What do you get when young people, a love of nature and direct action come together?
Over the last year something profound has happened on the political scenes of Britain and Europe.
For the first time in generations, young people have been asking big question. They have begun, on mass, to raise issues very publicly and to demand better answers. The inspirational Greta Thunberg has been hugely influential, and the schools strike she started has gathered momentum. Now there are thousands of young people converging on Parliament Square and sites in other European cities on a monthly basis. It’s unlikely that she envisaged that her solo strike would grow into this mass movement. These young people have been supported by the equally new phenomenon; Extinction Rebellion, whose call to action has been bringing cities across the continent to a standstill. Their claim that mass species extinction is likely to be at least as problematic as the impending climate catastrophe has been roundly accepted.
There are a couple of common features in these movements, besides the fact that they are both driven by people much younger than the usual activist set. Firstly, there is the fact that they have gone beyond arguing about the facts. Facts concerning both the obscene rate of species extinction and the disastrous climate chaos, which is already upon us, are widely accepted. The facts are now challenged only by liars and fools. What these two have done is presented the situation in a way which requires an emotional engagement. Are we really going to be the generation that has let it happen? Secondly, they have taken their arguments onto the streets, leaving schools and workplaces and joining mass blockades, occupations and actions. Their impact has been impossible to ignore even for mainstream media. The common call that older people have so damaged the Earth that the young will not have a place to grow up has become a clarion for a generation. It is a difficult argument to ignore.
We now have the unseemly sight of establishment bodies trying to enter the space; declaring a state of climate crisis, setting targets for zero carbon emissions whilst planning for airport expansion and obliterating ancient woodland for new rail tracks. In parallel, we have the actual impact of global climate uncertainty and the sublime irony of papers being produced by Heathrow expansionists outlining their concern that climate change will damage their third runway plans1.
These young people have said, loud and clear, that they are no longer prepared to sit and wait for older generations to find a solution. On Friday 12th July, we will see large numbers of children gathering in Bethnal Green before holding a Children’s Assembly outside Hackney Town Hall as a protest called ‘The Air That we Breath’. Children’s lung capacity in this area is five percent less than it should be as a direct consequence of pollution2. The young have compelling arguments. They will go on to occupy London Fields as part of a wider action over the weekend: East London Uprising.
Mass rebellion of young people on our streets is flagging the critical nature of the problem in ways that traditional environmentalist movements have failed. Local action multiplied across the country and spreading through the world presents an opportunity to avert a truly horrific near future, and the young are leading the charge.
Thanks to Lora Hughes for photo