Climate activists hold parade to call attention to West Coast wildfires and their link to the climate crisis

Climate activists hold parade to call attention to West Coast wildfires and their link to the climate crisis

Climate Activists demand that the Massachusetts and federal government declare a climate emergency and transition the economy to net-zero carbon by 2025

BOSTON, MA — Local members of the global grassroots movement, Extinction Rebellion, held a march from the Hatch Shell to the State House, demanding Massachusetts to declare a climate and ecological emergency. The necessity of declaring an emergency is evidenced by the widespread destruction of the West Coast megafires.

“Governments need to take aggressive action to stop human-induced global heating and ecological destruction which threatens the survival of life on earth.¹ We need to break our collective addiction to fossil fuels, responsible for creating the climate and ecological emergency and quickly destroying any chance of a livable future,” said James Comiskey from Extinction Rebellion Boston. “We cannot rely on a technology to sweep in and save us. Scientists tell us that it is time to panic. We must listen to the experts and do everything we can to protect humanity, biodiversity, and the ecosystems that support life.”

Our entire country is being impacted by the fires raging on the West Coast. Millions of acres have burned, at least 35 people are dead, air quality is hazardous across several states and smoke is drifting as far east as New York City and even into Europe. Wildfires in the West are common, but these fires are starting earlier, burning bigger and hotter, and expanding much more quickly. Five of the ten largest wildfires in California’s history are currently burning, and 7 of the 10 largest fires have occurred in the last four years.²

Human-caused global heating is creating extreme conditions for more wildfires to spread more quickly and to burn more intensely. The New York Times names four reasons why this is occuring: dryer vegetation from lack of rainfall and higher temperatures caused from human caused global heating, human-behavior causing ignitions, Santa Ana Winds, and the United States’ history of suppressing wildfires.³

Over the coming years, scientists project worsening fires in the West will add to a massive climate migration across the country, as areas will become too dangerous and uninhabitable. 162 million people may find their locations hotter and dryer, 93 million severely so. Entire communities will collapse, others will be besieged and the economic consequences will be extreme.⁴

Extinction Rebellion utilizes nonviolent direct action to raise public awareness about the climate crisis and demand that governments, news media, and polluting industries tell the truth about the climate emergency. They demand that Governor Baker, the United States government, and governments around the globe enact legally-binding policies to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 and take further action to remove the excess of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Extinction Rebellion Boston is an autonomous chapter of the international grassroots movement, Extinction Rebellion (XR), which started in London in 2018. The purpose of XR is to tell the truth about how dire the ecological and climate crisis is and spark immediate action in order to prevent complete climate and ecological collapse. We aim to mobilize people around the world to utilize nonviolent direct action to demand that governments take radical action to avert societal collapse caused by widespread climate and ecological disaster, and to protect front-line communities, biodiversity, and the natural world. This movement is non-political, and unites all of humanity behind a singular goal of a just and livable future. Learn more at: xrmass.org

1. National Geographic, "One million species at risk of extinction, UN report warns"
2. The Guardian, "The future has arrived. These explosive fires are our climate change wakeup call"
3. NY Times, "Why does California have so many wildfires?"
4. NY Times, "How Climate Migration will Reshape America"