Writings
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The Davosification of Cop: Why capitalism hasn’t got climate covered
One of us (Rupert) is in the thick of Cop26 in Glasgow, the other (Jem) is watching the social media closely from the other side of the world. But to both of us this Cop has a look that is not pretty: Cop26 reminds us alarmingly of the World Economic Forum at Davos, which both of us have experienced in person… To Rupert, what is plain to see on the ground is the painful contrast between the two worlds that he’s flitting between in Glasgow, worlds that seem more divided than ever: the world of the official ‘blue zone’, that is the world of ‘leaders’ and negotiations and big corporates…
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Opinion: Inside COP26. It's like a tornado that may end in a whimper
Torn from its post and flapping in the bitter Glasgow wind, the huge COP26 banner seemed like an ill omen. We stood on the pavement: thousands of delegates on the first day of the major climate summit, unable to get inside. An hour later and I was bundled straight into a live television interview – as first Boris Johnson and then Prince Charles took to the stage behind me … my sense of foreboding didn’t improve. Both spoke well and with passion. Boris maintained an earnest tone, later telling a roundtable of leaders of developing nations: “When it comes to tackling climate change, words without action, without deeds, are absolutely…
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Rupert Read’s Court Statement
May I start with one point of law. I wish to dispute the claim by the Prosecution that our action does not meet the criterion of addressing an ‘imminent’ threat to life. It is well-established in English law that ‘imminence’ does not only mean ‘that very night’ or the like. The classic example is its being accepted that if Anne Frank had stolen a car to escape from Amsterdam under Nazi occupation, the law of this country would not have held her guilty of a crime, and in particular that if a prosecutor argued that she should have waited until the Gestapo came knocking at her door before resorting to…
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This year’s Nobel Peace Prize should’ve gone to Greta Thunberg – what’s more important than climate action?
Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, brave campaigning journalists, have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Many congratulations to them. They are worthy winners of the prize. However, I can’t help thinking that the Nobel committee has missed a trick and lost an historic opportunity. Possibly the most important conference the world will ever have seen is about to begin on 1 November in Glasgow. Cop26 will decide whether or not the world’s “leaders” are serious about trying to prevent eco-driven civilisational collapse. The Nobel Prize could have been given this year to some of those who have been working most brilliantly to stabilise our climate. The most obvious such candidate,…
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10 tests for COP26
COP26 is critical to human history. The summit, originally scheduled for 2020, was supposed to be the most important COP since the achievement of the Paris Agreement, and was supposed to be about the implementation of that legislation. However, it was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This left a year without COP, a year we can ill-afford to have lost. Thus, the 2021 summit is more important than ever. The post-Covid reset will determine the economic parameters of the entire decade, henceforth deciding whether humanity is set on a path towards mass ecocide and self-destruction, or towards recovery. This gives the summit even greater significance. Will humanity take advantage…
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COP26: Why a bad outcome ‘is the best we can hope for’
With just one month to go until COP26, all eyes are on the world’s politicians. With expectations so high though, can our political leaders face up to their responsibilities? Or will their failure cause more people to wake up and take action on their own? Even if a poor outcome at COP26 acts as a catalyst, it is still far from ideal. But that’s what I am suggesting: that a bad outcome from COP26 is the best we can hope for. The alternative is a truly terrible agreement, or no agreement at all. This is a distinct possibility given the current crisis with soaring energy prices, which is already raising…
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Opinion: Why we need a bad outcome at Glasgow climate talks
Yes, you read that headline right. I am hoping for a bad outcome from November’s global climate conference, hosted here in the UK; because, at this point, that is the best that we can hope for. The realistic alternatives to a bad agreement? A terrible agreement or no agreement at all. However, my reason for travelling all the way from Norwich to the 26th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) in Glasgow has more to do with what could happen once all the politicians have stopped talking. I think the moment that will go down in history will be at the end of the conference. It will be then,…
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Why Insulate Britain needs a more positive strategy
Extinction Rebellion (XR) worked. From its launch to the end of the first Rebellion in April 2019, which precipitated meetings with the Government and its subsequent climate emergency declaration, the strategy proved to be successful. Climate-consciousness in the UK was raised, permanently – there was no going back. And yet, XR also didn’t work – in the sense that our country is still emitting deadly pollution like there’s no tomorrow, with efforts to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis nowhere to be seen. An even more radical ‘radical flank’ XR was formed as a ‘radical flank’ to existing eco-organisations, but this has evidently reached a limit. So what…
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Climate tribalism is pointless – we must reach across the political divide and work together
With each fresh environmental disaster, another cohort of society realises for the first time the trouble we’re in. Increasingly, they understand that nobody – least of all, the government – is coming to save us. Therefore we’re all responsible for humanity’s path through this deadly crisis. XR has done much to accelerate this awakening; legitimating the language of emergency, driving climate action up the agenda. But the scale of this realisation is not matched by an appetite for XRs tactics; the movements self-declared goal of mobilising 3.5 per cent of the population has not materialised. Nonetheless, a growing legion is newly aware of the crisis facing them. Those who now…
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The Politics of Paradox
Extinction Rebellion (XR) has had a permanent transformational effect on the place of climate and nature in British politics and society, and beyond. XR will continue to play an important role: radical non-violent direct action (NVDA) is effective at pressuring government and corporations, but so far the movement hasn’t mobilised masses of people as is required to force systemic change. The percentage of the population it has mobilised is far less than that recommended by social change theorist Erica Chenoweth. XR has successfully set the scene, which now needs filling by a substantially larger mobilisation. We explore here how this might be achieved. Political parties that are serious about learning…