Stopping a Tory majority isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s our best chance of saving the planet

Hundreds of thousands of people registered to vote just days ago. If we do it at the same rate up until the 26 November deadline, we could potentially rewrite our future

I am a staunch supporter of Extinction Rebellion. I have zealously stood in solidarity with our young in climate strike after climate strike – but I cannot overstate the importance of the election before us.

A Boris Johnson majority means the acceleration of climate crisis and ecological breakdown to an irreversible, likely irreparable degree. On Friday 22 November, during what was the latest global school climate strike, 206,000 people aged 34 and under, and more than 300,000 in total, registered to vote before the deadline of 26 November.

It may be the greatest number that have done so on any given day – and it is exactly the energy and urgency we must desperately and collectively employ to confound the reckless purveyors of climate catastrophe, before we are too late.

We firmly fight through “Fridays for Future”, but the future that five more years of Conversative rule foreshadows – allied with the darkest, most evil and unjust of Trumpian forces – is one neither people nor planet can afford to bear.

Movements build unstoppable, invincible momentum. They allow us to dream of a better world of empathy, equality and universal prosperity. When we stand together, march together, occupy together and chant together – in those moments, regardless of background or identity, our purpose is one and the same.

But if this spirit of unity can’t stop the onward march of climate denialism, let alone deliver a victory for comprehensive climate action at the ballot-box, then we will have failed. The chance on 12 December to change the course of history for our country, may be our last.

We need another surge in the registration of voters before the deadline on 26 November. Never has there been a more important election in our lifetime; never has it been so obvious who the forces of disaster-capitalist doom are; never has so much been at stake.

We know what Johnson’s disastrous Brexit “deal” means – a victory for oil and gas magnates, greedy pharmaceutical conglomerates and the hedgefund-elite, with job security, environmental protections and workers’ rights at great risk and our NHS on the sacrificial altar.

But the greatest injustice will be to our future generations, and those who will inherit our country and our planet. As sea levels continue to rise, deadly flooding has become the new norm and our coastal areas are disappearing before us.

We continue to be committed to a carbon craze through brainless offshore drilling and irresponsible fracking, with our increasingly polluted air fast becoming unbreathable. Voting Johnson out of office and the Tories out of government isn’t just the right thing to do. Just like defeating Trump in November 2020, it is an existential imperative for all humanity.

If we register to vote to the rate of last Friday every day for the next three days, we can stop evil in its tracks and fundamentally rewrite the future of our country.

It can be tiresome, and it sure as hell can be demoralising, but we must understand that tactically voting the Tories out in this election will be the greatest step we have taken as a nation towards climate justice.

The horrors that will surely follow our apathy are too devastating to allow, and the prize on offer is too great for us to pass. We can get the Tories out, end austerity, protect our environment, reform our democracy and win the right to remain in the European Union through a people’s vote. With the billionaire press, the super-rich ruling class and biased institutes and think-tanks by his side, let’s be absolutely clear – Johnson failing to win a majority will be a fatal blow to his political career, and an immense, immeasurable victory for us all.

Register to vote and have your say, especially for those whom the outcome of the election will impact so much, and yet have no democratic say themselves. If there is a young person in your life who has thrown their heart, soul and priceless study time into fighting for urgent climate action, vote with their best interests. We’ve all said we support the school student climate movement, and many of us have joined the protests – on 12 December, we can make our single greatest contribution to the cause by stopping a Conservative majority.

Magid Magid is an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber​