PERSPECTIVES|Fashioning Change
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LEARN MOREGet up to speed on Extinction Rebellion’s latest efforts here in the States at extinctionrebellion.us.
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40%10,000others blocked entry to the building. Police offi-operation, a single operation, in which over 700 cers dragged resisting protesters off the streets by their limbs. As Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick remarked to the press, “I’ve been a police officer for 36 years. I have never known an oil corporation’s South Bank headquarters, while people have been arrested.” by the protests. But no matter which side of the others were enraged by the traffic jams caused debate you stood on, the impact was clear: That While some Londoners saw them as heroes,
coincided with Greta Thunberg’s address to Par-change more times than in the previous five years. liament and the release of Sir Richard Attenbor-ough’s BBC One documentary symbolic, it was a major indication that Extinction The Factsdoesn’t require any specific action and is largely month—when Extinction Rebellion’s ramp-up Less than a week after Extinction Rebellion’s April actions, Parliament declared an environment and climate emergency. Though the declaration Rebellion had gotten the government’s attention. —the British media referenced climate Climate Change:
the UK Parliament to declare a climate emergen-framework, the effectiveness of their protests, cy—no question,” says Genevieve Guenther, PhD, the director of the New York City–based organi-zation End Climate Silence. “Their success is due in part to the beauty of their vision: the clear moral “They absolutely contributed to the decision of their strong messaging, and their theatricality. They are [symptomatic] of this moment when something [fundamental] is shifting.”tinction Rebellion has made some missteps. Even As with any rapidly growing movement, Ex-
trains in the London Tube during rush hour in tion. (He later said his statements were taken out October was a major mistake. And Hallam hor-rified virtually everyone when he referred to the Holocaust as “just another fuckery in human his-tory” during an interview with a German publica-the group’s founders recognize that blocking of context.) The group, which is largely white and middle-class, also admits it has a diversity prob-lem. And then there are the experts and writers who believe Extinction Rebellion has overstated some of its more catastrophic predictions. New
our current social structures and economy. “It’s Yo r kit could happen,” says Paul Hawken, an envi-Wnot extreme to ask for it; it’s extreme to expect tion is looming, at least “on any timescale [that] makes sense for us to think about,” though he acknowledges the group’s political value. Mronmentalist and founder of the climate change climate experts agree the goal of becoming net zero by 2025 is unrealistic to the point of near impossibility without a complete dismantling of ells has quashed its claims that human extinc- magazine climate columnist David Wallace- ost
mitigation initiative Project Drawdown.strike in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, su-with fake blood and protested in Times Square. traction. In addition to staging the rebel caroling display last December, New York members have also splashed the Wever, is, Are they doing enough? Mand shut down a major street. perglued themselves to an entrance to the Capitol, In Wwith Extinction Rebellion, its message is gaining WThe question on many members’ minds, how-ashington, DC, members staged a hunger hile many in the U.S. are still unfamiliar all Street Charging Bullany within the statue
nalist for thesider every day whether we should even still be in else in our lives] because we’re in this really crit-from. So should we be putting down [everything the UN, firefighters, and bankers, are balancing climate actions with full-time jobs. And for some, even that doesn’t feel adequate. “A lot of us con-U.S. contingent, which includes a former jour-our jobs,” says Ellen Mthat there are certain places we can’t come back works as a therapist in DC. “The science tells us ical window?” EconomistcSweeney, a member who , students, consultants to
ing what to do. “People were in a state of despair, to an anxious populace that’s looking around, “Now they finally feel like they’ve been given ally, is the crux of the good Extinction Rebellion is bringing into the world. It offers a liberating salve permission to act.” the point. They’re doing seeing that the world is in crisis, and not know-longing for something that looked like it could make some [real] change happen,” says fashion designer and founding member Clare Farrell. But whether members are doing enough isn’t ▪ something. And that, re-EXTINCTION REBELLION’S LOGO, AN HOURGLASS WITHIN A CIRCLE REPRESENTING THE EARTH, SUGGESTS THAT THE TIME TO ACT IS FLEETING.116 SAG:^ SCOTT^ HEINF/GETTY^ IMAGES.L