Understorey: Extinction Rebellion Takes On the Terrace

In the past, Premier Mark McGowan has said he doesn’t believe there is a climate emergency, and doesn’t want to scare young people. Labor’s remarkable victory in Saturday’s state election suggests business-as-usual in Western Australia will continue for four more years: and that means gas and fracking can be expected to emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; and despite far off promises about emissions reduction there will be no cogent climate plan.  Since 19 ecosystems in Australia are reported by scientists to be already collapsing (Bergstom & Wienecke, Glob Change Biol. 2021;00:1–12), and environmentalists’ lobbying, postcards, and street corner campaigning have not changed the Premier’s mind, what is to be done?  Understorey’s Adrian Glamorgan interviews Ewan Buckley about Extinction Rebellion’s conviction that nonviolent direct action alone is left to challenge political and social complacency.  This coming Monday lunchtime, ER will stage a “die-in” on St Georges Terrace, disrupting traffic outside the offices that Buckley says make up the “fossil fuel capital of the southern hemisphere.” But will their action on the Terrace change hearts and minds?  [Note: since making the program, ER advises that because of dieback concerns, its gathering at 10am Monday has been moved from Stirling Gardens to Supreme Court gardens]

Montage: A Glamorgan