4 Billion Dead – The direction of travel.
The situation
Since the founding of the Extinction Rebellion in 2018 and the explosion of mobilisation around the world against the elite’s mass death project, the situation has only got worse. Many times worse if we are to be honest with ourselves. The world has hit a 1.5C increase in global temperature, and temperatures are predicted to rise by 0.4C over the next decade. The main scenario is that the elites will continue to emit carbon at present levels and we go over 2C at some point in the 2030’s. This is the point at which the feedbacks in the Earth system are likely to be triggered, risking runaway climatic collapse – and yes – mass death. This most obscene reality comes straight from the UK insurance industry’s own report, which names mass death in the billions as one of the worst outcomes we’re risking at 3C – hence the name of the project – “4 Billion Dead”.
This project intends to move on from the old “climate movement” in several significant ways.
Resilience
First, it is no longer appropriate – even if it ever was – to pretend that what we are facing is merely an “issue” that requires a “campaign” to “fix it”. What we face requires us not just to change the world but to change how we see the world and ourselves. We are not going to have any resilience unless we first take the time to focus on what it means to live a good life in the appalling context we are presented with.
Before we focus on “what is to be done” we have to go through a process of what Gandhi called “self-purification”. We have to detach ourselves from our egos – that bit of ourselves that wants success – to win. And that part of ourselves which is filled with judgement against those who we see as responsible for this ultimate catastrophe. Both paths lead to burnout and/or violence. And paradoxically, neither of these outcomes will lead to “success”.
This idea of self-purification is not something we invented. It comes from a much older tradition, one that Gandhi drew on and made one of the four pillars of his nonviolent resistance, alongside truth, nonviolence and action. For Gandhi, this was never a private spiritual matter set apart from the struggle. It was the necessary preparation for it. Action taken from ego, from anger, from the desire to win, corrupts itself eventually, however good the cause. Purifying our own motives, being willing to act rightly whether or not it “works”, is what lets people sustain this kind of resistance for years without being consumed by bitterness or burning out. It is, for us, an ongoing and unfinished practice: loosening our grip on the need for success or recognition or even any guarantee that things turn out alright, so that we can act rightly simply because it is right, and go on acting rightly for as long as this crisis demands.
We need to accept we are in the world to do what we can, and we are not responsible for outcomes. Once we have accepted this – once we have focused on the “whole”, only then can we turn our attention to the “parts” – to the practicalities of making a plan.
This is why we work through ritual. Every human culture has them: repeated, intentional actions that mark something as significant. A funeral, a wedding vow, a moment of silence, a candle lit. Rituals are not about supernatural belief. They exist because human beings process the biggest, hardest to hold feelings, grief, fear, love, awe, not just by thinking about them but by doing something with the body, often together with other people. A ritual gives a feeling somewhere to go.
That matters here because the reality we are facing is almost too large to process by thought alone. Most of us have no cultural script for what to do with the knowledge that billions of people could die this century from a catastrophe humanity is causing and could still choose to stop. Ritual is how people have always handled realities too big for individual thought: not by solving them, but by marking them, together, in a way that lets us carry the weight without being crushed by it, or numbing ourselves to it entirely.
This is why we are starting this project with silent processions. People anywhere can build up to organising these events by taking pictures of themselves holding a written sign with “4 Billion Dead” written on it – and sending it to 4 Billion Dead and sharing it on social media. Once there are several people in a region or city, they will be put in touch with each other and they take pictures of themselves outside government buildings with their signs, and organise their first silent procession.
Each of these acts is small and simple by design. The photo. The posting of it. The gathering. The procession. None of them fix anything on their own. What they do is give us a way to stand inside the truth of the situation instead of looking away from it, and to do that alongside others rather than alone.
The purpose of these events then is “self purification” – to do an activity for no other purpose than to bear witness to the realities we face. It is simply what it is – a procession – nothing more and nothing less. It does not aim to mobilise or influence. It is an act of practice to train us to be detached, to focus on the here and now. It is then a matter of “virtue” rather than “instrumental”.
Once this has been done several times and the format and culture of the procession is established, the groups can take things forward and the processions can start to be publicised. This can be done by sharing event details on social media, and online, via postering, leafleting, stalls etc. A standard talk can be given in public meetings followed by small group discussion and participants sign up to help with mobilisation and to come to the next procession event.
All this can happen in any country where people are interested in being part of the 4 Billion Dead project. There will be regular international online talks and people in the same country or region will be put in touch with each to start the project in their area.
Remaining within “the law”
The second new development is that 4 Billion Dead will not be involved in organising or acting in a way a regime sees as illegal. In the increasingly authoritarian contexts we face, direct action will most likely lead to the arrest and imprisonment of people in the organisation and force its closure. 4 Billion Dead as an organisation will therefore focus, for the time being, on training, the organising of the processions, and publicising the 4 billion death reality we face.
The grand vision
4 Billion Dead is not a single campaign. It is part of an international movement which, as conditions worsen, seeks to provide a positive radical alternative to the default collapse into fascism. Along with partner groups and networks we are demanding a political revolution – a fundamental change in how decisions are made in our society: the move from voting systems dominated by the pathological elites to sortition based assemblies, meaning where participants are chosen randomly from the population. Such new bodies will decide our fate and that of children and their children. The demand is for “assembly based government” made up of permanent citizens assemblies – ordinary people, with the legal power to stop the elite’s death project, redistribute power and wealth, and emergency responses to the general ecological crisis.
As a first step 4 Billion Dead will demand of governments the creation of independent and regular national citizens assemblies with the legal power to slash carbon emissions. If governments do not respond to this demand then 4 Billion Dead and partner groups will fundraise (around £500,000) to create their own civil society organised citizens assembly. The policies proposed by these assemblies will boost the mobilisation and give legitimacy to the movement parties committed to the birth of real democracy for the twenty-first century – rule by the people for the people. This is our vision of the remaking of humanity in these end times.
Of course we will remain flexible and will work closely with other networks which share this grand vision. Processions and training events may be organised with partner groups and we will support their initiatives. And if others come up with a better way of doing the great task we have taken on – then we will join them. This is not about 4 Billion Dead, it is not about us. It is about joining in the greatest chapter in the human story – whether we humans decide to live or die.
Final Word
Thank you for reading. Please don’t let your self dwell on the pros and cons, the “does it work”, “is worth my time” . Let your self settle into being in a world where four thousand million stand to lose their beyond precious lives. Feel the overwhelmingness, Feel the no-words-ness. Visualise your self walking in a procession holding a simple written sign that tells the truth – the situation as it is. And sense that there is a reason, beyond thinking and logic – that points to this just making sense. When you get that sense then click the link and you will be on your way.
That is what this is about.