Roger Hallam - Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse

COMMON SENSE
for the
21st CENTURY

only nonviolent rebellion can now stop climate breakdown and social collapse

Roger Hallam

co-founder of Extinction Rebellion

Chelsea Green Publishing

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2019 by Roger Hallam.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Originally published in the United Kingdom by Roger Hallam in 2019 as Common Sense for the 21st Century .

This edition published by Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019.

Front cover image: Anonymous painting photographed during Extinction Rebellion action in Marble Arch, April 2019.

Project Manager: Patricia Stone

Project Editor: Brianne Goodspeed

Developmental Editors: Arthur Ford, Audley Burnett, Linden Burleigh

Proofreader: Sarah Kovach

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing November 2019.

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Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Common Sense for the 21st Century was printed on paper supplied by Sheridan that contains 100% postconsumer recycled fiber.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

Common Sense for the 21st Century
is dedicated to Frieda L and Thomas P

Contents

I was there. For the past 20 years. Climate activism. It didnt work. We protested in our hundreds of millions it didnt work.

We raised billions to reach people and politicians it didnt work.

We signed countless online petitions they didnt work.

We looked to the United Nations to resolve the crisis it didnt work.

We trusted progressive politicians and their reforms it didnt work.

Al Gore had a big concert and a PR campaign it didnt work.

Countless NGOs did their best it didnt work.

I worked with green NGOs campaigns, champagne environmentalists and lying politicians. I was wasting my time. I had a clue back in 2007 that there might be a fundamental flaw with the reformist approach. The problem of the political influence of the industrial billionaires like the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel bosses.

It was another warm night in Los Angeles. I was invited to an exclusive event. A Tesla Roadster prototype was going to be shown to press and guests. We took turns riding around the block. I watched in amazement as the Tesla was at the end of the street in the blink of an eye. With barely a sound. I felt like a caveman seeing a television. Incredible.

Whilst working on a campaign in 2007, I had an idea for how to save the world with a massive music event and a huge fundraising effort, led by celebrities, to fund the biggest PR campaign to save the environment. It would be a huge global event just like Live Aid. I sought out a prominent journalist at the Tesla event to tell about my scheme and bask in the glory of his praise. The journalist was Vijay Vaitheeswaran from the Economist , now a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. After listening carefully to my concept, he smiled and laughed. I was stunned. Laughter? How could I be so wrong?

Vijay wasnt being cruel or unkind. He thought I was nave. He said, The fossil fuel industry has enough money to outspend any public relations campaign you might try by 100 times. He carried on talking, but I stopped listening. I had my answer. He was right. Crestfallen, I sheepishly nodded and walked away.

Over the next 12 years, I watched as fossil fuel companies used their vast financial capital to buy political parties, tricked NGOs into fruitless schemes like the US cap and trade initiative, sowed doubt about climate science in the public discourse and slowed policy reform to a snails pace. Their strategy worked. As climate scepticism continued to spread, climate change mitigation dropped down voters priorities. With Putin and Trump in power, it was over. I quit climate campaigning.

Then I heard about Extinction Rebellion closing five bridges in London. Then they closed central London in April 2019. This was something different. I met Roger Hallam and he explained his ideas for a radical plan to create real change, this included:

First Tell the truth . Climate scepticism was pushed by the mainstream media which spread doubt on climate science like a plague, leaving inaction in its wake. The scale of the crisis is being played down and we must get the truth out.

Second Nonviolent civil disobedience . We need to get arrested, tens of thousands of us. More. No more protests or petitions. Instead, nonviolent civil disobedience, lots of it and on a large scale. Close down cities until the politicians take action. Or until the people do.

Third Universalism . In other words, the ecological and climate crisis should not be owned by any political ideology, culture, age or gender. As Roger Hallam says, we all have a stake in the future, we should all be allowed to engage in action.

I was convinced. We need a new approach to save ourselves and the planet. We need to spark a worldwide Rebellion.

We need some common sense for the 21st century.

Anonymous climate activist

It is time to grow up and see the world as it is. There are some things which are undeniably real, there are some things we cannot change, and one of those is the laws of physics. Ice melts when the temperature rises. Crops die in a drought. Trees burn in forest fires. Because these things are real, we can also be certain about what the future holds. We are now heading into a period of extreme ecological collapse.

Whether or not this leads to the extinction of the human species largely depends upon whether revolutionary changes happen within our societies in the next decade. This is not a matter of ideology, but of simple maths and physics.

The United Nations has estimated that we need to reduce carbon emissions by half within a decade to have a 50% chance of avoiding global catastrophe. Of course, this is likely to be an underestimation as recent science shows permafrost melting 90 years earlier than forecasted and Himalayan glaciers melting twice as fast as expected. Feedbacks and locked-in heating will take us over 2C (35.6F) even before we factor in additional temperature rises from human caused emissions over the next ten years.

In short, we are fucked the only question is by how much and how soon? Do we accept this fate? I suggest we do not. Many self-respecting people who can overcome the human failing to disbelieve what they dont like, now accept what is obvious looking at the natural science. But they have yet to work through the political and social implications. This booklet sets out what is now obvious from a social scientific point of view: societies will not change with the necessary speed without rebellions and a revolutionary transformation of our societies and politics. This is not a matter of ones political party preferences. It is a matter of basic structural sociology. Institutions, like animal species, have limits to how fast they can change. To get rapid change they have to be replaced with new social systems of policy, practice and culture. It is a terrible and painful realisation, but it is time to accept our reality. Just because we dont like something does not mean it is not true.