Are you interested in going to jail?

By Paul Homewood

h/t Dennis Ambler

This is quite irresponsible and dangerous, especially when they are so ignorant of the real facts.

If John Schellnhuber is your Guru, what hope is there?

Climate campaigners Extinction Rebellion are asking how far people are willing to go to protect our environment.

How do you fancy being plunged into the grim abyss of the latest climate science only to be politely asked if you are interested in going to jail?

Hundreds of people across the UK have recently had this experience while attending talks about the Extinction Rebellion.

Led by the group Rising Up, Extinction Rebellion is breaking the mould of traditional communication about ecological crisis. It argues that it’s time to tell people the truth and ask them to act accordingly.

‘Biological annihilation’

Scientists are increasingly breaking ranks to emphasise the existential threat we are facing.

Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research for twenty years and a senior advisor to the European Union, said: “Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action and accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences.”

The Extinction Rebellion is urging people to face up to this hellish reality, particularly the “biological annihilation” of this mass species extinction event.

We acknowledge the grief and fear this can cause. But our experience suggests that working through those painful feelings can lead to a new determination to do whatever it takes to make this a lesser catastrophe and to save what we can.

So what does it take? We don’t lack imagination or ideas – there are many policy solutions out there – but what do we lack is political will in a democracy captured by the interests of profit.

Conscientious protestors

We can turn to the social sciences for information on how to generate political will. The evidence is overwhelming: change comes when people are willing to commit acts of peaceful civil disobedience.

They must be disruptive and sacrificial and whilst a critical mass is needed, it is a relatively low number of people. Fifty people in jail for a short time, such as a week on remand, is likely to bring the ecological crisis into the public consciousness.

A few thousand arrests in a short space of time could cause a political crisis. Just a tiny percent of the population in active support of a rebellion would probably see an end to this destructive political system.

Consider the power this would give to individuals. We can choose to be one of a relatively small number of people who are willing to stand up in a principled way and help decisively change the direction of humanity.

Peaceful civil disobedience can be a dignified way to express your dissent. Actions could involve peacefully spray chalking buildings or blockading transport infrastructure, while being willing to face the consequences of being a Conscientious Protector.

Stepping forward

The Extinction Rebellion talk is online. We are presenting evidence and a plan. We are asking you to please watch it and then ask yourself if you are willing and able to offer your service.

Dr Kate Marvel from NASA’s Goddard Institute said: “To be a climate scientist is to be an active participant in a slow-motion horror story.

"As a climate scientist, I am often asked to talk about hope […] Audiences want to be told that everything will be alright in the end […] The problem is, I don’t have any. We need courage, not hope.”

I hope enough of us find our courage.

http://www.theecologist.org/2018/oct/26/are-you-interested-going-jail

Take note of the true objective:

Just a tiny percent of the population in active support of a rebellion would probably see an end to this destructive political system.

This is what the Extinction Website has to say:

We are facing an unprecedented global emergency. Our children and our nation face grave risk.

The planet is in ecological crisis, we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown.

The earth’s atmosphere is already over 1°C warmer than pre-industrial levels. The chance of staying below the 2°C warming agreed upon in the Paris agreement are tiny.

Recent projections show we are on course for 3 degrees of warming and potentially much higher.

Children alive today in the UK will face unimaginable horrors as a result of floods, wildfires, extreme weather, crop failures and the inevitable breakdown of society when the pressures are so great.

We are unprepared for the danger our future holds.

The time for denial is over – we know the truth about climate change and we know the truth about current biological annihilation.

It’s time to act like that truth is real.

What does living with this truth call us to do? Will you die knowing you did all you were able to?

From the 31 October citizens of this country will commit repeated acts of disruptive, non-violent civil disobedience. There will be mass arrests.

We demand the UK declares a state of emergency, takes action to create a zero carbon economy by 2025, and creates a national assembly of ordinary people to decide what our zero carbon future will look like.

We are willing to make personal sacrifices. We are prepared to be arrested and to go to prison. We will lead by example, to inspire similar actions around the world. This requires a global effort but we believe it must begin in the UK, today, where the industrial revolution began.

We will not be led quietly to annihilation by the elites and politicians. We will fight their genocidal behaviour with honour, resilience, and peace, in the spirit of all those who fought for our freedoms before us. We call on everyone, regardless of your political beliefs to join us in fighting for our nation and life on earth.

https://risingup.org.uk/XR/

Just a bunch of barmy, far left agitators? No doubt, except that the Guardian has seen fit to publish a letter in support of Extinction Rebellion signed by 94 senior academics, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

We the undersigned represent diverse academic disciplines, and the views expressed here are those of the signatories and not their organisations. While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we will not tolerate the failure of this or any other government to take robust and emergency action in respect of the worsening ecological crisis. The science is clear, the facts are incontrovertible, and it is unconscionable to us that our children and grandchildren should have to bear the terrifying brunt of an unprecedented disaster of our own making. We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, with about 200 species becoming extinct each day. Humans cannot continue to violate the fundamental laws of nature or of science with impunity. If we continue on our current path, the future for our species is bleak. Our government is complicit in ignoring the precautionary principle, and in failing to acknowledge that infinite economic growth on a planet with finite resources is non-viable. Instead, the government irresponsibly promotes rampant consumerism and free-market fundamentalism, and allows greenhouse gas emissions to rise. Earth Overshoot Day (the date when humans have used up more resources from nature than the planet can renew in the entire year) falls ever earlier each year (1 August in 2018). When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and to secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The “social contract” has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself. We therefore declare our support for Extinction Rebellion, launching on 31 October 2018. We fully stand behind the demands for the government to tell the hard truth to its citizens. We call for a Citizens’ Assembly to work with scientists on the basis of the extant evidence and in accordance with the precautionary principle, to urgently develop a credible plan for rapid total decarbonisation of the economy.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/facts-about-our-ecological-crisis-are-incontrovertible-we-must-take-action

The Guardian list of 94 includes several politicians, no less than 16 psychologists/psychotherapists, a criminologist, a neuro-scientist, a couple of human rights lawyers, but climate scientists? Nary a one.

The rest are a hotch potch from various social disciplines.

One is tempted to ask where this motley collection of wannabe of Trots and Maoists think their smart phones, computers and the rest of the trappings of their modern lifestyles come from.

But maybe the Guardian could set the ball rolling, and immediately shut down its printed media, close its plush HQ in the middle of London and pay all of its staff in beads! That might not do anything to save the planet, but at least we would not have to put up with their hypocrisy any longer.