At the end of February, over 250 young people converged on US senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s office in Washington DC for a sit-in marking one of the latest escalations in the youth-led campaign for a Green New Deal.
The action, led by youth from McConnell’s state of Kentucky, was planned in direct response to what they saw as his attempt to quash a senate resolution on the Green New Deal by scheduling a premature vote. (The senate in Washington DC is the upper chamber of…
Oh Milan, why spoil a great article (‘Revolution means winning big’, PN 2626–2627) by being snippy about Extinction Rebellion in the last sentence? Wasn’t it ever this – that the most destructive criticism of any good cause always comes from within the broader movement of those with the same goals.
The people I know who are involved in XR are actually very focused and have won some real gains at…
Worlds End is a new 52-page graphic novel exploring climate change, capitalism, and the links between the two.
A recurring theme is tipping points – in the climate system and in societies. Both ecological and social changes can happen quickly. Despite the enormity of the challenges facing our generation, the authors’ message is optimistic, without being sugar-coated: ‘The future is uncertain, it’s also unwritten’.
For anyone who aspires to reject societal norms…
In a historic global day of action, on Friday 15 March, 1.4m young people in 125 countries took part in a co-ordinated school strike for the climate. Leader of the strike movement Greta Thunberg, 16, told the World Economic Forum in January:
‘I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel…
On 16 February, more than 300 activists (using 200 metres of black cloth) took over the British Museum in London in a performance protest against the sponsorship of an exhibition by BP, the oil and gas company. Protestors drew attention to BP’s role in the 2003 Iraq war and its contribution to climate change, holding a banner: ‘The British Museum – proudly sponsored by climate change.’
The first trials for people arrested on Extinction Rebellion (XR) actions were discontinued at the beginning of March. Christian Climate Action members Ruth Jarman (55) and Margriet were due to appear at Hendon magistrates’ court on 1 and 4 March after having been arrested many times during XR protests in London last autumn. (PN 2624–2625)
XR has held dozens of events in the last two months, and spread internationally, claiming more than 200 XR chapters worldwide.
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On 26 February, bailiffs seized buildings in the front half of Grow Heathrow, the squatted community garden in the village of Sipson.
The project was set up in 2010 to support the residents of Sipson in resisting the expansion of Heathrow airport to build a third runway.
At the time of going to press (19 March), Grow Heathrow members had moved to the back of the plot and were intending to stay ‘indefinitely’. They had relocated ‘plants, books, tools, bikes, solar panels…
‘Truth versus Power’ was the theme of a public meeting in Aberystwyth organised by CND Cymru on 16 February.
A packed room was inspired by Linda Pentz Gunter talking about the work of Beyond Nuclear, a US peace group she founded, particularly on a Green New Deal.
She explained how not even the smallest of nuclear reactors is safe or efficient and urged us to continue our work to reject nuclear and promote renewable energy.
We also discussed the UN Treaty on the…
Many schools and sixth-form colleges across the UK are unwittingly helping to fund climate change through their contributions to Local Government Pension Schemes. These Pension Schemes have £16 billion pounds of people’s pension monies invested in giant oil, coal and gas companies like Exxon and BP. By taking action in their schools, students, parents, teachers and staff can help to break the hold these companies currently have on…
The world remains as dangerous as it’s ever been. On 24 January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board revealed that its famous Doomsday Clock remained set at two minutes to midnight, ‘the closest it has ever been to apocalypse’.
The clock setting was designed to highlight ‘an unacceptable reality that remains largely unrecognized by the public at large: The future of the world is now in extreme danger from multiple intersecting and potentially…
There is mixed news on one of Europe’s climate front lines, as activists have forced a German government commission to effectively rule out further coal-mining in the ancient Hambach forest near Cologne, while setting an inadequate (‘disastrous’) date for ending the use of coal in Germany.
Coal currently accounts for 40 percent of energy in Germany. In Britain, it’s around 10…
Although in its infancy, the new climate direct action group Extinction Rebellion (XR) seems to be finding those rare people who are willing to form ongoing campaigns from a one-off protest. [See PN 2624–2625 for reports and a critique of XR. – ed] People who recognise that the type of social change needed to stop climate change simply cannot come from the top down.
Roads have been blocked in London, Middlesbrough and Oxford. Banners have been hung over main roads bearing the XR…
On 17 October, three anti-fracking protesters were released after spending three weeks in Preston prison. Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, had been sentenced to 16 months in prison; Richard Loizou, 31, had been given 15 months inside.
The court of appeal replaced the prison sentences with two-year conditional discharges (no punishment unless you commit another offence within two years, in which case you will be sentenced for both crimes).
Lord chief justice…
Climate activist group Ende Gelände described its occupation in late October as the ‘largest action of civil disobedience for climate justice that Germany has ever seen’.
On 27 October, 6,500 people took part in the action at Tagebau Hambach, a large opencast coalmine near Cologne, Germany, where highly-polluting brown coal (lignite) is extracted by German…
Local residents and campaigners were jubilant on 20 September when the Planning Inspectorate upheld Caerphilly county borough council’s 2015 ruling and rejected developer Miller Argent’s appeal for an opencast coal mine at Nant Llesg.
The United Valleys Action Group (UVAG), local activists and residents worked with Friends of the Earth (FOE) to oppose the opencast mine. Haf Elgar, director of FOE Cymru, said it was a ‘historic victory’ for people power.
UVAG’s Alyson…
