Climate Catastrophe is Happening Now

Sunday, 5 September 2021

Climate Catastrophe is Happening Now

I didn’t blog recently, not because nothing was happening, but because too much was.

Extinction Rebellion had a fortnight of protests in London. XR’s original mission was to draw attention to climate change as a reality, in spite of reassurances from the fossil fuel companies. Since the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its recent ‘Code Red for humanity’, there are few climate deniers left.

Extinction Rebellion’s updated quest is to get the government to act on climate change. Despite making reassuring promises, they are supporting the opening of the vast new Cambo oilfield in Shetland and a new coalmine in Cumbria, while spending £27 billion on new roads and devastating an irreplaceable swathe of countryside with their HS2 white elephant project.

During the fortnight’s XR activities, Nigel sat down as an act of peaceful protest and offered himself for arrest twice, once chained to the pink table in the West End and once on a junction just north of Tower Bridge. It is his way of shouting aloud ‘Stop the harm!’

I found myself surrounded by police cordons on at least three occasions and lost count of the number of times I was threatened with arrest.

Extinction Rebellion causes disruption and this is controversial. But the argument is that this is only the slightest fraction of the disruption which will be caused by climate catastrophe if it continues unchecked – ask the inhabitants of Germany or New York who suffered in recent flash floods.

There will be no ‘Business as Usual’ on a dead planet.

However, if the techniques of XR (Extinction Rebellion) seem uncomfortable to you, please still act to protect your planet by joining one of the other green organisations and following their advice to write to politicians and sign petitions. We must act now.