The Tufton 3 Campaign for Climate Truth
A Writers Rebel Initiative
Which is the bigger crime – spray painting 55 Tufton Street or using dark money to spread lies about a crisis that threatens to end human civilisation?
The Tufton 3 – Writers Rebel’s co-founder Jessica Townsend, Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell, and Professor Rupert Read – will go on trial for criminal damage to 55 Tufton Street on 28th October 2021.
Their protest took place after a magnificent series of readings organised by Writers Rebel in which Caroline Lucas, George Monbiot, Zadie Smith and many wonderful writers spoke truth to power. The three then sprayed Lies Lies Lies on the pillars of the Georgian townhouse and poured fake blood down its steps. The whole event was designed to draw attention to the work of climate deniers such as the Global Warming Policy Foundation inside the building. ‘Our ultimate aim,’ said Professor Rupert Read ‘is to withdraw their social licence.’
The three believe in the months leading up to November’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the GWPF has been injected with new funds to step up its insidious propaganda work. And the three believe they detect a change in tactics.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation was started by the notorious denier of the climate science, Nigel Lawson, who was later banned from speaking on the subject by the BBC. At the beginning, the GWPF focused on the kind of falsehood on which the internet thrives: that global warming is no threat to polar bears, or that trees actually flourish on increased carbon emissions.
But the ‘think tank’s new approach is termed by some ‘delay-ism’. They make false narratives and sow confusion. In particular one recent tactic is to by draw attention to the difficulty of the adaptation task ahead, particularly to the cost of it. They are not beneath implied threats: for instance, they warn that if a Zero Carbon approach is adopted, it will generate a populist, Trump-style backlash.
With groups like the GWPF wielding such dangerous power over the media and the political classes, never has Extinction Rebellion’s first demand to Tell The Truth been more important. At Writers Rebel, we believe it is incumbent on writers to tell that truth in fresh and compelling ways. For storytellers, the climate issue has always been a challenge. The danger is so grave that it’s easier for those who can’t bear to face that truth to label us as fantasists and doomers, rather than pay heed to the science. Science says we still have a very narrow margin in which to act to stave off the worst effects. So we need to tell our stories urgently, to help others with the fears they might engender, and foster the good will and human connections that might make our joint future both possible and liveable.
HOW TO HELP
- Donate to the Tufton 3 Crowd funder here.
- Save the date: 28th October 2021 (on which there will be an event to support the case)
- Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.
Join Paint the Land: a nationwide
messaging project from Writers Rebel
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.
Picture these words, by the environmental activist and internationally-acclaimed writer Arundhati Roy, written in rocks on a mountainside, or strewn in seaweed across a beach – or etched in huge letters in oily mud near a landfill site.
In the months leading up to COP26, Writers Rebel’s Paint the Land project is teaming a handful of high-profile writers with well-loved visual artists to create landscape graffitos with a powerful ecological message. This will take the form of striking words “painted” on natural outdoor canvases.
If your group would like to join the campaign, we’d love you to go ahead and make your own mega-graffito. It’s a simple format involving local communities, local landscapes, and local talent.
The words
You can come up with your own strikingly-worded message. Or you can invite a well-loved local writer to come up with a cogent text highlighting an aspect of the CCE. Or you can choose a quotation by a writer, past or present.
The art
You can create your own, or invite a local artist to collaborate on a work that uses natural or recycled/recyclable materials. It can be designed to last an hour or a day – or it may have its own longer,
organic life. But please respect local ecosystems, and do nothing to damage to the environment.
The land
You might choose an urban or rural land that has significance – whether because of its beauty, its oddity, or its endangered or desecrated status. It can be a shoreline, a brownfield site, a big flat rooftop, a woodland, a field by a motorway or a train line where it will be seen by travellers, or anywhere that provides a natural canvas.
It could involve planting bulbs, or using natural materials such as fallen branches, seaweed, sand or rocks, or shaping or colouring the land itself. On a desecrated site, man-made objects could be used to highlight the desecration – or unexpected materials, to defy it.
The image
Drone shots are ideal, but be aware you need a license. If there is a film-maker in your group, you might also film the making process, and include interviews with those involved: this could result in a 2-3 minute film culminating in a pull-out to the final mega-graffito.
Your project might depend on the season, so the date of the unveiling is up to you: you may choose to make it coincide with another XR action, and to supplement it.
The images can then be shared on social media and elsewhere, with a few lines describing the action, and its components – and what inspired your group to do it. For maximum reach and impact, use the hashtags #painttheland and give this information (if appropriate) with your artwork:
Location:
Words by:
Art by:
Curated by: (name of your XR group).
Writers Rebel plans to provide a permanent home for your artwork in an online gallery on our website, as well as publicizing it. We will share your image on our channels if you tag us on social media or send it to xrwritersrebel@gmail.com so we can alert our channels.
Love and Rebellion
The Paint the Land team
#painttheland
Join us in campaigning
for recycled paper in publishing
For every 25 books printed, a tree is felled. In the UK, where an estimated 393.5 million books are printed every year, more than 15.74 million trees could be saved annually if the industry switched to using 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) paper.
Writers Rebel is uniquely placed to campaign for this to happen, with your help.
If you’d like to join our Paper Campaign Team to get UK publishers to make the switch, and you can spare a minimum of four hours a week, we’re looking for people with any of the following skills:
– Investigative research
– Campaign planning and implementation
– Event organisation
– Project management
To be part of this important shift, please email us at xrwritersrebel@gmail.com
Spread the word in other ways.
Share Writers Rebel content
Take a few minutes to read, watch, listen and share Writers Rebel.
Sharing our content is a simple and impactful way to raise awareness of the climate and ecological emergency. If you’ve read something on our site that moved you, please do mention it on social media or when speaking with family, friends and colleagues.
Support Writers Rebel Campaigns
We’ll shortly be launching an exciting new Writers Rebel campaign aimed at the publishing industry! Watch this space and our newsletter for how to get involved!
Help us to platform diverse voices
Writers Rebel is actively looking to platform marginalised voices, activists in the Global South, and those on the frontlines of environmental struggles. If this is you, or someone you know, and you have a story to share with our readers, contact us.
Volunteer for Extinction Rebellion
Various XR teams and groups all over the UK are looking for volunteers with a diversity of skills, for in-person and remote roles. Time commitment starts at 2 hours per week. The current list of volunteer opportunities can be found here.
Join your local Extinction Rebellion group
Local XR groups need writers to develop their narratives, create engaging content and join actions near you. Find your local UK group here. Outside the UK? Click here.
Write for Us
At Writers Rebel, we publish work by aspiring writers alongside pieces by more established authors. Find out more about what we’re looking for here.
Join the Writers Rebel team
We are looking for committed, skilled writers from a diversity of backgrounds to join the Writers Rebel team and assist with editorial support, administrative tasks, and a new campaign. A minimum commitment of 4 hours per week is required, plus a weekly 1-hour team meeting via Zoom. If you’d like to be involved, please email xrwritersrebel@gmail.com with a paragraph about your skills/experience and a paragraph about why you’d like to join the team.
Contact us with your ideas
You can email us directly.