{"id":3776,"date":"2021-11-05T12:32:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T12:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2021-11-05T12:48:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T12:48:18","slug":"rupert-reads-court-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/rupert-reads-court-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Rupert Read’s Court Statement<\/span>Rupert Read<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

May I start with one point of law. I wish to dispute the claim by the Prosecution that our action does not meet the criterion of addressing an \u2018imminent\u2019 threat to life. It is well-established in English law that \u2018imminence\u2019 does <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> only mean \u2018that very night\u2019 or the like. The classic example is its being accepted that if Anne Frank had stolen a car to escape from Amsterdam under Nazi occupation, the law of this country would not have held her guilty of a crime, and in particular that if a prosecutor argued that she should have waited until the Gestapo came knocking at her door before resorting to crime, that would have been a dangerous and excessively narrow interpretation of \u2018imminence\u2019 allegedly entitling her only then to the defence of necessity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our defence of necessity is that the Global Warming Policy Foundation represents an ongoing and ongoingly imminent threat to life in the same kind of way as Anne Frank faced. Every day that climate action is delayed by climate-delay and climate-denial multiplies the threat that climate breakdown hangs over us all, over our very lives, over the future itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in the rest of my remarks, I don\u2019t want to rehearse the legal arguments you have already heard from me and my lawyers. I want to do something different.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want us to set aside our official roles, as much as we can.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a philosopher by trade. My business is critical thinking and logic; in this way, my day job is very like the law that you on the magistrates\u2019 bench are embodying here today.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to set all the rational arguments and the legalese aside, in these final five minutes, and address you directly, person to person, human to human. Because, sure, I\u2019m here today because of my philosophy and because of the ethical demand upon me, and I\u2019m here today because of the years I\u2019ve spent working alongside the world\u2019s leading climate scientists, but most of all I\u2019m here today because of my nephew and nieces. One of my nieces wanted to come and see the proceedings here today; she wasn\u2019t allowed into the courtroom, because she is too young. I did what I did that night in Tufton Street because I\u2019m deeply scared and wounded whenever I contemplate what the world will be like by the time she\u2019s all grown up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The world my nephew and nieces are growing up into may become nothing like this one; because of our chronic and criminal inaction on climate, there\u2019s a real and growing risk that all this ((gesturing at the room)) will be swept away. All the institutions we rely on, including yours, are now at risk. Law and order will likely break down, if climate breakdown causes civilisational breakdown, as is now on the cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

You are intelligent professional people; even before the evidence that we presented here earlier, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve read about the IPCC reports; you probably know what I\u2019ve been saying already. You know, deep down, that everything now hangs in the balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

So my question for you is this: Here I stand, I can do no other. I\u2019ve <\/span>tried<\/span><\/i> everything<\/span><\/i> else; you\u2019ve heard the record of the years I\u2019ve spent tackling this growing emergency through my academic reading, through my political activism, through influencing government, through being an elected representative myself. I had some small successes through some of it; and was part of a larger success when Extinction Rebellion moved the dial of opinion decisively in 2019. And you\u2019ve heard how I\u2019ve taken on the GWPF directly in debate, and how I led the successful campaign in 2018 to stop their \u2018top man\u2019 Nigel Lawson from being used as \u2018balance\u2019 to climate truth, on the BBC. <\/span>And yet <\/span><\/i>still these people at Tufton St, with influence still at the very highest level, still even now they try tirelessly to stop the alarm being raised adequately. What am I to do? <\/span>What ought I to have done, if not what I did<\/span><\/i>, knowing what I do?<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve known from the start that the very strong likelihood is that you\u2019ll find us guilty. But I\u2019m asking you now: <\/span>what else would you have me do? Where else should I make my stand, if not as I did? <\/span>And: If not now, then when? Would you have us wait til the Thames barrier is overtopped? Til the Palace of Westminster is flooded out? Can you honestly tell me I should have waited even longer than I did, before finally undertaking non-violent direct action myself?<\/span><\/p>\n

So\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Before making your final decision on our guilt or innocence, I want you to look into these eyes, and ask yourselves honestly: <\/span>What else would you have me do? <\/span><\/i>To expose the deniers to the light; to stop them from any longer being able to stop the alarm from being adequately raised.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

See this fellow human being standing, open, before you. Tell me truly that I acted too soon, if you can. What my heart and my conscience tell me is that if anything I left it too late.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell me, please: <\/span>what would you have me do, if not what I did.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rupert Read<\/strong> is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia and the author of many books on the climate and ecological emergency including Parents For a Future.<\/em>\u00a0As one of the Tufton Three, he stood trial on October 28th.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  May I start with one point of law. I wish to dispute the claim by the Prosecution that our action does not meet the criterion of addressing an \u2018imminent\u2019 threat to life. It is well-established in English law that \u2018imminence\u2019 does not only mean \u2018that very night\u2019 or the like. The classic example is […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Rupert Read’s Court Statement<\/span>Rupert Read<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[536,225,535,366,215],"yoast_head":"\nRupert Read's Court Statement - Writers Rebel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/rupert-reads-court-statement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rupert Read's Court Statement - Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  May I start with one point of law. 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