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To: Ms. Dee Forbes, Director General, RTÉ and Mr. Pat Kiely, Managing Director, Virgin Media Television (Ireland)

Screen a standalone national TV #GE2020 Leaders' Debate on the single issue of the Climate Crisis

IInvite the leaders of all political parties to take part in a dedicated TV debate focused exclusively on the single issue of the climate crisis (separately from any and all other general election programming, including any general leaders debate). Questions should come from a studio audience composed of a sample of citizens biased in favour of those under 35, and including young people not yet 18, to reflect the disproportionate significance of the climate crisis for future generations.

Why is this important?

The climate crisis is entirely different from all other issues in this general election campaign. It is global in scope, raising genuine existential risk for the stability of all human civilisation within the lifetime of young people already of voting age. It transcends and dwarfs the other issues: there can be no enduring solution to housing, healthcare, education, economic development, peace or justice unless there is a successful response to the climate crisis. For Ireland to now play even its minimal fair share in such a global response would require fundamental and disruptive changes in current political priorities. It is utterly impossible to do justice to this issue without a full debate devoted exclusively to it, and driven by an audience selected explicitly to represent future generations who are entirely reliant on the decisions being made now.

"We need to focus every inch of our being on climate change. Because if we fail to do so, then all of our achievements and progress will be for nothing. And all that will remain of our political leaders’ legacy will be the greatest failure of human history. And they will be remembered as the greatest villains of all time because they have chosen not to listen and not to act." - Greta Thunberg, speech to the European Economic and Social Committee, February 2019.

[Note: This is now a joint/merged petition based on two similar but independent initiatives. The first was created by Nikki Ffrench Davis, the second by Barry McMullin.]

[Image credit: sculpture by Isaac Cordal, "Follow the leaders," Berlin, Germany, April 2011.]

Categories

Updates

2020-01-22 11:39:08 +0000

There will be an omnibus debate between just Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar on Virgin One TV tonight, 9.30pm-10.45. I've suggested two simple questions to ask:

+ Do you support holding a separate *standalone* leaders' TV debate on the #ClimateCrisis as over 3,500 citizens have now requested? Simple "yes" or "no" answers will suffice!
+ @UNEP says the Paris goals now require *global* GHG cuts of 7.6% per year: as Taoiseach, would your government cut Irish GHGs at more or less than that rate, and why? (The "how" is also important, but can only be meaningfully addressed after the rate has been determined - hopefully based on what is physically necessary, and globally just, not what is politically palatable...)

See twitter versions in this thread:
https://twitter.com/autofac/status/1219941908992184323?s=20

Please consider retweeting and/or posting similar on any social media, during today, but especially during the programme tonight!

2020-01-21 13:55:10 +0000

Excellent news: we have official confirmation on behalf of the Social Democrats that they support the holding of a standalone TV leaders debate on the climate crisis and that they would participate in it. See:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1luFFm5FU7xjfS1_JW7BgItK3jgly-Ajj/view?usp=sharing

2020-01-21 10:36:24 +0000

Link to Virgin Media TV letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19WgFf6jcne8UYxutW4Q5eG5k05cZ8bEv/view?usp=sharing

2020-01-21 10:35:45 +0000

Link to RTÉ letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gwY24HFosZZVmXT4U6EejWfWCWeCs4Bq/view?usp=sharing

2020-01-21 09:57:08 +0000

NB: If any signatories/supports have direct contacts in any of the political parties, please raise it through those channels also: the more noise, the more attention, the more chance of actual engagement! We still need at least *one* party leader to declare if this is to get off the ground!

2020-01-21 09:50:25 +0000

Newsflash: The petition, with a snapshot of the signatures to date, has now been formally emailed to both RTÉ and Virgin Media TV. It has also been separately send to all political party leaders, asking them to declare whether or not they support such a standalone debate and their willingness to participate.

2020-01-21 09:50:09 +0000

Wow! We shot through 2000 signatures yesterday evening and are now approaching 3000! Well - don't stop!

2020-01-20 15:24:05 +0000

Do please try to keep this as a live petition even as the election news cycle grinds on! Keep up re-publicising on social media, and if speaking with any canvassers, please show them the petition and ask for their party position. If they don't know ask them to find out and contact you back! If you get any responses, please post on social media (tag with #GE2020 #LeadersClimateDebate and @autofac).

Thanks again - Barry.

2020-01-20 15:23:06 +0000

We have just expanded the scope to address the petition not just to RTÉ but also to Virgin Media TV: if RTÉ can't or won't rise to the challenge, Virgin just might!!

2020-01-20 15:22:13 +0000

Many thanks to all of you for signing - the response has been amazing!

+ It turned out there were two petitions launched independently, by Barry McMullin and Nicki Ffrench Davis. With Nicki's gracious co-operation and support from the uplift.ie team, the two have now been merged.

+ One significant difference between the original petitions: Barry's had a *hard* age restriction on the studio audience. In the merged version, this is changed to just urging a "bias in favour of" younger participants.

Kind regards - 

Barry McMullin, Nicki Ffrench Davis

2020-01-17 23:28:46 +0000

1,000 signatures reached

2020-01-17 16:12:22 +0000

500 signatures reached

2020-01-17 09:43:08 +0000

100 signatures reached

2020-01-17 08:57:30 +0000

50 signatures reached

2020-01-17 08:34:09 +0000

25 signatures reached