By now, you've probably heard about the Extinction Rebellion- their rallies, their protests, ect. For those of you that haven't, here is a short summary. 
Extinction Rebellion are an English group who seek to force the government into thinking more about the environment. They have staged a series of public protests, aimed for non-violent, direct action. Echoing those of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and the Suffragettes, they carry out unexpected and serious acts targetted directly at members of our government. One example would be when they chained themselves outside of Corbyn's office. They've blocked Waterloo Bridge, blocked off Oxford Circus, ect. 

What you've most likely seen are newspapers telling us to shun them, to ignore them, that they're nothing more than a nuisance. However, that's blocking the bigger picture. Extinction Rebellion have 3 demands:
-to bring Carbon emissions to net 0% by 2025
-to get the government to tell the truth about the reality of global warming and just how bad the situation is by declaring a climate emergency
- to gather an assembly made by the general public so politicians aren't the only ones in charge of this crisis. 

In 11 years, I will be 27. Maybe I'll have a job, maybe kids, maybe a husband or a wife by my side. All the work I'd put into GCSEs and A levels will have paid off, and I'll be- hopefully- living a good life with a book or two published. But something else will be happening in 11 years. Scientists have discovered that, at the rate we're going, we only have 11 years to reverse the damage done to our climate over the last 60 or so years. The pollution, the carbon, the greenhouse gases, all of it. With this shocking revelation, Extinction Rebellion have taken it upon themselves to try and force the government into fixing the issue. 

This information might be scaring you, and you might be asking "but Abi, how can I help? I'm just one person!" Well, there are many things you can do.
1) Become vegan. Livestock and farming account for 51% of the world's emission of greenhouse gases.
2) Use reusable bags! Plastic bags are not biodegradable, which means that it takes hundreds of years for the bags to be broken down into plastic that will never fully go away. 
3)Save electricity. Turn off lights when you leave the house, flip the switch on the plug when you aren't using it. 
4) Save water. Water is often wasted way more than we could ever know, and fossil fuels are used to then purify that water and filter it once more. Turn your tap off when brushing your teeth, take showers instead of baths, etc.
5) Use reusable water bottles. They're as cheap as £2 from Primark, and less than that in other places. Instead of throwing away non-biodegradable plastics, you'll be using one bottle over and over again (this also saves you money).
6) recycle and upcycle. Reuse things that you can, recycle the others. This is not at all time consuming and doesn't alter your life in any way other than you have two bins. 

There you have it, my final article on this site. I've tried to use this as a platform to educate, expand, and explore. And, while you might find Extinction Rebellion inconvenient, nothing is more of a nuisance than our planet ending.