Environmental protest group Insulate Britain has caused controversy by blocking roads to highlight the need for better insulation in homes. But its aims are correct and direct action is "pretty much the only effective democratic way" to achieve change, argues architect Duncan Baker-Brown.

What does it take to affect societal change" This is what is required to meet the challenges of this climate and ecological emergency. History tells us that non-violent direct action is pretty much the only effective democratic way.
Whether one considers the suffragettes from the turn of the 20th century or freedom riders who deliberately drove interstate buses into segregated southern United States in the early 1960s, non-violent direct action can effect change. To put it another way, it can speed up the evolution of thoughts into deeds in a matter of years instead of decades or even centuries. It would appear that humankind is on the verge of admitting that we can't organise ourselves to help ourselves
Quite clearly, nobody who reads the scientific facts about our burning planet or the current mass extinction of species can feel complacent about the future.
Architect and environmental activist Duncan Baker-Brown
Perhaps you only started to read the scary headlines now, such as those in the recent IPCC climate report" Or perhaps, like me, you feel that COP26 is currently looking more like OPEC '73 as world leaders from China, India, Australia etcetera make it clear th...