We have often reported on the protest antics of the eco-activist group, Extinction Rebellion.
Previously, the contingent in the United Kingdom (UK) interfered with British Newspaper distribution. The group’s protest against fossil fuels at Trinity College resulted in damage to the campus lawns. Most dramatically, we covered the time when angry Londoners dragged Extinction Rebellion protesters off city’s underground train system.
It appears that the U.K. group may have learned a valuable lesson.
The U.K. division of climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion says its activists would temporarily stop blocking busy roads, gluing themselves to buildings and engaging in other acts of civil disobedience because such methods have not achieved their desired effects.“As we ring in the new year, we make a controversial resolution to temporarily shift away from public disruption as a primary tactic,” the group said in a New Year’s Eve website post. “We recognize and celebrate the power of disruption to raise the alarm and believe that constantly evolving tactics is a necessary approach.”
Regrets? They have a few.
Spokeswoman Marijn van de Geer concurred with an interviewer’s suggestion on a television chat show that the “tactics have alienated the public”.”We’ve listened to the public. They say over and over again, ‘We support what you stand for but we don’t like how you do it’,” she said this week.
This will be the kinder, gentler Extinction Rebellion.
Now the new campaign tactics of the UK unit of Extinction Rebellion will aim to garner more public support for their efforts to draw attention to the consequences of climate change, the group said.“As we ring in the new year, we make a controversial resolution to temporarily shift away from public disruption as a primary tactic,” Extinction Rebellion said in a statement.“This year, we prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks, as we stand together and become impossible to ignore.”
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