When the environmental activist group, the Extinction Rebellion (XR), burst onto the scene in the last year, we all figured the movement would remain a UK-based operation.

Since then, it has gained international fame for civil disobedience in the name of protest. They’ve also spread to roughly 500 locations across the world, recently taking root in South Africa.

The spread isn’t that surprising if you consider that we probably only have around 30 years left to live if we don’t start doing something about climate change immediately.

If you go to their website, you’ll find the following three demands:

(1) Governments must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency of change.

(2) Governments must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025.

(3) Governments must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

One of the organisers for XR Mzanzi, Chloë Menteath, spoke to GroundUp about how the movement will be operating in South Africa.

XR Global is a decentralised, participatory movement advocating for societal change in response to the human induced climate breakdown we are facing. It’s not really another climate movement and there are already many South Africans who lack confidence in the system. We are also a nation full of powerful rebels. The problems of inequality, crime and poverty exist in the context of a toxic system that is killing life on mother earth.

The XR want South Africa to make a move toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources.

Does development and progress need to be tied to the destruction of the environment and life in general? Who is ultimately benefiting from the subsidising of fossil fuels and mining in South Africa? The ecological crisis has reached a point where the value of money may not be as important as being able to find food, water and shelter.

Economics as practised today is very much a social construct, unlike the atmosphere and the oxygen we need to be able to survive. We think that we need to address the reality of the sixth mass extinction and this can no longer be ignored by decision-makers including those in South Africa.

Overall, they’re focused on all sectors of society.

You can read the full interview here.

And here they are protesting in Cape Town at the Waterfront.

While the intentions are good, I feel like there isn’t a cut and paste model for these kinds of protests in a social context as complicated as that of South Africa.

If you want to get involved, here’s how:

Getting involved requires you to internalise the ten guiding principles and start becoming the change you want to see in the world. There are plenty of enabling documents on the website https://xrebellion.org.za. We are nature defending itself and part of life on earth.

While I support halting climate change, I’m not down with internalising any guiding principals – that sounds a little cult-like.

As always, you do you.

[source:groundup]