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I make films for causes I care for.
Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement which uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel governments to avoid tipping points in the climate system on Earth.
They deliberately break highway laws and maximise disruption in order to push countries to meaningfully address the climate and ecological emergency.
In October of 2019, I documented the events of a single day during the Rebellion's fortnight-long action in London.
They deliberately break highway laws and maximise disruption in order to push countries to meaningfully address the climate and ecological emergency.
In October of 2019, I documented the events of a single day during the Rebellion's fortnight-long action in London.
If we want to look at the rebellion, we need to talk about the science.
In the year 2020, the average global temperature of Earth is 1.1°C warmer than when records began.1 Carbon-dioxide levels are completely unprecedented in all of human history,2 with the rate of carbon injection into Earth’s atmosphere unmatched by anything in the past 66 million years at least.3
25% of all plant and animal species are currently at risk of extinction,4 leading scientists to declare us on the verge of a mass extinction event.5 We know from past records that a first pulse of extinctions is likely to lead to further waves, with a credible potential to trigger cascading extinctions all along the food chain.6
Our best-case scenarios have us hitting over 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, with severe and long-lasting consequences as a result.7 But the truth is, we’re nowhere near to even aiming for this target — the Paris Climate Accord pledges have us heading towards a warming of 2.6°C.8
But even if we reach this best case scenario the biosphere will be changed for millennia.9
Take one single example: coral-reefs. It is now inevitable that coral-dominated ecosystems will be non-existent on Earth by the end of the century.10 Reefs are one of the most biodiverse places to have ever existed on the surface of this planet; they provide a safe habitat for over a million species, and supply food, income, coastal protection and cultural identity for millions of people.
The time to act could not be more imminent. And yet our systems of governance across the globe continue to lack the foresight and ambition to actually tackle this threat.
And so now, at this late hour, it falls on the shoulders of ordinary people to defy the rules of the road, to obstruct cities, to speak truth to power and make three demands of government:
1) to tell the truth;
2) to rapidly decarbonise;
3) to install a legally-binding citizen’s assembly — a form of deliberative democracy — to supersede the short-term thinking that dominates politics today.
1) to tell the truth;
2) to rapidly decarbonise;
3) to install a legally-binding citizen’s assembly — a form of deliberative democracy — to supersede the short-term thinking that dominates politics today.
I collaborated with the media team from XR to produce this montage. After scouring through their internal database to find heroic footage from the fortnight-long rebellion, I put together this fierce celebration of the protesters. The cut is wild, angry and triumphant: a showcase of humanity at their best, people willing to sacrifice their liberty for the sake of the world.
Environmentally-minded civil disobedience is generally seen as disproportionate behaviour by pundits and journalists, but if you read and understand the science behind the movement, the stakes couldn’t be clearer: meaningful action is an extraordinary hard bar to set, and we must take to the streets if we wish for a safe and prosperous planet in the future.