55 Tufton Street, near the UK parliament at Westminster, London is home to many influential thinktanks that promote climate crisis denial and climate destruction. Writers Rebel, associated with Extinction Rebellion held a protest there on 2 September 2020.
Tag: george monbiot
THE STATE WE’RE IN :: George Monbiot is trying to get arrested today
Journalist and author George Monbiot is trying to get arrested today as part of the Extinction Rebellion Climate Emergency protests in London. There have been over 1,400 arrests of XR rebels in London and the Metropolitan Police have now imposed a blanket ban on London XR protests.
Today, I aim to get arrested. It is the only real power climate protesters have
Photograph: Ollie Millington/Getty A few hours after this column is published, I hope to be in a police cell. I don’t yet know what the charge will be, where I will be arrested or when, but I know that if I go home this evening without feeling the hand of the law on my sleeve, I will have failed. This may sound like a strange ambition, but I believe it is a reasonable one.
If I succeed, I will be one of many. In the current wave of Extinction Rebellion protests, more than 1,400 people have so far allowed themselves to be arrested. It’s a controversial tactic, but it has often proved effective. The suffragettes, the Indian salt marchers, the civil rights movement and the Polish and East German democracy movements, to name just a few, all used it as a crucial strategy. Mass arrests are a potent form of democratic protest.
They work because they show that the campaigners are serious. When people are prepared to jeopardise their liberty for their cause, other people appear more likely to listen to what they say, and more likely to recognise its importance. Those who founded Extinction Rebellion researched these histories and sought to apply their lessons to the greatest predicament humanity has ever faced: the gathering collapse of our life support systems.
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NASA: 2014 the Warmest Year on Record
Climate change, global warming, irrefutable facts about, climate change, global warming
Looking into the eye of a Whale is very special.
I am not suggesting that saving whales is any real response to climate change, although of course Whales should be protected and adored. What I am suggesting is that we should hugely reduce our – i.e. human – adverse effect on this beautiful planet that is our World. We need to make huge changes to stop destroying our World.
It’s not about personal issues like riding a bike and doing away with cars (although it may have a minimal affect edit: doing away with cars would have a huge effect, aeroplanes too). Yes, we need to act local – avoid travelling excessive distances. Get a job closer to home.
The real issue is much bigger and needs to be addressed by politicians. We have to stop destroying this World. 2014 was the warmest year on record. Climate change is real and must be addressed.
UK politics news
A selection of recent UK and international political articles.
- How to discredit your democratic opponents in Egypt | openDemocracy
- How we ended up paying farmers to flood our homes | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian
- Hospital chiefs misleading Londoners over A&E closures which will bring chaos to the capital’s hospitals | NHA Party
- NHS in England delays sharing of medical records | Society | The Guardian
- Suspension of care.data scheme must be used to address security concerns | NHA Party
- Ed Miliband, the NHS, and the lurch back towards Blairism | openDemocracy
- Welfare state presides over ‘culture of fear’, charities say | Politics | The Guardian
- David Cameron Wrong To Say Workless Households Doubled Under Labour, Official Figures Show
- Tonee Miranda offers to help Rebecca, Rupert and James. “… set up a Hutton-style enquiry …”
