Does climate change crisis justify illegal resistance or are activists out of bounds? DEBATE

Representing the climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion, Tim Jones believes that temporarily disrupting everyday life with protest actions is a small price to pay in a fight where the alternative is the “collapse of society.” While the group draws a firm line against any physical violence, “criminal damage” is sometimes necessary in order to “draw attention” to the “terrifying reality” of climate change.

However, political commentator and New York Observer columnist Andre Walker says that environmental activists are simply justifying criminal activity based on their beliefs. Furthermore, the demands activists are making can be undesirable or even infeasible. Some groups are even pushing for carbon emissions to be reduced to 0, which Walker believes would mean “a return to the stone age.”

Is the environmental crisis so bad it requires radical action, or are activists undemocratically pushing their agenda at others’ expense?