Four years ago, on this day, November 23rd, 2021,
Extinction Rebellion UK claims it will have 2million ppl mobilised
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 the last climate “wave” of concern began in 2018, with the long hot summer, the IPCC’s 1.5 degrees report, Greta Thunberg and … XR. But by late 2019, before the pandemic, it was clear that the wheels were wobbling, if not actually falling off.
See my “Does XR have the right tactics” debate in New Internationalist.
The specific context was – there had been attempts to re-heat the souffle. These had failed.
What I think we can learn from this – when the groups are on the downswing, they redouble and redouble their rhetoric.
See also my XR post with Hudson’s Law of social movement organisations and JSO anthropologically fascinating, politically terrifying
What happened next – Soon after XR announced “we quit”. And I wrote about that too.
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.
References
Xxx
Also on this day:
November 23, 1961 – “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (in Denmark)
November 23, 1963 – Doctor Who begins
November 23, 1968 – “Hell upon Earth” warning about environmental destruction,inc. Climate…
November 23, 1988 – Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke gives greenhouse speech
November 23, 2009 – Global Warming Policy Foundation launched