My friends in Malawi designed the logo shown above for ‘Poems for Parliament’. They use it in their Degrowth days which are funded by my private income. These events usually involve some teaching about family planning and agro-forestry in the morning, with a lively football match and much singing and dancing in the afternoon. In my experience, indigenous people surviving on subsistence farming, can see ecological collapse vividly and understand the need for IPAT Degrowth very quickly, unlike people in the well-developed countries who are disconnected from Nature.
My name is Barbara Williams, I am the author of the book ‘Saving Us From Ourselves – Can we repair 50 years of ecological overshoot?‘. The book was written to help people in affluent countries understand the extent to which we can change our behaviour to salvage our eco-systems, it includes the climate crisis Poems which were sent to every UK MP in September 2020. It is free to download here.
After writing the book I came to realise that we needed something global to inspire the necessary behavioural changes. I worked as lead-editor on the paper published by the UN Commons Cluster (part of the UN NGOs Major Group) in order to influence the High-level Political Forum as part of the review of SDGs in July 2022. The paper suggests that the SDGs be refined to earn the revised title ‘Sustainable Degrowth Goals’. This involves promoting my petition to the UN for a ‘Charter for Eco-Justice‘ which is designed to inspire the emotional maturity and humility which will be required to face up to the escalating existential threats that are a direct result of ignoring global ecological overshoot for over 50 years. I plan to submit a Framework for Maximum Mitigation to the High-level Advisory Board for the UN.
I have been a climate and environmental activist since April 2019, I own and maintain this website. In September 2021 my activism was recognised by the Stable Planet Alliance and they added me to their list of Voices on GirlPlanet.Earth. In October 2022, after Liz Truss created the concept of the Anti-growth Coalition, I adopted the nom de plume ‘Voice of the Antigrowth Alliance‘.
Contact me on bw@poemsforparliament.uk
Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/Barbara54799623
