There are currently several crises going on in the world, including the war started by Russia in Europe. Pandemics and wars, together with climate crisis and global biodiversity loss, pose a serious threat to the very existence of humanity and life on Earth. Particularly the major countries producing fossil energy are involved in aggrevating and making the situation ever gloomier. Earning up to 80% of its foreign trade revenue from the sales of fossil energy, Russia launched a ruthless attack on Ukraine this week. Also Saudi Arabia and Iran have caused a humanitarian disaster by waging war for years in Yemen. The US, currently the world’s largest oil-producing country, has for decades supported Israel’s illegal apartheid policy in occupied Palestine and the bombing of Gaza. The underlying causes of the various crises are largely the same: imperialist domination, unrestrained capitalism and the dependency of rich societies on the over-exploitation of fossil fuels and other natural resources.

What should we do in this situation where war is raging in Europe? The most important thing, apart from helping the Ukrainians and other peoples in distress, is to switch to renewable energy sources. This would release us from the dependency of arbitrary fossil fuel dictators and also ensure that future crises fuelled by fossil fuels, the most glaring of which is global warming, do not arise again.

The events of the past weeks are the result of control-seeking superpower policies, which fulfil the geopolitical fantasies of the Russian power elite. We ordinary people still have the power and authority to change the social debate and thus also the reality we live in. Europe is currently dependent on fossil fuels from Russia. Now is high time to look at the origin of our energy sources and make the political and social changes required for the transition to renewable energy production and the reduction of energy consumption.

XR Ukraine has appealed to the global climate activist community with an open letter. It calls for a united front against the fossil fuel industry, as the fastest way to peace and a sustainable future is to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. In this way, the financing of Putin’s war will end faster and have a bigger impact than sanctions, and global warming would also slow down. Elokapina shows solidarity with both the Ukrainians and all those affected by and opposed to war.

War is a tragedy for humanity with no winners. It is a particularly great tragedy when initiated with such immoral grounds as Russia in Ukraine. However, we must now ensure that one of the biggest losers of this war is the fossil fuel industry.

Read XR Ukraine’s letter in its full: https://tinyurl.com/bdd9vceh