Protest and power: can climate activism save the planet?

Photography by Isabella Tjalve

Iñaki Iriarte argues that the Extinction Rebellion campaign has had a successful start, but must reform its message in order to become a “mass” movement.

The fact that climate change affects everyone and everything should be obvious, as should the understanding that its consequences are a dire threat to the existence of countless people. Yet, despite messages urging the necessity of drastic change at every level, people continue to carry on with their lives as if nothing is happening. It’s almost as if they believe someone will simply solve the problem for them. The Extinction Rebellion campaign is upsetting such cognitive dissonance.

The movement’s October protest has disrupted the everyday functioning of large parts of London with the blockades of several key bridges and landmarks. It follows more than 539 groups in 70 countries demanding that their governments take immediate and drastic action on climate change. 

The campaign has three main aims: to force governments to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025, establish a “citizens’ assembly on climate justice” and declare a climate emergency. In the United Kingdom, this last aim was partially accomplished by a protest last April. While Parliament has declared a “climate emergency”, it has still done nothing that could be classified as emergency action.

Nonetheless, the climate issue has shot up the public agenda in the last year. Following decades of inaction, there is finally an accepted sentiment of some deeply-needed urgency. The movement has opened up conversations on climate and led to reflections on our own carbon footprints. It has also done away with the separation between activism and actions beyond it: people recognize their individual actions may directly contribute to deteriorating environmental conditions.

While on the surface the “rebels” have been effective in disseminating their message, the key dilemma facing Extinction Rebellion is whether its approach can foster long-lasting change, and expand to connect a wider base of people needed to constitute a truly “mass” movement.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Gail Bradbrook, a founder of Extinction Rebellion, noted the movement is “missing people”. She has a point. The makeup of the movement still seems to be primarily formed by those who were already concerned about the climate, and affluent enough to afford a day of unpaid work.  

The campaign’s current messaging is symbolised by the blocking of roads with funeral cars and placards reading “we’re f***d”.  These are just some of the many expressions linking Extinction Rebellion to themes of grief and catastrophe. On its own social media pages, it asks protestors to let “grief move us”, and warns of “collapse”. 

Such an approach is unlikely to draw in new members. As Frank Luntz, a US climate strategist, reported to a Senate hearing, “messages of crises are flabby from overuse, if everything is a crisis then nothing is.” Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, adds that “there’s a point at which words become part of your mental furniture – you just repeat the thing so often that people’s minds skip over them”.  

The paradoxical nature of Extinction Rebellion’s messaging is that it is at once a call to arms — a recognition of the dire environmental state — but falls fallible to human nature’s aversion to dealing with such issues.

So, if not spreading messages of “crises”, should the movement send messages of hope? With the environmental conditions set to get much worse before they get better, assuring hope seems like a particularly empty promise. Instead, climate activists should respond with a practical, purposeful resolve – a sort of courage, if you like. 

The climate movement should lead with solutions, and unite people’s experiences. If the movement could provide the solutions that would prevent the worst impacts of climate change from happening – those that include the loss of property, opportunity and ultimately, life– I’d say most people would support it. 

Ultimately, the question is whether Extinction Rebellion will shift its approach, and connect to the wider base of people necessary to sustain its momentum.

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