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(CNN) - In March 2016, Gail Bradbrook was in a stalemate.
The lifelong activist had spent decades working on a series of social justice campaigns, but few of them had a lasting effect. To achieve a real and radical change, Bradbrook felt that something within his consciousness needed to be unlocked.
Then, the reluctant to airplanes traveled to the jungle-covered mountains of Costa Rica, thousands of miles from her home in a lush countryside in England, for a psychedelic retreat.
Over two weeks, he ingested a liquid dose of Iboga, a tree bark used to induce visions; took Kambo, the poisonous secretion of a giant tree frog acclaimed for its healing powers; and had experiences with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drink. All have been used in indigenous cultures for centuries as part of shamanic spiritual rituals.
Bradbrook remembers being terrified but determined to try his best and decipher a greater sense of purpose. One night, during an ayahuasca ceremony, he offered a prayer calling the universe to be revealed the "codes for social change."
Two years later, Extinction Rebellion was born.
'This was my prayer being answered'
Bradbrook, one of the founders of the world's most prominent environmental movements, felt as if the trip had reconnected his brain. "It was completely transformative," he told CNN in a recent interview at his home in the English city of Stroud.
After Bradbrook returned, he ended his marriage and began working with a group of activists, including Roger Hallam, a Welsh organic farmer who was doing a PhD at King's College London in radical campaign design.
When he finished his first long meeting, Hallam turned to Bradbrook and told him, without warning, that he had just given her the "codes" she had been looking for. His words sent a shiver down his spine.
"It's an Extinction Rebellion myth that circulates around, but it's true," said Bradbrook, who has a PhD in molecular biophysics. "I was stunned and at the moment I remember thinking: 'My God, if he hadn't used that phrase, I wouldn't have recognized that this was my prayer answered.'"
Gail Bradbrook at his home in Stroud.
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Together they helped start the organization of the radical Rising Up! Campaign, which finally generated the Extinction Rebellion in the spring of 2018. It was during a meeting of about 15 activists, crowded into the living room of Bradbrook's house, who said that The decision was made to embark on a mission to transform the conversation about the climate emergency.
They outlined a strategy of massive, non-violent civil disobedience, and their mission was to activate 3.5% of the population of the United Kingdom, approximately 2 million people, to force the government to act. The movement's first demand is perhaps the most prominent: that the authorities "tell the truth" about climate change.
They began giving talks throughout the country about the ecological crisis and providing training on nonviolent direct action. Initially, the facilitators outnumbered the participants, but the ranks of the group increased rapidly.
From the beginning, Extinction Rebellion, or XR, as it is known, sought to draw a line between its movement and past environmental campaigns. In October 2018, the group organized one of its first actions, at the Greenpeace offices in London.
Days later, activists demonstrated in London's Parliament Square, declaring themselves in open rebellion against the United Kingdom government, and lay down on the street in front of the Palace of Westminster in an act of defiance. Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist who initiated the Fridays for Future strike movement, joined them.
Hundreds of activists in Parliament Square for XR's "declaration of rebellion" in 2018.
Since then, Extinction Rebellion has generated about 500 affiliates in more than 70 countries and has organized protests around the world. Activists of all ages have stuck to the buildings, got on trains and blocked entire parts of the cities, which caused thousands of arrests.
Extinction Rebellion has distinguished itself from other environmental movements in several ways, especially in its apocalyptic language. By virtue of its own name, the group emphasizes the existential threat posed to humanity by the climate crisis, and suggests that an important social change and the whole system is the only way to alter the current course of the planet.
Convincing protesters to run the risk of being mass arrested, including grandparents and others who had never considered breaking the law before, is another key part of the group's approach. The idea is that by overwhelming the State, pressing police forces and the criminal justice system, the issue of climate change will be forced to get on the table.
"I think Simon once said, 'It's as if we need activists to get on the yoga mats and the people on the yoga mat go outside,'" Bradbrook said, referring to Simon Bramwell, his former partner and Another co-founder of the movement.
"Some people see the protests as dirty, and certainly the idea of being arrested is not on people's radar."
That tactic has been criticized by the British authorities; a former head of the fight against terrorism in Scotland Yard described XR as "anarchism with a smile." In October, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, ignored the protesters and called them "crusties" (an expression that refers to people with anti-government positions or who rebel against authority) little cooperative, and the police in London expelled them from the city (a decision that was finally declared illegal). Two days later, the activists stopped the trains in the capital of the United Kingdom during the rush hour, which caused the public's anger, which accused them of being too white, too middle class, too out of touch with reality.
Despite criticism, Extinction Rebellion has made significant progress in a short period: holding meetings with politicians, pressing the Parliament of the United Kingdom to declare a climate emergency (the first legislative body in the world to do so), and changing public discourse About the ecological crisis.
“XR, to date, has had great success in 'moving the dial' and politicizing problems. There is a much greater awareness in political circles and in the general public of the urgency of addressing environmental and climate degradation, ”said Tim Benton, director of research for the London-based energy, environment and resources program of the laboratory Chatham House, adding that the question is whether street activism will face diminishing returns in the future.
The rapid growth of the group has left many people, including some of its founders, wondering how they achieved it and if the movement can maintain momentum.
“By stepping forward, they examine you”
When CNN met Bradbrook at his home in Stroud, he was circling around his living room, vacuuming artemis leaves from the ground (he had been making tea bags the day before). Except for the pink Extinction Rebellion manual, “This Is Not A Drill,” hidden between Nigella Lawson's cookbooks on a shelf, along with a sticker with the ubiquitous XR hourglass symbol on a computer in the corner , nothing about the room where it all started said rebellion.
Bradbrook's two teenage sons had gone to school, and she was preparing for a day full of calls, media appearances and organization. He has become the closest person to a leader in a movement designed to be a non-hierarchical "holocracy."
The veteran activist says she was born to do this job: she joined the Green Party as an activist when she was only 14 years old and has been involved in social justice movements since then.
Gail Bradbrook in an agricultural cooperative in Stroud, at the western end of the Cotswolds.
Daughter of a coal miner, who grew up in Yorkshire, the roots of the Bradbrook working class deny accusations of elitism directed at Extinction Rebellion by its critics (not to mention some of its members). Bradbrook feels he can't win in any way.
"In the past, when I was in protests, there were always people shouting from cars, 'get a job, bathe, cut your hair,'" Bradbrook said. “So, am I a hippie or am I middle class and privileged? Simply by stepping forward, you somehow become someone they examine, instead of looking at the real issues that really matter. ”
The problems that count are raw and real, in Bradbrook's opinion: loss of biodiversity, water shortage, crop loss, extreme weather and the impending collapse of civilization.
Much of his time now goes from one place to another in the United Kingdom to carry that message to the masses. After our interview, he goes to BBC Radio 2 in Cardiff, apologizing in advance for having to take a car, since the train would take twice as long.
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His phone buzzed endlessly with calls about the latest controversy. The day before, his co-founder and friend of XR, Roger Hallam, provoked outrage when he referred to the Holocaust as "just another nonsense in human history" during an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit. His comments were condemned by the German branch of Extinction Rebellion as anti-Semites, disparaging and relativizing. Hallam then apologized.
Bradbrook agreed, saying Hallam's comments were horrible and scandalous: "I often call him our greatest asset and our worst responsibility, and I say it in his face."
Gail Bradbrook and Roger Hallam in an Extinction Rebellion march in 2018.
Hallam, who is widely regarded as the architect of the Extinction Rebellion strategy and has become a kind of lightning rod for the group, has recommended that activists adopt movement tactics such as yellow vests in France. "We need only a few hundred thousand people who actively violate the law and / or support such activities to put us in the stage of structural change," he wrote in his book, "Common Sense for the 21st Century."
The group made the decision from the beginning to distance themselves from what Bradbrook called "left environmental message", in favor of the language that conveys the urgency of the climate crisis. Bradbrook said much of that was drawn up by Bramwell, who wrote the "declaration of rebellion" of the movement.
The document paints a heartbreaking image of humanity's dystopian future, describes the social contract as "null and void" and calls for peaceful British citizens to join the Extinction Rebellion uprising against the government.
"We refuse to leave a dying planet to future generations by not acting now," Bramwell wrote.
Perfect moment
Simon Bramwell is as passionate in person as it sounds on paper.
An imposing figure with a strong voice dominated the conversation between a group of XR activists who had gathered at The Beacon, a community center space in downtown Stroud.
Bramwell was eager to dispel the folklore that grew around the group and its founders, saying that Hallam and Bradbrook were by no means the "Alpha and Omega of the movement."
In Bramwell's opinion, XR was joined by a large group of British activists who, over the course of two years, experienced civil disobedience and massive nonviolent direct action on behalf of the environment, much of which focused on the capital.
Police arrested Simon Bramwell for sticking himself to the Shell Center in London in April.
In the early days of XR, a handful of activists worked in people's rooms and floors, before moving to a small one-bedroom office in Euston that reeked of rotten humus, Bramwell said. Now, the rebellion is organized from a bustling joint workspace at the east end of London, with hundreds of people entering and leaving by bicycle for video chat meetings with chapters around the world.
"It has been an absolutely explosive debut and left many people wondering how that happened," Bramwell said, adding that much of the group's meteoric rise has been due to the moment. "I think there has been a lot of chance."
When Extinction Rebellion was officially launched, Thunberg's Fridays for Future student strikes were gaining ground, a United Nations report warning of an unprecedented temperature rise by 2030 had just been published, and an academic document discussing the need of a "deep adaptation" against the ecological effects that induce a social collapse had turned on the internet.
Simultaneously, something else consumed much of the oxygen in the United Kingdom: brexit.
David Lambert, another Stroud activist who works as a spokesman for the movement, said the political climate in the UK provided fertile ground for XR to flourish. The years of austerity, combined with the seemingly endless crisis over Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, had constantly torn apart the fabric of society, Lambert said, taking it to the brink.
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“That is what you could see in the referendum and the polarization on brexit. They vote because they want a change. So, in a way, it is very specific for the moment and place, the Extinction Rebellion, ”said Lambert.
XR activists, including David Lambert, protesting in front of Jeremy Corbyn's house.
Lambert was among a group of XR activists who stuck and then chained themselves to the fence in front of Jeremy Corbyn's house in April. The activists felt that the opposition leader of the Labor Party could be the best option in the country to achieve a radical change, more specifically: commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025. Corbyn, who ran for a manifesto To deliver a net zero carbon energy system within the 2030s, it lost the general elections of the United Kingdom earlier this month.
On the contrary, the newly elected Conservative Party promised to reach net zero by 2050, a time scale that XR has compared to a death sentence for the planet.
"Political gains have been very scarce, frankly, the government's carbon neutral goal makes no sense," Lambert said of XR's success so far.
Where does XR go from here?
"Where the hell is the government?"
"It's time to tell the truth!"
"Change now."
They are among the many messages stamped on bold and neon signs stuck in an open XR warehouse in East London. One Monday afternoon at the end of November, dozens of people came and went, some grouped around the conference tables, others in video chats or connected to their phones.
Extinction Rebellion voluntarily offers a meeting at the London headquarters.
One is Bradbrook, there for meetings, and he is seen most Mondays and Tuesdays. Before receiving a two-hour call with an international branch of the movement, Bradbrook sat down to talk with other activists about ongoing actions, such as the hunger strike that, at that time, had been organized outside the Conservative Party headquarters during two weeks.
Having called the attention of the United Kingdom in 2019, Bradbrook said the goal now is to maintain momentum and push the movement towards the global stage, all while maintaining the principles of XR.
Extinction Rebellion has grown so fast and is so decentralized that it is almost impossible to keep up, particularly for those within it. One of the biggest challenges for its founders is how to help direct that expansion while allowing individual experimentation. That has become an act of constant equilibrium, with the imminent risk that an action can alienate the public.
Following criticism, especially due to the lack of diversity, Extinction Rebellion is focusing its attention on the reach of different demographic groups and the cultivation of regenerative culture, to deal with climate anxiety. The existential question is how can you avoid the same fate of disobedience campaigns of the past, which have vanished as a result of decreased interest and lack of impact.
Gail Bradbrook in the Extinction Rebellion office in East London.
Despite all its ambitions, XR's long-term success is still far from guaranteed, Bradbrook said. After all, she has seen campaigns like this crumble before.
"This movement has opened a conversation, so it has already achieved something that I am glad to be a part of and I hope it continues," Bradbrook said. "But I also believe that if not, something else will emerge."
Extinction Rebellion
