Thread by @XRebellionUK

So what if Extinction Rebellion isn’t popular? We’re protesting to bring about change and it’s working.
We’re told that in order to be successful, XR must offer people hope.
Sorry, but what we all need is the full truth about the climate crisis. 🌊🔥1/16
independent.co.uk/climate-change…

How can it be that XR was named no.1 climate influencer and a few months later rated the most disliked disruptive protest group globally? Maybe it’s not bizarre because social movements accelerate history, and that is more often than not an uncomfortable process for society. 2/16

History tells us those driving social change will be roundly disliked. Martin Luther King Jr. is revered now, but at the time of his death in ’68 – having been the face of some of the most successful civil rights campaigns in the US – 75% of the 🇺🇸 public disapproved of him. 3/16

We’re told that in order to be successful, XR needs to offer people hope – but truth is what’s missing, not hope. People need the full facts about the climate crisis, whether or not that’s a popular message. 4/16
🇩🇪🇺🇸
🇦🇺🇨🇳

When people are confronted with hard truths that can split public opinion: some are turned off and others are moved to act. It’s a💯different approach to the sort of 🌞positive psychology traditionally used by charities to secure monthly donations 🤑. So far it’s working. 5/16

Just weeks after XR’s first major rebellion in April 2019, parliament declared a 🚨climate emergency🚨 and a month after that the UK became the first country to sign a net zero date into law. 6/16

Six select committees commissioned a citizens’ assembly designed to understand 🧕🏽👷🏻🧑🏾‍🎤👩🏼‍🎓👨🏾‍🏭👩🏾‍💼👩🏼‍🚒🧛🏽‍♀️👨🏿‍🏫🧑🏾‍🍼💁🏻‍♂️public preferences on how we transition to a fossil fuel free economy.
Though words are yet to be followed by actions.🤦🏽‍♀️ 7/16

Last week ex @LBC presenter @MatthewStadlen told viewers of @JeremyVineOn5 his life was made easier as a journalist when XR were on the streets. Our disruption made the crisis “sexy”; without it it was almost impossible to give the issue air time on the talk radio station. 8/16

As of January 2021, the 🇬🇧 has the highest levels of public concern about the climate of all 50 nations polled by the UN, with 81% saying the issue is a “global emergency”. Another study by BT found almost 50% of UK adults feel powerless in the face of the climate crisis. 😰9/16

This creates a mandate for the government to act decisively on the climate crisis. And we know from the pandemic that when people are faced with an existential threat they are willing to pull together and make drastic changes in order to save lives. 😷🦠10/16

Yet the UK government is missing in action, failing to keep up with their own decarbonisation timeline and signing off licences on new oil fields and coal mines. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥⛽️⛽️⛽️⛽️⛽️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥11/16

XR’s actions use disruptive civil disobedience to light a fire under the government, creating a nonviolent political dilemma while there’s still time to mitigate the worst of the crisis. But we didn’t think this up, we’re drawing on a long history of rebellions in 🇬🇧 12/16

One notable example is the mass trespass of Kinder Scout in April 1932 which was instrumental in securing the rights of urban working class people to access the countryside. 🥾13/16

And you can trace back the right to 🗳 for just about everyone in🇬🇧 (perhaps with the exception of landowning men 🎩) to acts of civil disobedience by the Chartists and the Suffragettes.
We’re rebellious people and it’s shaped the society we live in today. 14/16

At those key times in history we were faced with the choice between standing up or carrying on as normal.
There is little question that humanity is facing another of those moments right now – the @UN has said unequivocally that the situation has reached 🚨“code red”🚨. 15/16

So it’s time to rebel, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it works.

#TellTheTruth
#ActNow
#DemandTheImpossible
#RebelForLife
💚🌏

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