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Radical Hope: Truth, Virtue, and Hope for What Is Left in Extinction Rebellion

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Authentic hope requires clarity—seeing the troubles in this world—and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable.

Rebecca Solnit (2016, p. 20)

Time is running out, but it is never too late. There will always be something left to save.

Extinction Rebellion Activist, United Kingdom (2019)

Abstract

This paper examines expressed hopelessness among environmental activists in Extinction Rebellion. While activists claim that they have lost all hope for a future without global warming and species extinction, through despair emerges a new hope for saving what can still be saved—a hope for what is left. This radical hope, emerging from despair, may make Extinction Rebellion even more effective. Drawing from personal interviews with 25 Extinction Rebellion activists in the United Kingdom and the published work of other Extinction Rebellion activists, this paper identifies signs of radical hope. While activists have cast off false hope and passive hope, a new hope for what is still possible remains. This hope is based on virtue ethics: doing what is right in the moment, rather than being attached to a desired outcome. This drives forward activism despite the results. Through their principle of regenerative culture, Extinction Rebellion activists learn to support each other and be prepared for a more turbulent and challenging future. Through a regenerative culture they can salvage and repair what is left and sustain radical hope.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Northern Arizona University, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The author would like to thank Ryan Gunderson for his thoughts on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Correspondence to Diana Stuart.

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Stuart, D. Radical Hope: Truth, Virtue, and Hope for What Is Left in Extinction Rebellion. J Agric Environ Ethics 33, 487–504 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-020-09835-y

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