More than 100 people were arrested during a week of action across the UK as protesters demanded the government treat the threats posed by climate change as a crisis and take drastic steps to cut emissions to net zero byย 2025.
Thousands of people joined a mass protest that blocked roads and bridges in central London, with some gluing themselves to government buildings to draw attention to what they see as climateย breakdown.
This was the birth of Extinction Rebellion, a movement that calls for mass economic disruption using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to halt the destruction of the planet and its wildlife and prevent catastrophic climateย change.
Around the world, environmental campaign groups and activists watched the action unfold. In London, there is a growing hope that this could be the start to a new form of international mobilisation for climateย action.
โA gameย changerโ
From the US to Ghana and New Zealand to Western Europe, campaigners have shown enthusiastic support for Extinction Rebellionโs declaration of climate emergency.
Jamie Henn, co-founder of the campaign group 350, said watching the launch of Extinction Rebellion in London from the US had been โincredibly excitingโ and embodied โa growing sense of anger and desire for radicalย solutionsโ.
Henn said he was confident Extinction Rebellion would inspire similar non-violent direct climate actions in the US over the coming months, but whether the movement was one that could endure the test of time was yet to beย seen.
Margaret Klein Salamon, founder of the US grassroot group Climate Mobilization, said she believed Extinction Rebellion is โa game changerโ for the climateย movement.
She is part of a team of dedicated activists working on Extinction Rebellionโs international expansion, ensuring it has a robust enough infrastructure and resources to give the movement the capacity and stamina to organise in theย long-term.
Salamon said Extinction Rebellion was born as the climate movement was shifting away from advocating gradual change to demanding immediate action in line with the scale of the climateย crisis.
She said that for the first time, Extinction Rebellion set out the full implications of climate change on humanity and the planetโs ecosystems without shielding people from the consequences of the crisis for fear of being tooย alarming.
She added that Extinction Rebellion was advocating solutions that may have long been seen as impossible, but which the group believe could gather mainstreamย momentum.
Above all, Salamon said the use of peaceful civil disobedience as a means to engage people in ย โpower strugglesโ against governments and demand meaningful change is what made Extinction Rebellionย unique.
โThere is so much momentum around Extinction Rebellion and what is needed is to be able to escalate the disruption,โ she said, adding: โThis is still a very young movement but there is tremendous enthusiasm forย it.โ
Image Credit: Thomas Katan for Extinctionย Rebellion
Extinction Rebellionโs first public action was to occupy the Greenpeace headquarters in London โ a move which took the climate movement in the UK by surprise and aimed to warn environmental NGOs against becoming complacent about governmentsโ inaction on climateย change.
Learning from past grassroots movements such as Gandhiโs independence marches, the Suffragettes, the Civil Rights movement and Occupy, Extinction Rebellion claims to aim to rally support worldwide around a common sense of urgency to tackle climate breakdown.ย ย
Internationalย rebellion
Robin Boardman, a coordinator with Extinction Rebellion in the UK, said the week of action that took place across the country was โa prototype for what a global resistance could lookย likeโ.
Pointing out that the UK is responsible for only one percent of current global emissions, Boardman added: โWhat happened in London is a drop in a pond compared to what could happen worldwide in months toย comeโ.
Extinction Rebellion is working to establish campaign groups beyond the UK, with coordinators already working in the US, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Italy andย Spain.
But much of the movementโs international expansion is focused on the US.
โLike in the Arab spring, Tunisia started the uprising but it was not until it spread to Egypt that the whole movement gripped the Middle East,โ Boardmanย said.
Inspired by US Senator Bernie Sandersโ 2016 presidential campaign, Extinction Rebellion wants to export its non-violent rebellion model and ambition of a widespread system change but allow for autonomous campaign groups to organise independently across theย world.
โIt is up for local groups as to whether people should be taking up action and what direction they move in. Itโs about doing something different and shifting what is acceptable in the context of the climate crisis. When society is ready to lose its sense of fear in the face of state authority, then everything crumbles and change can happen,โ Boardmanย said.
A broad church, Extinction Rebellion has attracted much support from religious groups, including Christian Climate Action, which had several of its members arrested in the UK last week.ย ย
Caroline Harmon, from the Christian Climate Action, said that her group has received messages of support from Christian communities across the world, who have been inspired by last weekโsย actions.
The first Extinction Rebellion action on the African continent was held earlier this month in front of a church in Accra, Ghana, where dozens of climate activists carrying Extinction Rebellion placards told churchgoers about the global climate resistance being born in the UK.
Extinction Rebellion protesters in front of a church in Accra, Ghana. Image Credit: Mawuse Yao Agorkor for Vazoba
Mawuse Yao Agorkor, a grassroot social activist from Ghana and the general secretary of the West African Vazoba network, said the launch of Extinction Rebellion in London was โan exciting momentโ and that he was hoping larger protests would โhit the streets of Ghanaย soonโ.
The Vazoba network has long campaigned against deforestation, the use of toxic chemical and mining in the region and now hopes to use its organising tools and contacts across West Africa to spread Extinction Rebellionโsย message.
Agorkor said he was not afraid of using civil disobedience as a means to ramp up pressure on his government. โI have been working on the ground for six years, and getting arrested for protesting in the interest of our planet is something that my group is not afraid of,โ heย said.
Agorkor is well aware that if the movement is to spread through Africa, it will have to adapt in places where police brutality is common fortune and protesters could be met with open fire. But for now, Agorkor believes the organising capacity of both Vazoba and Extinction Rebellion constitute โa good startingย pointโ.
Diverseย Movement
The emergence of Extinction Rebellion also comes at a time of great change in the US climateย movement.
For Henn, of 350, Sandersโ presidential campaign, which inspired Extinction Rebellionโs mobilisation strategy, gave place to a new generation of young leaders including more women and people of colour โ a trend reflected in the USโ Congressional midtermย elections.
Newly elected liberals, led by the 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are demanding the Democrats back a โGreen New Dealโ to rapidly transform the economy to 100 percent renewable energy in a decade โ a target largely in line with Extinction Rebellionโs own demand to reach net zero byย 2025.
Henn said that the only way in which the Extinction Rebellion movement would take off in the US would be by โmoving away from a climate movement that is predominantly made up of older, middle-class whiteย peopleโ.
Instead, Henn said Extinction Rebellion had โto build a multi-racial and multi-generational movement which will include young people of colour in its leadership and tackle issues such as equity and environmentalย justiceโ.
Image Credit: Tamsinย Omond
For Henn, the movement will also have to ensure it uses a universal language that inspires urgency but respects and reflects the experiences of those living on theย frontlines.
Referring to a banner that was dropped from Westminster bridge in central London last week and read โClimate Change, We Are F**dโ, heย added:
โIt is one thing to say such things from the safety of London, but itโs another if you are living on the frontline of climateย impacts.
โSome people donโt have the privilege to giveย upโ.
Image credit: Ruth Davey for Extinctionย Rebellion
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