1. No demand is big enough
Contrary to its self-conception, Extinction Rebellion is not actually about climate change. The climate issue is, rather, the vehicle for the expression of a deeper yearning. Greta Thunberg and the climate strikers embody a refusal to comply with a system that is anti-life. “I will not go to school. I will not participate in this. I want no part of the program.”
The climate emergency gives form to an intuitive, inarticulate alienation from the project of civilization as it stands. It offers a focal point to identify as the source of wrongness. It channels onto one thing the revolutionary aspiration to change everything. But if we were to awaken tomorrow to the news that the science was mistaken and global temperatures have leveled off, the driving energy of the protestors would persist. That is because they recognize that the challenge facing humanity is not “How do we sustain business-as-usual using carbon-neutral fuels?” Business-as-usual is not OK, and switching fuels will not make it so.