This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook Paperback – June 13, 2019

Extinction Rebellion’s handbook, “This is Not A Drill,” details ways that individuals can act to mitigate the forthcoming climate catastrophe. The book – edited by Clare Farrell, Alison Green, Sam Knights, and William Skeaping – is structured into two parts. In the first, “Tell the Truth,” contributors explain in detail the realities of the climate crisis, lack of action, and how capitalism is driving the impending catastrophe. In the second part, “Act Now,” the contributors explain how burgeoning and experienced climate activists can take action to make their voices heard and begin to shape policy. The result is a work that functions in parallel with other volumes about the sixth extinction and climate change, including Greta Thunberg’s book as well as Jane Fonda’s “What Can I Do?” Though the authors primarily describe a British context, much of what they discuss can apply to any post-industrial nation, particularly in how post-industrial societies shift the brunt of climate change to indigenous peoples and those countries still bearing the brunt of centuries of colonialism. A good introduction for those looking to become more involved in protesting inaction with the climate crisis.

This book is amazing. I’m on the last 20 pages and I’ve learned so much. The climate crisis has so many aspects that we are not taught about and this was a very refreshing read. Also I liked the layout of the book as the first half is about how climate change is affecting different parts of the world and the second half is how to solve the crisis. Extinction Rebellion is an amazing organization I had never heard about before reading this, but now that I have, Infollow them on social media. Their movement is amazing. ** Also important to note that each chapter is written by a different person which broadens the perspectives of the readers. Great job.

According to their website, Extinction Rebellion is “an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse.” Initially conceptualized by fifteen people who decided to take it up in their own hands to transform the climate change discourse and movement, Extinction Rebellion or XR shot into the limelight by embarking on a series of unconventional and out of the box actions that steered people’s imagination and attention towards the urgent issue of climate and ecological emergency plaguing the world today. XR activists shut down five iconic locations in central London: Oxford Circus, Marble Arch, Waterloo Bridge, Piccadilly Circus and Parliament Square, remaining there for ten days. They also succeeded in closing down fossil-fuel companies, and gluing themselves to the London Stock Exchange. This unique form of ‘civil disobedience’, was meant to instill a renewed sense of purpose and suffuse a reinvigorating bout of hope in the deeds and thoughts of people concerned about the pace of global warming.“This Is Not a Drill” aims to capture the quintessential premise underlying the core and crux of Extinction Rebellion in a set of 30 concise essays. Attempting to conflate the need for ecological preservation with a choice of avant-garde and progressive steps, “This Is Not a Drill” is a handbook if not a manifesto beseeching and exhorting like-minded individuals to take up the cause of environmental protection.The theme for the book is set, courtesy, a stirring foreword by Vandana Shiva, scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, and anti-globalization author. After informing the readers about a coming apocalypse in the form of a sixth extinction, Ms. Shiva, conflates genocide with ‘ecocide’, both of which form ‘one indivisible process, and they began with the idea of the colonization of the Earth as the ‘civilizing mission’ of a ‘superior race’. Ms. Shiva before concluding her piece brings our attention to the Hopi people of North America who ‘describe the phenomenon of destroying everything that sustains a society as Powaqqatsi – ‘an entity, a way of life, that consumes the life forces of beings in order to further its own life’The foreword is followed by thirty short essays penned by an eclectic band of disciplinarians and professionals. Writer, actor and the editor of this handbook, Sam Knights reveals to the reader the three uncompromising demands of XR:The government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for changeThe government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero by 2025 the three key demands.The government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justiceBorrowing from Mr. Knight’s theme, renowned environmental lawyer Farhana Yaminmakes a genuine plea for curbing fossil-fuel subsidies for businesses. “They will keep asking for fossil-fuel subsidies. The official estimates of financial support to fossil fuels are between US$ 370 billion and 620 billion over the period 2010–2015, with the UK spending £10.5 billion a year, making the UK the biggest fossil fuel subsidiser in the EU.” The warp and weft of this handbook is the presumption that we no longer can afford to tolerate the now-taken-for-granted precept of “business as usual.” For the circumstances staring us into our collective faces are extraordinarily unusual. The former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed, who famously conducted an underwater meeting of his Ministers to highlight the escalating perils of rising sea water levels, appeals to the world to act with the utmost stringency lest coral nations such as Maldives face untimely extinction.London based writer and musician J S Rafaeli, along with Neil Woods, who spent fourteen years infiltrating drug gangs as an undercover Police Officer, in an essay titled, “Fighting The Wrong War”, outline the key principles, of the concept of ‘Harm Reduction’. Originally conceived by Dr. Russell Newcombe, Harm reduction represents a coherent system, outlined by four key principles of pragmatism, non-judgmental attitude, relevance, and user-friendly disposition. These principles instituted to wean away addicts from the consumption of drugs, may be, according to the authors of this essay, be equally applied to fossil-fuel consumers.Part II of the book is a guide to civil disobedience. In an essay titled, “The Civil Resistance Model”, British environmental activist, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and cooperative federation organisation Radical Routes, Roger Hallam, lays down the vital requirements for engaging in peaceful civil disobedience/economic disruption. According to him:“First, you need the numbers. Not millions, but not a few dozen people either. You need Requirements for a non-violent disruption several thousand: ideally, 50,000;You have to go to the capital city. That is where the government is, that’s where the elites hang out and it’s also where the national and international media are usually based. The truth is, they don’t mind you doing stuff in the provinces. They do mind when you set up camp on their lawn, because they are forced to sit up and pay attention;You have to break the law. This is the essence of the non-violent method because it creates the social tension and the public drama which are vital to create change. Everyone loves an underdog narrative. It’s the great archetypal story in all cultures: against all the odds, the brave go into battle against evil. Breaking the rules gets you attention and shows the public and the elite that you are serious and unafraid. It creates the necessary material disruption and economic cost which forces the elites to sit up and take notice. Common actions are simple ones: sitting down in roads; painting government buildings;It has to stay non-violent. As soon as you allow violence into the mix, you destroy the diversity and community basis upon which all successful mass mobilizations are based. The young, the old and the vulnerable will leave the space. So people need to be trained to stay calm and groups need to be assigned the role of intervening when tempers flare up. This needs to be organized, and non-violent Requirements for a non-violent disruption;It has to go on day after day. We all know A-to-B marches get us nowhere – and the truth is, neither does blocking a capital city for a day. It’s in the news and then it’s over. To create real economic cost for the bosses, you have to keep at it. The first day or two, no one is bothered. After a few days it become ‘an issue’. After a week it’s a ‘national crisis’. This is because each day you block a city the economic costs go up exponentially – increasing each day;Last but not least, it has to be fun. If we can’t dance at it, it isn’t a real revolution. The artistic communities need to be on board: it’s a festival. We are going to show the media that we’re not sitting around waiting to die any longer. We’re gonna have a party.”The handbook covers all the bases in so far as organizing a peaceful rebellion is concerned, including even the type of dishes to be served. For example, food coordinator Momo Haque, in his essay titled, “Feeding The Rebellion”, provides the recipe for a simple, albeit nourishing dish using rice and lentils. “Rice and lentils – soaked together for around three hours. Add some spices, maybe cumin, turmeric, chili, ginger, garlic, onion, salt. Add lots of water, cook for an hour or so; when it’s soft and mixed together, it’s ready to serve.”From plonking down a 21ft pink boat in the middle of a bustling street to supergluing themselves to chairs and door handles, the activists constituting XR are on a mission to save the One Habitable Planet that we have, at the time of writing this review, at least. Unless mankind is successful in identifying a suitable alternative, XR would need every bit of support it can garner if our future generations are to inherit a livable abode.

I think this is a must read to be shaken off and awoken to the urgency of our environmental and human crisis, and also to find hope and alternatives that can actually work. I myself have decided to take my own uncertainty and however I'll equipped I feel, figure out a way to change my family business so it's part of a thriving world, not an ever growing one. I still don't know how that will look, but this book has helped me with the first step, believing it can be done, knowing it needs to be done, and deciding to find a way to do it and do it now.

It is do or die at this point. The not so distant future will be very bleak without all of us who care being actively involved. The book, really a collection of essays, is a useful tool of inspiration and activism.I just finished it and I will be joining my local XR group. The movement to save the Earth, and indeed humanity, will be the most important in human history.

This book describes exactly what the Extinction Rebellion is, how the climate emergency is already impacting us, and what we need to do to avoid catastrophe.It goes deeply into economic and societal issues surrounding climate change and provides radical resolutions to minimize the damage we are about to face together as a species.This is for all future generations. Everyone needs to read this book to get on the same page.

My oldest has a passion for environmentalism and is committed to the cause. He really likes how informative this book is. His only critique is that he wishes it included how to find contact information for local XR groups or instructions on how to create XR movements where there isn’t already an XR presence.

As described and on time. A1!

Bien reçu

I think it's a very interesting book. I've enjoyed it very much and I've learnt a lot. I hope there'll be a good translation, as soon as possible!FZS

Eine Sammlung von Artikeln zur Klimakrise. Ich beobachte, dass viele noch nicht verstanden haben, wie ernst die Lage wirklich ist. Vor allem nicht unsere Politiker. Wer verstanden hat - uns aber nichts davon sagt - das sind die Reichen. Leseempfehlung: "Survival of the Richest" Seite 58 - 64. Lesen! Weitergeben! Spread the word! Join the movement!Gibt es übrigens schon eine deutsche Übersetzung? Wenn nicht - ich arbeite daran.

Where were you last week on Friday, September 20? In normal years a question like this would make me search my memory or pocket diary. But the years are not normal anymore. They are strange, irrational, threatening, dangerous. Many assumptions that we formerly took for granted are now being questioned. As in:• Where do we go from here?• What is the value of a civilization that devours itself?• What thoughts were in the mind of the Easter Islander who cut down the last tree on the island? (a question posed by Jared Diamond in his fine book, “Collapse”.)• What can I do?• Am I powerless, meaningless, pointless?• How do I sleep at night?• There is no Planet B, so where can I go?• How can I stop this madness, bring to a halt this sorry, pitiful spectacle of deranged human beings destroying the only home I have or will ever have?Despair is no option. An old Russian proverb says hope is always the last thing to die and I will not let mine die. I will go down fighting. I will man the barricades if I have to. I will raise my voice and shout till my throat is sore and hoarse.I’m not as young anymore as I used to be. But it doesn’t matter. The crisis is not about age. We’re all in this together, young and old and all those in between. One planet, one home, one humanity, living side by side with millions of other animals, plants and insects. It’s their home too. What’s not to get about this simple, glaring fact? Millions of other people, thankfully, are starting to get it. And for this we can thank Greta Thunberg and the youth of the world who have seen enough of our dithering, bad faith, hypocrisy, lies and corruption. They’re fed up, as they should be, because we in this baby boom generation are an abomination, a disgrace, the worst sort of examples to set for them.Our economics are a disaster, our politics practically useless. Change can’t come from above. Above is the problem, not the solution. Why are there no royals in France, no monarchs? There used to be. France was like any other European nation. But something happened there. Something transformed the structure of that society. You know what it was. Every educated person does. They had a revolution. It was messy and turned violent. It wasn’t perfect but it worked. The toffs were jettisoned. A new liberty, equality and fraternity emerged.So there are models or precedents. The best change is non-violent. Gandhi led the salt marches that turfed the British out of India. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the civil rights movement that made Americans face the shame and crime of slavery. Women can vote. They can even drive cars by themselves in Saudi Arabia now. Isn’t that something? Progress is possible. Sanity still exists. Collective suicide and ecocide is madness.As for me, not a boast, just a simple statement of fact, I was at the rally, strike and march in Osaka, Japan on September 20, 2019. About 400 people assembled in a light drizzle of rain. The mood was festive, cheerful. The signs and placards were colourful. The eco chanting of phrases was loud and boisterous. We were ready. We would march and be heard.Someone handed me a microphone at the rally before the march. I said this:“I am not so young anymore as you can see. My generation is a failure. We have failed you. So I am here today to support the young people for their courage to strike and march on behalf of all of us.”Would I have been there that day without having read this book sponsored by the Extinction Rebellion? Hard to say but probably not. The beauty of the book is its comprehensiveness. It arrives at protest from many different angles. Part manifesto, part handbook, it lays out all you need to know if you are serious about making your voice heard, your presence felt. It is the New Testament for our times. There are moments in it when you may not be able to read on with dry eyes. Passionate, sensitive, mournful, angry, defiant, and even humorous at times, it clearly lays out the predicament and what needs to be done to derail this runaway train that is carrying us all into the burning flames of hell.So maybe it prompted, encouraged and empowered me. All I know is that I was there and glad to be there, happy to participate, to meet likes souls, to join the common cause for good.The other day a Guardian contributor from Australia wrote about his own experience marching there. A few lines from his report touched home with me. I want to quote him now because this is exactly the feeling, the precise thoughts and sensations I have had. He wrote this:“The need for protests could not be more urgent, and at last they are happening. The global strike provides a perfect antidote to the despair so many of us have felt for so long. There’s a nightmare quality to the isolated experience of climate change, a sense of paralysis and horror at a world sleepwalking to disaster. By coming together on the streets we shake that off and grasp something of our collective strength.”Correct in every respect. The isolated individual frets:Do others feel as I do?Do they understand?Am I really so alone?No, you are not alone, never alone. We are social. We need each other. Our strength comes from this, from the strength of others combined with our own.It felt like waves, ripples of joy and passion flowing through us as we marched. Even some of the cops shepherding us through the busy streets were smiling because we looked more like a merry band of pranksters than anarchists with clubs, bricks and stones. We don’t want to destroy the world. We want to save it. Those who stopped to look at us understood this too. They looked on in wonder because they knew us, saw themselves in us. We were like one big mirror. Only the drivers, backed up in traffic and slaves to their hectic schedules, looked bothered, irritated. They’ll be the last to understand and march. But they are humanity too, members of the same vast human family. We don’t evolve psychologically at the same pace. Nothing is fixed and change is possible.This book is reasonably priced. Why? Because profit is low on the Extinction Rebellion agenda, if it exists at all there. High on its agenda is the climate emergency. No, correction: it is the agenda. And for good reason. All else goes by the boards if we don’t have a healthy environment in which to live. What’s not to get about this? Even children can understand it. And it’s children who are leading the way, revolting and protesting by skipping school and classes, and why shouldn’t they? It’s honest and logical. Johnny Rotten was right in another context when he screamed “No future!”Greta’s group is called Fridays for Future. You can probably find a local chapter in your town or city. The young people marching will welcome you. They will want you. You won’t be alone. The dream of liberty, equality and fraternity has not died yet. But the clock is ticking. The IPCC says we have less than a dozen years before crucial tipping points are reached. The time for dithering and procrastinating is gone. March right now for a better world while we still have one to protect.