A businesslike approach to the threat of extinction

Greta Thunberg asked why she should go to school if everything she would learn there is irrelevant in the face of catastrophic climate change.

But what if you’ve already spent decades in business earning a living and working towards a great future for your employees and for your own family? How do you react when you are confronted by the looming climate change disaster?

Two St Albans businessmen who did not previously know each other took similar action. 

Alex Paul is owner/director of a sportswear company employing fifty.  He has been with Extinction Rebellion since its inception. 

“I asked myself the question In ten years time when my children ask me what I did to prevent the catastrophe what will I say? I now have an answer for that question.”

Nigel Harvey, CEO of a company which coordinates recycling joined Extinction Rebellion over the summer.  His motivation was strikingly similar to Alex’s.  

“One day I hope to have grandchildren.  When they ask me whether I did anything to prevent this crisis, I’ll have some sort of answer for them.”

Both are busy running their businesses and annual leave is limited so each picked the means to make the maximum contribution to Extinction Rebellion in the shortest time. 

They each attended training sessions on the rights of arrestees, then booked a day off work, travelled into London, and headed for the high-vis jackets of the police cordon.

On Monday 7^th October Nigel sat on the road in Trafalgar Square in defence of a scaffolding tower which Extinction Rebellion members had erected, climbed and then superglued themselves to.  In no time, he was being carried off into a police van.

On Tuesday 8^th October Alex went to Downing St.  Seeing that the police were clearing the protesters’ tents, he went and sat in an empty one and refused to budge.  He was arrested almost immediately.

Both were released after a number of hours and able to resume work the next day.  Both now have a cogent story which makes clear to their colleagues and friends the depth of their concern for the future of the planet and the need to act.

Job done.  For both Alex and Nigel a businesslike approach to climate protest has proved effective.

It should also be said that Alex is not the first arrestee in his family. In the April protests, his wife, Emily Spry, GP, decided to be arrested in order to spread awareness of the climate change emergency.  If Alex’s response is anything to go by, it certainly had an effect.