XR at the Brazilian Embassy

Extinction Rebellion protest outside the Brazilian Embassy in London against the Bolsonaro government as fires rage in the Amazon. This was organised in a single day. Thursday night I booked Friday off work and went along to help steward and outreach. It isn’t enough to tweet and share on facebook. You don’t need to be part of Extinction Rebellion to join a protest like this. Just turn up on the day and participate within your comfort zone. Bring your family. Bring your home made signs. Bring some chalk. But most of all just bring your body. Stand up for change.

Names and Locations of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet

XR takes a no blame and shame approach to the climate problem. Putting it simplistically for the sake of brevity: the system is at fault rather than individuals. The idea being that if you don't blame individual people, but rather invite them to join in solving the problem, you are more likely to achieve change.

But the reality is that not everyone is equally to blame. Those in the global South experiencing the worst impacts of climate change right now have tiny carbon footprints compared to those in the global North. Your average European has a smaller footprint than the average American. Some of us work in industries that are contributing to climate change and ecological collapse. Some individuals do everything they can to reduce their impact and others continue to consume like there's no tomorrow (hmm, i didn't think that phrase through) and fly regularly for holiday. Then there are the historical emissions to consider.

But then there are actually people that are in what you might consider pivotal roles with respect to climate change. The CEOs of energy companies. The prime ministers, presidents, ministers of government. And so on. These people do actually have names and addresses. Some of these people are actually working very hard to thwart attempts to limit climate change (and have been doing so for a very long time). In most cases it looks as though their primary motivation is self interest. It can seem sometimes that appealing to these people to do the right thing is wishful thinking.

Anyway, I decided to post this picture in case the no blame and shame approach doesn't work :-)

Credit for the picture to https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/names-and-locations-of-the-top-100-people-killing-the-planet/

Headline news

Outside the Brazilian embassy in London on Friday 23rd of August 2019. XR organised a protest against the Bolsonaro government of Brazil in response to the raging fires in the Amazon rainforest. This man is reading the Financial Times but the real headline is above his head in the photo and all around him on the floor.

Non Violent Communication

I just watched this video of a workshop that Marshall Rosenberg gave in 2000. I came to it through my association with Extinction Rebellion (XR). XR is a movement with non-violent direct action as its core method for bringing about change. But it also has progressive (that's not really the right word) principles such as holacracy, self organising systems, regenerative culture, and empathic communication at its heart too. So I was primed for interest in non violent communication. In fact I've tried to use some of the tips that XR provides when talking to people on the street at actions. It's quite a challenge finding an effective way to communicate with people who some of the time - even if they do agree with our point - disagree with our method.

I don't know whether his method is scientifically tested or proven. It feels a little contrived at times. But the insights and ideas seemed profound and I would even say sometimes quite moving - this central idea of clearing away destructive methods of communication and replacing them with a genuine attempt to understand another's needs. Either way, it's an original format for a puppet show and quite laugh out loud funny in places. A better way to spend 3 hours than binge watching another box set (e.g., the disappointing series two of Mindhunters).

Anyway, it's the sort of thing that makes you wish you'd come across it much sooner. Definitely some times in my life when I could have done with some ideas that might have made communication more successful. Highly recommended.

https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/nonviolent-communication-basics-2000/

P.S. the website that this film is on is a pretty useful resource too: https://www.filmsforaction.org/