Christian Henderson at the Leiden #Klimaatalarm protest: “We must stop the effects of the climate crisis being displaced onto the poorest” (video)

Sunday there was a #Klimaatalarm protest in Leiden also. It was organised by the Leiden Climate Crisis Coalition, an action platform with Fridays For Future, Extinction Rebellion (XR), #Leidenvoor14 and the FNV union. The second speech was by Christian Henderson. The spoken version is a bit longer than the written text below.

I am a lecturer at Leiden University. I teach several courses on the environment. I would say that awareness of the environment and the climate crisis is rapidly growing. I see increasing interest in this subject from students and from researchers.

In the university there are several initiatives that have been established in order to address the climate crisis. Scientists for Future is a European wide organisation that has been established to support student protests. In Leiden we are asking the university’s management to sever its relations to fossil fuel companies, both in terms of funding and other links.

By taking these steps we hope that we can encourage the university to act as a leader in the community.

This is an issue that belongs to all of us. Action on the climate crisis is not something that can be managed by institutions but must be addressed through social movements. We also must understand that within the current framework those who are marginalised within our society will pay the biggest price. On a global scale we must stop the effects of the climate crisis being displaced onto the poorest, those who are racialised and women. This is something that can only be stopped through a global movement of solidarity, which is what you are all doing here today.

Christian Henderson