A former Extinction Rebellion activist has revealed why she quit the group, after a wave of leaked emails revealed that they planned to recruit 500 students during Freshers Week.
It is reported that they planned for the recruited students to take part in slow marches, where more than 3000 people aspired to be arrested in order to overwhelm the police. The group also called for students to attend "nonviolence training" prior to taking part in protests.
Speaking to GB News presenter Andrew Doyle on Free Speech Nation, writer and former student Charlie Bentley-Astor spoke of her personal experience as a student, and the pressure to join eco groups and their protests.
Andrew asked: "You were a student up until recently. What is the sense among the student body about eco protests? Is it just accepted that this is, you know, a kind of group think everyone feels this is the right thing to do?"
A former Extinction Rebellion activist reacts to Just Stop Oil's leaked plans to recruit students
GB News
Bentley-Astor replied: "Oh, it's a given. And if you challenge the ideas of climate change and the extent to which it's anthropomorphic, i.e. caused by humans, you're denounced as a climate denier and you know, shunned from from the student community.
"So you can't, you know, be an eco warrior without also believing in gender ideology without ascribing to critical race theory, this kind of thing. when I went to university I was the blue haired Marxist. Well, not blue, but bright orange.
"And I ascribed not to Just Stop Oil because they were very a very new sort of group. But I ascribed to Extinction Rebellion, sat there scribbling the cross on my notebooks and all the rest of it really, putting out the Facebook posts."Andrew then asked: "That's very interesting. So what's changed?"
Bentley-Astor admitted: "I grew up, started paying taxes. But yeah, I got taught the other side of Marxism, which is not the utopia but the death in the millions, and thought, huh, what else am I being lied to about?"
Andrew then shared his thoughts on the argument of the activists: "You know the activists will say, and they do say that we are facing a climate catastrophe and that climate change is happening, climate change is real and we've got to do something quite urgent about it.
"Chris Packham is recently he did the documentary about whether we should actually break the law, whether that should be a legitimate thing at this point. Do you do you see their point?"
Bentley-Astor quickly confirmed: "No. I've since picked up a more reasonable view of climate change, mainly since the cost of living has gone up. I've looked at the costings of these environmental challenges, but also things I was told in school.
"So when I went up to secondary school, the first thing you get taught about after basic biology is is climate change. And we were sort of told that by, you know, 2015, there would be no home for the polar bears left. And that's been and gone, and the polar bears still have a home."
Leaked emails reveal Just Stop Oil planned to recruit 500 students at Freshers Week events
PA
Bentley-Astor continued: "And I also challenge the extent to which climate change is caused by humans and how much we can do about it. And I don't see it worth bankrupting the nation, particularly when we make up 1% of carbon emissions in the world to make no difference."
Addressing the leaked emails from Just Stop Oil, Andrew asked Bentley-Astor why she thinks the group were targeting students in particular.
Bentley-Astor said: "I think young people are impressionable. And the older activists in these these groups know this and are frankly praying upon it, that the young people's need to contribute to society. And I think this all comes from the fact that young people haven't had enough boundaries growing up.
"And so they've been historically had their their parents to push back against their school, their government. You know, we think about all these protest things. It's always been against these authorities, but now these authorities are young people's best friend.
"And so now young people are lashing out for something to push back against. And the only thing that they've come up against is Mother Nature now. And so what bigger project to push back against than the death of the entire world?"