Straight Talk

Extinction Rebellion demonstration shuts down traffic to protest New York Times climate coverage

by Charlie Smith on June 22nd, 2019 at 3:26 PM
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      Many visitors to this website have probably never heard of Extinction Rebellion.

      It's a climate-activist group that's attracting attention this month for headline-grabbing protests designed to pressure the elites to do much more to address the climate breakdown.

      Today, its demonstrators shut down traffic on Eighth Avenue in New York City near the busy Port Authority transit hub and right outside the New York Times building.

      They were there to stage a die-in, according to the Guardian, to show their opposition to the New York Times's coverage of the climate breakdown.

      About 70 people were arrested at the event.

      They want the New York Times to adopt the language used by the Guardian—climate crisis—rather than sticking with the more innocuously sounding climate change.

      The group's principles include using nonviolent strategies and tactics because it believes that's this is most effective way to bring about societal transformation.

      On June 19, Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked the main entrance to the Cannes Lions Festival, which includes an award ceremony for those in the advertising and marketing industries.

      They unfurled a banner saying "TELL THE TRUTH" and chanted "We are in the sixth mass extinction" and "If we don't act now the biodiversity on which we depend will collapse."

      “The advertising industry is turning a blind eye to the climate and biodiversity emergency," Extinction Rebellion member Annie Randall said at the time. "Many of these brands offer false solutions—selling eco-products or promoting carbon offsetting. They are planning for a world where there is still time left to act.

      "We’re here to remind them that time is up. If they want to stand on the right side of history they need to act decisively now, whether they do that as agencies or individuals.”

      Watch a Guardian video from last April about a weeklong series of Extinction Rebellion protests in London.

      The group has three objectives:

      1. Governments must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

      2. Governments must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

      3. Governments must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens' Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

      Meanwhile, a Extinction Rebellion Canada website has been created.

      On Tuesday (June 25), its activists in Toronto are planning an all-day "FOUR CORNERS EVENT" at Bay and King streets to tell Canada's largest banks what they think about their role in the climate crisis.

      "Catastrophic climate change will kill millions, cause food collapse, and render many more homeless," the Extinction Rebellion Canada website states. "Mass extinction of wild species will lead to ecological collapse. Destruction of natural habitats will lead to genocide of indigenous peoples and the loss of our planet's life support systems.

      "It's not too late to change course—a better future is possible," it continues. "But governments are consistently failing to take the urgent and decisive action that will save us. If the system will not change, then we must change the system."

      There are separate pages on the website for various provinces.

      Under British Columbia, it states: "Content Coming Soon!"

      Watch an Oxford Extinction Rebellion talk by Guardian columnist and author George Monbiot.

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