What's so bad about being an angry woman activist anyway?
It's love AND rage, after all.
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And I worried, worried, worried that I would become a bitter person. That anger was an ugly emotion, that rage would blind me.
Extinction Rebellion speaks about love and rage. And I thought, well the love part is easy. That’s why we do this, right? Because I love people and this planet. This world - with thunder and music and flowers that follow the sun and sea monsters and stories - it’s incredible, complex, fascinating, intoxicating. Of course I love it, I don’t see what the other option is.
But rage, that’s scary.
I read about how Shell and BP knew about the impact of fossil fuels on the planet and paid media agencies to lie to us. And I suppressed the frustration.
Men listened to me rant about how the EU is funding the deforestation of the Amazon and undermining its own green goals. Called my passion ‘cute.’ I smiled, awkwardly. Didn’t want to cause a scene.
In my home country, I watched as over 162,000 people died from Covid-19 in one of the government’s ‘worst public health failures’ of all time.
And I cursed myself for not feeling #blessed and grateful and not being as patient as the Mother Theresa towards those who have done nothing to earn my patience.
Sometime around the fiftieth time that we asked politicians and corporations and rich white men politely to stop killing us, I became set aflame from the inside. Patience shattering like plates smashing in my head.
Why am I respecting the unrespectable? Governments that seek to seize our futures and corporations that believe they own my time and men that feel entitled to a say in just about everything a woman can do - and here I am, offering them more of my energy and patience? For what? For what?
I am not an advocate for more blind directionless anger. But in the last week I began to ask myself if this new spark of rage is an inevitable and necessary visceral reaction when the people, places and values I love are under threat.
You cannot tell us to calm down forever - it will come out eventually. Perhaps a little less calm was well overdue.
Polite deference doesn’t put rich white men in court. Being convenient does not uproot the system.
So yes, today I’m telling everyone who will listen - I am in love and in rage, enraged, and it feels honest and free.
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What’s Going On?
60 largest banks poured $673 billion into fossil fuels last year.
Related: EU lawmakers close in on vote to hold corporations accountable.Tens of thousands pack streets of London in massive four-day climate protest.
Related: Conservative Party have accepted £630,000 & political influence from climate denial funders in 6 months.Shell admits that reaching 1.5 climate heating limit means ending fossil fuel growth immediately.
Related: BP faces green rebellion at their shareholder meeting.Indigenous leaders at UN summit warn West that their climate strategy is green colonialism.
Related: Indigenous knowledge crucial for effective climate action.In the Peruvian Amazon, the Shipibo people are fighting conservation to reclaim their own land.
Related: Global 30x30 conservation strategy built on colonial violence.Ten years since the Rana Plaza fast fashion factory disaster - what’s changed?
Related: Get involved in Fashion Revolution Week 24 - 29 April.
Focus On… The Big One
Green Fix team member Issy Pountney speaks to protestors at The Big One in London. Edited by Cass Hebron.
National UK media don’t seem to have noticed the 100,000 people that gathered outside Westminster for four days. But we did. Here's what happened.
Issy: I went because I feel so angry and often helpless. And for me the best way to deal with that is to be around other people who share this feeling, and do something constructive with that together.
‘I came because I’ve been studying environmental causes at uni and have started to feel really anxious so wanted to get involved with environmental organisations, and this felt like a good place to start’ - Anonymous student.
What is ‘The Big One?’
Over four days, an estimated 100,000+ people gathered outside Westminster in London, 60,000 of them on one day, to demand government action for the overlapping environmental and social crises.
Although often cited as an Extinction Rebellion (XR) event, the protest was in fact co-organised by 200 organisations including Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth, the National Health Sevice (NHS), trade unions, Greenpeace, Don’t Pay and the Landworkers’ Alliance.
The protest presented the UK government with two demands and gave them until 17h on the 24th to reply:
ending fossil fuel licensing.
creating emergency citizens’ assemblies.
At the time of writing, the UK government has failed to respond.
“I’m here because I want to be able to explain how important citizen assemblies are, and how they can work so well alongside representative democracy to help us get better environmental policies”. Volunteer at climate assembly info point for XR.
What is the UK government doing on climate action?
The UK is “strikingly unprepared” for the climate crisis. This is the finding of the UK’s Climate Change Committee report in March 2023.
The report finds 45 adaptation outcomes that would meet the environmental risks the country faces - but the government only has the necessary policies to put 5 of them in place.
In 2019, the UK committed to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They also promised a decarbonised energy sector by 2035, and a scheme to insulate 300,000 of the least energy-efficient homes.
In July 2022, the High Court ruled that the government had failed to actually make a plan to meet these targets. However, the government has instead:
Lifted the ban on gas fracking (September 2022).
Opened a new round of licensing opportunities for gas and oil exploration (October 2022).
Attempted to ban protests including climate marches (February 2023).
Released a new ‘Net Zero’ strategy that includes drilling in the North Sea and funding fossil fuel companies to find ‘carbon capture’ solutions (March 2023).
What about their action on human rights and social justice?
The climate crisis and social injustices are connected crises. To effectively plan and implement climate just solutions, governments must tackle existing inequalities.
“Racism exacerbates the impacts of the climate and ecological emergency, enabling a disproportionate impact on communities in the Global South and migrant descent communities living in the UK. The interests of corporations are prioritised over the wellbeing of the people, nature, and the future of life on earth.” Extinction Rebellion UK website.
So what is the UK government doing to safeguard democracy and human rights in the country, and to reverse neocolonialism, economic inequality and injustice?
Made a plan to deport migrants, including refugees, to Rwanda (December 2022).
Threatened to sack rail, nursing and healthcare workers striking over unfair pay (January 2023).
Refused to compromise with teachers striking over low pay and extreme workload (April 2023).
Imposed new ID rules that limit the number of people who can vote in elections (April 2023. Note: the UK does not have a national identity card system).
Issy: I feel like I’m watching the government crash a car I’m in.
We need a fundamental change in what we value as a society. We can’t keep consuming, or celebrating productivity, at the expense of the planet, and ourselves. It’s stupid and self destructive. There are so many other things we could be doing with the limited time we have to respond to the crisis. The alternative is so hopeful, I wish the people in power would just catch up.
We need citizens assemblies, and other forms of participatory governance which restore faith in our democratic systems. And we need environmental justice, which works to deconstruct colonialism and racism, sexism and other forms of institutional discrimination.
We also need to integrate climate education into curriculums to make sure that we have young people who are empowered to understand and build their own responses to this crisis, not just be saddled with the ‘hope’ of older people. And there is so much more. Why can’t they see what I see?
So what do we do now The Big One is over?
‘I’m here because I want to be able to connect, in person, with other environmental activists. I live in a rural community and although we do have some great local organising, like our beach cleans, it can sometimes feel pretty isolated (it’s a half an hour drive to my local XR meeting) and so this felt like a great opportunity to meet people!’
The action was intended not just to demand government action but also to build solidarity between environmental activists, social justice movements and other organisations.
Following the protest, Extinction Rebellion have pledged to ‘step up’ their activism to get the government to listen. They have provided resources for three ‘pathways’ for further action for people to get involved: picketing, local organising, and direct disobedience.
Teachers, healthcare workers and rail workers are planning further strikes following the protest.
If you’re not in the UK, you can still help put pressure on governments:
XR Global have campaigns and groups around the world.
Sign the Fossil Fuel non-Proliferation Treaty
Demand an EU law to hold corporations accountable for their impact.
Issy: It was such a joyful space, and it makes me feel like there is another route, other than this shitshow that the government is currently putting us through.
Although events like this can make me frustrated, because of the lack of response from the government or because I feel like I’m not doing enough, they also motivate me, through the relationships they allow our movements to build.
“I felt validated to be in a space surrounded by people of a massive range of backgrounds and ages sharing the space to be angry, and to celebrate. I felt that specific mix of happy, angry and sad at protests, and connected with so many like-minded people on that basis.”
Alfie, ‘a medical student interested in sustainability.’
So Now What Do I Do?
LEARN MORE
Read: The eleventh hour of climate action - in defence of protest.
Tune in to this webinar on the connections between Gen Z mental health and the climate crisis. 3 May.
Listen: Podcast on slowing down & surrendering human centrality.
TRY SOMETHING NEW
Apply for the Leading Europe scholarship to the One Young World forum by 30 April.
Artists working on the anthropocene & ecology can apply for a fancy month-long residency in Italy. Deadline 30 April.
There are 45 scholarships to cover a 5-day UN Summer Academy. Deadline 12 May. (PS: Climate action participation should be free).
CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Apply to host a youth side event at the World Food Forum! Deadline 1 May.
Apply or nominate a project for the SDG Action Awards by the 7 May.
By the way…
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