Sheffield tree campaigners and Extinction Rebellion unite over direct action – Yorkshire Post Letters

YOUR short editorial piece on the Extinction Rebellion protests (The Yorkshire Post, October 8) made an interesting comparison between these protests and the Sheffield tree campaign, suggesting that the latter “succeeded by focusing on disclosing facts about the felling programme… rather than pushing political agendas”.

What Extinction Rebellion demonstrators should learn from Sheffield tree protests: The Yorkshire Post says

You neglected to mention something else these campaigns have in common – a large element of direct and disruptive action.

Had the tree campaigners not spent years standing under trees to prevent contractor Amey from felling them, then the negotiations that eventually resolved the dispute would be unlikely ever to have happened.

Yorkshire protesters join Extinction Rebellion as they shut down roads around Westminster

On climate change, scientists, followed by campaigners, have been pointing out for decades that greenhouse gas emissions are far too high. Unfortunately, it is still the case that nearly all world governments have hopelessly inadequate plans to reduce them rapidly enough.

We do not necessarily endorse everything that Extinction Rebellion says and does. But more importantly we support its activists’ willingness to take the direct action that puts our political leaders under real pressure to treat climate change as the emergency it is.