can go along and support Jill and other members of G-Force at Thursday lunchtime.