Photographer Nigel Pugh took to the streets of Cardiff this week to photograph the activists and campaigners of the #ACTNOW marchers of the global Extinction Rebellion movement against man made climate change.
Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse.
(Click on the photo to open the gallery)
About Extinction Rebellion:
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On 31st October 2018, we assembled on Parliament Square in London to announce a Declaration of Rebellion against the UK Government. We were expecting a couple of hundred people. Instead, 1500 came to participate in peaceful civil disobedience. The energy was contagious! The next few weeks were a whirlwind. Six thousand of us converged on London to peacefully block five major bridges across the Thames. We planted trees in the middle of Parliament Square, and dug a hole there to bury a coffin representing our future. We super-glued ourselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace as we read a letter to the Queen. Our actions generated huge national and international publicity and, as news spread, our ideas connected with tens of thousands of people around the world. The XR project was resonating with a deeply felt need for community and solidarity. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” we chanted! Dozens of countries now have groups springing up, from the Solomon Islands to Australia, from Spain to South Africa, the US to India.
So what’s next? We are working relentlessly, building our movement in preparation for phase two, an international rebellion that will begin on 15th April 2019. So come and join us. Rebel for life. For the planet. For our children’s children’s futures. There is so much work to be done.
You can find out more about Cardiff Extinction Rebellion on their Facebook page here, and help support them via their fundraising page here.
Nigel Pugh has been a practising artist for twenty four years, concentrating solely on photography for the last five years. Born in Mid Wales the woods and rivers that surrounded him were his playground, place of solace and exploration. He absorbed the wildlife and it’s nature, whilst intuitively responding to the ever-shifting light upon the abundant textures and landscapes. During eighteen years of living in Mid Wales he began to note the ecology dwindling, and left wondering, why? Forty years on he estimates that 80% of the river ecology alone, in his home area has disappeared.
