Are you concerned about climate change and its impacts? Do you wish to join millions of people around the world to send a message to world leaders that the threat of climate change should be addressed with the utmost urgency so that we can have a safe climate future for ourselves and our children? Then you are warmly invited to come along to the Peoples Climate Change March in Eastbourne on September 21st. This event will be one of over 1500 events worldwide on the same day. We will be meeting at Eastbourne Pier at 11.30am in preparation for a photoshoot at 12 noon before a short walk through the town centre. We will be asking people to sign the Avaaz petition demanding a transition to 100% clean energy as soon as possible so that the carbon emissions that cause global warming can be reduced as fast as possible. The messages and photos of the day will be presented to the world leaders gathering in New York on September 23rd for the UN Climate Summit called by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to inject urgency into the political and diplomatic process leading up to the crucial COP21 climate talks in Paris next year, when the world will have the best - and perhaps last - chance ever of securing a global deal to reduce carbon emissions enough to keep global warming to less than 2 degrees C.

The more of us who stand up to be counted on climate change, the more pressure world leaders will be under to secure the deal we need for a safe climate future for us all, especially for us here in Eastbourne, which is literally on the front line of climate change due to the rising sea level, the consequence of the melting of the world’s ice sheets. The latest IPCC report predicts that sea level will rise globally by at least 1 metre by 2100, and and positive feedbacks discovered since the IPCC report was published (eg,. the discovery that the West Antarctic ice sheet has tipped over into irreversible and increasingly rapid collapse) means that the sea level rise may be a lot quicker and a lot bigger than 1 metre! As much of Eastbourne is already vulnerable to flooding from the sea (according to the Environment Agency, about 17,500 homes are at risk of such flooding), then Eastbourne not only has a challenge to adapt to climate change as effectively as possible but also has a vested interest in seeing the best possible mitigation of climate change so that sea level rise is kept to a minimum.

The stakes could not be higher! Just as we do not want our beloved Eastbourne Pier to suffer damage from fire, so we would not want the pier, and much of Eastbourne too, to be swept away by the rising seas! Just as we had to come together as a people and a nation in the immediate run-up to the Second World War to prepare for the immense challenge that everyone know was coming, so we now face the challenge of building a collective will to face the greatest challenge of them all: climate change. Everyone one of us counts. Your voice matters. So join with us on September 21st at Eastbourne Pier for the ultimate End of the Pier Show!

For further information about the walk, contact 07402321382 or email: info.eastbournefoe@gmail.com