Dear Chancellor,
Forget about growth… focus instead on sustainable priorities
We are writing to you from WILPF (the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) to offer you, and ourselves, a new way forward to a comfortable and sustainable life without the need for “Growth”.
We have been looking to the future and see our exhausted, depleted planet, no longer able to sustain a good life for everyone. Worldwide we are all experiencing a very serious climate crisis: this crisis does not just need money to help Pacific Island nations from being overwhelmed by the ocean, but this crisis will make life untenable even in the very rich West (Los Angeles is a prime example).
The use of fossil fuels is a major cause of this crisis. You have the power to keep them in the ground.
Without government intervention, our food supply – which depends on colonial extraction – will run out before we can re-purpose our lands and change our eating demands. WILPF says:
forget about building a third runway at Heathrow
forget about spending 2.5% – or more – of GDP on the military budget
stop unregulated building all over this crowded island
These are Elastoplast solutions to an emergency that needs surgery. WILPF says, use our considerable national resources:
to enable disabled people to live decent and comfortable lives
to release our existing substantially under-used housing stock, and make it available for public use
to nurture our young people by providing them with a good education, enabling them to contribute to a comfortable future
to rebuild a fit-for-purpose health care system to improve the health of all
to explore “green energy” solutions instead of building the third runway to create green energy jobs, such as building wind farms
You need to focus on new priorities to limit the wealth of a tiny number of people and to create a sustainable life for all of us.
Yours in peace
Fiona McOwan, National Secretary, for WILPF UK Executive Committee
