They took their hammers to the gas pumps, glued to museum masterpieces and busy roads.they were chained to the bank and rushed to the bank ground
award As tens of thousands of British football fans hooted, they tethered themselves to the goalposts at the racetrack.
The activists who launched these global acts of destruction last year are desperate to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis, and the most effective way to do so is to openly block oil terminals and replace normal He said it was to disrupt the activity.
They also share an amazing financial lifeline. It’s the heir to his two American families who became ridiculously wealthy in oil.
Two relatively new non-profits that Oil Hogi helped found have turned dozens of protest groups dedicated to disrupting normal business through civil disobedience, primarily in the United States, Canada and Europe. Volunteers from established environmental groups like Greenpeace International have long used destructive tactics to draw attention to ecological threats, but the new group is a grassroots activist. We provide funding to
The California-based Climate Emergency Fund was established in 2019 in the spirit that public resistance is essential to achieving the social and political change needed to tackle the climate crisis quickly and broadly. I was.
The foundation’s executive director, Margaret Klein Salamon, said past protesters, including suffrageists, civil rights activists and gay rights activists, have found success after protesters took to the streets for non-violent demonstrations. mentioned social movements.
“Action drives public opinion and media coverage, and drives the realm of what is politically possible,” Salamon said. “The normal system has failed. It’s time for everyone to realize that we need to work on this.”
So far, the fund has donated just over $7 million with the goal of pushing society into emergency mode. making it possible. scientists say It must be stopped immediately to avoid planetary catastrophe.
Sharing these goals with the Climate Emergency Fund is the Equation Campaign. Founded in 2020, it provides financial support and legal defense through civil disobedience and other methods to people living near pipelines and refineries who are trying to stop the expansion of fossil fuels. .
Amazingly, both organizations are backed by oil conglomerate families whose descendants feel a responsibility to undo the harm done by fossil fuels. Getty Oil founder Irene Getty helped set up the Climate Emergency Fund, and to date he has donated $1 million. The Equation campaign was launched in 2020 with his $30 million from his two members of the Rockefeller family, Rebecca Rockefeller his Lambert and Peter Gilcase. John D. Rockefeller became the country’s first billionaire when he founded Standard Oil in 1870.
“It’s time to put the genie back in the bottle,” Case wrote in an email. “I feel a moral obligation to do my part. Right?”
Belief in the transformative power of extreme civil disobedience is not universal, and some actions by groups, particularly those supported by the Climate Emergency Fund, have frustrated the public.
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Australian breakthrough. Australia’s House of Commons has passed legislation committing the government to reduce carbon emissions by at least 43% from 2005 levels by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050. The new Labor government is set to introduce legislation that will pass the Senate in the coming weeks.
Protesters have been yelled at, threatened and labeled by eco-fanatics. dragged out by angry commuters. research Researchers at the University of Toronto and Stanford University have also found that while more destructive protests attract publicity, they can also undermine the credibility of the movement and alienate potential supporters.
But Salamon and activists backed by the Climate Emergency Fund said backlash was inevitable. They pointed to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In a Gallup poll, it was 63 Percent disapproval rate in the years leading up to his death.
Zain Haq, co-founder of the Canadian group Save Old Growth, which received $170,000 from the Climate Emergency Fund for blocking roads to stop logging of British Columbia’s ancient forests, said: says. “Historically, civil disobedience is a way of life that is challenged.”
There is some evidence that new climate change protest groups are gaining momentum.Researchers believe that Extinction Rebellion and Sunrise Movement played an oversized role Raise awareness and advance climate policy. Findings show that, from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, protest groups often outperformed traditional “big green” non-profit environmental groups in helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For an equation campaign, stopping further expansion of oil and gas will have a quantifiable impact. After years of resistance from tribes, farmers and local ranchers, the cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline extension prevented the emissions of 180 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. rice field. in one quoteThe Equation Campaign, which has funded campaigns against many other fossil fuel projects, has been targeted in what the group’s executive director, Katie Redford, described as exaggerated accusations and false arrests. We support activists who often
“For climate and literally for humanity to win, they need to win and the industry needs to stop making more things that put greenhouse gases into the environment,” said Redford. said.
Climate activists receive far less funding than major environmental groups. Especially from philanthropy, it is only a fraction of the spending on climate issues around the world. According to the ClimateWorks Foundation, less than 2% of global philanthropic funding went to climate change mitigation in 2020 (and growing), and a small portion of that went to grassroots activism and movements. spent on construction.
Redford and Salamon said their group only funded legal activities such as training, education, travel, printing and recruitment costs. Grant recipients must ensure that funds are not spent on activities prohibited by law.
They also dispute suggestions that paying activists discredit their actions, with recipients already working around the clock as volunteers and often bankers in the process. “This is their passion,” said Ms. Salamon.
“It’s not fair to keep asking frontline Indigenous, Black, Brown, and poor people for this job for free simply because they’re doing it in their ‘spare time,'” said Redford. said Mr.
The activist who received the money described the money as a godsend. Driven by a sense of urgency and moral imperative, some dropped out of class to devote themselves to full-time climate change activism. Others juggled several jobs to pay their bills.
Miranda Wielehan, of the UK organization Just Stop Oil, says members will not be overworked and stressed until the Climate Emergency Fund provides them with nearly $1 million to cover the salaries of 40 organizers and activists. He said he felt
“Of course, volunteers are limited in what they can do,” Wielehan said. “Giant oil companies have millions, if not billions, of companies.”
Activists have repeatedly said they don’t want to get involved in civil disobedience, but more traditional efforts have yet to stop widespread climate disasters. Member Louis McKechnie said:
Winona LaDuke, executive director of native environmental group Honor the Earth, said her organization spent seven years fighting Minnesota’s 3 pipeline, attending every regulatory meeting and hearing, but Said it was a waste.
She said she was arrested and charged with trespassing despite being on public property, and was endlessly grateful for the firm support of the Equation Campaign, which gave her group over $400,000. ing.
“We put our bodies at risk because we had no other legal recourse. We had nothing,” Laduke said. “We knew we were going to be arrested.”
For some activists, civil disobedience has proved unexpectedly satisfying.
Climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who works for NASA, said he has spent 16 years trying to force corporate executives, government leaders and the public to deal with the climate emergency. He concluded that he and the environmental movement were at a loss.
Mr. Kalmus, April was one of about 1,000 Scientists from 25 countries were blocked from traffic and chained to the gates of the White House and bank branch doors, among other targets. scientist uprisingParticipants were not paid, but the group received $100,000 from the Climate Emergency Fund for organizer and consultant wages, space rentals, and travel expenses.
Dr. Kalmus then noted that he did not speak for NASA, but said he had received feedback from around the world that he had made a difference and inspired people.
“I get messages every day from people who say they have given them hope,” Dr. Kalmus said. “It seemed to communicate that urgency more than anything else.”
For others, protesting takes a personal toll. McKechnie said he was expelled from Bournemouth University for his environmental activism. In March, he embarked on perhaps his most public act yet. bind yourself to Goal post during a premier league soccer match. He said he felt “hate and threat” from everyone in the crowd, and that he was kicked and rushed while being escorted. He said he deleted his media account.
But he was also unmoved by his resolve. “Even if he 1% of the crowd looked into us and what we were doing, it would have been a big win,” he said.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. McKechnie attended a Just Stop Oil conference and asked everyone in attendance what had brought them there. McKechnie said one fellow raised his hand.
“I hate having to do this,” McKechnie continued. “But the only way to make them listen and protect the future of our generation is to cause them so much trouble that they can be drowned out in the sand.”
Case said it’s too early to tell whether the Equation campaign has achieved its goals, but he and Lambert have pledged to spend “at a high rate” through 2030.
The next few years are critical. Climate scientists say countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 50% by the end of the decade to avoid the most severe effects of global warming.
Getty said in an email that her belief in the efficacy of activism remains unwavering, especially as time runs out. Civil disobedience is meant to act as an alarm, and the discomfort caused by destructive protests pales in comparison to what might be in store.
“Let’s not forget we are talking about extinction,” Getty wrote in an email. “Don’t we all have a responsibility to do whatever it takes to protect life on Earth?”