As President Donald Trump continues to bow down on the altar of the fossil gas business and decimates federal commitments to confront the worsening local weather disaster, activist teams in the UK took to the streets to grieve over losses and manage for renewed motion.
Immediately, Extinction Revolt Cambridge and different activist teams held a mock funeral for the 1.5°C goal that worldwide policymakers agreed to within the 2015 Paris Local weather Accord to restrict international common temperature rises above pre-industrial ranges.
The opposite teams concerned included Extinction Revolt U.Okay., Cambridge Greenpeace, Cambridge Cease the Warfare, and the Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists.
A solemn procession round Cambridge metropolis centre was led by two dozen “Crimson Rebels” — silent performers wearing pink with their faces painted stark white. The procession, which included a black funeral casket representing the dying of the 1.5°C goal, handed via the Lion Yard, the place a banner studying, “No future on a lifeless planet,” was lowered from the primary flooring because the march handed beneath.
In 2015, world leaders gathered on the United Nations Convention of Events in Paris the place they signed the Paris Local weather Accord, agreeing to restrict international common temperature rises to “effectively beneath” 2°C above pre-industrial ranges by the tip of the century, with a goal of 1.5 °C. The rallying cry, “1.5 to remain alive!” was recurrently repeated by activists throughout each negotiations and protests inside and outdoors of the convention, who additionally demanded the fast phase-out of fossil fuels. In 2015, temperatures had already risen by 1°C above pre-industrial ranges, as a result of actions of the fossil gas business and the continued use of fossil fuels.
Regardless of these guarantees, international common temperatures smashed via the 1.5°C goal in 2024 — only a quarter of a approach via the century. The breach must be sustained for a decade or extra for politicians to agree that 1.5°C has been exceeded — however many scientists say that the goal has now been missed, with one describing it as “deader than a doornail.”
Trump eliminated the USA from the Paris Local weather Accord upon taking workplace and has refused to uphold pledged monetary commitments to assist local weather resilience, adaptation, and the transition away from fossil fuels at dwelling or overseas.
The procession in Cambridge marked “the enormity and disappointment of this second,” Alex Martin of Extinction Revolt Cambridge stated in an announcement. “We felt we would have liked a bodily area the place we might grieve collectively for what we’re dropping and replicate on how to answer the problem now in entrance of us.”
Whereas sounding the dying knell of the 1.5°C goal, individuals in at present’s funeral procession “pledged to step up the place politicians have failed,” seeing the motion as “a rallying cry to the general public to affix the various organizations and teams striving to restrict temperature rises and forestall the worst results of local weather collapse,” in keeping with the assertion. The teams sought to “spotlight that whereas it may really feel overwhelming to behave alone, coming collectively as a part of a supportive neighborhood generally is a highly effective drive for change.”
“Each fraction of a level of warming we will forestall will save lives,” stated Zoe Flint, a spokesperson for Extinction Revolt Cambridge in an announcement: “We name on everybody to do what they will to guard individuals and planet, whereas there may be nonetheless time to forestall the worst hurt.”
Extinction Revolt is a decentralized, worldwide, and nonpartisan motion that makes use of nonviolent direct motion and civil disobedience to steer governments to behave to resolve the local weather disaster.
In April 2024, 400 “Crimson Rebels” and a whole bunch of mourners in black held a Funeral for Nature procession via the historic metropolis streets of Tub, culminating in a dramatic finale in entrance of the Abbey.
In April 2024, 400 “Crimson Rebels” and a whole bunch of mourners in black held a Funeral for Nature procession via the historic metropolis streets of Tub, culminating in a dramatic finale in entrance of the Abbey.
Mark Richards/Aurora Imaging
