Environmentalists accuse protesters of setting back action on climate change

FORMER and current Extinction Rebellion members and other environmentalists have accused the group of setting back action on climate change by blocking the printing of several newspapers.

One former prominent XR member said the move had turned environmental activism into a “culture war”.

“Journalists from all the papers XR blockaded have been working hard to report the climate crisis while thousands of people from every part of the UK are tackling it,” said the ex-activist, who stepped back from the group last year. “More needs to be done, but it makes no sense to deliberately adopt divisive and partisan culture-war tactics at a time when bolder action on climate change is winning support across politics and across almost the full spectrum of public opinion in Britain.”

A current XR activist said the move risked alienating newspaper readers, including her grandfather. “He wants to act on the climate,” she said. “If he reads Extinction Rebellion stopped his paper coming, that won’t make him more positive about the movement.”

The decision to take direct action against newspapers it disagrees with is in contradiction to XR’S earlier strategy, which sought to engage with all sections of the media. In a 2019 state- ment, it said: “This is not a calling out of all media, but a calling in of those that work at the Daily Mail, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph and The Sun.”

Greenpeace, which backed the group when it shut parts of central London last year, said “a free, diverse press and the right to peaceful protest are both hallmarks of a healthy democracy”.

John Sauven, its executive director, added: “Greenpeace has been working with the news media for five decades, and we know the vital role they play in informing the public, exposing environmental abuse, and holding powerful interests to account.”