In July, Green Party candidate and academic Rupert Read declined to appear on a BBC programme. The tweet in which he justified this, read as follows: BBC Radio wanted to have me on today to debate a climate-denier in the context of the drought/heatwave. I said NO. I told them it was a disgrace that they still give climate-deniers airtime at a time like this. I won’t be part of such charades any longer. Please RT if you agree. @GreenRupertRead
Read's
contention is that giving climate-deniers airtime is a ridiculous move from the
BBC, when there are more important debates about climate change; it is here,
and is dangerous. This impatience is echoed by other activists, but ones
that will not wait for a comfortable discussion around the pros and cons of
different strategies. They are unwilling to make polite appeals to our government,
when it is clearly in the pocket of big business and major polluters.
On September 25th I chaired a
discussion entitled “Why Aren't We
Worrying More About Global Warming?”
where one of Extinction Rebellion's main activists, Roger Hallam,
spoke. At this event he laid out his arguments – arguments for starting a
public rebellion against the government over their climate change inaction -
and then he left before the Q & A began.
Action, he explained, not words,
are important in the little time we have to do something. We should not get
caught in the over-analysis of the information. He painted a picture of
activism as a sacrifice of personal freedom, and the importance of rule
breaking to achieve ones goals. And knowing Roger a little, I can corroborate
that he lives by these ideals. Here is a link to Roger's speech https://ytcropper.com/cropped/EA5bd4dc118a72b
It is
easy to view the non-violent action that Roger proposed as extreme and drastic –
it is. It was only a week after the talk, on October 1st, that
the IPCC released their damning report: we have only 12 years to keep climate
change temperatures under control:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report And
this is to put widespread devastation and societal unrest into emotionless
facts and figures.
I am no longer convinced that political
parties of the Left have enough energy or gumption to turn us toward serious
responses and solutions to climate change. Political cycles are short and
politicians have even shorter memories.
Roger's
walk away from the discussion, and abandonment of polite convention had a very
polarising affect. It generated an emotional response – and such responses are necessary for
going beyond our willingness to rationalise and normalise the impending chaos.
Whilst
the positive stories are definitely something that can keep us going in the
darker moments outside activism, many people around the globe are engaged in
great projects that facilitate us moving to a more ecological way of living.
But these are alternatives, and not the mainstream, socio-political
reality.
Extinction Rebellion's method is to shock the system. They plan to do this in the coming months, starting with a big demonstration
and direct action in Parliament Square, with the backing of George Monbiot https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/18/governments-no-longer-trusted-climate-change-citizens-revolt
The present moment seems
terribly fragile and frightening. Even the climate change deniers seem to be
keeping rather quiet. But since the IPCC report the media has returned to its
regular coverage of minutiae and gossip. It is a fragile moment that we live in,
but fragile moments, are ones in which the status quo is broken. How
things will look from the other side of a social revolution is much harder to
say. But to be climate extremist in these times is nothing but common sense.
Kensal and Kilburn Better 2018 @KKBetter2018
