Radical Hope: Truth, Virtue, and Hope for What Is Left in Extinction Rebellion
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Radical Hope: Truth, Virtue, and Hope for What Is Left in Extinction Rebellion Diana Stuart1 Accepted: 3 November 2020 / Published online: 19 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This paper examines expressed hopelessness among environmental activists in Extinction Rebellion. While activists claim that they have lost all hope for a future without global warming and species extinction, through despair emerges a new hope for saving what can still be saved—a hope for what is left. This radical hope, emerging from despair, may make Extinction Rebellion even more effective. Drawing from personal interviews with 25 Extinction Rebellion activists in the United Kingdom and the published work of other Extinction Rebellion activists, this paper identifies signs of radical hope. While activists have cast off false hope and passive hope, a new hope for what is still possible remains. This hope is based on virtue ethics: doing what is right in the moment, rather than being attached to a desired outcome. This drives forward activism despite the results. Through their principle of regenerative culture, Extinction Rebellion activists learn to support each other and be prepared for a more turbulent and challenging future. Through a regenerative culture they can salvage and repair what is left and sustain radical hope. Keywords Climate change · Biodiversity · Activism · Extinction Rebellion · Hope · Despair · Virtue ethics Authentic hope requires clarity—seeing the troubles in this world—and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable. Rebecca Solnit (2016, p. 20) Time is running out, but it is never too late. There will always be something left to save. Extinction Rebellion Activist, United Kingdom (2019)
* Diana Stuart [email protected] 1
Program in Sustainable Communities, School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Blg SBS West BLG 70 Rm #274, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
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Introduction Climate change is an issue of increasing public concern and over the last few decades a climate movement has emerged, including organizations like 350.org and The Climate Mobilization, demanding swift mitigation. These organizations helped to organize the 2014 Peoples Climate March in New York City as well as other activities and campaigns. However, in 2018, the climate movement became more vocal with new social movement organizations emerging. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report stating the critical importance of keeping average global temperature increases below 1.5 °C and adopting “rapid and far-reaching changes in all aspects of society” to do so (IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), 2018). This resulted in a surge in media attention and a rise in climate activism. The climate activist group Extinction Rebellion (XR) initiated a wave of protests and acts of civil disobedience in the United Kingdom (UK). These actions have been sustained over time an
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