ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rise of ‘slow activism’, a form of sustained, peaceful protest to highlight the urgency of the climate crisis. Because of government failures to contend with climate change and alleged state complicity with oil companies and big business to limit the regulation of climate-polluting activities, new forms of environmental activism have emerged to highlight the climate crisis. Slow marches, widespread locking on, disruption activity, and tactical criminal damage, including targeting of museums and galleries, represent strategic peaceful protests to highlight the climate emergency. This chapter also critically analyses the legal and policy responses to these movements, particularly the increasing criminalisation of environmental activism. It argues that such legal measures often suppress legitimate protest and hinder efforts to address environmental concerns. The UK Government has introduced new police powers to deal with protests, with measures specifically designed to crack down on certain types of environmental activism, namely the progressive forms of civil disobedience used by groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Stop Oil!
