- Extinction Rebellions are the group of protesters responsible for a non-partisan international movement against climate and ecological emergencies due to the effects of anthropogenic interventions in nature.
- XRs have certain demands regarding declaring a climate emergency, reducing carbon emissions, taking action beyond politics, and prioritizing vulnerable communities.
- Minimizing and eradicating consequences imposed by climate emergencies by shifting to clean-green energy sources is their aim.
- Tactics of XR involve awareness via media, climate measures training, protests, and street arts regarding the climate crisis.
- The group operates via support of donations from well-wishers, Insulate Britain, some doctors, Christian climate action, and an overwhelming mass of youths.
Multiple movements and approaches have achieved success in intending to combat the climate crisis all across the globe. Among them, one entails the Extinction Rebellion, abbreviated by XR. It refers to one of the non-partisan international movements against climate and ecological emergencies due to the effects of anthropogenic interventions in nature.
Initially, it originated in the United Kingdom during the activist’s meeting, but the movement was launched on October 31st, 2018. For the first time, the idea to launch a positive campaign for alerting the government was kicked off by Roger Hallam, Dr. Gail Bradbook, Simon Bramwell, and other eight co-founders of the campaign known as Rising Up.
Currently, the Extinction Rebellion entails 130 climate protesters groups across the United Kingdom, from Cornwall to Sunderland to Glasgow. This historical movement is inferred as significant since it applies the non-violent civil involvement intended to halt the mass extinction at the maximum.
Table of Contents
What are the demands of XR?
The Extinction Rebellion has announced several demands that could save our mother planet, we, and our future generations from a natural catastrophe.
Through the movement, the participants from several countries desire to awaken the government to act at least something to nature that saves us and the thriving natural creatures from being devastated in the future.
1. Telling the truth (Declaring the climate emergency immediately)
The first demand is truth-telling. The non-violence people movement demands that the governments must tell the truth, expose the accurate data and make it public. It should declare a climate emergency and act widely at maximum. The demand further entails that the government must work seriously in collaboration with multiple institutions to communicate and act on the urgency of the climate crisis.
The protesters demand that the government reveals the truth about environmental sustainability; otherwise, we may reach the brink of crisis when it continues for a while.
There must be proper communication about the climate crisis between the organizations. The citizens have full right to know the cascading risks humanity has faced for a long time. The deep cause behind it is imperative to spread throughout the globe. It seeks urgent action to alter political, social, economic, and environmental aspects.
2. Acting now (reduction of the carbon emission)
We are in the middle of the climate and ecological crisis. For any national government, the public is the fundamental one who does trust the government that they will seek after both the people and the environment simultaneously.
We are losing our species day by day from our mother planet. The wildfires have devastated almost all parts of the globe. Glacier retreating has been a severe concern and troublesome matter to conservationists who work day and night to halt the climate crisis. The movement demanded government launch actions presently intended to halt biodiversity loss.
By the year 2025, the government must implement the policies and the decisions of the United Kingdom to reduce carbon emissions to a net-zero range. Unless we act seriously and take action rapidly, we can not achieve sustainable development goals.
The time has reached to think for the welfare of our environment. Each nook and corner of the nation should act reasonably in reducing carbon emissions. Unless society shifts towards the precautionary paradigm to bring revolution in the climate and halt the climate crisis sustainably.
3. Be the change (Go beyond the politics)
A nation is politically stable when politicians respect citizens’ decisions and implement the demands positively. Limiting the talk only to the papers and the signatories will not help preserve our mother earth.
Whatever the politics are leaving it behind for justice, the government should act rapidly accordingly on the topics that concern ecological and climatic justice. People should not back out to secure their rights, and the government must ensure justice for the poor, marginalized, deprived, and indigenous communities.
After forming the citizens’ assembly, it is paramount to seek the alteration after a wise decision and act perfectly. The only thing the protesters demand is to create a citizens’ assembly inclusive of the ordinary people. The Animal rebellion activists target several sectors that hail biodiversity loss and climate change in this demand.
And they can decide on how to combat the climate crisis seriously. Besides this, it solves the issues by receiving advice from the climate and the environmental crisis. These demands are associated with the critical commitment to climate justice.
4. Additional demands
When the movement of the Extinction Rebellion expanded up to the United States, there was increasing demand. One of the added demands was to keep the vulnerable and the indigenous community in the topmost priority in all the sectors, establish the legal rights for the ecosystems upon which we thrive, establish the remediation led by and for the black people, and provide environmental justice for the black and the privileged people.
Aims of the Extinction Rebellion
Notably, the massive protest focuses on reducing the impacts imposed by the higher emission of greenhouse gasses and shifting to renewable energy. Over a few decades, the globe has been on the brink of mass extinction catastrophe. The world has been through tough times, ranging from melting glaciers, wildfires, deforestation, global warming, ocean acidification, rising sea levels, and illegal wildlife trade.
Since the globe is going through environmental and ecological degradation, movements like Extinction Rebellion is of utmost necessity to wake up all the nature conservationists, scientists, policy and decision-makers, and civilians. This movement aims to keep the government’s attention to act on nature and the associated cascading effects resulting from the climate crisis.
With time passing, the eco-friendly movement spread worldwide and took this position. It supports one of the emergency acts that work for the humankind and all the living creatures in nature. Solving out the issues regarding non-renewable energy and the dependency of the United Kingdom on numerous fossil fuels and oil.
Tactics of Extinction Rebellion
- Media and the message, technology, art, fundraising, training, etc. Realizing the importance of nature and the detrimental hamper of the climate crisis, most people are intentionally actively involved in their own will.
- Some people have given up their paid jobs and become involved in mass alerting campaigns. There is a provision for a payment system for the team’s core members for their rent and bills. Three percent of the members do receive the Volunteer Living Expenses.
- The protests have been carried on to alert the government about the climate crisis. For instance: the activists scaled the Eiffel Tower and demanded justice for the people and the environment. Thousands of people blocked out the roads in Berlin, Germany. Many other instances of climate enthusiasts getting arrested after climate activists raised voices against stopping oil or halting fossil fuel movements.
- In 2017, an XR was given 30k by US oil company ExxonMobil as the climate fund. This in turn is believed to impact the 2019 Policy exchange report, where they referred to climate campaigners as extremists. In a recent feature story of April 2022, climate rebellions stopped an oil tanker in central London. Three climate activists scale an oil tanker with signs of ‘STOP FOSSIL FILTH.’
The tanker of central London and 30k briefed against XR might be different scenarios. Still, the Extinction rebellion is an active and influential group that can bring about the change required to save the planet.
Who Supports XR?
1. Donations and Crowd Funding
The Extinction Rebellion has been raising funding from multiple agencies to support the eco-friendly environment and control actions from the environmental deterioration. It gets funded by online crowdfunding, various donors, and NGOs working for the environment sector.
Besides these, the welfare, trust, and foundations have contributed so far. Compassionate Revolution does aid in supporting the activities of Exhibition Rebellion, thereby processing the donations and spending them intending to support the non-violence mass environmental movement.
2. Insulate Britain
Under the Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain supports the activities to combat the climate change impacts visualized in several sectors worldwide. It principally targets insulating the homes with lower energy by 2030.
3. Doctors for XR
A health professional group, “Doctors of Extinction Rebellion,” has been dramatically supporting the Extinction Rebellion’s actions. They organize humorous demonstration programs of their own and warn the government about the cascade effects of climate change on human health. They are actively involved fundamentally in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
4. Christian Climate Action
The organization Christian Climate Action aims to participate as a part of the Extinction Rebellion and further provide climatic justice. It has been involved in several direct activities and campaigns to create awareness concerning climate change and its detrimental impacts on human health and the environment.
It calls on the church in the United Kingdom to aid in eradicating the poverty and gender inequality resulting from climate change. With over 1000 members, the Christian Climate Action organization has been actively associated with the direct actions in collaboration with the Extinction Rebellion.
5. Massive youths involvement
The United Kingdom’s youths are concerned and very serious about their environment. The young adults have supported dramatically to make the program successful with their aims. Over 3000 people participated in the campaign organized by the Exhibition Rebellion against the government’s null actions towards the climate and the overall environment in London, United Kingdom.
To support the protestors, Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish environmental advocate, joined the London movement, an Extinction Rebellion, in 2019. Every year the number of youths increases to join the protestors of the Exhibition Rebellion and fight for climate change.
It is convenient for people to glue themselves to government decisions. Most masses are fine themselves to the government building more oil mines and smoke generation factories.
Climate change protests are aware citizens get together and at least do something to combat the climate change crisis and dramatically halt the greenhouse gas emission issues. The Extinction Rebellion has been working fully to alert the government and hope that the mass movement will be able to halt the pervasive issues concerning the climate crisis.
(Last Updated on July 5, 2022 by Sadrish Dabadi)
