Four years ago, on this day, September 1st, 2021,
Five climate protesters armed with hammers and chisels smashed a glass door at the European headquarters of the American investment bank JP Morgan in London, a court heard.
The Extinction Rebellion activists targeted the bank in the City of London, smashing a large glazed panel revolving door and causing many thousands of pounds-worth of damage, a jury was told on Tuesday.
Brett Weaver, prosecuting at their trial at Inner London crown court, said the five women made their way to JP Morgan early on 1 September 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/20/climate-activists-smashed-glass-door-of-jp-morgan-in-london-court-hears
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that XR had exploded onto the scene in late 2018, promising revolution, rebellion, joy etc. Already by late 2019, pre-pandemic, reality was setting in.
The specific context was that it’s hard to do mass actions when a) the streets are empty and b) nobody really believes in the hype anymore, and it has become the loooong grind that it always is. So, some very brave people gritted their teeth and got on with symbolic non-violent direct action.
What I think we can learn from this is that sustaining organisations, especially ones with millennarian rhetoric, is really hard.
What happened next
People did time.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
September 1, 1970 – Environmentalism is an elite-diversion tactic, says American Maoist
September 1, 1972 – “Man-Made Carbon Dioxide and the “Greenhouse Effect” published in Nature
September 1, 1983- #climate change is all in the game, you feel me?
September 1, 1998 – Sydney Futures Exchange foresees a bright future. Ooops.