HABLA YA SPANISH SCHOOLS DECLARES A CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL EMERGENCY

Today October 7th 2020 Habla Ya Spanish Schools declares a Climate and Ecological Emergency and commits to the actions proposed by "Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency" to advocate and drive the urgent changes required to accelerate a just transition towards regenerative carbon-negative tourism.

We add our name to the existing 114 signatories of "TOURISM DECLARES A CLIMATE EMERGENCY" and join their efforts to sound the alarm and reach out to all individuals, businesses and organistations within the travel community:
 

1. to become part of "Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency"
2. to co-create Travel Declares a Climate and Ecological Emergency
3. and we also launch a call to the entire Language Travel Industry to co-create and declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency

We can recover, reimagine and renew the industry working towards a sustainable recovery from COVID-19, reducing our ecological and climate impacts — especially through aviation [1], [2] and [3] — whilst harnessing the potential for positive influence and transformative change needed for all living things within a framework of justice.

The above film from 2040 provides a truly inspiring vision of what is possible, though the documentary itself, could be more grounded in reality and in the systemic economic, political and cultural changes needed to get there, such as illustrated by Tomorrow #demainlefilm and multiple calls from worldwide experts across various fields:
 

• Over 350 organisations representing over 40 million health professionals from 90 different countries call for a #HealthRecovery
• Over 100 Economists Call for an Economic Recovery That Ends the Carbon Economy including a Nobel Laureate
• A new economic system should build on and enhance the fabric of life rather than erode it
• Scientists’ Warning on Affluence
• 1,100 experts call for Degrowth as post-COVID-19 path
  

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"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.
And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realization of Utopias."

— Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Habla Ya has joined Tourism Declares because it is an initiative that supports tourism businesses, organisations and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and taking purposeful action to reduce our carbon emissions as per the advice from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030.

 
Yet this only gives us a 50% chance to remain below 1.5.degrees of warming, which compounded with the imminent threat of ecological collapse points to much vaster and rapid transformational systemic changes as already pointed out by many experts such as the ones listed above and over 11,000 scientists last year.

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On one hand the Climate Crisis means Planet Earth is on track for a 4°C increase in average global temperatures by the end of this century, which means BILLIONS of humans dying along the way if we don't CHANGE COURSE NOW! And on the other we also face an unprecedented biological annihilation — which could be avoided if we lived knowing that we're also part of nature — happening right in front of our eyes with species going extinct at rates up to 1,000 times the background rates of Earth's past, 200 species becoming extinct EACH DAY and 1 million in danger of extinction according to IPBES. An increase in temperatures will render many parts of Earth uninhabitable within our lifetimes and the loss of biodiversity will limit our possibilities to feed ourselves as healthy and resilient food systems to feed billions of humans rely on thriving ecosystems.

 
This Planetary Crisis can only be fully resolved and addressed within a framework of justice, so we sign up to 5 actions put forward by Tourism Declares Climate Emergency, alongside the current 114 and future signatories, as well as to additional measures required to truly mitigate the Climate and Ecological Crisis, adapt to it, preserve as much life as possible in all its forms and avoid widespread social collapse.

Simply put, we are committing to take action and making a call to action to everyone to do what is morally correct to preserve life.

We commit to (in bold our additions and changes):

1. Develop a ‘Climate and Ecological Emergency Plan’ within the next (12) 3 months, which sets out our intentions to
   • reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025
   • halt biodiversity loss over the next (ten) five years
   • sound the alarm on the Planetary Crisis
   • help organise People's Assemblies within business, organisations and our own communities and join the movements demanding governments to create and be led by local, regional, national and global Citizens' Assemblies to decide our future.
2. Share an initial public declaration of our ‘Climate and Ecological Emergency Plan’, and update on progress each (year) three months.
3. Accept that current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming only gives us a 50% to stay within that range so our commitments to reduce emissions must be much bolder and in line with what the emergency truly demands. We’ll ensure our ‘Climate and Ecological Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve what is truly necessary, through delivering transparent, measurable and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions per customer arising from our operations and the travel services sold by us. Knowing that carbon neutral flying is many years and most probably several decades away, we will we will actively promote Online Spanish lessons and only encourage Spanish learners to travel to Panama if they can do so in non carbon intensive ways such as sailing, cycling or via land public transport.
4. Encourage (our suppliers and partners) everyone within and related to the Language Travel Industry to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; and actively participate in the Tourism Declares community.
5. Advocate for change. We recognise the need for systems' change across the industry and in our global societies, and call for urgent regulatory action to accelerate the transition towards zero carbon air travel.

Remaining below 1.5 degrees is crucial because the consequences of reaching 2 degrees are considerably larger than 1.5 degrees, while 4 degees, which is our current trajectory by the end of the century, is mass murder with billions of humans dying along the way and widespread civilisational collapse.

Only communities who unite organically will be prepared for what the future holds so we make a call to all individuals and members of the Language Travel Community including but not limited to universities, language schools, high schools, agencies, associations, language travel websites, institutions, government bodies, insurance companies and payment facilitators to come together via People's and Citizens' Assemblies within in a framework of ecological justice and collectively reimagine not only our mission in the world but also how to live within our own communities.

In Panama, we have already been experiencing the effects of climate breakdown and ecological destruction. Those in coastal towns and cities will have to migrate due to sea levels rising — Climate crisis could displace 1.2 billion people in the next 30 years — and many of our islands have already been evacuated. But not only those by the coast are suffering. The weather can veer sharply from extreme drought — even in the rainforest — to severe flooding, putting the people, the environment, and even the economy at risk. Seasons become less and less predictable, making it more challenging to grow food and for crops to yield what is needed. Food, water and energy shortages will keep affecting those parts of the world who aren't able to regain their food sovereignty, adapt to more resilient and less impactful agricultural processes, removing dependency from what's produced abroad.

And for the record, just as ecofascism begins to rise, there is plenty of space for us all:

• Stabilising the global population is not a solution to the climate emergency
• Population Panic

"Justicia ecológica es justica para todas las cosas vivas."

— Indaselva

THERE IS NO LANGUAGE TRAVEL ON A DEAD PLANET!

Now, let's get personal...

Because once you know, you can never be the same.

This is my rebel journey...

"There is a time when silence becomes betrayal so I won't be a bystander and publicly remove my consent from all ecogenocidal systems."

— El Joules

This human knows he's only dust in the wind, but I'm looking for a butterfly effect. So before we wrap up, one final request: please only visit Panama (or anywhere in the world) if your journey can be in non-carbon intensive ways (unless it's essential travel and we'll leave that unique definition to the power of the people via Citizens' Assemblies).

FOLLOW MY JOURNEY FROM ACUTE AWARENESS, DESPAIR AND RESIGNATION TO REBELLION HERE... »

Photo by Carlos Tuyama/Projeto Harpia published here... The harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is the largest bird of prey in the world's rainforest, with a wingspan of up to 2 meters, or 6 feet, and Panama's national bird.
 

READ ABOUT MY JOURNEY FROM ACUTE AWARENESS, DESPAIR AND RESIGNATION, TO REBELLION, HERE... »

 
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