Gail Bradbrook

“We want an economy that grows health and wellbeing, not debt and carbon emissions. An economy that prepares and protects us from shocks to come, rather than making them worse. An economy that shares resources to meet all our needs, regardless of background. An economy that lets us live.”

“Whilst I'm all for psychedelic science - I think it's fantastic - I don't think we necessarily have time to wait for the science to tell us these medicines are useful. The indigenous cultures have already shown us the ways.”

“Everyone is into yoni steaming. I've done it once.”

“What happens if you stand passively by the side of the road with a placard saying, you know, 'Stop climate change' is you just get ignored. When you get on the street and block it, people start to have a conversation about this existential situation that we're in.”

“Love has a cost, and it's grief. Because we will always be separated from things we love. That's the nature and price of life, right? But, when you love something deeply, then you're courageous.”

“I do have a rebellious spirit.”

“We've tickled the nose of the tiger, the establishment are frothing at the mouth.”

“One of the tensions in XR are people who want to slow down and be strategic and then people who think it's an emergency, let's get out on the street now. There have been conflicts and disagreements.”

“We could easily be facing starvation in the U.K. if the weather effect continues as it is. We need to be building resilience in our communities.”

“I am no longer a scientist as I stopped in 2000. Science was quite a testing place to be as a working-class woman.”

“We do need a vision that's uplifting, even whilst being realistic. And there's a lot in the world that already speaks to that, like tikkun olam in the Jewish faith.”

“I'd been focused on trying to start civil disobedience since 2010. I'd tried many things and they hadn't worked. So I went on a retreat and prayed, with some psychedelic medicines. It was really intense and I prayed for what I called the codes for social change and within a month my prayer was answered.”

“I did yoga in the cell, meditated, and slept well; somebody brings you some food and drink. I've been arrested four times now.”

“I did a PhD in molecular bio-physics.”

“We need to have a grown-up conversation about what kind of system do we need, both politically and legally and culturally and economically, that will stop this ridiculous, outrageous harming that we're doing to ourselves and the planet.”

“If your government isn't protecting you and the future of your kids, you have a duty to rebel, and a right to rebel.”

“This is not a slow movement of change. It's a shift in the consciousness of each of us. It is a collective shift. It involves facing grief and trauma and undoing our numbness and our narcissism and our indulgence that we have in this privileged western society.”

“It sounds like an extremist thing to say, but what do people think is going to happen to human beings when there's not enough food?”

“I've always been interested in how things change, in social change. I was involved in the animal rights movement as a young woman, I've been involved in thinking about gender and issues around racism and so on.”

“But the main thing is to give people permission to feel it and to put grief at the heart of what Extinction Rebellion's about.”