Extinction Rebellion Calls on Couch Heroes to Halt Government Going to Back to Normal
With lockdown beginning to relax across much of the world, on Monday 4th May, in places like Italy, India, Spain and South Africa, humans encountered an unexpected sense of dread. This dread asked whether it is too soon to end the lockdown and if the possibility of its return loomed in the uncertainty of infection rates. The accompanying anxiety asked: would going back to work leave behind the period of reflection that brought us together even as social distancing kept us physically apart? What of the birds, whose song will soon be drowned out again? Will the return to 'normality' mean that we find ourselves once more going through the motions? Covid-19 has been a lesson to celebrate life, as people currently do at 8pm from their windows and balconies. Now, the message shifts to ‘Don’t just clap, listen’.
Despite the fear that surrounded our societies shutting down, society has collectively dragged its feet on the return to ‘normal’. What normal can there be when an emergency still exists? While the world was isolating, Extinction Rebellion used its global network in over 65 countries to explore the human resilience and community building of rebels around the world and developed a 360 degree media campaign centering on the lockdown experience shared by the vast majority of humanity. The campaign looked back, looked around us and looked to the future, and considered our shared ‘Love and Rage in Times of Corona’. Reinvention and resilience became words to live by for members of the international movement.
All those who stayed at home for the sake of vulnerable members of society and the health service now need to understand one truth: staying at home does not make you a hero. What comes next will.
We now face the dual existential threats of coronavirus and the climate and ecological crisis. We need the help of every human in addressing both. Adapting and regenerating a healthier, more just world based on evidence during the lockdown, showed us how drastic change on a global scale is both possible and necessary.
Initiated in XR Argentina, rebels from across the world, inspired by the message of a new dawn, came together to produce a short video. It warned the world against complacency and slipping back into old habits, which it turns out that no one was fond of. Extinction Rebellion is ready to maximise on the Covid-19 emergency energy to prevent this backslide. There's #NoGoingBack. But we need everybody's help, especially for the natural world and the most vulnerable.
XR Global Support is proud to launch our new Covid-19 crowdfund. Proceeds will allow Global Support to distribute emergency grant funding to XR groups around the world as they provide either immediate, life-saving Covid-19 relief work or do necessary regrouping in light of the new normal. Either way, groups are making sure that they and their communities remain resilient and able to continue demanding climate and ecological justice.
Even with the world in lockdown, global carbon emissions have only fallen by 65% of what’s needed each year. Meanwhile, governments around the world are planning to bail out climate destroying industries and the banks that fund them. Rebels in over 65 countries are supporting their communities with urgent Covid-19 relief work and demanding a different future - one that supports our people and planet. We need the world’s help so we can help the world.
