COP23 Demo in Bonn – Imagine all the people

The 25,000 who demonstrated in Bonn are a symbol for meaningful collaborative action on a global level.  We are proud and grateful to host guests from all over the world, to get requests from other organizations, to meet people we have never met before and to engage for the same common goals.

There is also cooperation happening at the city administration level. The city of Bonn set up a Climate Tour with events and exhibitions during COP. They invited various civic organisations from Bonn. Our Transition Initiative is a cooperation partner in five of six events.

At the same time we are part of the frictions and contradictions of the system at local level.  The opening event of the climate tour at the market place in Bonn lasted  several hours. In parallel, all day Sunday shopping took place with so called climate neutral light art events, sponsored by McDonalds and other “sustainable enterprises” like Porsche. Mind Behaviour Gap made in Bonn.

Maybe we will collectively fail to meet the Paris agreements. However this story ends, this is the time to engage for a new planetary life culture. “Climate change could be the first cornerstone of a planetary narrative”, said the filmmaker Dirk Wilutzky at a crossroads conference in Königswinter near Bonn. “We have to coexist, to form a totally new image and perspective from our self, to create a new identity”.

Today, some of us went to work on this new narrative in the coal mining area of the Rheinland. More than 2,500 brave activist practiced civic disobedience by blockading with their bodies and creative action like dancing or acro yoga. It has been the biggest successful blockade since the beginning of the demonstrations in this area. Pacific Climate Warriors supported the event, they have delivered a call for climate justice on sacred “tapas” – not drowning, but fighting!

With thanks to Gesa Maschkowski – co-founder of Transition Initiative Bonn im Wandel, researcher and Transition Trainer.