For the past few years, I have been active in Extinction Rebellion (XR), for the reasons that I explain in the video below. (The evidence it presents was up to date as of March 2020; you can find the references here.)
If the video above isn't working, try clicking here.
I've also written some pieces on various aspects of XR and environmental activism, which you can read by following the links below.
I argue that XR has good answers to accusations of hypocrisy that are frequently levelled at participants—including, most importantly, the answer that they are not being hypocritical in (say) driving to protests—but I suggest that this answer is rhetorically and psychologically ineffective for deep-seated reasons, and that this is the real problem for XR.
I analyse and rebut arguments against the University of Oxford Congregation fossil-fuel divestment resolution that was passed in April 2020. You can read it without having to log in first here.
I set out evidence relating to the climate and ecological crisis and the need for systemic change before responding to some reasons that academics in particular might have for being reluctant to join XR. A slightly revised version that can be read without having to log in first can be found here.
In January 2021, I was given a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to two offences (obstructing a public highway in 2019 and participation in a public assembly in breach of a section 14 order [restricting such assemblies] in 2020). This is the statement I read out to the court.
This is a response on behalf of Extinction Rebellion to a rather condescending piece by Eliot Wilson in CityAM about disruptions in the City of London in August 2021.