Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Extinction Rebellion has finally responded to repeated accusations of climate hypocrisy – by blaming “the system” for their personal carbon excesses.
Dear journalists who have called us hypocrites,
You’re right.
We live high carbon lives and the industries that we are part of have huge carbon footprints. Like you – and everyone else – we are stuck in this fossil-fuel economy and without systemic change, our lifestyles will keep on causing climate and ecological harm.
There is, however, a more urgent story that our profiles and platforms can draw attention to.
Life on earth is dying. We are living in the midst of the 6th mass extinction. For those who still doubt the severity of our situation, here is the International Monetary Fund on 10th October 2019 :
“Global warming causes major damage to the global economy and the natural world and engenders risks of catastrophic and irreversible outcomes”
And here is Sir David Attenborough on 3rd December 2018 :
“Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
Climate change is happening faster and more furiously than was predicted; millions of people are suffering, leaving their homes and arriving on our borders as refugees.
Alongside these people who are already paying the price for our fossil fuelled economy, there are millions of children – called to action by Greta Thunberg – who are begging us, the people with power and influence, to stand up and fight for their already devastated future.
We cannot ignore their call. Even if by answering them we put ourselves in your firing line.
The stories that you write calling us climate hypocrites will not silence us.
The media exists to tell the public the truth. Right now there has never been a more urgent need for you to educate yourselves on the CEE (Climate and Ecological Emergency) and to use your voices to reach new audiences with the truth.
We invite all people with platforms and profiles to join us and move beyond fear, to use your voices fearlessly to amplify the real story.
Thousands of ordinary people are risking their freedom by taking part in non-violent civil disobedience. We’ve been inspired by their courage to speak out and join them. We beg you to do the same.With love,
Riz Ahmed (actor), Simon Amstell (comedien), Mel B – Spice Girls (musician), Matt Berry (actor), Melanie Blatt – All Saints (musician), Baroness Rosie Boycott, Rory Bremner (comedien), Tom Burke (actor), David Byrne – Talking Heads (musician), Peter Capaldi (actor), Jake Chapman (artist), Mary Charteris (model / musician/ DJ), Grace Chatto – Clean Bandit (musician), Adam Clayton – U2 (musician), Jarvis Cocker (musician), Lily Cole (actor & model), Steve Coogan (actor), Laura Crane (pro surfer & model), Alfonso Cuaron (director), Benedict Cumberbatch (actor), Stephen Daldry (director), Poppy Delevingne (actor / model), Jeremy Deller (artist), Emily Eavis (Glastonbury Festival), Katy England (fashion stylist), Brian Eno (musician), Paapa Essiedu (actor), Livia Firth (Eco Age – founder), Jerome Flynn (actor), Stephen Frears (director), Bella Freud (designer), Sonia Friedman OBE (producer), Neil Gaiman (writer), Bob Geldof (musician and campaigner), Aileen Getty (activist and philanthropist), Simon Green – Bonobo (musician), Natalie Imbruglia (singer), Helena Kennedy QC, Idris Khan OBE (artist), Vanessa Kirby (actor), Nan Goldin (artist), Antony Gormley (artist), Jack and Finn Harries (film-makers and influencers), MJ Harper (dancer), Paul and Phil Hartnoll – Orbital (musicians), Lena Headly (actor), Imogen Heap (musician), Dr. Pam Hogg (fashion designer), Jon Hopkins (musician), Nick Hornby (writer), Julietthe Larthe (producer), Jude Law (actor), Howard and Guy Lawrence – Disclosure (musicians), Daisy Lowe (model), Phil Manzanera – Roxy Music (musician), Simon McBurney OBE (theatre maker), Ian McEwan (writer), Fernando Meirelles (director), Sienna Miller (actor), George Monbiot (journalist), David Morrissey (actor), Sir Michael and Lady Clare Morpurgo (writer), Sophie Muller (director), Robert Del Naja – Massive Attack (musician), Andrea (Andi) Oliver (TV chef), Chris Packham (conservationist), Amanda Palmer (musician), Cornelia Ann Parker OBE (artist), Bill Paterson (actor), Caius Pawson (Young Turks – Founder and XL Recordings – A&R Director), Grayson Perry (artist & broadcaster), Gilles Peterson (DJ & broadcaster), Yannis Philippakis and Edwin Congreave – Foals (musicians), Jason Pierce – Spiritualized (musician), Heydon Prowse (writer and director), Jonathan Pryce (actor), Gareth Pugh (designer), Sir Mark Rylance (actor), Nitin Sawney (musician), Tracey Seaward (film producer), Wilf Scolding (actor), Alison Steadman (actor), Juliet Stevenson (actor), Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi (Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, designers), Geoff Travis (Rough Trade, founder), Gavin Turk (artist), Mark Wallinger (artist), Ruby Wax (writer, performer and comedian), Rowan Williams (theologian), Jaime Winstone (actor), Ray Winstone (actor), Jeanette Winterstone (writer), Thom Yorke (musician), Dan Haggis, Matthew Murphy & Tord Øverland Knudsen – The Wombats (musicians), Deborah Curtis (artist), and Lady Clare Morpurgo, Geoff Jukes (music manager), Joe Murphy (playwright), David Lan (theatre writer and producer), Alice Aedy (photographer), Kate Fahy (actor), Fay Milton – Savages (musician), Johnny Flynn (actor and musician), William Rees – Mystery Jets (musician), Flora Starkey (floral artist), MJ Delaney (director), Brian Ogle (architect),James Suckling (fashion consultant), Miquita Oliver (presenter), A Fletcher Cowan (presenter), Eliza Caird (musician), Lee Sharrock (PR and curator), Joe Robertson (playwright), Olivia Calverley (TV producer), Tia Grazette (creative director), Sam Conniff (author and pirate), Stefan Bartlett (designer), Matt Lambert (artist), J. Doyne Farmer (Baillie Gifford Professor, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford), Carolyn Benson (Benson Studios Interior Design), Georgina Goodwin (broadcaster), Jon McClure – Reverend and the Makers (musician), Ruth Daniel (cultural producer), David Graeber (anthropologist and writer), George Hencken (film maker), Ebe Oke (musician), Evgeny Morozov (writer), Anthony Barnett, (Co-Founder, openDemocracy), Henry Porter (novelist), Warren Ellis – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (musician), Jonathan Reekie (Somerset House, director), Theresa Boden (actor/writer), Nick Welsh (designer/producer), Louis Savage (A&R rep), Guy Standing (economist), Pippa Small MBE (designer), Peter Marston (designer), Richard Sennett OBE FBA, Clare Kenny (musician), Ginevra Elkann (director), John Reynolds (music producer), Laurence Bell (Domino Records, founder), Margy Fenwick (landscape gardener), Seb Rochford (musician), Nick Laird-Clowes (musician), Roman Krznaric (philosopher), Will McEwan (scientist), Beth Orton (musician), Dawn Starin (anthropologist), Charlotte Trench (actor and director), Jonathan Glazer (director), Iain Forsyth (artist), Jane Pollard (artist), Ian Rickson (director),Sam Lee (musician), David Lan – DL (producer and writer), Liz Jensen (author), Michael Pawlyn (architect), Simon Stephens (playwrite), Kobi Prempeh (curator), Steve Tompkins (architect), Annie Morris (artist), Conrad Shawcross (artist), Mira Calix (artist), Andy Holden (artist), Andrew O’Hagan (writer), David Lan – DL (producer and writer), Alison Brooks (architect), Prof Sadie Morgan (architect), Ackroyd & Harvey (Artists), Eva Wiseman (editor), Mark Wallinger (artist), Carson McCol (artist), Ivan Harbour (architect), Angharad Cooper (producer), Jem Finer (musician and artist), Rauol Martinez (writer and filmmaker), Francesca Martinez (comedien and writer), Glen Hansard (musician), Frances Stoner Saunders (writer), Geeta Dayal (writer), Amanda Levete (architect) Jack Penate (singer) and Ted Cullinan MBE RDI RA (architect)
What a beautiful piece of sophistry – climate activists including jetset celebrities are not responsible for their gigantic personal carbon footprints, its not their fault their private jets guzzle so much kerosene, because they’re trapped in the system.
And when they have the plebs back in huts again, they know they can game the system put in place to keep living like gods….
They claim there’s a “Climate and Ecological Emergency,” but don’t supply even a single shred of evidence to support their claim.
Go on celebs, name 10 species which humans have caused to become extinct inside the last 10 years, and provide hard evidence that it was humans that did it in each case.
For your encore, show hard evidence that proves beyond reasonable doubt that human use of fossil fuels is causing catastrophic climate change as you claim.
They’re suffering from an emergency all right, but it’s a mental health emergency.
Idiots believe whatever they want to believe, same as it ever was.
Seriously, this ‘movement’ (think bowel) has so many name changes, it’s actually changing faster than the climate itself.
I can’t keep up any longer!
What always turns my stomach is the idea that we should respect ‘celebrity’ opinion just as we should give money to charities because a ‘celebrity’ tells us to. WHY!!! – Sometimes capitals and multiple exclamation marks seem justified.
David Attenborough, the man who made millions traveling the world, then when he got old and tired decided its finally time to blame humans for the weather. Plastic is a massive cancerous problem, industrial pollution is very bad, clearing forests for meat is bad, but the weather is weather! Humans can not control the weather. All of those actors, singers, drive and fly, Mel B for example is all over the world doing adverts or other tv related work. Bono flys to africa to feed african children.
Benedict Cumberbatch Won’t be filming Doctor strange 2 then 😢 The amount of flying, driving, making flim sets and the thousands of crew members will use more co2 then I can ever use within a life time, yet for the millions of pounds he will be paid he will say, “its my duty to entertain” 😐
Cumberbatch could always try doing the medieval thing as a wandering troubadour. I doubt however that he would earn enough to pay to replace his shoes.
Oddly they are ‘trapped ‘ only in the sense that can chose to leave the system anytime they like , but do not want to do so because ?
Well often the because the reality of that they wish to impose on others is not something they want for themselves.
I think the tube commuters (aka The Silent Majority) made their feelings pretty clear yesterday, about how they viewed the interference into their lives by Extinction Rebellion…
(View on YouTube)
These hippies could use some education.
A passenger in economy class would have an individual fuel efficiency of about 80 mpg. Hard to beat even with a golf-cart.
Less densely seated elevated class passengers are have significantly worse figures due to the volume they’re entitled in the cabin.
However $ maths are different. Business & first class ticket prices sponsor cheaper economy seats. The more “they” fly, the more ordinary people can afford to fly.
The ‘Personalities’ signing say much about who they are pitching their acts at, for example, were he still with us its hard to imagine the late Bernard Manning signing ? 🙂
Well you asked for it.
https://youtu.be/ctnBotHv08w
Ooops! you wrote signing. Too apt a song for the bunch of clowns pockets that signed this so couldn’t resist 🙂
P.S. You will need ear bleach.
🙂 its worth remembering how popular Mr Manning was with the people who today would be on the rung below the XR idiots ? Looking back on it all one might be tempted to paraphrase Niemoeller by saying First they came for the Comedians.
Clearly, for those who do not share gods gift of being British, a youtube search on Bernard Manning will reveal the true blueness, and also source of his popularity back in the day. 🙂
He came to our local Working Men’s Club I frequented so ended up being dragged into it. I’d heard every one of his tired jokes and don’t remember even smiling let alone laughing.
They’ve all got to fly off to where they can fly…
https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/ayahuasca-addiction/#gref
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabernanthe_iboga
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323689.php…..
just like Gail did [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Bradbrook]
Did they just say that they could feel superior to the plebs with a smaller carbon footprint if only our lives were more miserable except for the joy that they bring us?
Well, that makes it OK, then.
I notice a Mr Cumberbatch as a signatory. He has some credit in the UK for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.
I have a message for him: Dear Benedict. That you have been playing Sherlock does not mean you are Sherlock. Your appearance in that list of gullibles suggests rather the opposite. If I were you I’d get out of its faster than you could fall down the Reichenbach.
Who takes any notice of this bunch of scientifically-illiterate bunch of hypocrites? Nobody with an commonsense.
It’s great to see that they’re citing the world’s foremost climate expertise: The IMF, Sir David Attenborough and Greta Thunber. 😉
Very astute observation there Dagfinn.
Cheers
Mike
Two things here first:
“Life on earth is dying. We are living in the midst of the 6th mass extinction. For those who still doubt the severity of our situation, here is the International Monetary Fund on 10th October 2019 ”
Since when has the IMF been a scientific organisation? It’s a financial organisation and therefore entirely unqualified to comment.
Second:
We may well be heading to the 6th mass extinction, but it’s not from a warming planet.
According to the UK Office for National Statistics, Excess winter deaths in the UK during 2017/2018 were 50,100. The lowest on record was in 2013/14 at 17,310.
However, the terrifying prospect of people dying during heat waves is quite staggering:
“According to the NDMA (India’s National Disaster Management Authority) heat waves in India have accounted for over 22,000 deaths since 1992. In 2015, 2,040 Indians died in shocking heatwaves. Recent years have seen declines, to 1,111 in 2016 and 222 in 2017.”
Yes, that’s two hundred and twenty two!
That’s strange, we are told a warming planet (which, the IPCC assures us, will occur predominantly in the Northern & Southern hemispheres, in winter, and at night) is a bad planet. Yet in 2017 the UK suffered 50,000 fatalities from cold (nor was it a particularly cold winter) and India, a country with immense poverty, ill equipped to deal with weather extremes, suffers 222 deaths from heat. Eliminate the poverty stricken from the 222 and we are probably left with a handful of people with access to decent housing and healthcare dying from heat, if that.
In 27 years India’s total fatalities from heat is only ~5,000 more than the lowest ever recorded UK deaths from cold in a single year.
A cold planet will kill far more people than a warm planet. Judging by these figures, around 250 times more!
You are of course welcome to verify these figures.
https://www.ons.gov.uk
https://ndma.gov.in/en/
And it’s even worse than that when you consider the fact that the UK population (approx. 66 Million) is much, much smaller than that of India (approx 1.3 Billion)
John
Good point.
It’s even worse for Australia with only 25 million. But you will hear Australia’s emissions per capita are the second highest in the world behind the USA and that makes us bad.
Notice how they’ve stopped quoting the IPCC, the “gold standard” of climate science. Quotations I’ve seen cite whispery voiced David Attenborough, the IMF and Figueres from the UN. Oh yeah, and now the luvvies from stage and screen. Disappointed to see Capaldi’s name there though.
And in response to my earlier comment which is awaiting moderation.
extinction rebellion are not interested in climate change, they believe they can enforce a new world order as expressed by one of it’s leaders Roger Hallam who has claimed that some will die in the effort (paraphrasing).
Well, Roger, you can take this to the bank, if my family is threatened by your insane activities, it won’t be them that’s dying.
Mod.
What happened to my earlier post? Nothing offensive in it as far as I’m aware.
Imagine the gall. They dump on everything they say they cre about and then their own conceitedness is still the fault of the rest of the world.
Sorry to see Ray Winstone’s name in this list of the benighted and fuddled, but fully expected Sir Mark “entitled Prat in the hat” Rylance.
If anybody finds a use for it, I converted the signers to a LibreOffice Calc file, which can be downloaded here:
https://owncloud.carl-fh.com/index.php/s/SSgvwnREfQZkmK9
It was a scripted process, so no guarantee that it is 10% correct.
Many thanks!
Auto
What an amazing list. 193 names by my count and only one scientist and one mathematician.
The role of Science is to establish that which is false.
Science has given Art a worldwide voice and the means to become very influential.
It is a pity that Art has not yet learnt how to be humble or to understand that belief is no substitute for knowledge.
The groups in order of size are: –
Musician/Singer 44
Actor 27
Artist 24
Author/Playwright/Writer 19
Director 11
Designer 9
Architect 8
Media/Broadcaster 8
Producer 8
Founder/Entrepreneur 6
Film/Photographer 5
Comedian 4
Fashion 3
Model 3
Activist 2
Anthropologist 2
Curator 2
Theatre 2
Conservationist 1
Economist 1
Mathematician 1
Philosopher 1
Scientist 1
Theologian 1
Is there a single name on that list that knows what it is talking about?
Scientifically they are most likely all below first graders, but this is about feel-good, fight for something socially popular and get into the limelight.
you forgot to mention:
Pirate 1
Nope. Sam Conniff is an author and pirate.
Shiver me timbers!
Yes. You only listed author you didn’t list pirate at all.
Argh, matey!
Was that listed on the star board side?
They lecture you and me, and they really believe they’ll be sitting on top when the fit hits the shan???? They truly are dumber than squid ink o a hot dog.
I’ll just leave this apt advice from Hiram Mann:
No man survives when freedom fails
The best men rot in filthy jails
And those who cried “Appease! Appease!”
Are hanged by those they sought to please.
Thanks, and have a nice peaceful weekend.
There are no sure things but death, taxes and the shackles that bind those who march willingly into submission to totalitarian rule. Snowflakes beware. Uncle Sugar turns to Auntie Acid once absolute rule is instituted.
It’s all about the struggle and there’s always ‘the system’ to struggle against in order to make the one true system. You deplorables just don’t know what it is yet but you’ll see when the one true Fearless Leader with the next Great Leap Forward emerges. With that lot there’s a certain inevitability about it and the one is definitely not among them yet. The smart money would be on Greta.
Oh well, then. That letter by all those scientific heavyweights convinced me.
(unnecessary /sarc)