EXTINCTION REBELLION
Meet the Londoners fighting against climate change
WRITTEN BY CHaRLOTTE GLORIEUX & FERNANDA Gándara
“XR is being the canary in the mines, drawing attention to the problem 'look it's happening!',” David Humphreys
“I think that we have a chance [to change] if we continue to see what the roots of this are, and it's not just science, it's social injustices,” Savannah Lovelock
“Once you realize that your future is in danger, it's quite hard to not to get involved in some kind of climate action, climate activism,” Felix Ottaway O'Mahony
Members' motivations to join
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On May 1st, 2019, the UK Parliament approved a motion to declare climate emergency, Extinction Rebellion’s members believe the country is on the right path, but a lot is still to change in the system in order to fight climate change.
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On the day she learned the news, Savannah Lovelock remembers thinking “Oh okay, this is where the real trouble begins, because now we have to make them actually do something,” said the 19-year-old coordinator of XR Youth London. “We have to be really careful about the politicians, they are very good at saying things and not actually doing things.”
The vast majority of the Extinction Rebellion’s members interviewed had the same reflection. All were left with the same question “what does climate emergency even mean?”
There is no single definition of the term climate emergency, but many local areas in the United Kingdom were encouraged to take upon the challenge to be carbon-neutral by 2030.
Extinction Rebellion’s members protested in the streets of London during the end of the month of April, using non-violent approaches. Created 9 months ago, the movement has spread to 40 countries around the world.
Felix Ottoway O’Mahony, a 14-year-old member of XR Youth London, expressed more cautious positivism. “Honestly, I don't think it changes much in my opinion, it does give that sense that we are doing something because they wouldn't even have passed the motion to do that without XR in my opinion.”
Peter Walton, a researcher at the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), remained cynical about the announcement. “I think it’s a largely political stunt that was trying to raise climate change up the agenda, it was put forward by the Labour Party as a counterpoint to perceive current government's progress when it comes to emissions target.”
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What does the future look like for Extinction Rebellion?
The London XR OFFICE
Portraits of various members
Savannah Lovelock has members of her family involved in the creation of Extinction Rebellion. She gives them credit for her involvement in the cause. Her father is Roger Hallam, one of the founders. She decided to join the movement in October last year.
“It was the fact that I just simply do not see anything else that is as important right now, and I mean that in the way that I’m not just here for doing action and shouting things and waving flags, I'm here to create the start, to create the first step of a counter culture.”
Bex Plenderleith is a father and a member of Extinction Rebellion. He has 3 kids. The 49-year-old writer and his family haven’t been on a plane in 7 years, because they want to reduce their carbon footprint.
He first heard about Extinction Rebellion 4 months ago. “I had been in denial about the severity of the situation,” he said. “The human race is up the filthy, polluted creek without the paddle.”
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Watching his 3 children participate in protests and blockages and asking questions about their future has been his proudest moments as a member of XR. “My son, a chronic introvert, who won’t normally come to London, as it’s too busy and noisy, lied down on Waterloo Bridge, relaxing, whilst my daughters gave out vegan cake,” he said.
Since becoming an active member of Extinction Rebellion, his wife and him have switched to a mostly vegetarian lifestyle, substituting by half their dairy products for plant-based alternatives. They want to switch their energy source to a green supplier and eventually move their bank account to non-fossil supporting alternatives.
Charlotte Smith is a 20-year-old university student and has been a member of Extinction Rebellion since April 2019. She credits Extinction Rebellion for her awareness about the current state of the climate. She encourages others to follow the movement. “I think it’s vital for people to start taking responsibility for their actions by changing their diets, recycling and being conscious of how actions can have an impact on the planet.”
Non-violent direct actions training are offered here, where members can learn more about one of the core values of XR's strategy. Photo: Charlotte Glorieux
XR Principles
The role of the media in spreading “the Truth”
Extinction Rebellion (XR) demands that the government, in collaboration with the media, tell the truth about the state of climate and declare climate emergency. The latter has now been done, but members of XR are stressing the government to put actions behind their words.
According to David Humphreys, a professor of Environmental Policy at the Open University in the United Kingdom, the relation between XR and the public should not be taken for granted. He believes the media possesses an undeniable power of shaping the public’s image of the environmentalist group.
“Fortunately, for XR, the last protests [the blockage of streets during the Rebellion week] didn't seem to sway public opinion that much, I think they carried the public with them.”
He claims the persistence of the protestors gave them legitimacy which convinced the vast majority of the public. “It wasn't one of these demonstrations, just done in one or two days, this one lasted a couple of weeks, I think it managed to influence the public and the politicians that this is something serious.
Miriam Well, a journalist from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, insisted on the fact that XR is fighting a societal problem, not an individual problem. She suggested to XR members to find journalists already supportive of the cause to talk about them.
Being apolitical or going beyond politics
Alessandra Palange, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at University College London, held a workshop about XR’s third demand: the government must be led by a national citizens’ assembly.
According to her, the current political system is not fit to respond to long term issues such as the climate crisis. She explained it by rereferring to the constant pressure undergone by the current politicians to be re-elected.
“Citizens are not worried about power and keeping the power,” she said. “The idea behind citizens’ assembly is that it will reflect what the whole population would think.”
Five criteria characterize a citizens’ assembly: The citizens are randomly selected, they must hear from experts and stakeholders, they must read submissions from the public, the debate is facilitated into smaller groups and they draft and vote on recommendations together.
Ms. Palange stressed out the importance of having the citizens’ assembly supported by the Parliament. However, she expressed concern about the logistical and economic obstacles to the creation of a national citizens’ assembly.
Being carbon zero by 2025
The second demand of XR is that the government should reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases until reaching the target of being carbon net zero by 2025. Experts in the field are unanimous, this objective is unrealistic.
Peter Walton, a researcher at the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) explains that “there are two parts of the equation.” Being carbon zero means that “if you pump 50 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, that you need to be able to extract 50 kilos of carbon from that same time, so ultimately, it stays zero.”
Asher Minns, Executive Director at Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, was clear, “it is completely unrealistic and impossible. To go to net zero emissions in the next six years is impossible.” He focused on the objective set by the UK Climate Change committee, which is carbon zero by 2050.
The UK currently has a legal target of reducing by 80 percent the emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. On May 2nd the UKCIP suggested to the authorities that 100 percent should be the new target.
According to Asher Minns, “they can say 100 percent by 2050 because the costs have come down compared to when they said 80 percent. Technology has improved so much because of policy interventions, because of the amount of solar and offshore renewable wind energy, the amount of heating in homes has reduced, the energy mix has changed quite a lot so actually, it’s gotten cheaper.”
Robin Ellis-Cockcroft, a coordinator for XR Youth London with a masters in renewable energy technology, acknowledged the paradox of the situation. “I think 2025 would be really difficult and it would include making massive changes to our society, which I think is really exciting but it’s also really scary.”
Alluding to the oil industry, he raised the question of the lack of financial support for renewable energy technology. “I would say that from my experience, we don’t really know what it’s possible if the amount of money that the fossil fuel industry receives would go into the renewable energy sector.”
Asher Minns, Science communicator
Peter Walton, environmental scientist
What does net zero mean?
xR Youth: A branch within Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion's office in London has six different rooms where their members have their meetings.
Photo: Fernanda Gándara
Around 10 people are working at the Extinction Rebellion’s headquarters in London when a young boy comes in. He is carrying a backpack, wearing glasses and a big smile on his face. He is coming from school and says that the Victoria line of the subway is delayed, so he decided to come hang out at the office. This boy is 14-years-old, his name is Felix Ottaway O'Mahony and he is a member of XR Youth.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) in the UK has the support of thousands of people. They want to build a decentralized movement and they organize in small teams. They work with separate departments like for example, XR international, XR family and XR Youth.
XR Youth is a platform that only involves young people. This group is four months old, according to Savannah Lovelock, one of the coordinators.
The idea to include younger people to take part in the rebellion came from the thought that this is precisely the generation that has never known a stable climate and that will also be the most affected by the decisions made about climate change.
Felix, the 14-year-old, walks to one of the sofas where he is greeted by his coordinator, Robin Ellis-Cockcroft. The latter is barefoot and eating a sandwich. They immediately start talking, making jokes and laughing.
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Ellis-Cockcroft is currently working full-time in Extinction Rebellion. Him and five other people are the origin for the creation of XR Youth.
“We understood how easy it is for young people to be tokenised, and XR was doing that a lot. That’s why they kept saying ‘we’re going to speak for the children and we’re going to do everything for them and not ask them what they need’,” said Ellis-Cockcroft.
Anyone born after 1990 can join the youth group, they just have to abide by the values of Extinction Rebellion and support their three demands.
“It’s fascinating because for a long time it was adult scientists pretty much saying ‘well this needs to be done because of climate change and one of the reasons it has to be done is because of the children’ but now it is the children saying it themselves, so it’s actually much more authentic,” said Asher Minns, Executive Director at Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
How they organise
Thousands of people are already involved in the XR Youth platform. According to Ellis-Cockcroft, it has already reached more than thirty countries. Like for example Chile, Canada and India.
In London there are already around 60 teenage youth members and around 30 people in their twenties that are actively attending meetings, organising events “and so they are part of the main working groups at the moment,” explained Ellis-Cockcroft.
Out of those thirty, eight people are the main coordinators of the platform. “But no one’s in charge of anything,” added Ellis-Cockcroft.
One of their tactics is organising trainings. They teach young people how to keep the youth voice in adult spaces, for example.
"Also trainings about non-violent direct action, regenerative culture, trainings on privilege and that sort of thing,” says Savannah Lovelock, another coordinator of XR Youth.
The main task of the coordinators is facilitating everyone’s ability to execute the roles that they self-assigned to themselves. So if someone volunteers to coordinate an area within XR Youth, it is the responsibility of the coordinators to help them do it.
“What do we do with the young people? We’re trying to work out how they can gain power without growing old,” said Ellis-Cockcroft. “Also we do a lot of having fun together, that’s quite important.”
XR's offices offer training session to trainers who will report back to their home branch
Photo: Charlotte Glorieux
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Future plans
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Their main objective at this moment is getting in touch with other youth groups in order to discuss what the youth wants for the future and work together in the demands.
They are planning on doing an XR Youth tour in August or September, in which they will go to different places in England, Scotland and Ireland to talk to different groups and offer trainings to young people.
“One of the things you need to do when you set up an organisation like this is work out what is your movement’s DNA and then you have to work out ways in which anyone else that wants to organise with you or in the name of XR Youth for example, understands and is accountable of that DNA,” explained Ellis-Cockcroft.
Their plan for the future also includes getting more universities and schools to declare climate emergencies with demands and actions, so that they can bring the rebellion to these institutions.
“Especially universities because it’s about getting the students and people in like their twenties involved and really getting them working,” said Lovelock.
“We are going to talk to universities and help them get ready to properly rebel,” Ellis-Cockcroft added.
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How do they get funding?
XR Youth gets the majority of their money from the main Extinction Rebellion body, which is primarily financed by crowdfunding.
“It means there are no conditions, so XR can spend the money on whatever they want to spend it on,” said Robin Ellis-Cockcroft.
For groups involving the youth there are also grant fundings. Most of the financial help XR Youth has received has been through organisations like for example, the Lush foundation.
They are currently trying to get in touch with other organisations like Patagonia, so that they can carry on with the plans for their trip.
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What is it like to involve kids in disruption activities?
1,000 people were arrested while protesting in the international rebellion week that took place in April this year, in at least thirty countries. According to members of Extinction Rebellion, getting arrested is a strategy that can work to shock people, especially if the arrested are young.
“I think young people are especially good at it. Just because of the fact that we’re young and simply by standing in a road or something adults inherently have this reaction of like ‘oh it’s young people’ so I think we have a lot of power,” says Savannah Lovelock.
The policy they have within XR Youth is that in order to take part in any action of civil disobedience, if their members are under 16-years-old, they need written confirmation from their parents.
“I wanted to lock myself outside of the Parliament but because I was under 16, they said I wasn't allowed to, but I helped,” says the 14-year-old member of XR Youth, Felix Ottaway O'Mahony.
After 16, they have the choice of getting arrested if they want to, as long as how they behave is within the principles and values of Extinction Rebellion.
Back at the XR headquarters, Ellis-Cockcroft and Ottaway O’Mahony are still having a conversation. Ellis-Cockcroft is talking about the popularity of the 14-year-old among the XR Youth group. “He’s actually in my phone as ‘XR Youth legend’,” he says laughing.
An insight to a youth member: Felix Ottaway O’Mahony
“Maybe we should just all listen to Felix instead of listening to old people, because he's a bit of a legend. He's actually in my phone as 'XR Youth Legend',” says the XR Youth coordinator, Robin Ellis-Cockcroft.
Felix Ottaway O'Mahony laughs after hearing what his coordinator and friend said about him. He is a 14-year-old climate activist who doesn’t eat meat, only uses public transportation and has cut out plastic from his everyday life.
He decided to get involved in climate activism when he realized that his future was in danger. He entered Extinction Rebellion, immediately after the youth platform was created, back in February.
“It was quite difficult for someone my age to get involved with main XR early on, because there wasn't an accessible youth space. Even though I probably could have done it, it didn't feel quite doable at the time,” he says.
He admires the strategy behind Extinction Rebellion’s plan. In his opinion, direct action and disruption is the best and biggest way to generate changes in the government.
“Because as soon as they're forced into a position where they're losing money, or they're losing popularity from the people, they will start making changes to keep themselves in a good position,” he explains.
One thing that his activism experience has taught him is not to wait for people to give him something to do, but instead decide to start doing things on his own, give himself something to do. He admits that he feels more powerful and able to do things on his own.
He felt inspired when some of his friends, also members of Extinction Rebellion and XR Youth, tried to glue themselves to the ground while, what he described as “a few hundred police officers”, were trying to catch them.
His proudest moment being a part of the movement so far was spending the night outside at road block during the rebellion week that took place in April. “I felt quite proud of myself, because it was a big deal.”
Without hesitation, Felix’s favorite thing about coming to the XR’s headquarters in London is the food they have. He also mentioned liking the space, the people and the atmosphere, but especially the vegan food.
He perceives himself as more hopeful since he’s become an active XR Youth member. “Also I’ve kind of realized that I don't need to follow the kind of standard: pass all my exams, go on to uni and then get an office job and it's just nice, because I've always thought I don't really want to do that.”
Most of the meetings are done here, in Attenborough, the main space of the office
Photo: Charlotte Glorieux
Where the rebels rest and prepare their rebellion
“I think now it's about understanding that we've tried to change the system from within, we've tried to do individually, and it's not working. So now it's the time for the people to come together and start connecting,” said Savannah Lovelock.
When passing the doors at the top floor of the brick building at 184 Drummond Street, it is necessary, according to Savannah Lovelock, to get rid of any stress caused by the city’s daily worries. The dance student involved with XR Youth, believes XR’s headquarters has a special atmosphere favorable for human connection.
“I think that especially within London, people get into this headspace, that like every decision we make is really, really impactful, and everything is really stressful and serious.”
Extinction Rebellion’s open space-like office is decorated with numerous posters scanting their demands. Their logo, an hourglass surrounded by a thick black circle is visible everywhere: sewn on the bags that are lying on the carpeted floor, tagged on the glass walls of their conference rooms, printed on the banners that form garlands hanging everywhere.
The symbol represents the Holocene, also known as the Sixth Mass Extinction. Created in January 2011 by ESP, an artist from London.
“Act Now”, “Rebels for life”, “Non-Violent”, “Disruption” and “Beyond Politics” are amongst the short sentences featured on the flyers scattered all over the work tables gathered in islands of 3 or 4 tables.
Every week, workshops and trainings are made available to the public, from the 13-year-old accompanied by his mother to the businessman passing by on his way back from work.
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Working with the public
An XR action is organised around raising awareness about a specific issue, which implicates speaking to the public. According to Robin Ellis-Cockcroft, the founder of XR Youth, “it’s all about the dilemma that you’re creating. Who are you targeting, what are you asking them and what is the action to create this dilemma? So, if you can design a good question and a good action to symbolise that question or to force it into the public's attention, to block roads and that kind of thing, then I think it’s a really good action.”
David Humphreys, Professor of Environmental Policy at the Open University in the United Kingdom, underlines what he considers to be a point of weakness in XR’s strategy.
“Can they bring the public behind them? Can they have public support?” said Mr Humphreys. “That’s the thing about the XR process, that they managed to carry the public with them, but there was a risk that they could lose certain section of the public.”
Peter Walton, a researcher at the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), had mixed feelings about the movement’s strategy of working with the public. “I’m not sure about whether they are targeting the right groups and the right areas.”
During Easter break, members of the youth branch of Extinction Rebellion in London targeted Heathrow airport in an attempt to close it down. According to David Humphreys, it’s an example of an action that, had it been carried on, could have gone too far.
Felix Ottoway O’Mahony, a 14-year-old member of XR Youth London, expressed his admiration for the group that carried out the action.
“Even though I wasn't myself there, at Heathrow, there were like four Youth that decided that they weren't going move, even when the police were saying ‘Oh we’re gonna arrest you!’ and I felt like that was quite inspiring.”
According to Mr Humphreys, XR needs to pay close attention to the action they decide to accomplish. “For example, blocking off the streets in Central London is fine, I think the public were prepared to stand that.”
The Environmental Policy professor drew a dividing line between XR’s process, protesting and getting the media’s attention, and exaggerating to the point of risking alienating the public.
“I think that [blocking Heathrow airport], would have been a strategic mistake because it’s one thing to disrupt people when they go to work in London, it would have been very different if they had stopped people from getting away in their Easter weekend holiday break.”
Peter Walton, a researcher at the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), shared the same point of view. “My concern is, it’s a very fine balance between whether you alienate people because you’ve disrupted their lives, or you’re actually highlighting the problem.”
In most recent news, XR made waves when they announced that they were trying to fly drones over Heathrow airport. According to Peter Walton, “that could lead to some very serious consequences, and I wouldn't necessarily approve of that sort of direct action.”
The game of the cat and the mouse
During an action, the relationship with the police has a place of honor for the members. They make it a priority of being transparent with them. No action is planned without beforehand informing the police of the general outline.
“We now live in a civilised society, but we don’t know what’s going to change and we don’t know what those policemen will be asked to do at some point. We have to always be aware of that,” said Savannah Lovelock, a coordinator for XR Youth London.
One of the key elements of a successful XR non-violent direct action (NVDA) for some of the members is the arrest. “It’s essentially about shocking people away and also making a bit of a joke at the system really,” said Lovelock. “You know, they are arresting people for protesting for their future, that kind of just is a bit stupid, isn’t it?”
Robin Ellis-Cockcroft, the XR Youth coordinator, criticised another point that he considers major in XR’s strategy. “Where I think XR falls down slightly is in the way in which it relates to power structures within the way they organise these actions, it’s not very accommodating of the different ways in which the institutions, for example, the police would treat people from different communities.”
According to him, institutional racism is a form of discrimination that XR has difficulty including in their modus operandi. “So, their actions don’t make space for arrestable and non-arrestable people in a way that doesn’t create this hierarchy between the people who are up for arrest being like the heroes, and the people being the supporters to those heroes.”
Savannah Lovelock continued the reflection by emphasising the fact that it “creates a divide between different communities”
During a workshop named “How to create an action”, three members of XR London, that presented themselves as Tim, Paolo and Fletch explained how to follow the action consensus of XR.
In an action called The Blood of Our Children carried out on March 9, around 400 members of Extinction Rebellion spilled 200 L of fake blood on Downing Street in London.
Tim, one of the members in charge of organizing the action, explained how he had to negotiate with the police to know the amount of fake blood that would get at least 50 members arrested. When the police didn’t proceed to any arrests, he expressed disappointment.
He believes “the police will now arrest for more disruption”, mentioning the amount of damage having to be “significant” now.
Understanding the risks of escalation that could arise from wanting to push the limit of civil disruption, Savannah Lovelock said “I guess that’s where you kind of fall back onto our principles and values and kind of try to be constantly checking them you know, we’re non-violent, we’re not naming and shaming individuals you know, that sort of thing and always looking from a perspective of regenerative culture.”
Referring to “The How-to guide to planning an effective non-violent direct action”, Tim stressed out the importance of being aware of risks. “You need to be aware of what you are asking people to do.”
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Non-violent direct action (NVDA)
Members of Extinction Rebellion are exposed and informed about the main underlining force behind all their actions. “We’d lose if we were violent,” said a member of XR London, who presented himself as Paolo.
“We’re non-violent, we’re not naming and shaming individuals you know, that sort of thing and always looking from a perspective of regenerative culture,” said Savannah Lovelock.
On May 16, a NVDA training took place led by a member of XR trained to do so. The 3 hours separated into smaller sections had around 20 participants, with people from all ages and backgrounds.
The meeting started with a round of presentation, name, age, pronoun of choice, along with a few words on each person’s current mood. Before starting with his explanations, the moderator warned the group “this isn’t a safe place!”, referring to the possible presence of police officers amongst the small crowd, “so don't be too personal here.”
After giving a few notions about NVDA, how to practice it and how to help others practice it, the instructor set up a series of practical exercises. The group was separated into two and each party was asked to impersonate either an angry driver or an XR member blocking the street. The latter were encouraged to de-escalate the violence by talking in a calm voice and making the drivers know they
were understood while making the reason for the blockage known. The instructor insisted on the fact that any medical emergency was to be able to pass.
In the discussion carried out after the simulation, participants portraying the activists were most surprised to see how calm they became when they were faced with someone who refused to speak in a higher or angrier tone.
Out of the 20 or so participants, 4, including the instructor, willingly said that they had been arrested. 3 of those arrests were in link with an XR action.
When the participants were asked what to say to the police whenever they want to inspect them, or ask them questions, the vast majority of the participants knew the keywords: “Under what ground?”
Participants were warned against police liaison officer, described as “those with a light blue vest.”
The facilitator emphasized that these police officers often try to ask innocent questions. “Say, ‘I don’t know’ and ‘no comment’”. The instructor insisted on not directing the question to someone else, “don't reveal anything, you might be saying stuff that you think isn't bad, but it's putting someone’s safety at risk”.
Posters such as this one are on every wall of the XR office.
Photo: Charlotte Glorieux
An example of an Extinction Rebellion action:
Protesters at Hackney Town Hall
the concept of Climate justice
There is a workshop taking place in the Sunshine room, one of the six rooms where Extinction Rebellion holds their meetings and trainings. The office is located in a building in London, on the fourth and top floor.
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At the entrance there is a desk with a lot of colorful posters on top that read phrases like “rebel for life” and “non-violent”. To the right there is a board with the information on all the 18 different trainings taking place during the day.
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Around 30 people are present in the Sunshine room. Some of them have to sit on the floor because there is not enough space. The workshop they chose for the next hour and a half is about the concept of climate justice.
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In a document published by the Royal Irish Academy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mary Robinson Foundation, the concept is defined as: “Climate Justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centered approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly.”
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According to Sennan Mattar, an environmental scientist and researcher at the Center for Climate Justice in the UK, the most important thing about this concept is the recognition that wealthier nations and wealthier people in society have contributed, and still do, to the majority of the greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the consequences of this have usually been, and still are, felt by the poorest and least responsible for causing them.
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The Sunshine room is filled with people waving their hands up – a hand signal recognized by the members as approval or agreement – after someone said that XR is not focusing enough on informing people about what climate justice means.
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“There’s a lot of people that think these conversations around climate justice were deliberately left out of XR’s initial DNA. They were left out because they were seen as too lefty and too divisive and they would put off a lot of people. If you want a mass movement you need to get everyone involved,” explained an XR member and coordinator of the youth platform, Robin Ellis-Cockcroft.
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A lot of critiques and observations are made by the attendants in the Sunshine Room. Most of them agree on the same idea that Extinction Rebellion is only focusing on the reduction of carbon emission and not on trying to address the root of the problem.
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Researcher at the Center for Climate Justice, Sennan Mattar, disagrees with that statement. “What Extinction Rebellion argues for is, in some ways, very similar to the demands of the climate justice movement. Whether or not they use the term climate justice is perhaps not as important as to what they’re trying to achieve would then bring about more climate justice to this world,” he says.
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The daughter of one of the founders of the movement and now coordinator of XR Youth, Savannah Lovelock, admits that they are aware that Extinction Rebellion left climate justice out of their discourse and says they are trying to make young people learn about this concept.
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“We want to make a really important learning [experience] with young people. We have to look at the roots of where climate change comes from and it comes a lot from this kind of deep societal injustices,” she said.
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According to Sennan Mattar, even if they don’t use the concept, each one of XR’s demands is linked to climate justice. He explains it like this:
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TELL THE TRUTH: “The recognition that the impacts of climate change are happening and they are a threat to society. There is a lot of correlation with climate justice when it comes to recognizing that these impacts are going to affect people typically in ways seen as unfair,”
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ACT NOW: “That is their objective to sort of address these root causes. These objectives have been shared by other social movements as well,”
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BEYOND POLITICS: “They want people who are going to be affected by the policies to be involved in the decision making processes. In climate justice we give a name to this objective and we call it procedural justice. It’s essentially that if there is going to be an affected community who is going to have decisions or interventions made to assist them with the impact of climate change, they themselves should have a voice in that process.”
The workshop concludes with every person in the room expressing how they are feeling after the hour and a half discussion around this concept. People are laughing and some say that these conversations help them remain hopeful.
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After the facilitator leaves the room, there are still some people discussing the topic. A Bolivian woman is telling others how her community back home is being affected by the effects of climate change. Others are exchanging contact information and planning to get together again to talk about climate justice.
Photo gallery
We are two journalism students from Canada and Chile currently studying abroad in Aarhus, Denmark at the Danish School of Media and Journalism. We had to work on a story for the final project of our programme and we are both interested in climate change so we decided to travel to London for a week and learn more about Extinction Rebellion and what they are doing to fight it.