Extinction Rebellion

My photos of, and my report about the inspiring four-day protest, ‘The Big One’, in London on April 21-24, initiated by Extinction Rebellion but with the support of over 200 other organisations. I applaud the efforts to create a wider climate movement, whilst also recognising the impact that can be achieved through disruptive tactics, and I question on what basis mainstream media broadcasters thought it was appropriate to behave as though this astonishing gathering of climate activists wasn’t newsworthy.

My reflections on David Attenborough’s ‘Wild Isles’ Series, and, in particular, the additional episode, ‘Saving the Wild Isles’, which was only made available online. While applauding his efforts to get people involved in climate action, and particular in ‘rewilding’, I also can’t help but note that urgent and concerted direct action is also required to overcome our government’s continued support for our sewage-spilling privatised water companies, and for new oil, gas and coal extraction, and urge people to join Extinction Rebellion’s ‘The Big One’ protest in London on April 21.

Examining the latest report issued by the IPCC (the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which synthesises and updates the findings of previous report (since 2018), establishing that a future livable planet depends on us collectively making rapid, deep and immediate cuts to greenhouse gas emissions before 2030. I particularly focus on the failure of the mainstream media to prioritise this unprecedented crisis, and to report on it relentlessly, and I also urge anyone concerned to come to Parliament Square on April 21 for a protest initiated by Extinction Rebellion (and already supported by nearly 50 other organisations), which organisers are hoping will attract 100,000 people —too many, I hope, for it to be shut down.

My first long read of 2023, looking at how thoroughly catastrophic climate change made itself apparent in 2022, and yet how, still, our political leaders and our mainstream media continue to ignore the gravity of the situation. Instead, it is left to climate scientists and climate activists to take the lead, and I review their efforts last year, via the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and via activism including road blocks, targeting oil refineries and private airports, and, most visibly, throwing soup on Van Gogh’s ’Sunflowers’, also examining whether or not these techniques are successful. I conclude by urging UK readers to consider another option: the velvet revolution envisaged by Extinction Rebellion, who are calling for 100,000 people to turn up outside Parliament on Friday April 21, and to refuse to go away until the dreadful stasis of 21st century capitalism’s toxic ‘business as usual’ is brought to an end.

My report about the failures of the COP27 climate summit, the implausibility of keeping the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the widespread actions by protestors over the last two months, and the need for a velvet revolution to bring about the change we need, in the face of paralysis from our leaders.

With the government of Liz Truss in chaos, having crashed the economy, but still committed to widening inequality and trashing the environment, there’s never been a better time to get involved in protests taking place in London from October 1 to October 16, involving Just Stop Oil, Enough Is Enough, the UK Guantánamo Network, the Don’t Extradite Assange campaign, and Extinction Rebellion.

As temperatures reach 40°C in the UK for the first time ever, I look at the failures of politicians, the media and ourselves to take the required action necessary to keep the earth habitable, and particularly ask why, after the COP26 climate summit in November, we’re not seeing any efforts to implement the 7% cuts in emissions that are necessary to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030, a target that we are all supposed to have agreed to.

For my birthday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published what scientists are describing as the “bleakest warning yet” about the perils of catastrophic climate change, and the need for urgent action now to try to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than For my birthday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published what scientists are describing as the “bleakest warning yet” about the perils of catastrophic climate change, and the need for urgent action now to try to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in an effort to keep the world habitable.

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.