Love the Earth | Protect the Earth | Make Ecocide a Crime Now!

This is clear and logical. Ecocide is a crime against humanity. Allowing and subsidizing corporations and states to destroy our world for profit and power must end. A new initiative has just been launched to make ecocide a crime. Go here, join, donate and stay connected.

 

 This is a transformative, heart felt call for a new criminal law to address global warming and the story of an elder, Polly Higgins, a hero of our time a and friend of XR who recently died and is celebrated here wth the launch of large scale effort to make ecocide a crime.

 

Naomi Klein on the Green New Deal & the Working Class: "We cannot trust our elites"

Great political framing in 5 minutes.

Cooperative ownership of community solar

This new project is a great model for equitable solarization This video is short and worth watching

Protesters dragged off tube train as Extinction Rebellion delay commuters in London

A letter was published today by XR after the "tube" action met with violent response by commuters.  This is an important moment to remember.  The media has been pressing this questions ever since the first XR actions in April, "won't inconveniencing the public alienate them from your cause".  The answer of course has been "but we must because otherwise the issue is completely ignored".  Both are true by measure but the letter holds to the necessity of disruption. This is why the framing of this letter is important. Also see the clip at the bottom as an example of how these questions from the media are framed and a good example of XR spokesperson staying on point.



It is regrettable that there was violence at today’s action at Canning Town tube station. We would like to express our sadness that events escalated this way.

We are aware that one of our activists responded in self defence in a moment of panic when confronted by a threatening situation. He acknowledges his accountability for this action and we offer gratitude for members of the public who helped to protect him.

To those that engaged in violence, we acknowledge that we disrupted your life today.

Rather than let this incident divide – at this moment of heightened attention – we think it is right to reach out to you, to invite you to have a conversation about what happened today. [1]

In light of today’s events, Extinction Rebellion will be looking at ways to bring people together rather than create an unnecessary division.

The people involved today did not take this action lightly. They were a grandfather, an ex-buddhist teacher, a vicar and a former GP among others who acted out of rational fear for the future as this crisis deepens.

We are aware that this action was divisive. We are a broad and diverse movement with a wide range of views, and are aware that many people were not for this action. Those that acted this morning planned their action autonomously, within Extinction Rebellion’s principles and values, centred around nonviolence and compassion.

Extinction Rebellion remains fully committed to nonviolence and will continue to put ourselves in vulnerable situations to highlight the climate and ecological emergency we face. It is unfortunate that something like this has to happen for this to become ‘newsworthy’.

This follows 10 days of peaceful actions in London. Extinction Rebellion’s supporters are ordinary people who are trying desperately to preserve the safety and security of all life on earth.




Her is another good article.

Extinction Rebellion has been clear that its primary goal is not to secure majority support for taking the necessary action to tackle climate change. 

Instead, XR’s goal is to cause enough disruption to the economy and the functioning of society that governments are forced to do what is needed to make a dent in global warming. If the cost of their protests and direct action outweighs the investment needed to turn us into a zero-carbon economy, the economic arguments should succeed where the existential and moral ones haven’t.

 https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/environment/2019/10/extinction-rebellion-may-enrage-commuters-it-doesnt-rely-majority

It's All Your Fault -- BBC

I have trouble with this video.  I did not build this world.  I understand that inaction can be a form of complicity but we did not consent even if many were duped into thinking they agreed to it.  Nonetheless hearing this is useful to understand that as we organize to change the world we know that we are not saintly or better than ordinary people. Corporate media blaming ordinary people is a deceitful share the blame game.

XR Mothers and Children - "Nurse-In" outside Downing Street

This is a brilliant tactic and again reported on ITV UK independent station.  I wish we had independent television

1000's Join Peaceful Protests - 200+ Arrested

I have never see such good reporting on television but this one was on UK's ITV news.

Non Cooperation may not be a strategy here -- Yet!

XR UK is a very decentralized organization and sometimes hard to tell what is "official" policy, but this is interesting. I wonder how they will support funding this as it will also increase costs for those incarcerated.

What Is The Speed Of Climate Change? Faster Than You Think

David Wallace Wells is not my favorite spokesperson on this issue but in this video he does nail down a very important perspective -- this happened not because we did not know but because the system could not stop or would not stop and still has not stopped.

The 83 Yr. Old Rebel | Extinction Rebellion

This is just inspirational. A role model for me.

Heading for Extinction - A Background for Action

This is an hour long lecture goes from A to Z explaining the background, structure, philosophy and moral justification for XR disruptions.

Deep Adaptation - Jem Bendell

It is time to talk about adaptation. This 45 minute lecture is a starting point for acceptance of what is likely coming. Accepting and then having conversations rather than denial, panic and fear will be essential in living in a way the preserves not our former system but rather values of love and compassion and community even as that former system collapses.

 

What if the answer to California's wildfire woes is more fire?

This article supports my contention that clearing dead wood and brush to save homes and protect against wild fires is wrong.  Nonetheless this is likely to be our response.




In a review of scientific studies on forest carbon management, two professors at Oregon State University, Beverly Law and Mark Harmon, made the case that cutting small trees to reduce carbon emissions from wildfires simply doesn’t work because you end up having to remove more wood than those fires would burn — leaving fewer trees to store carbon.

Even if you embrace Hanson’s position that a hands-off approach is best, utilities and municipal workers in California continue cutting down trees to protect themselves from fire. Homeowners are supposed to clear a “defensible space” 100 feet from their houses. All that work is generating tons of woody biomass. I asked Kathryn Phillips, who leads the lobbying efforts for Sierra Club California, if she thought it made sense to burn that wood to generate energy.

Though Phillips’ organization is officially neutral on the point, her response was that people shouldn’t be burning wood at all. The best option is to leave the wood in the forest. The rest might be chipped up or used for furniture and building materials. If people need to clear fuels off their land, “they need to figure out options to do something with that wood,” she said. “And if those options don’t exist they need to complain to the state. Burning it in a biomass plant isn’t the answer.”



https://grist.org/article/why-california-is-fighting-fire-with-fire/