Rebels glue themselves to NBC’s Today Show windows
BREAKING: Extinction Rebellion women glue themselves to NBC’s Today Show windows and demand the media ‘Free the Truth’
New York, NY – On Wednesday, April 21, at 7.30am, three women from Extinction Rebellion glued themselves to the glass windows of NBC’s Today while it aired live. The protestors placed signs on the windows of the show reading “Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency” and “Dear Media, Tell the Truth About the Crisis.”
The action was in protest of the network’s failure to adequately report on the climate and ecological emergency. Although NBC’s Today outperforms its morning news program counterparts, climate coverage as a whole made up only 0.4% of overall coverage on corporate broadcast morning, nightly and Sunday morning news shows in 2020. [1] The women acted knowing a growing number of women worldwide are becoming increasingly frustrated and fearful for the future of the planet, their own lives and their children.
Jennifer VanBenschoten, Extinction Rebellion activist and educator, said, “The job of a free press is to tell the truth, and not be manipulated into silence by advertising revenue or political biases. It is essential to our democracy and necessary to avoid losing food security and access to fresh water in a not so distant future.”
The scientific community unanimously agrees that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activity. [2] Without strong climate action, the current path will tip us into civilizational collapse and potential extinction, according to Sir David Attenborough and the Secretary General of the United Nations. [3]
“We’re not moving forward at the speed we need to turn the crisis around. The American public is unaware of just how bad the situation is. The media is failing to reflect the scale and urgency of the crisis and hold governments to account,” said Laura Cole, Extinction Rebellion activist and non-profit campaigner.
“In 1970, NBC’s Today Show focused on the environment for the entirety of Earth week,” said Kerith Creo, Extinction Rebellion spokesperson and animal rights activist. “Humanity has wiped out at least 68 percent of wildlife since 1970. When you consider the severity of the crisis, it would only be logical for The Today Show to focus on the environment on every beat, every story, every day of the year in 2021.”
The action was held on the eve of Earth Crisis Day, where President Biden will be hosting a Leaders’ Climate Summit with 40 world leaders. As part of a national campaign, Extinction Rebellion is calling on the president to invoke the National Emergencies Act by formally declaring a climate and ecological emergency. According to an article published in January in Scientific American, “To date, 1,859 jurisdictions in 33 countries have issued climate emergency declarations covering more than 820 million people.” [4] A declaration would allow President Biden to unlock sweeping presidential powers and be able to organize resources to mitigate climate change. The group is calling on the public to sign the #DeclareCEENow petition in support of this. [5]
Extinction Rebellion activists regularly make sacrifices and take risks through nonviolent civil disobedience. Extinction Rebellion follows in line with non-violent movements, including the Suffragettes and the Civil Rights movement, to raise awareness and demand the government take the drastic, necessary action to stop further climate and ecological breakdown.
Extinction Rebellion calls for NBC and the rest of the corporate media to declare a climate emergency and report accordingly:
Climate headlines daily
Climate everywhere: every beat, every story
Suggest real solutions
Use climate emergency language
Enact climate standards for political endorsements
Remove financial conflicts of interest.
A set of photos of this action can be found here.
Notes to editors
[1] How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2020 – https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-networks-covered-climate-change-2020
[2] Scientific Consensus: Earth's Climate Is Warming - https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
[3] World risks ‘collapse of everything’ without strong climate action - https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1085452
[4] The Climate Emergency: 2020 in Review
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-climate-emergency-2020-in-review/
[5] Biden: Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency Petition - https://www.actionnetwork.org/petitions/declare-climate-ecological-emergency
ABOUT EXTINCTION REBELLION
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.
The four demands of Extinction Rebellion are:
Tell the Truth – Government must declare a climate and ecological emergency.
Act Now – Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
Beyond Politics – Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizen’s Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Just Transition – We demand a just transition that prioritizes the most vulnerable people and establishes legal rights for ecosystems.
#TelltheTruth
#FreethePress
#EndClimateSilence
#ClimateCrisis
#DeclareCEENow