N.B.Originally published 6 months BC.

In April 2019 I was arrested at the first Extinction Rebellion Climate Change Protest in Parliament Square London. I felt compelled to do it for several reasons.

This, according to nearly all scientific evidence, is a crisis. 97% of environmental scientists are now on the same page. Humanity is destroying the natural world at a rate that is not sustainable in the long term for the survival of the human race. They call it the Anthropocene.

Now, we either take these scientists seriously or we really are going to suffer some nasty consequences quite soon. In an era of exponential population growth, where the biggest areas of growth are experiencing the most rapid industrialisation, the future is heading for a bleak conclusion.

At the moment it is hard to feel the effects. The shops are full. Everything I order online arrives without a problem and the hotter summers have a pleasant effect on the mood of the people in London. But once the harmonic cycle or nature is put under enormous pressure, it could be very difficult to re-establish the balance through peaceful means, as we have the opportunity to do now.

I it is highly unlikely that the government is going to move on serious climate action until the people demand it.

This is because government relies on the support of these polluting industries. Firstly financially, so that campaigns can be waged. But also socially because they have a huge capacity to disrupt our way of life if they so desire. Imagine what might happen if electricity suddenly became in short supply because a government threatened to change the infrastructure of our energy supply. Their place in the central economic daily life is so integrated, that their importance to the economy and our modern life is huge. As a result their influence on politics is institutionalised.

Oil and coal are crucial to power every means by which the economy functions. Oil is also the producer of our plastics and many of our synthetic textiles, our roads are made of oil and the tyres that take us where we are going. Our politicians rely on their backing to support the campaigns that get them into power. Their CEO’s don’t make a lot of noise because their influence is absolute. Any government that tried to change the status quo would be confronted with a wall of negative publicity and all funding going to oposing candidates and parties that supported their established position.

This is why in the UK there is still support for fracking, new oil explorations across the globe and a marked drop in investment in renewable energies, blamed on Brexit and the stalled economy.

Nothing will change without the people demanding it. In the end the people really are the ones with the power. We vote these harbingers of doom into office. We keep them there by paying taxes and agreeing to their miserable nature- destroying policies.

We are 100% reliant on nature. Every single aspect of our lives is derived from nature. Destroy nature and we are literally destroying ourselves. Our capacity to live and thrive is threatened with each action.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in the Importance of Civil Disobedience, ‘Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust, has an obligation to break the law’. Essentially it is the duty of each citizen to stand up and confront injustice wherever we see it. To stop the machinations of the status quo from continuing if they were to ever lose sight of their role as care takers of society.

For this reason I was arrested for stopping the Easter traffic from moving from tourist site to tourist site, from the feeding the local shop keepers their income and generally insisting that there be enough disruption that the state should feel pressured enough to bring in other constabulary from around London.

Until the government sees there are enough people to hold back the economy from it’s mindless, endless, inhuman obsession for profit, there will be no change.

But in the end we are free-willed human beings and I felt the time was ready to take my place alongside the protesters.

The other reason I went was because of the expressly Non-Violent actions of the protesters. As many of you know, I have been living in a Non-Violent commune in France for the past couple of years, established by an Italian who lived and travelled with Gandhi in India.

Non-Violence tries to avoid hurting anyone living or sentient. physically, psychologically or spiritually. I moved there because after being fortunate enough to travel around a bit, I came to see the epic destruction we are inflicting on this planet. After a year in China, where western consumerism and capitalism is fueling mind- boggling pace of growth everywhere (in a population that makes up roughly 20% of humanity), I realised that we had created an enormous beast that is wildly out of control.

For me, the climate change protest achieved each of these Non-Violent goals. There was no aggression on the part of the protesters, which several officers gratefully mentioned to me throughout the day. Even the discharge officer said he supporter the cause!

It is necessary to step up to confront the moral violence that our way of life, including the ability to holiday endlessly, is affecting our society. This is not to say that we shouldn’t travel but that there are necessary steps that need to be taken before we can match our consumerism to the production levels that our natural environment are capable of replenishing.

And as pointed out before, there will be no change unless we demand an end to the current way of doing things.