When fighting for life itself takes over a consumer led capital
By Rhea Christopher
Extinction Rebellion is the latest of many protests to seize London. With over 1,000 arrests, pensioners, students, parents and children have united to urge the government to take their fight to protect the planet and prevent global warming seriously.
“Firstly, I think it's worth doing the right thing regardless of whether it will work and these protests feel like the right thing,” says Rachel Lunnon, 52, a Software Developer and Environmental Activist who attended the protests and was arrested. “Secondly, I believe that the actions that we are taking have the most chance of success in terms of securing a future for our children.”
Some changes have begun with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, changing the city’s roads to include more cycle lanes, encouraging people to feel safer cycling and most recently he introduced the ULEZ zones - similar to the congestion charge, drivers are now required to pay every day, at any hour, in central London.
“ULEZ is about the environment, an initiative which can have a real impact,” said Eithne Cullen, 61, a retired teacher and subscriber to the organisation Green Peace. Cullen does believe that activists such as Extinction Rebellion make a difference but without any leniency from the Central Government, nothing will happen. “It is ironic that people like me turn off lights and refuse plastic bags when street lights burn all night,” she said.
Within the last decade, the Green Party has gained more constituencies and a rise in popularity. The latest protests seem like a Green’s dream. In an Enfield Green Party Statement, they said, “We have had 30 years of polite politics on climate change – of leaflets, petitions and lobbying. And thirty years of rising emissions, denial, deception and self-deception. Thirty years of moving ever closer to disaster.”
They applaud the activists who have taken to the streets of London and hope that 2019 will be seen as a year that people, other than scientists and greens, recognise environmental concerns as an emergency.
And it does not just stop there. George Evangeli, 48, an accountant from London and supporter of the activists. He believes that “We should also be boycotting all major supermarkets: Boots, Sainsburys, Tesco, etc. All their plastic is ridiculous. We need a change and it needs to happen now.”
It is clear that there are a lot of desperate people out there not only fighting for their own lives but every life that exists on this planet. It is the basic instinct for survival and it comes natural to humans. This is their view and it is a very utilitarian one.
After Brexit protests and the elections for members of the European Parliament very soon, it is a breath of fresh air to have a very environmentally driven protest. Whether that fresh air is clean or full of harmful gases, who knows?
