“This has to be the biggest year yet for climate protest,” a supporter of the Extinction Rebellion movement in the UK told the New Statesman recently. “If it doesn’t happen now then we’ll all be heading to the hills and prepping [for the worst].”
So will it? Nearly 5 per cent of Americans also say they would willingly participate in civil disobedience to demand action on global warming, according to research published last week. That may sound like a small number but it is higher than the 3.5 per cent of a population that Erica Chenoweth, a Harvard political scientist, argues is needed if nonviolent protest is to achieve political change.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
