Starfinancer

Don’t call them activists, but rather what they are: “Terrified Citizens”. Girls and boys, adults, beekeepers and students, farmers and employees, people aged 17 to 70 convinced that they are perhaps the last generation that will survive the climate crisis, this is the name they have given themselves. A group of citizens who, finding themselves in the values ​​of Extinction Rebellion, one of the movements that fights against inaction to combat emissions and global warming, in 2021 gave birth to a “homogeneous set of people terrified by the climate emergency , from what awaits us and what we are already experiencing. We are willing to do whatever is necessary to awaken consciences, to transform a society that is now made up only of individuals into a community capable of reacting “he says. Beatrice Costantino29, speaking on behalf of the “latest generation”.

Rome, activists block Gra in protest against gas and coal: angry motorists

Without defining itself as a movement and without a specific flag, but rather part of a “civil disobedience” campaign, the choice of this group of citizens is “to carry out absolutely non-violent actions, but of dissent and impacting, both to involve people in the battle against the climate crisis but above all to give a voice to all those who believe that these criminal governments are not doing enough to reverse the trend, starting with the much announced decarbonisation that does not happen “explains Beatrice.

Among the latest actions carried out, the road blocks on the ring road of Milanin an overpass in Padua, along the roads where Carrara marble is transported and finally also on the great ring road of Rome. Right on the GRA, after blocking traffic, a girl engaged in the dissent-Chloé-was almost run over (but she’s fine, ed). “We are sorry to create inconvenience and we are sorry that motorists sometimes react badly, but we are convinced that only with strong actions can we send a signal. Sometimes people tell us: why are you angry with ordinary people? Why do you want us to arrive late. at work? What we are trying to make them understand is that if we do not stop the climate emergency in a few years there will be no more work, just as there will no longer be the life we ​​all take for granted today “.

Activism

Because scientists like Peter Kalmus are also ready to get arrested for the climate

by Cristina Nadotti

April 16, 2022

Constantine, originally from the province of Turin, goes to the concrete. First of all, the water problem: “In my region, water is starting to ration. The Po is dry at unprecedented levels. There are no more resources to irrigate the fields or for grain. Soon several families will experience what it means. say the lack of water. And this is happening now, not in twenty years when governments promise changes or lower emissions. How do we make it understood if not protesting? “.

Then he talks about how elsewhere, in Africa, hunger and lack of food linked to the new climate will soon lead millions of people to flee “here too”, and how heat waves “will make survival more and more complex”.

“Last generation” key points, in direct requests to the government, are immediate stop to the reopening of coal plantslo stop to new drilling andincrease of renewable energies of 20 Gw already in 2022 with the creation of new jobs. “Just subsidize fossil fuels and just destroy ecosystems: we are on the verge of collapse” repeats Beatrice. Without signals from the executive of a turnaround, therefore, “we will continue with our actions to block traffic and more”.

What is at stake “is the future of humanity seriously, which is why there is everything in our group: from beekeepers who no longer have work due to the absence of bees to students worried about a denied future, up to to retirees who are interested in the future of their grandchildren “. For them, after years of demonstrations, petitions, campaigns, congresses, summits and promises, nothing has changed, so the only way “is disobedience in the hope that it will lead to rapid and rapid change” also because “time is over: if we will exceed +2 degrees Italy could become largely a desert in the next 20 years “.

Their actions, such as those on the Roman or Milanese roads, cost fines and complaints every time, so through social networks and information channels they ask citizens for help to be supported, the same residents who should have – they argue – “an ever greater democratic participation and decision-making power over one’s future “.

“After all, this is exactly what we are – adds Beatrice – citizens and frightened citizens: we are all involved and in the same situation, so join us to ask for a real reaction, and not just the usual empty words of governments”.