Extinction Rebellion: Saving the World or Undermining the Environmental Cause?
Parliament declared an environmental emergency after high-profile Extinction Rebellion protests in London. Despite ongoing environmental challenges like forest fires and melting polar ice caps, the group faces backlash for disrupting daily life. Criticism includes lack of diversity and controversial demands to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
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Extinction Rebellion Saving the World or undermining the environmental cause? What do you think?
On 1stMay 2019 Parliament voted to declare an Environment and climate emergency. This was after a series of high profile demonstrations by the protest group Extinction Rebellion that had brought much of central London to a standstill. It is thought by many that the attention drawn to the issue of climate change by these protests was crucial in forcing this government change.
It is clear that the environmental problems highlighted by Extinction Rebellion have not gone away as shown by these three case studies: As seen in this footage the summer of 2020 is seeing ongoing and cast forest fires in northern Russia where unprecedented heat waves are causing these huge forests great losses. These fires emit carbon dioxide and reduce the future ability of these forests to take CO2 out of the atmosphere. The Covid Crisis: There was a brief dip in emissions when the world went into lockdown But now there is great concern about the growing amount of pollution from Single use face masks, wipes etc. all required to combat Covid-19. Accelerating melt of the Polar Ice caps as explained in this news footage will lead to rising sea levels and further change weather patterns
Yet there has been a backlash against Extinction Rebellion, and its latest protests in the UK have seen far less support than last year Prime Minister Boris Johnson has criticised the planned protests and many have also criticised Extinction Rebellion protests for inconveniencing large numbers of people who would otherwise support their cause. Do you think that protests that disrupt travel and the day to day lives of people around the country are justified, and a good way of supporting the climate change cause? Over recent months some have also criticised the movement for its lack of diversity in its membership.
To best understand Extinction Rebellion we need to look at what it says about itself and its three demands This first point seems uncontroversial particularly given the growing numbers of political leaders denying climate change despite the overwhelming evidence as seen in this video.
This second demand of Extinction Rebellion has provide more controversial because it is so extreme. The thought that greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025 has been criticised by many, including those supporting climate change, as completely unrealistic. This infamous interview has been used by many to criticise Extinction Rebellion as using over-the-top scare tactics to terrify people into supporting radical change. (The full interview can be found here). In fact on its own website Extinction Rebellion have a clearly-argued essay supported by many scientists which actually focuses on what might happen by 2050 if climate change is not curbed. It is not clear how many people will actually have read this though! Do you think that Extinction Rebellion is more effective by setting very radical goals or do you think it just puts people off?
Extinction rebellion also argue that governments around the world have failed to do anything about the climate crisis and that instead we should have Citizens Assemblies: members will be randomly selected from across the country. Assembly members will hear balanced information from experts. Together they will work through their differences and draft and vote on recommendations. Some countries have used Citizens Assemblies to address particular issues and Extinction Rebellion argue for them here. Do you think that a Citizens Assembly would help solve the climate crisis? How would you ensure the right people were in the Assembly? What are the problems if it is a random selection?
So to return to our first question: Is Extinction Rebellion saving the world or undermining the environmental cause?
