Letter to Pelosi

Meet Us or We Hunger Strike

November 12, 2019

Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

Today humanity is at a crossroads. We either unite to prevent climate and ecological collapse, or this nation and global society will fall to pieces. 

You say, “There is no time left to deny the reality of climate change, or to turn a blind eye to the impact it is having on our country.” But you have turned a blind eye to the hundreds of millions of climate refugees that will result from the climate crisis; you have turned a blind eye to the California wildfires that are causing massive power outages, destroying entire communities, and poisoning the lungs of our children; you have turned a blind eye to the Pentagon report warning of the complete breakdown of U.S. society in the next 20 years due to the climate crisis. 

Every day the evidence piles up at your desk, but you have yet to pass even symbolic legislation recognizing the climate crisis as a national emergency. With all due respect, you have failed. 

On Monday November 18, Extinction Rebellion will begin a hunger strike in your D.C. office until you meet with us for one hour. 

We won’t be patronized by a meeting with your staff, or a meeting in the distant future, or a five minute conversation, or an impromptu talk. We demand a one hour on-camera meeting with you scheduled at least 24 hours in advance to discuss the greatest global threat in human history. Meet with us or leave us to starve while you jet to your Thanksgiving feasts and cocktail parties in the glow of a burning world. 

It is with a heavy heart that we will deny ourselves our basic needs. May our pain finally sound the alarm.

With Love, Hunger and Rage, 

Extinction Rebellion Washington D.C.