I am 40 years old. I have four young children. I work full-time as a clinical neuropsychologist. And I fully support Extinction Rebellion protesters shutting down streets and blockading bridges across the country. Why? Let me explain.
For the past 10 years or so I have become increasingly concerned about climate change. I’ve been recycling. I started composting. I use a keep cup. I sign online petitions and go to rallies. I thought I was doing everything I could. I was wrong.
The lightbulb moment for me came earlier this year just after the election. I had been hearing about the ‘climate crisis’ as it was now being called, and so I started reading more about it. I discovered the experts are united in telling us that we are facing a world where billions could die over the next 80 years if we do not act decisively within the next eight years. This is their best-case estimate. The worst case is human extinction.
Watch news coverage of the Extinction Rebellion protest in Australia. Post continues after video.
I despaired. When well-meaning friends and family asked my children ‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’, I would leave the room in tears.
And then one day, I read this Australian Breakthrough paper which outlines the likely scenario for 2050 if we do not change the carbon-emitting path we are on. Increasingly severe bushfires and floods, more frequent heatwaves and droughts, food and water shortages resulting in skyrocketing prices and sea level rises displacing billions of people.
And the author of the foreword to this report? Admiral Chris Barrie, former chief of the Australian Defence Force. Hardly a raging leftie.
The images this report conjured for me were so terrible, so jaw-droppingly unjust, and it was imagining my own children in this future that spurred me into action.
In 2050 when this dystopia is predicted to be reality, my youngest child will be 34 years old. Will she have a career? Have children? Will she enjoy any of the privilege I’m now acutely aware of having had in my own life? Will she even have enough food and water to eat?
After a very dark few weeks processing this information, I realised that my individual consumer choices were not enough, because we need systemic change, and we need it now. I realised that no one is going to ride in on a white horse. We must save ourselves by sending a clear message to governments that we will not tolerate inaction.
Sir David Attenborough tells us that in addressing the climate crisis “we cannot be radical enough”.
And that’s when I found Extinction Rebellion (XR). XR was founded by a group of academics in the UK who researched social change across history. They found that mass non-violent civil disobedience was the most effective way to create social change. Examples include Gandhi, the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage, and closer to home, the Franklin dam blockade in Tasmania, where more than 1200 people were arrested, resulting in the Franklin River being left to flow naturally.
Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo speak to a 15-year-old girl who organised a school walk out for climate change. Post continues after podcast.
So, I joined XR. I’ll be honest, it was a bit confronting at the start. I saw lots of people who seemed much more, well, out-there than I am. I wondered if this was the movement for me. But when I looked further, I found lawyers, teachers, doctors and fellow psychologists. I saw young people, older people, and people with young families. People who are just like me. I discovered that although I wasn’t in a position to get arrested, there were many other roles within the movement that I could do: behind-the-scenes work like admin, writing, finance, arts, psychological support and food services. Also, front-line work like arrestee support, or being a body on the streets during blockades and simply moving aside when the police ask me to.
With a group of other parents, we started XR Families Victoria. All this week at Carlton Gardens in Melbourne we’ve been running family-friendly activities like nature play, story time, arts and crafts, and environmental philosophy workshops.
I still feel incredibly anxious about the climate crisis, but being a part of XR, particularly my work with XR Families, has left me with a sense of community and connection. My children support me in my volunteer work, and they get involved where they can. They know that there is a crisis, but they also know, because they see, that individuals can make a difference.
And no matter what happens, whether we make the required changes or we do not, I will be able to look each of them in the eye and tell them that, once I knew, I did everything I could.
Top Comments
It’s always awkward when people start sharing how “back in their day” they would do practical things like pick up litter and plant trees and kids these days should do something like that, and you want to agree because that sounds good, but the truth is that everything the older generations have done have obviously failed. The situation is not better, it’s not ok. Individual actions like planting trees failed because the overarching system stayed the same, big polluters kept polluting, money stayed in politics. The lipstick on the pig... yeah it did nothing. So go the kids! Raise your voices, take your place in society earlier than any other generations, and before many adults have as well. And thank you Christine for sharing your experiences.
Back in the “day” people had milk delivered in bottles which were then collected and reused. Supermarkets had paper bags which were also reused. People saved up their money to buy things and then kept those things, fixing and mending them when they broke. White goods were kept at a minimum and lasted for decades. Electrical goods were limited to a wireless and a television which also lasted decades. Families had one car and air travel was a rare occurrence. Why are we blaming these people for the problems we are having now? It is the current consumerism, the disposable society, which the youth of today are comfortable being a part of, which is the problem. Extinction rebellion are happy to mouth off about the older generations as they wear their new synthetic clothes, drive their cars, use their new tablets and latest smart phones eat their fast food, use their plumbed showers and toilets, keep themselves cool with air conditioners, live in their houses with multiple televisions and cupboards full of gadgets, take on credit to buy more and more and more and more of what they don’t need.
What are they younger generation actually doing to address climate change? Are they actually doing anything other than mouth off and misbehave, because I haven’t seen anyone of them lead by example. Anyone can whinge and glue themselves to things, my twins used to do it constantly. They are four now, they have grown out of that behaviour.
The older generations consumed much fewer resources than than todays. They didn't live in McMansions utilizing ducted heating/cooling, have monstrous 4 WDs ferrying their kids everywhere, fly overseas every year on holidays - you get the picture. This generation of children have a standard of living much higher than any others, but if XR get their way, these kids can experience a lifestyle on par with that various South American countries.
You've hit the nail on the head.
Everyone should read the reports conducted by ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP's own climate scientists in the 80's. They produced the most accurate and damning predictions regarding climate change. In response, the big companies did the following -
1) Changed their operations to adapt to the long-term effects of climate change.
2) Bought politicians through donations to prevent regulation of the fossil fuel industry.
3) Manufactured a public campaign to focus on the "responsibility of the individual" instead of the big companies. That's why you see with Gen X they heavily focus on ideas such as "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" etc.
We even saw it exactly 10 years ago. There was bipartisan support for climate action with the ETS, and then money got involved. The Mining Industry launched a $25 Million 6 week long anti-ETS campaign, with another $75 Million in the war chest in preparation for a snap DD election. Even regarding issues involving China, it's off limits because of Chinese political donations to both parties. Get the money out of politics.
If memory serves we would have had an ETS over a decade ago except for the Greens blocking Labor in the Senate because, well green extremists wanted more. Labor never got another chance once the public woke up to them.
Thank you for everything you are doing. I am joining my local branch and will be joining the next Student Strike on November 29th. There are many "ordinary" folk out there who are feeling increasingly worried and getting involved is a great way to channel frustration constructively. I also work with Trees For Life, an SA group that plants millions of trees a year and organizes regular bushcare days. Building community and supportive networks is how we can get through this.
Well done for your work planting trees, that’s a genuine and practical contribution to our environment.
Well they need to be planting trees as the SA Govt/ Councils are busy chopping down huge gum trees to make way for high rise apartments
Immigration does come with costs. It’s ok as long as the equation is balanced, reforestation offsets clearance easily enough as newer trees are better for the environmental cycle.
This is Adelaide and the high rise apartments are for downsizers. It is criminal that the councils are allowing the removal of beautiful old gum trees to make way for a 7 storey luxury apartment block, but god forbid anyone wanting to cut down a tree in their backyard even if said tree has collapsed (or threatens to) collapse on a house roof.