The Bigger Picture …
Even though I had made lots of personal progress by cutting out fast fashion, reducing my plastic usage and eliminating animal products from my diet, I still felt like I should be doing more. One of the main struggles I was facing was that it felt like I was up against the world all by myself. Very few of my friends or family seemed as interested or worried about these issues as I was. I felt like more needed to be done, on a wider scale, to raise awareness and to make more of a difference.
I had heard of Extinction Rebellion before and was vaguely aware of the work they were doing, and I wanted to find out if their values matched up with my own. A quick search online told me “Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse” meaning they protest and cause disruption to get their demands across without using violence or aggression.
I found that Extinction Rebellion has 3 demands:
- Tell the Truth
- Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change
- Act Now
- Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025
- Beyond Polictics
- Government must create and be led by the decisions of a citizens assembly on climate and ecological justice.
I was aware that Extinction Rebellion were preparing for a global event in protest of climate change, not only to get governments to declare a climate emergency but to act on it too. This was when I decided to get involved and take the next step in my pro-active approach to battling climate change and species extinction. I attended a couple of local meetings and everyone was very welcoming and excited about the coming event.
One thing I quickly learned was that the people of Extinction Rebellion tend to be passionate & caring, and are always willing to educate others. I liked the fact that they have such a diverse following of people from all different kinds of backgrounds, and the movement has groups all over the world. I realised that most of my views overlapped with those of Extinction Rebellion, and more importantly they were doing something about the climate crisis and trying to raise awareness when everyone else seemed to be turning a blind eye.
