Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
This evening conference (Palace of Westminster - Houses of Parliament) was organised by Green House Think Tank and focused on the new potentialities for climate activism which may have been created by Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the school strikes, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic experience and the cost-of-living crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine. It asked whether this situation offers an unprecedented moment of confluence and the chance for a major transformative re-set.
Speakers included Rupert Read, well-known philosopher, activist and author of Why Climate Breakdown Matters, and John Foster, author of Realism and the Climate Crisis. Discussants were Kevin Anderson, climate scientist, author and activist, and Molly Scott-Cato, Professor of economics and former Green Party MEP. The event was chaired by Zoe Williams from The Guardian. Baroness Jenny Jones brought the event to a close with some words.
Presentations and discussion initially foregrounded the idea of the ‘moderate flank’ ModerateFlank.org – the notion that the activities of XR and the school climate strikers, while failing to mobilise enough of the civil population to force radical action on government, have shifted the terrain of debate, the so-called ‘Overton window’. They have arguably brought assumptions into the mainstream which would have been unacceptably radical only a few years ago: that there really is a climate emergency, that the science really is unchallengeable except by vested interests, and that net zero really must be on the policy agenda for some not impossibly future date. From this, if true, it would follow that individuals and institutions comfortable only with comparatively mainstream forms of action could now remain within their comfort zones while genuinely engaging with the climate crisis. It might also be that these forms of action could have significantly more leverage than previously. This would mean in turn that we could at last envisage a diverse mainstream, and perhaps even a mass, movement of climate action.
But is it true? Has the window shifted enough to provide an escape hatch from consumerist habits driving chronic emergency? And do the pandemic experience and the cost-of-living crisis make such hopes more or less plausible? The conference probed these claims, expectations, questions and possibilities.
RupertRead.net
twitter.com/GreenRupertRead
facebook.com/GreenRupertRead
RupertRead.substack.com
instagram.com/RupertRead
tiktok.com/@GreenRupertRead
ModerateFlank.org
This evening conference (Palace of Westminster - Houses of Parliament) was organised by Green House Think Tank and focused on the new potentialities for climate activism which may have been created by Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the school strikes, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic experience and the cost-of-living crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine. It asked whether this situation offers an unprecedented moment of confluence and the chance for a major transformative re-set.
Speakers included Rupert Read, well-known philosopher, activist and author of Why Climate Breakdown Matters, and John Foster, author of Realism and the Climate Crisis. Discussants were Kevin Anderson, climate scientist, author and activist, and Molly Scott-Cato, Professor of economics and former Green Party MEP. The event was chaired by Zoe Williams from The Guardian. Baroness Jenny Jones brought the event to a close with some words.
Presentations and discussion initially foregrounded the idea of the ‘moderate flank’ ModerateFlank.org – the notion that the activities of XR and the school climate strikers, while failing to mobilise enough of the civil population to force radical action on government, have shifted the terrain of debate, the so-called ‘Overton window’. They have arguably brought assumptions into the mainstream which would have been unacceptably radical only a few years ago: that there really is a climate emergency, that the science really is unchallengeable except by vested interests, and that net zero really must be on the policy agenda for some not impossibly future date. From this, if true, it would follow that individuals and institutions comfortable only with comparatively mainstream forms of action could now remain within their comfort zones while genuinely engaging with the climate crisis. It might also be that these forms of action could have significantly more leverage than previously. This would mean in turn that we could at last envisage a diverse mainstream, and perhaps even a mass, movement of climate action.
But is it true? Has the window shifted enough to provide an escape hatch from consumerist habits driving chronic emergency? And do the pandemic experience and the cost-of-living crisis make such hopes more or less plausible? The conference probed these claims, expectations, questions and possibilities.
RupertRead.net
twitter.com/GreenRupertRead
facebook.com/GreenRupertRead
RupertRead.substack.com
instagram.com/RupertRead
tiktok.com/@GreenRupertRead
ModerateFlank.org
