Climate activists greet Cape Cod Labor Day visitors on Bourne Bridge

Local members of the international grassroots environmental movement, Extinction Rebellion, stood out on the Bourne Bridge on Friday September 1, greeting visitors who flocked to the Cape for Labor Day weekend. The activists held colorful banners and artwork that emphasized how the Cape is at risk from sea level rise and other impacts of the climate crisis. Banners read messages like "No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure," Extinction Rebellion Boston’s current demand. Activists handed out flyers to cars stuck in traffic as they headed to the Cape.

The Red Rebel Brigade, a group of Extinction Rebellion activists who don red robes and white face makeup, made an appearance. The group’s red robes represent the human and nonhuman lives that governments around the world are choosing to sacrifice by failing to take urgent and substantive action. “We Red Rebels are painfully aware of the killer heating of Earth's air and water. We mourn all lives lost and Earth's mounting peril. We support Extinction Rebellion’s activism and wish to raise both emotional and political awareness of the urgent action required to address Earth's Climate Emergency,” said Extinction Rebellion activist Gwen Noyes.

Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are currently leading society toward a “worst-case scenario” trajectory, according to a Woods Hole research group.¹ Consequences for this trajectory would include everything from widespread crop failures to uninhabitable conditions on much of the planet, with billions of people expected to become climate refugees, including US citizens.2 3 4 Following this summer, which included the Earth’s hottest week on record, saw severe flooding across the Northeast, as well as devastating wildfires in Canada and Maui, Extinction Rebellion activists are demanding more substantial climate action.5 6 7 This is a popular opinion in our state, with 77 percent saying that climate change will be a serious problem if left unaddressed, according to a statewide poll released in 2022.9

Cape Cod is at particular risk from the climate and ecological crisis. As glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic melt, seas begin to rise, posing an existential threat to coastal communities. Additionally, toxic algae blooms are more common and sharks come closer to the shore more often as oceans warm and disrupt the normal patterns for marine life.8 Cape Cod also has the potential to utilize tidal and wind power, which would bolster the local economy and allow the Cape to demonstrate true commitment to climate justice.

Extinction Rebellion is an international climate movement that utilizes nonviolent civil disobedience and protest tactics to compel government action in order to avert climate and ecological breakdown. The group calls for a rapid transition away from an energy system reliant on fossil fuels to renewable, zero emission, sources of energy. They demand that the governments and media around the globe tell the scientific truth to the people, with both urgency and frequency. Because the group criticizes the government’s “criminal inaction on the climate crisis” and distrusts them to transition away from fossil fuels with enough urgency, they demand that the public be included in the process via Citizen’s Assemblies, a randomly selected body of citizens that would deliberate and decide on important issues that have been effectively utilized in other parts of the world.

1. Woodwell Research Institute (formerly Woods Hole Research Center): Schwalm et al., "RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions", PNAS, 2020
2. NY Times, "Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns"
3. Xu et al., "Future of the human climate niche", PNAS, 2020
4. NY Times, "The Great Climate Migration has Begun"
5. The Guardian, “World experiences hottest week ever recorded and more is forecast to come”
6. CBS, “Canada reports worst wildfire season on record — and there's more to come this fall”
7. CBS, “Maui wildfires death toll rises to 93, making it the deadliest natural disaster in Hawaii since it became a state”
8. The Boston Globe, "On the Edge of Warming World"
9. MassInc Polling Group, “Poll: Massachusetts residents see climate change as a serious problem for state”