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#MYLDN (1261) – EXTINCTION REBELLION LONDON SHUTDOWN (PT 5)

Parliament Square – Beyond Politics

The events this week I have seen as part of the Extinction Rebellion’s uprising has been the most phenomenal display of positive people power I have ever witnessed. And after the negative divisive national meltdown of Brexit, it has made me once again proud to be British. Solidarity, compassion, decency, unity, community, love and respect have been the driving forces and the glue that has kept this protest and the people that are part of it together and showed that with cooperation and togetherness we can achieve anything. We must now put aside all our differences and work for the common good. Regardless of your political persuasion, or your beliefs, or your ethnicity, we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food and all of these things will be at risk if we do not pressurise our government to take the action required to avert climate catastrophe.

Last night we were down at Parliament Square and we stood and watched as police, who had surrounded rebels who had chained themselves to each other and to the ground, began the process of removing them one by one with axe grinders and bolt cutters. Whilst this was happening a group of a few hundred people sat around them and sang hymns to them. It was incredibly moving and powerful because, despite massive police presence, it was utterly peaceful.

I have to say that the police have been phenomenal all week and shown such respect and consideration for the protesters because they were, in turn, shown the same. I spoke to a policeman on the frontline and he said that they were in support of the protestors but still have a job to do but the restraint and decency they have used in dealing with this difficult situation has been truly exemplary. Again, it made me proud to be in a country where we can exert our democratic right to protest without fear of violent retaliation. I can’t imagine in any other country the same thing happening as they would undoubtedly have used excessive force to remove us rather than the good natured natured approach the Met have shown throughout this demonstration. The Rebellion has proven that non-violent protest works.

Sadly so much of the mainstream reporting has been on the whether they should be using these methods rather than their reason for doing it. It does not matter whether you agree if this is the right approach, all that matters is that you accept and agree that it is as bad as the evidence shows it to be and that we must all take action to get the government to initiate policies that are drastic enough and fast enough to have any effect whatsoever.

And again I would like to thank all the rebels who allowed themselves to be arrested to maintain the blockades and keep this protest going. Every person I saw get taken away had nothing in common other than they were willing to make the sacrifice and I sincerely hope that now more will join the fight and see that if as individuals we are useless, but as a unified force we are unstoppable.

I don’t know how much longer the rebels can hold on for but I hope it has been long enough for people to become aware of the situation and to wake up to the emergency that we are now in. If we had dealt with this for the last 30 years instead of ignoring it we could have incrementally altered our lives and slowly ushered in a sustainable existence but nothing has been done so now it will have to be fast and severe and we will have to give up lots of things if we want future generations to inherit anything other than a hell zone. The rebellion’s shutdown of London might be drawing to a close but this is just the beginning. And we now all have a choice…extinction or rebellion?

 

 

 

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#MYLDN (1260) – EXTINCTION REBELLION LONDON SHUTDOWN (PT 4)

XR YOUTH

The XR youth, as the junior division of the Rebellion are known, took over Piccadilly Circus and made their presence and their feelings known. Out of all the different sections of the XR, seeing the youth galvanise and join the fight has been the most heartening, and in some ways, the most depressing aspect of the protest as they really shouldn’t have to. They are just kids but they can clearly see that the grown ups are not doing what is necessary to fix this ever-worsening situation. They now see they must take action themselves and have no alternative but to try everything they can to convince them otherwise. From the youth strikes started by Greta Thunberg to the kids in the U.S who begged Senators to sign the Green New Deal to the very determined kids of the XR, they must all be terrified for the future that potentially awaits them and probably can’t understand why nothing is being done to solve it. They are the future, the least we can do is give them one.

My generation and previous ones inherited a working planet with an atmosphere, temperature and weather system that meant we could breathe and eat food and drink water. The least we can do is pass these very basic but very essential requirements of existence onto them and ensure that life on earth can continue for future generations beyond them. If no action is taken they will not have this. It is not a given. A total lack of response will mean all these elements which are essential for living will disappear. But they are not taking it lying down (except when the flashmob above descended on H&M – see above). They are going to fight. And we must support them and encourage them so that there actions might sway the leaders of this world to take this seriously and stop cow tailing  to companies who do nothing but pollute the fuck out of this planet which will ultimately render it uninhabitable.

If you think they shouldn’t be involved in civil disobedience and it is irresponsible to let them, then maybe you can think of and propose an alternative…this shutdown of London and everything the XR are doing is to bring climate change to the forefront of conversation and to get the media to report the severity of the situation and to inform the public of the real threat. In this respect, the movement  has already succeeded incredibly in achieving that goal. People are now finally talking about it. This is not about disruption, this is about education and we need to let everyone know how bad it really is so at least with the knowledge they have a choice whether to join the fight or not…

This is now Day 5 and the rebellion it still going strong. The politicians and the media are clambering for the police to disband the bloackades and the protests so that this  can end but if the Government just listened and responded to their demands then all this would end immediately. All they are trying to do is create a conversation that will lead to the solutions that will hopefully save us…

 

 

 

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#MYLDN (1259) – EXTINCTION REBELLION LONDON SHUTDOWN (PT 3)

WATERLOO BRIDGE – ACT NOW!

ok, sentiment good, might need to work on your spelling..

It is quite incredible to walk down Waterloo Bridge in the middle of the day with no traffic. You can actually breathe the air and not feel like you are choking so the occupation of this major thoroughfare (same for oxford street) demonstrates perfectly how chronically bad the air pollution is in this city and how we urgently need to remove fossil fuel vehicle fumes from our lives. It is even more amazing to see this bridge adorned with trees and pot plants. The Green rebelution is truly under way…

The occupation of Waterloo Bridge by The Extinction Rebellion has survived another night despite a lot more arrests. Me and Mrs Romero were there last night and the police were swooping in on random individuals amongst the crowd and telling them they have to leave within 2 minutes or they will be taken away. We were approached by policemen and told exactly that. Under Article 14, we have the right to remove you…blah, blah, blah…we chose not to get arrested and had to leave the bridge. For me, I didn’t want to be taken away because it would mean I wouldn’t be able  to document anymore and I think I can make a much greater contribution to this cause doing that than by being in jail.

For those that refused to move, they were carted off and put in the waiting police vans as the crowd cheered and chanted “We love you! We love you!” to each and every person that was arrested and carried off. I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for every single individual that has and is willing to be arrested by the police for this cause. It is the most selfless act anyone could do.

You might have been reading about this in the news and you think you might not agree with these methods but this is all we are left with as all other alternatives have failed. These people do not want to be arrested. They are just willing to do what is necessary to try and illicit the change in our society that is needed for society to continue. If you live in London and have been affected but the disruption you must realise that not a single person involved wants to be doing this.  And as soon as the government starts to implement measures to combat the devastating consequences of climate change this all ends. The XR are not a thing in itself, they are just a means to an end.

The right wing press have brandished this a far left movement but it is way beyond politics. These are just humans screaming out for the establishment to  actually deal with the situation with the seriousness and severity required.  What I think this movement represents is a need for us no longer to think of our own personal concerns, desires and ambitions. To survive we have to kill the cult of the individual that has separated us all and made a lot of people miserable in the process. We are pitted against each other in an endless battle of status competition focussed on how well we are doing in society rather than how society is doing as a whole. To have a chance in hell we must now all work for the greater good, to go fowards as a community and change what needs to be changed, to fix what we have broken and to pave a path for future generations rather than taking them down an ecological dead end to disaster.

Waterloo bridge has been occupied under the banner “Act Now” and is probably the most pertinent statement of all. As I keep saying the time for ignoring this is over. We cannot carry on as we have been. Delay has cost us dearly already. We cannot shunt this anymore. We have to put everything else on the back burner. But this is not about individual acts of conservation. Our own personal choices will not make a difference. This has to be implemented from the top down. The leaders of the world must step up and do what is necessary and do what is right and we will comply. There is no other way.

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#MYLDN (1258) – EXTINCTION REBELLION LONDON SHUTDOWN (PT 2)

MARBLE ARCH – THIS IS AN EMERGENCY

DAY 3 is underway for the Extinction Rebellion’s shutdown of London. They have successfully held their blockades at their five designated points: (oxford circus, marble arch, piccadilly circus, parliament square and waterloo bridge). As mentioned yesterday each one represents a different aspect of the climate situation and their demands. All the shots featured are from the base at Marble Arch which is where most people have camped out. Some of the Earth marchers walked  from Lands End and left up to 5 weeks ago to get to London in time for the protest. And there are people here from all over the country. People who have put everything on hold to do this. To give up their lives for as long as it takes for the Government to acknowledge the situation and respond accordingly. And these people are just regular folk. Lots of ordinary families who are not born activists, they just don’t know what else to do.

I don’t think I have ever been part of something that had so much goodwill and positivity and a sense of community which is what we will all need if we want to go forward as a species. There was an incredible atmosphere up at Marble Arch with music, meditations, yoga sessions, speeches and even piano recitals powered by kids on dynamo bikes. There is no aggression, no violent intent, no negativity despite the despair felt with the desperate lack of action by anyone in power. There have been dismissals of this movement as a hippy affair but there is not one type here. The only thing that unites them is that these are just people who understand that this Earth was not built for us. We just live on it and we need to take on board that if we don’t live in harmony with it we will not make it.  This is not to protect Nature. We are nature. We are protecting our own compatibility within it. This is not a given. And we are in very grave danger of losing it if we continue to ignore the destabilisation  we  are causing.

Marble Arch has been taken up under the banner of “This is an emergency” because that is exactly what it is. It doesn’t feel like one and it definitely isn’t being tackled like one but it mostly certainly is and the sooner we start treating it like one the sooner we can intiate the drastic changes that are required for the human race to survive. If you think this is overly dramatic read the mountain of scientific evidence which shows that the perfect goldilocks zone we currently live in where this planet’s temperature is suitable for humans to live in and for  us to grow our food and to have drinking water is rapidly altering to shunt the equilibrium that allows us the stability to exist.

If you have been affected by the shutdown and consider it an inconvenience you must understand that this is last resort tactics and not what anyone wanted to do. There is just no alternative left. Farhana Yamin, one of the most respected climate change lawyers in the world, was arrested yesterday at 3pm at Shell HQ. She had glued her hands to the floor. Her reason for taking direct action? “Because writing books wasn’t working”.

And as Owen Jones tweeted yesterday: “If you think causes outrageous inconvenience, boy are you in for a shock when climate chaos envelops the planet!”

If you are in London, come down to any of the blockades and see what is going on and you will see these people are not different to you in anyway. They are you. And you are them. And we all need to recognise we are one and the same and this sense of solidarity and belonging amongst us is what is so vital so that we can rise up together to demand action and to defeat this problem which will affect every person on the planet bar none.

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#MYLDN (1257) – EXTINCTION REBELLION LONDON SHUTDOWN (PT 1)

Yesterday The Extinction Rebellion began its London shutdown occupying 5 key areas. (oxford circus, marble arch, piccadilly circus, parliament square and waterloo bridge). Each one reflected a different aspect of the situation and their demands. All the shots above were taken at Oxford Circus yesterday which has been taken over under the banner of ‘Tell The Truth’. Extinction Rebellion’s 1st demand is that the “Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change”.

One of the main reasons for a total lack of progress in dealing with the environmental situation is that people are not being told by their governments and the media how bad the problem is, how quickly it is escalating and how much needs to be done to prevent much greater catastrophe down the line. The reasoning is “if it was really as bad as these protestors are saying it is, then the government would tell us. But they aren’t. Its not a conspiracy theory. They just aren’t. And the BBC aren’t either. An media organisation that has a reputation for being the global bastion of truth has been restricting and withholding climate change news stories for years and years. They have a responsibility to inform us of what is going on. We must pressure them to do so.

It was incredible to see Oxford Circus shut down yesterday and converted into a festival/protest/rave/sit in party full of nothing but positive attitudes and a brilliant atmosphere. An incredible amount of time and effort has gone into orchestrating this operation and so many people have given up their time and other priorities to make this attempt to show our leaders that they need to step up and deal with this rather than just continue to ignore it. The people who are part of this protest have nothing in common other than they want to see some action and honesty in relation to this ecological emergency which will affect every single one of us on this planet. They do not want to disrupt things or get arrested for doing so but are willing to do so because they feel there are literally no alternatives. They are not anarchists or trouble makers. They are not one demographic. They are just normal people who have had enough.

If you are in London, come down and show your support, get involved. They are holding the streets day and night so you can go down anytime. See what it is about for yourself. Talk to people. You will find nothing but friendly lovely folk who are doing whatever they can. The more of us there are, the greater the chance we have for them to listen to us. And we urgently need to take action now and begin altering how we live and start walking on a path towards a sustainable future.

Remember, if you are anti-extinction, you already ARE in the Extinction Rebellion!

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The Earth is an Environmental crime scene. The scenes in the shots this week are not. They are just things people have cast out as rubbish and the council have slapped bright yellow stickers on them. Their phrase is overly dramatic for the situations you see before you and is terminology that should be reserved for what is currently occurring on this planet.

Exactly two years ago in April 2017 I posted up photographs from the same series to highlight the fact that no-one was talking about climate change. It had practically disappeared from the news and all attempts to deal with it had evaporated into thin air. Today the situation is even worse  and still almost nothing is being done and still people don’t want or can’t talk about it. At least it is being reported again in the media, mainly as a result of  extreme weather becoming the norm and massive amounts of scientific data showing that the planet is warming at an accelerated pace even the most pessemistic predictions didn’t come close to. And yet, it is still not making headlines and is still way down on most publication’s and people’s agendas.

The Extinction Rebellion (the XR for short) have also done a great job in the last six months of getting the press to report their actions and have successfully managed to get it back on the discussion table and yet still it hovers way below celeb gossip, country politics, box sets and people’s own social media output. The question is, how do reduce the dominance of trivialities in our lives and how do we get it to the forefront of conversations? We live in the ultimate era of outrage, where ever 5mins someone is losing their shit over some insult to their identity group or whatever and yet the biggest outrage of them all, the fact that we are allowing a tiny percentage of people to render our entire planet to the point of total dysfunction because of the fallout from their industrial activity? The air we breathe, the oceans we swim in, the crops we eat, everything is being contaminated by a fraction of our species purely for their own profit and we are all allowing them to do it. Shouldn’t we be getting on our high horses about that more than anything?

Apparently only 100 companies (almost all fossil fuels) are responsible for over 70% of ALL emissions. There is a campaign to make them liable for ecocide which is what they are absolutely guilty of. They are destroying everything and nothing is being done to stop them. We must get our governments to stand up to them. To reject their money. To invest in green new deals instead. They spent hundreds of billions bailing out the banks in 2008. Does our environment not deserve to be bailed out as well? Isn’t that worth it more than saving the necks of the wealthy and the utterly irresponsible? So why aren’t they doing it? They could invest in emission free energy and infrastructure which woud reinvigorate the economy and the climate at the same time. They could put us on a path towards a solution instead of continuing to ignore the problem which will ultimately be our downfall.

I watched the film Bohemian Rhapsody this week and it culminates in the Live Aid show, which shows how powerful people can be when mobilise together to initiate positive change and come to the aid of those who need it the most. What I can’t quite work out is why this same spirited action is not happening with climate change? This is a potentially much more dangerous situation that affects literally everyone but  people just don’t seem to want to engage with this very real disaster which is already well underway. Is it because it feels too big or too complicated to tackle? The Ethiopia crisis was horrendous but simple. They need food. We raise money and send them food. Job done. The climate situation doesn’t require donations, it  requires a much greater sacrifice – we have to change everything we do in order to even have a chance in hell and that’s maybe the problem? But if we don’t  deal with it now our problems will be so much worse and for generations after us, infinitely more so.

I know you might read all this and think its too much to take on but even the acknowledgement of the situation would be a start. Just by admitting we need to deal with this above and beyond everything else and just talking about it would be the first step towards a better future. As I speak to people about this I feel them glaze over, I see the shutters coming down, and as I write these words I feel the same. That is why being around the people who have also joined the XR is a relief in many ways, as you can talk about it, you don’t have to worry about mentioning it for fear of being brandished a downer, a mood hover or a kill joy. You can cry out to the ‘elephant in the room’ and help initiate a stampede which will waken those in power to the needs of all of us to do something tangible, to actually deal with the problem, not just shunt it away.

The XR are gathering together at 11am on Monday at 5 key places in London: Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Parliament Square.

See this link here for more details: http://tinyurl.com/y2mhsg5n

Its time to stand up and be counted!

Love and Rage!

 

 

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Sgt. Rebel says “Its time to stand up and be counted!”

Sgt. Rebel says it’s time to stand up and be counted! The Extinction Rebellion are mobilising on April 15th to shutdown London in order to declare a climate emergency as we desperately need to treat it as one. All other avenues have failed and all that is left is civil disobedience, the only course of action that, historically, has initiated change. The Rebellion have no interest is disruption for disruption’s sake. They just know that peaceful protest alone isn’t be enough. So you might not agree with their methods but everything else has failed to make a difference in any significant way.

And remember, if you are anti-extinction, you are already in the Extinction Rebellion. This organisation is not just one group of people, or a type of person, or a single course of action, this affects the entire human race. And we need now, more than ever,  to join together as a species and accept the reality of our situation and begin our journey towards a sustainable future. It is not too late but the time for ignoring it is well and truly over and the longer we do nothing the worse it gets and will continue to do so until we get our heads out of the sand and demand our governments implement genuine and drastic measures that will  match the severity of the problem and not just pay lip service to it. And sooner we begin the sooner we can start to undo what we have done and prepare our world for the next generations who deserve at least what all previous generations were given, a working planet they could live on.

https://rebellion.earth

Love and rage!

Sgt. Rebel

(If you can’t see the youtube vid above please click here: https://youtu.be/SVVoaFDYC0o (please share this link or repost via instagram here: link )

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#MYLDN (1252)

And so concludes this spatial sci-fi  week of shots, from the fake, to the surreal, to the po-litical to the tenuous, all photos have just about clung on to the theme in question. As for the above, I must confess, it is not a real alien. It is a window display’s impression of what an alien might look like. What are the chances of a creature from outer space actually looking like that? Probably slim. What are the chances of there being creatures from outer space full stop? Its a very big area that has been around for a very long time so chances are actually very high. Will we ever meet them? No, chances are extremely low. Not only would we need to be relatively close to them, in universal terms, we would also need to exist within the same time frame as them as well and the chances of these two factors converging in a gargantuan space spread over billions of years is microscopically low.

The Fermi Paradox explores another angle, which is that intelligent civilisations will destroy themselves just as they would be reaching capacity for interstellar travel and that is a possibility that might relate to the developments occurring on our own little planet Earth right now. If you want a glimpse into what life on earth might be in the future watch Wall-E. The human race ends up filling up the planet with garbage and relocating to the stars. First bit check. Second bit, not so much. In the film Gravity, the opening line is: “In space, life is impossible”. And  it really is. Despite what movies will tell you, colonies on other planets is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve. Think about how much the H2 fast train is costing to get from London to Birmingham. Its in the billions. We can’t even afford to keep our youth clubs going in this country. What chance have we got to fund interplanetary  travel?

We have seriously taken for granted that a breathable atmosphere with a temperature that is conducive to our species is a given but as the effects of climate change take hold of this delicate eco-system we live in and are apart of , we see that it is anything but. It will be up to us to try to undo what has been done and prevent this living organism spinning through space from shaking us off like a bad cold.

I look up at the stars, well not in London obviously, you can’t see shit, but i have some luminous ones stuck to the ceiling of my bedroom, and I look up at them and I don’t really care what aliens would look like, but I do wonder if they are fucking up their habitat and destroying everything same as us. Are they arguing and fighting and waging wars or are they at one with themselves, each other and the Universe? If it is just us, and we are making a mess of the only place that holds life in our galaxy and in the other hundreds of billions of galaxies as well, that is truly a horrendous thought. I just hope there are some species, somewhere up there, doing a better job because if we are the guardians and sole providers of existence in a sea of darkness that would be really tragic because we are clearly not cut out to do it successfully. For all our advancement and technological creations we can’t live sustainably which means we are not evolved at all. We are actually less evolved than our ancestors because they were at least able to do that.

 

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Fork lift truck evolves and acquires consciousness. First act of artificial intelligence? Pose for a selfie. The human race might have nothing to fear after all…

Pareidolia is the scientific name for seeing faces in things that don’t have them. It is a condition I have. Apparently the brain is hardwired to see faces above everything else as we  are social animals that require the process of facial recognition and comprehension to survive in the group so no wonder there is a bit of spill over. Apparently even babies can recognise faces in the womb. Article here if you don’t believe me…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/06/08/babies-can-recognise-faces-still-womb-scientists-find/

I actually follow two Insta accounts that document this phenomena ( @pareidoliapic and @iseefacesinthestrangestofplaces if you are interested but there are tons more) and its like watching a Pixar version of the universe. Every inanimate object they show has its own little personality, just like the little fellah in this photograph. My only real question is, am I just seeing it or was it intentional?  I look at the vehicle in this shot and I can only see the face. I see nothing else. So did the person who designed it do it on purpose? That we will never know.

This is a bit of a stretch on the space theme but it does look like a robot to me.  If you aren’t happy with the inclusion please contact the Theme Police…

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Angry and frustrated by the relentless nonsense masquerading as democracy, the Maybot’s circuits heated up so much they melted her skin suit, revealing to the House her true form. Realising she was in fact an intelligent killing machine hellbent on human destruction the MPs duly agreed to back her deal. As she declared death to our species they cowered in fear and begged for mercy and she realised that she should have probably done this a long time ago. Bolstered by the success of this tactic, Maybot now plans to continue with her domination of our race and bring about Earthxit. You have been warned.

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And just to clarify, yesterday’s pic was an April fool’s joke. The photo was real but the planet was not. The shot was taken at the Despacio Sound System at the Roundhouse and they had a bunch of planets made as mobile decorations that hung above the dancefloor as part of their space theme disco and that was one of ’em so there you go. Full ‘fess up!

And to follow on with this spacey theme, here is a photograph of someone who looks like he came from outer space, and might see if I can continue this angle for the whole week…

In reference to this gentleman, I have seen him on one other occasion, years ago and got a shot of him then and he was wearing exactly the same glasses so I can only assume that he never goes out in anything else which makes me believe maybe he is a visitor from beyond…no joke.

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Got this amazing shot of Jupiter with my new telephoto lens and a little help from a 328 minute exposure last night. Very happy with results…gonna have a go at Saturn later..

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Sgt. Rebel says: Join the Extinction Rebellion! (recruitment video)

If you can see this vid please click on this link to view and also to share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4pv6BCClI

This statement is from the Extinction Rebellion as to their intentions:

Civil Disobedience works when it’s, peaceful respectful, disruptive and undertaken on a mass scale. We don’t want to disrupt people, but our governments’ criminal negligence over 30 years leaves us no choice. If we had functioning democracies we wouldn’t need to.  We’ve tried petitions, marches, letters, reports, papers, meetings, even direct actions, and emissions have continued to rise. Governments prioritise the short term interests of the economic elites, so to get their attention, we have to disrupt the economy. They have left no other option to get our three demands met, to save all that we love.

We need thousands of people to take to the streets, so spread the word. From the first night, we’ll start a wide diversity of cultural events – music, theatre, visual art, speakers, trainings. The more we do, the more people we will attract. As more join, we will grow bigger, faster, and have a wider effect.

Action is now taking place all around the world. Join us. This is it! Extinction Rebellion.

From 11am Monday 15 April,  Parliament Square, London

To read more about the XR and the upcoming event/demo please click here:

http://tinyurl.com/y3xxgt5s

I am joining them because amidst a sea of nothing they are actually doing something and something really needs to be done. The time for doing nothing is over.

Love and Rage!

 

Sgt. Rebel