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June 23, 2023

French Government Bans "Earth Uprising" Direct-Action Climate Group
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The government of France has ordered the shutdown of the direct-action
environmental group Earth Uprising, wielding powers that it previously
used to outlaw far-right movements. The order came after the French
interior minister accused Earth Uprising of carrying out "eco-terrorism"
at several recent high-profile protests. The group responded in a
statement, "Trying to silence Earth Uprising is a vain attempt to break
the thermometer instead of worrying about the temperature." The
crackdown drew criticism from Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg,
who spoke Thursday from Paris.

Greta Thunberg: "All over the world we are experiencing this, not the
least, for example, here in France just the other day, and that
activists are being systemically targeted with repression and are paying
the price for defending life and for the right to protest."

Greta Thunberg was speaking at this week's Summit for a New Global
Financial Pact in Paris, where climate activists are demanding world
leaders mobilize trillions of dollars to finance a transition to clean
energy and a "loss and damage fund" to help the Global South deal with
the worst effects of a climate catastrophe they did not cause. This is
Ineza Grace, a youth climate activist from Rwanda.

Ineza Grace: "We have recently seen the flooding in Italy, the wildfire
in Canada. But the developing world is hit the hardest because they have
the least resources to cope. For countries like mine, business as usual
is a death sentence."



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