Environmental crisis

My report about Extinction Rebellion’s fortnight of actions in London, primarily targeting the City of London, and demanding an immediate end to all investments in fossil fuels — the minimum that is required to tackle the alarming and irreversible climate change that is already underway, but whose worst effects can be mitigated if we act now — and not, as politicians like to think, by 2030 or even 2050. Included are some of my photos from the last two weeks, plus a detailed account of how awareness of a looming environmental catastrophe has grown, and information about the banks and other organisations targeted by XR — as well as others who only escaped attention because two weeks isn’t long enough to expose all the climate crimes of our banks and other financial institutions.

In the year of unprecedented wildfires and flash flooding, we seem to be at a tipping point when it comes to dealing with catastrophic climate change, and yet our leaders, the nature of capitalism and our own apparent inability to deal with the enormity of the crisis have left us, if not in denial, then largely in a state of paralysis.

As the wretched Tory government of Boris Johnson irresponsibly prepares to lift all Covid restrictions, I look at how the delusions of Brexit, which is crippling British businesses, have fed into a political climate in which the Tories’ irresponsible and sometimes criminal response to Covid gets overlooked, and how Johnson and his Cabinet prioritise whatever will keep them in power — opening up sports events, for example, and cynically capitalising on England’s success in the Euro 2020 championships, while almost entirely abandoning the country’s cultural sector. I also look at how, under Priti Patel, almost all immigration has been shut down (despite job shortages that are making many businesses unviable), as this particularly vile home secretary also seeks to stamp out all political dissent, as well as criminalising the way of life of Gypsies and Travellers.

My assessment of the first year of Covid lockdowns, and how, on two occasions — last June, and last weekend — political protests have erupted, regarding racial oppression and women’s rights, when the logical limits of strict lockdowns have been reached. Plus a much more critical analysis of the parallel world of Covid denial.

Videos made using found footage by Bren Horstead, the drummer of my band The Four Fathers, to accompany the release of our most recent studio recordings, which we recorded in December with the great Charlie Hart (Ian Dury, Ronnie Lane): ‘The Wheel of Life’, ‘This Time We Win’ and ‘Affordable.’

Drawing on an excellent article about COVID-19 and American exceptionalism by the anthropologist Wade Davis for Rolling Stone, I look at the crisis of leadership in the US when it comes to dealing with the unprecedented challenges for our economic future caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and compare how similar failures of leadership also plague the UK.

Marking 3,000 days since I first set out on my bike on a daily basis to take photos of the changing face of the capital for a project that became known as ‘The State of London.’ On the fifth anniversary of the start of the project, I began posting a photo a day on Facebook, where I have now posted 1,176 photos.

Today, Bandcamp, the US online music service, is waiving its fees to help musicians, so please feel free to buy any of the studio recordings by my band The Four Fathers, including our brand-new online single, ‘The Wheel of Life’, a meditation on mortality and living in the moment.

An interview about my activism — involving Stonehenge and the Battle of the Beanfield, Guantánamo, the housing ‘regeneration’ industry in the UK, and the currently unfolding environmental crisis — as published in Gonzo Weekly and International Times, based on questions from the publisher and activist Alan Dearling.

Promoting the release of ‘This Time We Win’, the new single by The Four Fathers, which I wrote last year, inspired by Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, and which we recorded in December with Charlie Hart, who also plays Wurlitzer piano on it. Ironically, the arrival of the coronavirus has led suddenly to seriously reduced emissions, although our leaders are desperate to restore “business as usual” as soon as they can, a delusional position that we hope as many people as possible will resist.