In its first major public-facing action, the newly formed Western North Carolina chapter of the global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion marched through downtown Asheville on Nov. 5. Roughly 75 people, including Asheville City Council member Brian Haynes and Council candidate Shane McCarthy, took part in advocating that local government take stronger action in response to climate change.
Extinction Rebellion chose the date of the march, according to a press release, to coincide with the time local elections would have been held before they were moved to 2020 through the passage of Senate Bill 813. “Extinction Rebellion WNC knows the forces that canceled city elections are the same ones preventing us from acting on the existential threat of climate change,” the release stated. “So on Nov. 5, instead of heading to the voting booths, the people of Asheville are invited to take to the streets to demand action that addresses the reality of the impending climate crisis.”
The group made four demands of local officials: to declare a climate emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025, listen to a Citizen’s Assembly on matters of climate and ecological justice and prioritize a just transition from the fossil fuel economy. Extinction Rebellion members plan to participate in the upcoming Asheville Climate Strike on Friday, Dec. 6.
Protesters gather in Pritchard Park prior to Extinction Rebellion WNC’s Nov. 5 March on City Hall. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
Asheville City Council member Brian Haynes holds a banner before the March on City Hall. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
Members of the Brass Your Heart Radical Marching Band supported the Extinction Rebellion march. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
City Council candidate Shane McCarthy, third from left, was in attendance at the Extinction Rebellion march. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
The Extinction Rebellion march winds its way through Pritchard Park en route to Asheville City Hall
Marchers spilled into the street on Patton Avenue as they continued to Asheville City Hall. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
Extinction Rebellion marchers met with supporters of the Sunrise Movement near Pack Square. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
Protesters spoke on the steps of Asheville City Hall to demand stronger action on climate change. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
As night fell on Asheville City Hall, one protest sign continued to shine a message of climate emergency. Photo by Jeffrey DeCristofaro
What a big, fat, yawn…just more leftist virtue signaling, naval-gazing, and mental self-pleasuring, ha!
China and India do nothing about pollution. Around 300 million people in India currently live now in 2019 without electricity. At least 500 million on the continent of Africa live without electricity or reliable water supply. You dolts don’t think they or their children might one day like to experience electricity and plumbing? Consider the pollution output of those 2 countries alone with such huge swaths of their populations living without those modern advances, care to guess what their pollution output goes to once those people, roughly another billion people, come online?
Or are the virtue-signalers volunteering to trade places with those in China and India? Would be nice to seem them back up their hypocrisy with real action, but I certainly won’t hold my breath.
Doesn’t matter anyway, Al Gore told us it was all over by 2016, and The Hon. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said we’re done in 12 years, so eat, drink, and be merry, and die in whatever way you deem best!
What-aboutism is a big yawn and no excuse for not improving efficiency and environmental conditions right here in the USA. while you prefer to divert attention overseas we are building a new generation who will clean-up the mess of your generation that the generations before them. Your inability to comprehend the message of Akl Gore and AOC show you have been diminished to failed talking points. They both have warned we have a short time to stop the pathway we are on to permanent change … not that the world will end in a couple of years. Climate deniers are like people who fart in an elevator. To suggest the activity of humans is not changing our atmosphere is like keeping quiet after the fart. The gas human activity puts into the atmosphere can only be expected to result in change. It’s basic chemistry 101.