Activists will take non-violent civil disobedience against climate and ecological collapse tomorrow, Saturday 20 April.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) will protest in Auckland, Thames, Tauranga, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The protests follow the Government’s release of their regular environmental stocktake yesterday.
Environment Aotearoa details widespread biodiversity loss, the risk of further species extinction and the threat of climate breakdown.
XR is a new international movement which aims to stop climate change and reverse environmental collapse.
New Zealand media spokesperson Rowan Brooks says yesterday’s environmental report, while bleak, underplays our global crisis.
“Scientists agree we are witnessing the sixth mass extinction,” he says. “Without drastic action, we are heading towards an unrecognisable planet and widespread misery.”
Brooks says the irreversible melting of polar ice caps and devastating flooding is of particular concern to New Zealand.
“Extinction Rebellion will do everything we can to prevent the bleak future even Government departments are painting,” he says. “Our only hope is action, and that will increasingly require arrests,” he says.
Brooks says London police have arrested over four hundred XR members as a part of the groups international week of rebellion.
Last year, the UN said we have 11 years to take action to limit climate chaos and reduce the risk of extreme heat, drought, flooding and poverty, he says.
Brooks says another report found 60% of the planet’s animal population had been “wiped out” due to human activity since 1970.
