My day started watching George Monbiot give a speech to a packed tent in St. James Park which is now home to a Rebel village of sorts. I read ‘Heat’ by Monbiot when it came out in 2007 and it all made perfect but horrific sense and knew there and then we had to change the way we lived. In the book he was calling for a 90% reduction in emissions way back then and the tragedy is that nothing of any real significance has been implemented in the last 12 years. 12 years we badly needed to initiate policies that would put ourselves on a sustainable path.
Fast forward to 2019 and we are now in the midst of another shutdown of the capital city because the powers that be are still dragging their heels on the action that is so desperately required. And we now have to resort to desperate measures which means people from all over our country have descended on the capital to enact their right to protest and to implement acts of civil disobedience, not because they want to, but because they feel there is nothing else to try to convince our government to step up action that will be fitting of the climate emergency that they declared is happening.
The atmosphere was incredible yesterday and was blown away by the sheer numbers in force in so many different locations, the insane amount of organisation that has gone into bringing about this operation and the phenomenal amount of people that are prepared to get arrested in order to sustain this rebellion so that it has a great a chance as possible to influence increased and vital action to prevent climate catastrophe.
But if felt so wrong to watch as elderly people are carted off by the police. Decent, normal retired citizens who have never broke the law before and never ever wanted to sacrificing themselves for future generations because they feel there is no other choice.
Each time the rebellion has arrived in London it has come at a time when I was most despondent about our future and each time it energises me and gives me hope and optimism that if we continue to put pressure on our elected reps they will eventually step up and do the right thing.
What is incredible is that even though all the banners are brutal fatalistic pessimism the atmosphere everywhere is one of sheer positivity. This paradox is at the heart of the rebellion and shows that we can accept the harsh realities of what’s to come without losing hope, without giving up, without descending into apathy and debilitating anxiety. We can instead join together and create a new path that is not a dead end.
Soz but me posts are gonna all be late this week as I document the rebellion…please do not adjust your sets….The revolution will be televised! (Well internetised but that doesn’t sound quite as good.)