Extinction Rebellion Malta is an environmental organisation that strives to inform both the public and the governing bodies on the importance of preserving our local natural environment for present and future generations to enjoy. We do this by raising awareness on the threat posed by climate change and ecological degradation by means of having informational sessions, meetings with policy makers and, when the need arises, by organising rallies, protests, and peaceful demonstrations.
Therefore, as you can imagine that once the general election date (Saturday, 26 March 2022) was announced, an internal discussion of what we should do next was bound to occur. For those who don’t know, Extinction Rebellion Malta is only a few years old; therefore, like most young people this would be our first election experience as an organisation. During the much-anticipated meeting we discussed what our next move should be; should we sit it out and wait for the election to pass, should we make a press statement and let that be the end of it or should we do something more active. After a thorough discussion we decided that the best thing we could do is hold an environmental rally; we said to ourselves “if the parties rally, why shouldn’t we?” and with that, the rally was on.
Once we decided to hold the rally, the next step was to bring together other environmental NGOs and organisations to not only attend but also endorse this rally, as we felt that it is of utmost importance to show a united front in this matter.
At the time of writing this rally has the backing of the following environmental organisations:
- Moviment Graffitti
- Rota
- ORCA Malta – Outdoor Recreation and Camping Association
- Friends of the Earth Malta
- Vegan Prism
- Eco Market Malta
- The ‘Grow 10 Trees’ Project
- Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar
- Fridays For Future Malta
- Earth Guardians Malta
- Nature Trust – FEE Malta
- Għawdix
- Animal Liberation Malta
This rally will have three focus points.
Firstly, we will use this opportunity to encourage people to vote with the environment in mind. What we mean by this is that we are encouraging people to see if the candidate in question really cares for the environment, or is the candidate only acting like they care, do they really practice what they preach?
Secondly, we will remind politicians that for us the environment is not a political prop but is something we care deeply about. As an environmental organisation we do not want to see proposals that are clear examples of greenwashing, but rather proposals that will make a difference, both in the short term as well as in the long term.
Lastly, we will make a pledge that if meaningful actions are not taken by whoever gets elected on the 26 March 2022 we will rally again, and we will continue rallying until the words end, and actual actions begin.
If you’ve made it this far, we as Extinction Rebellion Malta invite you to attend our rally on the 19th of March at 2pm in front of parliament to rally with us whether you are an independent, Nationalist, Labour, ADPD or Volt supporter. At the end of the day, we as Extinction Rebellion Malta are pushing for a better and more environmentally friendly future not for some of us, but all of us.