Saturday the 28th of October nestled out the front of the National Gallery of Victoria; the first of a string of planned Extinction Rebellion protests to happen throughout Melbourne.
Extinction Rebellion has become notorious for their outrageous stunts, such as climbing the Arts Centre Melbourne spire in May or gluing themselves to the streets of Adelaide during peak hour traffic, all in the name of climate action.
Starting in the UK, Extinction Rebellion claims to be a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
Mothers Rebellion (28th of October) – The Mothers Rebellion group is an off-shoot Extinction Rebellion that is made up of mothers, grandmothers and caregivers fighting for a sustainable present and future for the current and coming generations.
“We want to be able to look our children into the eyes and say that we truly do all that we can do”.
The idea for Mothers Rebellion originates from California, USA. Simultaneously a movement of mothers, who held their first sit-down circle protest in August, 2022, had already started to grow in Sweden, and now Australia.
The Circle (28th of October) - Extinction Rebellion is known for their attention-grabbing protests that cause just enough inconvenience for people to be forced to stop and listen. Mothers Rebellion uses a slightly different method.
Appropriately named “The Circle”, Mothers protesting sit down together in a public space such as a pedestrian street and sit facing the passers-by. Each holds a sign with the names of their children, or other loved ones who are going to be affected by the climate crisis.
Mothers Rebellion believe that this will covey that they refuse to “look away, that we refuse to give up and that we will do everything we can for the lives and future of our children”.
Leslie (28th of October) – A member of Extinction Rebellion for over 4 years, Leslie is a proud member of Mothers Rebellion fighting for climate action.
“After COVID, the cause took a massive hit, it ruined our momentum” making it even harder to attract new members.
Leslie states that “Civil disobedience is at the heart change”, which comes after her arrest 2 weeks prior the protest. She and three other protesters tied themselves to the gates outside of the Victorian parliament building blocking the entrance. Despite this Leslie stated that the media had been painting their protests in a negative light and that most of them were peaceful.
The Hourglass (28th of October) – The symbol of climate action, is meant to provoke a feeling of urgency about our planet.
With the circle representing the earth, and the two triangles in the middle being an hourglass – their message is simple – “Time is running out”.
The creator is a London street artist known as ESP. Hu, has made it available online in the public domain. He strongly encourages the use of the extinction symbol by individuals in their personal artwork or other forms of expression however not for any form of commercial use of the symbol as it is completely against its purpose.
Extinction Rebellion protesters have plastered these symbols around the world reminding people time is of the essence.
Sally (28th of October) – Australia subsidises fossil fuels by $65 billion a year. Sally who is a member of Mother’s Rebellion, has been campaigning for the reduction in fossil fuel subsidies for over 10 years starting when she was teaching at a local high school.
“If you don’t ring up the pollies then the climate crisis falls off their radar” she said.
Sally believes she calls up both her local MP and the Victorian government at least once a week, to keep it from falling off of the political agenda.
Melbourne’s Crisis (28th of October) – Victoria’s climate has already warmed by 1 degree, putting Melbourne’s most liveable city title at risk.
Victoria has had longer fire seasons since the mid-1990s and fire days are projected to increase by 42 per cent per year in Melbourne by 2050. In January 2020 Melbourne’s air quality was the worst in the world due to smoke from bushfires.
Extinction Rebellion sit in protests are aiming to alert the public that the “climate crisis is preventable”.
Politics (28th of October) – Extinction Rebellions has a list of three demands from governments in order to cause action against the climate emergency.
The Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, and working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
The Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
Governments must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Future Generations (28th of October) – Experts are warning that today’s young people and future generations will witness stronger negative effects of climate change on food production and availability.
Concerns grow as the climate is changing faster than scientists predicted and the stakes are high. Biodiversity loss. Crop failure. Social and ecological collapse. Mass extinction.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that somewhere between 30,000 and 140,000 species are becoming extinct every year in what scientists have named the Holocene, or Sixth Mass Extinction.
Future Generations (28th of October) – Experts are warning that today’s young people and future generations will witness stronger negative effects of climate change on food production and availability.
Concerns grow as the climate is changing faster than scientists predicted and the stakes are high. Biodiversity loss. Crop failure. Social and ecological collapse. Mass extinction.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that somewhere between 30,000 and 140,000 species are becoming extinct every year in what scientists have named the Holocene, or Sixth Mass Extinction.
