Distributing the Costs of Justified Disobedience: Extinction Rebellion, and Beyond
By Ten-Herng LAI
“Extinction Rebellion London” by Alexander Savin. Used under: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.
On 21 June 2019, several hundred activists occupied some of the busiest intersections in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne, causing enough disruption to gain the attention of the media. The Extinction Rebellion Australia spokeswoman Miriam Robinson stated: “We needed a climate declaration yesterday, but our governments are not listening, which is why we have to get out in the streets to make ourselves heard…This might be disruptive for some people and we apologise for that, but if the climate runs out of control this kind of disruption will be nothing to what will come.” She further added that we have “run out of time to wait for the existing political process to work.” Since the initiation of Extinction Rebellion in the UK in 2018, similarly nonviolent protests and organizations with comparable goals have sprouted, according to Extinction Rebellion Global, in 67 countries.