I believe the impending election is the most important one of our lives. The window for the government to effectively take action to protect all life on this earth and in particular the future of our children, is in the next five years.

This next parliament.

The election that is about to happen decides who will be running this country during this critical period. We must reclaim the agenda now and present this to anyone who considers standing to represent us.

We cannot allow another five years of distraction and wasted time. This is the moment. If you are considering standing as an MP, are you ready to step up and call in the bold vision of rapid transformation that so many of us want to see, and that our planet needs now? If you aren’t maybe you shouldn’t stand.

UK news continues to be dominated by our disarray and division around a “big subject” that shall remain nameless in this article. It seems that conventions, like science, telling the truth and decency have fallen by the wayside in this car crash moment that our civilisation is undergoing. Whether the current political crisis was constructed or engineered, a disaster capitalism or right wing take over plan as some report, we are at crisis point in more ways than one.

All around us the reality of where we are as a species is ever more apparent. Wildfires all over the world, hurricanes, floods, droughts, typhons, huge ice cap melts, all happening at the same time. We are burning this planet alive and ourselves with it. The feedback loops of our immense release of C02, are all happening far faster than thought possible. There is real evidence that the ecological support system is reaching a state of extreme stress and has the potential for rapid and very destructive shifts.

A new report describes the Amazon rainforest as 'close to an irreversible tipping point' destroying the rich ecosystem that currently lives there and shutting down the lungs of our planet. The Amazon not only makes huge amounts of oxygen, but also rain – the amount of water that flows out of the area in clouds sends rain to many other areas in the world. And still we are burning 100M barrels of oil a day – I can’t even imagine what that looks like.

The global economy needs to stop burning oil very rapidly and switch to restoring ecological systems, for example, by a massive program of tree planting. We must use this moment of crisis to set a new ecological agenda for the future of all life on earth. Our electoral system, for all its failings can be a powerful tool for positive change, but only if we the people make our voices heard.

In this moment of huge discord, we the people need to set the agenda. Large numbers of MPs have announced they are stepping down at this next election. We are witnessing a potential seismic shift in our parliamentary democracy, just when we need clear leadership for positive change. It seems possible that not one group or party will be able to command a majority at the end of this process. We need to demand that a coalition is formed, personally I don’t care which parties or persuasions they are as long as they are determined and committed to act on the very pressing issue of bringing our species rapidly back into balance with nature.

For our civilisation to become sustainable we need, amongst other things, to: rapidly decarbonise, address global inequality, restore natural ecosystems and stop The Sixth Mass Extinction and forge a truly progressive inclusive society to catalyse change.

Some have called this big transition a Green New Deal.

There are so many benefits to society by realising this vision, it is hard to see why we are not already fully engaged in this agenda. It is a grand, unifying project that offers huge opportunity for everyone to be involved in so many ways. There are decades of meaningful work. This massive new economic driver can be the route we need to lift society out of its current malaise and back onto a trajectory that improves the human condition - but this time without sabotaging our life support system - our precious Planet Earth.

Let’s all make sure we are registered to vote now in case we end up with a general election in the coming weeks. But first go and meet the person you are going to vote for, look them in the eyes and get their commitment that they will do what is required. Take the papers and briefings on the Green New Deal and make it clear this is what we want.

This might be the moment we have been waiting for the moment in a generation where rapid change occurs. It has to be, and it also may be one of the most important acts of our lifetimes so let’s make it count!

I will be voting with the lives of my children in mind. The future belongs to all those who come after us. We owe it to all the humans younger than ourselves to start the process of putting our planet’s ecological systems back together again.

It is almost too late.

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Useful links -

• https://tactical.vote/
• https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/brexit_elections_uk_11/