My first Publication Overtime November 2019 Merged PDF | Page 6

RUNNI
OUT OF
Extinction Rebellion protests
continue to cause disruption as
pressure rises for the government
to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to net zero by 2025
Words Seb Turner
E
NVIRONMENTAL activist group Extinction
Rebellion has once again been raising
awareness of climate change. In a lengthy two-
week campaign across the world, cut short in London
by a blanket ban from the Metropolitan Police, the
environmental group has been marching, blockading,
spraying, disrupting, gluing and climbing to gain the
attention of governments and businesses of the world.
As well as calling for more to be done to address
climate change.
Extinction Rebellion - ‘XR’ - has its message printed
clearly and boldly on its website: “THE TRUTH,” it
declares. “We are facing an unprecedented global
emergency. Life on Earth is in crisis: scientists agree
we have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown,
and we are in the midst of a mass extinction of our
own making.” You are then prompted to discover
what ‘XR’ states are its “DEMANDS” of which there
are three. For governments: “TELL THE TRUTH”,
“ACT NOW” and for all of us: “BEYOND POLITICS.”
It is apparent that ‘XR’ are calling on the whole
world to fix the whole world. But that is just the group.
The individuals of the movement are a diverse group
of people including youths, graduates, scientists,
experts, reporters, religious groups and more across
the entire world.
All of these parts which make the movement massive
and real, all of these people have their own reasons,
fears and demands.
Suzie Tombs, a retired teacher and Quaker from
the North Cotswolds, said of her motivations: “The
thing about Quakers is it’s very much up to each
individual to find what the right way is with their own
inner leading, but to not just do that on your own but
with the support of others. A lot of Quakers feel that
is something they are called to take action on, and
Quakers have a history ever since their beginning for
protesting against what they feel is unjust.
“We’ve got to get together and work out the
priorities, it’s hard to know where to start and I’m
very glad I’m not a politician. This is what a friend
of mine (who is a scientist) called a ‘Super-wicked
Problem’; a Wicked Problem in Maths is a problem
with too many variables, and this one is that, squared.
The government should take it seriously, listen to the
scientists and get together a group of whatever people
they think have got enough knowledge and come up
with a strategy, and then tell us what it is!
“It’s impossible to be alive in a way that doesn’t
impact the planet, and the problem has to be resolved
by making it more possible for people to live in a way
that doesn’t have a big carbon footprint.”
Carbon footprint reduction is now frequently
discussed. BBC’s Panorama aired an episode titled
‘Climate Change: What Can We Do?’ recently which
detailed the factors within our day to day lives which
exacerbate our individual impacts on the environment.
This echoed the points XR make at a time when it
could be argued that media impartiality and climate
change should be mutually exclusive.
Recent graduate Aaron Paul called for: “Massive
infrastructure investment in green renewable energies
and transports and massive painful carbon tax.
“People in their day to day lives might not have the
time to care. It’s hard, you’re busy, you’ve got kids
running around, it’s hard to put in the effort that some
people commit to. But everybody votes with their
wallet: a huge carbon tax will cause disruption.
“Short of going off and living a nomadic lifestyle in
the wilderness, everyone could do a little more.”
During the investigation for this report, the
Metropolitan Police began to clamp down and arrest
any remaining protesters having invoked Article 14
of the Public Order Act 1986 due to the disruption
caused by the protests.
The high court ruled on 6 November that the
Metropolitan police had no power to arrest protesters
under article 14 as the law does not cover “separate
assemblies”. Protesters say the Met could now face
hundreds of false imprisonment claims.
The individuals of XR echo the peer to peer nature
of the requests of their organisers: they claim the
responsibility of climate change, along with the onus
to repair it, rests with all of us, not just governments.
THE PRICE WE PAY FOR BEAUTY
The beauty business is one of the biggest industries in the world, generating more than an estimated $500
billion each year. However, it is also one of the biggest contributors to the deterioration of the earth
Words Rath Ganeshalingam
T
he beauty industry generates a huge amount of
plastic each year, only for most of it to end up on
landfill sites once it reaches the end of its useful
life. Plastic can also trap marine wildlife, causing
it to suffocate while a lot of animals ingest plastic
because they mistake it for food. The Ellen MacArthur
Foundation predicts that there will be more plastic
than fish in the sea by 2050.
On the other hand, there are several companies who
are reducing the amount of plastic packaging they use.
For example, many cosmetics brands, such as Lush,
have introduced products with no packaging, such as
solid shampoo bars and soap bars. Some companies
have even started to sell refillable products, such as
refillable shampoo, which will reduce the amount of
plastic being used. Moreover, there are companies
who have started to produce bamboo toothbrushes,
which are much better for the environment than
plastic toothbrushes are.
Infinity Foods Shop and Bakery in Brighton sells
6
cruelty-free products that don’t include microbeads,
unsustainable palm oil or parabens. A representative at
Infinity Foods Shop and Bakery believes that ‘looking
after our freshwater supply is really important’ and
consumers should start to ‘buy shampoo bars, soap
bars and cleaning bars’. He also states that ‘the beauty
industry produces a huge amount of plastic, where it
could be using glass or metal alternatives’.
Many beauty companies have come under fire for
their use of microbeads in their products. Microbeads