Nick Meynen's Blog - Posts Tagged "activism"
As the first UK tour ends, plans are already brewing for tours 2, 3, 4, …
The rebellion against the current war on nature is global. Extinction Rebellion is a great new kid on the block but it doesn’t happen in splendid isolation, neither is this a white class hobby project. The truth is rather the opposite. Here are 3000 “rebellions” https://ejatlas.org/ from all over the world and people such as prof. Joan Martinez-Alier call this proof of the existence of a global movement for environmental justice. Some of these cases inspired me to dig a bit deeper into the stories at the frontlines, where protectors are doing all the hard and risky work for all of us. The book based on these stories is called “Frontlines. Stories of Global Environmental Justice“.
As I was traveling around the UK to present my book in 8 events in 5 cities in 5 days, I was reminded through the responses how much I share with the views of Extinction Rebellion, even though my book was largely written before XR became public. Especially my book lecture in Scotland was one where I felt in the right place. The Edinburgh folks that decided to spend their Friday evening listening to my presentation and then engaging in a good debate were truly awesome. The Lighthouse bookshop claims to be the ‘radical bookshop’ of Edinburgh and I couldn’t imagine a better bookshop than this one to present this book. I counted 26 people squeezed together and fully surrounded by 1000s of inspiring books from people such as Vandana Shiva and Saskia Sassen. Some in the audience were scientists, others were extinction rebellion activists, some were both and most just seemed to have an honestly interested look on their face. For me, just a modest writer, it was amazing to notice that the majority went home with a book in their bag. All this was made possible thanks to big support from Lisa Hough-Stewart from the WEAll – Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the kind folks at the Lighthouse – Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop and Phoebe Cochrane from Scotlink. Most of my events were in universities and of course it’s an honour to get a bit of speaking time at a conference in the History Faculty of Oxford University but the radical bookshops are for sure THE kind of environment where I thrive well.
Taking the train to and around the UK is not something I can afford doing every month but vague plans are already being made to do 3 more trips: in February, June and November. If you have a suggestion for a lecture in the UK in 2020: most welcome to contact me. The one common goal with the book and the lectures is simple. Inspire people to join the global movement for environmental justice, one way or another. Let’s be united in our multitude of struggles for justice. Let’s rebel together and strive for a world in which nature and humans can thrive together. We need to #ActNow to make history before we’ll be history.
See you at the frontline!
PS: if you already read and hopefully liked the book, the next thing to do is to join the movement. If you wish to help me then there’s one little thing you can also do: rate and review the book on Goodreads and/or Amazon.
As I was traveling around the UK to present my book in 8 events in 5 cities in 5 days, I was reminded through the responses how much I share with the views of Extinction Rebellion, even though my book was largely written before XR became public. Especially my book lecture in Scotland was one where I felt in the right place. The Edinburgh folks that decided to spend their Friday evening listening to my presentation and then engaging in a good debate were truly awesome. The Lighthouse bookshop claims to be the ‘radical bookshop’ of Edinburgh and I couldn’t imagine a better bookshop than this one to present this book. I counted 26 people squeezed together and fully surrounded by 1000s of inspiring books from people such as Vandana Shiva and Saskia Sassen. Some in the audience were scientists, others were extinction rebellion activists, some were both and most just seemed to have an honestly interested look on their face. For me, just a modest writer, it was amazing to notice that the majority went home with a book in their bag. All this was made possible thanks to big support from Lisa Hough-Stewart from the WEAll – Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the kind folks at the Lighthouse – Edinburgh’s Radical Bookshop and Phoebe Cochrane from Scotlink. Most of my events were in universities and of course it’s an honour to get a bit of speaking time at a conference in the History Faculty of Oxford University but the radical bookshops are for sure THE kind of environment where I thrive well.
Taking the train to and around the UK is not something I can afford doing every month but vague plans are already being made to do 3 more trips: in February, June and November. If you have a suggestion for a lecture in the UK in 2020: most welcome to contact me. The one common goal with the book and the lectures is simple. Inspire people to join the global movement for environmental justice, one way or another. Let’s be united in our multitude of struggles for justice. Let’s rebel together and strive for a world in which nature and humans can thrive together. We need to #ActNow to make history before we’ll be history.
See you at the frontline!
PS: if you already read and hopefully liked the book, the next thing to do is to join the movement. If you wish to help me then there’s one little thing you can also do: rate and review the book on Goodreads and/or Amazon.
