Columns and Letters

Column: Extinction Rebellion etc.

-by John Gillis

    Working in the media, one has to be forgiven if every now and then (s)he drops out to try to save his or her sanity in this crazy world we’re living in.
    There are times, and readers you must understand, when you just want to turn off the national and international news – because frankly, it’s just so depressing.
    However, we can’t just bury our heads in the sand. We have to come up for air sometimes.
    Personally, I’ve always been a bit of a news junkie, but with Donald Trump in the White House (i.e. just one example), I sometimes need to tune out some of the insanity.
    I suspect that’s one of the reasons that when I heard about this movement called Extinction Rebellion over the weekend, it was really news to me. I guess I had been under a rock for the past few weeks – focussing more on local issues. There is at least some positive news happening here in Cape Breton.
    Still, as these things go in our modern-wired world, not more than a day went by before I was introduced to the Extinction Rebellion story from two additional and completely different sources.
    If you haven’t heard about it, Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is “a socio-political movement, which uses nonviolent resistance to avert climate breakdown, halt biodiversity loss, and minimize the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse,” according to Wikipedia.
    There have been demonstrations worldwide in recent weeks and months, there have been arrests, there have been videos and websites proliferated with discussions about the movement, much of which has been ignored by the mainstream and corporate press worldwide.
    Extinction Rebellion’s website states its aim as:
    1) “The government must tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency, reverse inconsistent policies, and work alongside the media to communicate with citizens.
    2) The government must enact legally-binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 and to reduce consumption levels.
    3) A national Citizens’ assembly to oversee the changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose.”
    The movement has been taken up globally with chapters of XR being created in many cities and even in some less populated areas of the planet.
    Extinction Rebellion takes some of its inspiration from the Occupy or Occupy Wall Street movement as well as previous civil rights and peaceful civil disobedience movements.
    Tim Winton, writing recently in The Guardian, stated that our political leaders are “ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence” and that, he says is “unforgivable.” Winton goes on to say that humanity “survived the cold war because no one pushed the button. On climate change, he notes that the button has been pushed again and again.”
    He has a point.
    Having watched a documentary this week on Canada’s David Suzuki, it seems that as he ages, he seems to have less of a filter than he once did. He’s quick to admit now when people or things “piss him off.” One of the things pissing him off for some time now is the refusal of many people to believe that we are in the midst of a climate crisis and that we have a very short window to solve it or face “extinction as a species.”  Those are Suzuki’s words, not mine.
    The Suzuki film was part of an environmental film series this past week at the NSCC Strait Area Campus organized by Paul Strome of the Inverness County Chapter of the Council of Canadians, Waddie Long of NSCC, and several of NSCC’s Environmental Technology students.
    In speaking with these students, it’s quite apparent that they “get” the climate crisis and understand the gravity of the global warming problem. They intuitively understand that it’s their generation that has the most to lose in this struggle for survival.
    We are possibly the first or second generation of adults worldwide that seriously have to ask themselves if they want to bring children into this world and that’s a sad reality for our stewardship of this formerly glorious planet and our future as a species.
    Suzuki has often illustrated the problem of humans not understanding global warming or taking it seriously enough with his analogy of the frog in water. Put a frog into cool water and gradually heat it up to a boiling point. Biologists refer to this as the “the boiled frog syndrome.” Increase the temperature of the water gradually from 20 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius…to 90 degrees Celsius, and the frog just sits there. But suddenly, at 100 degrees Celsius, something happens: the water boils and the frog dies.
    Are we, the human species, like that frog?  Many would say we are, so we’d better wake up soon.
    Local environmental activist Paul Strome says we all have a role to play in taking the climate crisis more seriously and we have a responsibility to try to find solutions. In an email to The Oran this week he provided his opinion.
    “What can we do to wake up our politicians, business and social leaders to actually do more to address climate change than what they are doing right now? Extinction Rebellion has the right idea, but being in a rural area, we don't have the same impetus or numbers of concerned citizens to go out and protest in their faces the way they have done in Halifax, Montreal, London, and Ottawa, etc. Humanity needs more mainstream media coverage, but especially in rural areas because it is as if the rural majority are complacent with their lives. They don’t see/feel any significant impact, but they don’t realize what is coming. The collectively aware need to light a fire under them because they will be the most significantly effected as climate change deepens,” Strome concluded.
More on Extinction Rebellion:
    XR states the following on its website and explains its mission in the following declaration:
– “We have a shared vision of change – creating a world that is fit for generations to come.
– We set our mission on what is necessary – mobilizing 3.5 per cent of the population to achieve system change – using ideas such as “momentum-driven organizing” to achieve this.
– We need a regenerative culture – creating a culture which is healthy, resilient, and adaptable.
– We openly challenge ourselves and this toxic system – leaving our comfort zones to take action for change.
– We value reflecting and learning – following a cycle of action, reflection, learning, and planning for more action. Learning from other movements and contexts as well as our own experiences.
– We welcome everyone and every part of everyone – working actively to create safer and more accessible spaces.
– We actively mitigate for power – breaking down hierarchies of power for more equitable participation.
– We avoid blaming and shaming – we live in a toxic system, but no one individual is to blame.
– We are a non-violent network – using non-violent strategy and tactics as the most effective way to bring about change.
– We are based on autonomy and decentralization – we collectively create the structures we need to challenge power. Anyone who follows these core principles and values can take action in the name of RisingUp!”

 

 


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