Climate Census invites people across the UK to use the 2021 census to demand urgent climate action from the government.
Chelsea webster, founder of climate census uk, invites people from across the united kingdom to use their 2021 census to urge the government to take climate action.
Illustration by Alicia Hayden.
Let’s get real for a sec…
2008 - UK passed the Climate Change Act, making it legally binding for the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.
2016 - UK joined the Paris Agreement.
2019 - UK became the first country in the world to declare a climate emergency.
2021 – UK to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as COP26. You can read a recent Bloom in Doom article about COP26 here.
These are just four key highlights of the UK’s commitment to climate action, and despite them all, and despite more than a decade of climate policy, the government has still not succeeded in meeting its own climate targets… It’s difficult to grow up, grow older, enter adulthood amongst the knowledge that we, and the government especially, aren’t doing enough.
Over the past few years, with the rise in Extinction Rebellion and climate being brought to mainstream media via Greta Thunberg, it finally started to feel like we might be seeing the urgent action so many, in the UK and all over the world on the frontlines of climate change, have worked for.
Then covid happened. And everything just seemed to… Stop. The climate conversations being brought to national attention were doused by conversations about covid, and yet climate aware folks knew the world continued to burn. Media left the house and closed the door, but inside the house was still burning.
Urge the government to make a change, using your 2021 Census. Image from Climate Census UK.
COVID-19 has shown us that responding to an emergency means taking swift action, but it’s also limiting how people get their voices and climate concerns heard. How do we speak to a government if the avenues we normally use have been closed to us? That’s not to say innovation isn’t happening, because it definitely is! This past year, we’ve seen climate groups and activists get creative; from the creation of new activist groups, such as Pass the Mic which asks organisations and influencers to give space to those most impacted by climate change, to big and small actions that create mass disruption, such as XR pausing the distribution of right-wing newspapers that spread climate denial and Greenpeace glueing closed nearly 100 branches of Barclays bank in protest of fossil fuel investments, to digital actions that focus on what can be done from home, such as the XR campaign to back the CEE bill, calling on people to email and call their MP and then share the campaign on social media.
But we’ve desperately needed a new way to grab the government's attention, to remind them that while we face a health crisis now, we have another one coming that also needs action.
This is where Climate Census, a grassroots campaign group created by British and British-based activists, comes in – a way of empowering people to hold the government accountable to its climate targets by utilizing the census.
A census, a form that collects household and demographic data, is completed in the UK every ten years. The next one takes place in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland this month (official census day is March 21st), and March 2022 in Scotland.
The government started sending out census packs to households at the beginning of March, if you haven’t received one already it should arrive this week (before March 21st).
When completing the census, look out for the question asking about religion. If you are not religious, select the ‘other’ option and write in ‘Climate Concerned’. The proposed action is a simple and covid-safe way for people to channel their voices and be heard. Since the census is a government initiative, protesting on it speaks to the government using their own avenues, pressuring them to listen, as this form of disruption puts their initiatives at risk.
An easy two-step process. Online Census form, image from Climate Census UK.
The idea of using the census to enact protest isn’t new. Censuses have a long history of communicating messages to the government. In 1911 the suffragettes rallied behind “no vote, no census”. In 2001, a movement saw over 350,000 people in the UK record their religion as ‘Jedi’. Climate Census has taken these concepts and reimagined them for climate action. Instead of asking people to refuse to be counted (which has been an illegal action since the Census Act was passed in 1920), the Climate Census action forces the government to acknowledge that those who are Climate Concerned will continue to explore all avenues until the government is taking urgent climate action and is on track to meet its climate targets.
In 1911, the sufragettes rallied behind “no vote, no census”. Image from Climate Census UK.
Climate Census UK asks UK residents to use their census to urge the government to take action on climate change, instead of recording their religion as Jedi. Image from Climate Census UK.
In August 2019, polling data released by Ipsos MORI showed 85% of Britons are concerned about climate change, with the majority (52%) very concerned. These are the highest levels of concern Ipsos MORI have recorded since they began tracking in 2005. With such high figures of concern, the turn out for Climate Census, if the word spreads quickly enough, could be immense.
Climate Census is also running a social media action on Census Day (Sunday March 21st), the ‘day’ the government wants to gather data. Whether or not you put ‘climate concerned’ on your census - let's give them the information we think they need to know! Join the social media storm (follow link for caption suggestions and tag handles) on Sunday 21st sending the message to your MP, the environmental secretary and COP26 president, that WE ARE CLIMATE CONCERNED. If you want to stay tuned for future actions you can also sign up to the Climate Census email.
For enquiries relating to this campaign: climatecensus@gmail.com
Twitter: @ClimateCensusUK
Instagram: @ClimateCensusUK
Facebook: @ClimateCensusUK
Do your part on the 21st of March. Image from Climate Census UK.
Thank you to Alicia Hayden for her beautiful illustration. You can find more of her work on her Instagram @aliciahaydenwildlife
Chelsea Webster
Chelsea is a British activist and founder of Climate Census UK, which launched as a response government inaction on the climate emergency and failure to meet their climate targets. She also organises with Greenpeace and has taken part in other activist led campaigns such as Pass the Mic and the Reject the Bill campaign to stop the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill. Chelsea grew up in a low-economic working-class neighbourhood, surrounded by pollution emitting factories, which spurs her on to work for system change and healthier environments for all. You can follow her work at @LowWaste.PlantBased on Instagram.