Extinction Rebellion Boston fights for clean environment in ‘life or death’ battle

The voices of the Extinction Rebellion Boston members protesting environmental destruction ring outside the General Hooker entrance of the Massachusetts State House. The activists have flyers in hand and are ready to approach whoever enters their eyeline.

Statehouse Standout, a protest initiative organized by XR Boston, takes place every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and seeks to draw legislators’ attention to the climate crisis.

XR is a “decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement” relying on nonviolent civil disobedience to promote active change in legislation to address the climate and ecological emergency, according to the organization’s website. 

“We aren’t living in a broken system. We’re living in a system that is functioning exactly the way it was designed … to perpetuate the status quo that it is killing us,” said Jamie McGonagill, XR Boston’s media and messaging director. “Our job is to disrupt that status quo as much as possible.”

Since 2022, XR’s goal is to ban all new Massachusetts fossil fuel infrastructure.

“If your bathtub was full to overflowing, the first thing you would do is turn off the tap. You wouldn’t spend time leaving the tap running and mopping the floor,” said XR Boston member Peter Watson. “We would like to see any new fossil fuel development infrastructure stopped … and until that happens, the water’s still going to be spilling.”

For Watson, the war on climate is personal. In his 80s, Watson said he’s always hoped for grandchildren. After a conversation with his daughter, who decided she no longer wanted children because of the state of the world, Watson realized he never would.

“That woke me up to it, and I started paying attention and saw how really screwed up everything was,” he said. “Ultimately, if nothing is done, we don’t have much longer on this planet.”

It was the work of members like Watson at a demonstration at the Hanscom Airport that brought major success to XR Boston.

The Hanscom Airport Expansion — which proposed 17 new storage units for private jets — would have erased 70% of Massachusetts’ solar gains, McGonagill said.

Climate activists infiltrated the airport April 20, 2024, and shut down its operations. Police arrested 20 members, including Watson.

The proposal was subsequently sent back, and the legislation was reformed before it reentered the state congress.

“The power we have is in numbers, and if we don’t have the numbers, then we’re basically ceding all of our power to billionaires and politicians who are owned by billionaires,” said May, an XR Boston member who wished to withhold her last name for personal safety.

With members like May and Watson, the group will continue to show up no matter the circumstance.

In July, Watson had two heart attacks in the course of a week. The next week, he returned to work shifts on the protest line.

He remains one of the most active members in the organization, tabling and protesting for the past five years — back when the group was called “Green Bananas” and met in a tiny Cambridge apartment.

XR first launched in the United Kingdom in the fall of 2018, when a group of activists gathered to request immediate government action regarding the climate crisis. Within weeks, rebels had blocked five major bridges, glued themselves to Buckingham Palace and dug a coffin on Parliament Square for humanity’s future, according to XR’s website.

The movement quickly spread internationally, with more than 992 groups in 88 countries currently. In the spring of 2019, Boston became one of the first chapters to start actively participating in the United States.

“It’s a classic Boston story. We were very early to adapt to the idea of revolution [and] very early to take action on a revolution.” McGonagill said. “We remain one of the most engaged, one of the largest and one of the most established chapters in the country.”

XR Boston demands the government declare a climate and ecological emergency and “take immediate action to halt biodiversity loss and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 90% by 2030,” according to its website.

There is an 86% chance the global mean near-surface temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees above the 1850-1900 average levels for at least one year between 2025 and 2029, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This violates the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, according to the United Nations.

“I’m worried about the future of the planet, and I’m worried even about our immediate future, within our lifetimes,” May said. “I’m here to try to get people motivated to fight against this and work for more sustainable energy,”

XR Boston will attend the Make Billionaires Pay protest in New York City Saturday to continue their work.

“It’s important for people to remember that the future is not written in stone, and that if we stick together and organize, we can make a better world for everybody,” May said.