Before you can pass a policy that criminalizes protest or show up at someone's house and

bungle them off in an unmarried van, you have to spend a good few years making sure a

substantial portion of the population will be on your side and not theirs.

And the best way to do that is to vilify and dehumanize the activists in question.

To make them annoying mosquitoes that everyone wants to swat away, even if they agree with

their cause.

Globally, the efforts to cast climate activists in that light have been pre-successful.

It is not uncommon to see everyone from prominent climate scientists to moderate politicians,

emphasizing the tactics of protesters a whole lot more than they criticize the criminalization

of protest.

It doesn't just happen, it's carefully orchestrated, and in recent years mainstream media has

mostly been assisting in that effort.

When it covers activism at all, which is rare, the media is largely critical of it.

Headlines describe climate activists as radical, decry-disruptive tactics, or focus on the

cost that this or that protest has inflicted on a business.

Articles will sooner raise an eyebrow at who's paying the activists and engage with the

cause that's driving them.

The reality is that the vast majority of climate activists are smart, joyful, deeply caring

individuals who are doing a pretty brave thing by putting their lives, their livelihoods,

and their bodies on the line for something they believe will protect all of us.

In an effort to re-humanize them, we'll be bringing you their stories directly throughout

this series.

...