Trevor Neilson: “I helped start Extinction Rebellion. Here is why they are getting it wrong”

The Times Tech Podcast

Will Morley

Business, Unknown, Technology

4.9 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2023

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Trevor Neilson, founder of startup Wastefuel and the Climate Emergency Fund, to talk about how he helped launch and finance Extinction Rebellion (XR) (4:50), how the Malibu wildfires inspired him to act (8:20), meeting Roger Hallam, founder of XR and Just Stop Oil (16:00), bankrolling protestors (18:00), why he thinks the movement has gone off the rails (22:50), whether he is worried about what his former colleagues will think (32:00), how XR has experimented with changing tactics (40:30), where and how he grew up (43:30), getting a job at the White House (46:30), working with Bono on AIDS (50:00), starting his own company (55:00), why he does not think we will meet the 1.5 degree goal (58:10), telling the truth (1:09:00), and the children suing Montana (1:11:50)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Yo, technology.
0:02.9	What is it all about?
0:04.4	To be clear, I think young people in particular have every reason on earth to be terrified and angry about what's going on.
0:12.7	And I understand that as an expression of that fear and that anger, protest can feel really good.
0:20.3	And it can also get a lot of likes on Instagram
0:24.1	and make for incredible TikTok reels. But I don't believe that there's a coherent theory of
0:30.6	change. And in fact, I think now that it is working against an incredibly complicated
0:36.3	undertaking.
0:54.0	Hello and welcome to Danny in the Valley.
0:58.3	I am your host, Danny Ford's and the West Coast correspondent for the Sunday Times.
1:02.8	And I have got a great one for you this week. And it's a little different, but I think you're really going to enjoy it.
1:05.9	So on the show, we have Trevor Nielsen.
1:10.0	You have probably never heard of Trevor, but you have heard, I'm guessing, of
1:15.4	Extinction Rebellion. You have heard probably of just stop oil. These, of course, are the aggressive
1:24.4	activist groups that have made a name for themselves for their extremely
1:28.3	disruptive tactics, you know, gluing themselves to walls, throwing soup on art
1:33.7	masterpieces laying down on the road to snarl traffic in London. They are really the tip of the
1:39.6	spear when it comes to this kind of current era, I guess you would call it, of climate activism,
1:45.8	and they are increasingly divisive.
1:48.1	Some people think they are doing God's work.
1:50.2	Other people think they are just gone way too far and are just basically, have lost the plot.
1:56.4	Why am I talking about all this?
	...

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