Fight for the future: our best climate protest photos
- Text by Huck
- Photography by XR’s Red Rebel Brigade, October 2019 by Peter Brooks (main image)
The fight against climate change is a decades old struggle. For years and years, environmentalists have taken action to try to protect our natural world, encourage leaders and multinational corporations to leave fossil fuels in the ground and, more recently, prevent irreversible and devastating climate change.
The last few years have seen an explosion of those movements. The 2018 IPCC report which stated we had just 12 years to avert catastrophe became a huge calling card for many. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets behind the banners of mass movements like Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future.
We’ve seen co-ordinated marches across the globe, the targeting of events like Fashion Week as well as mass civil disobedience campaigns which have led to thousands arrested. Many, spurred on by the terror of what unabashed fossil-fuel use means for them and their families, have taken action for the first time on the climate over the last few years, calling on leaders here and across the globe to act.
Through all of it, we’ve been there, reporting from the ground, capturing the action and the struggle. As the world’s eyes are on Glasgow for this month’s COP26 summit and as activists gear up for a huge weekend of action in the city and across the world, we bring you some of our favourite photos of climate protests that we’ve published over the past few years.
XR protest 2018. Photo by Theo McInnes
Extinction Rebellion blockade the bridges of London, November 2018. Photo by Eva Clifford
Global Climate Strike in London. Photo by Theo McInnes
XR’s Red Rebel Brigade, October 2019. Photo by Peter Brooks
Extinction Rebellion blockade the bridges of London, November 2018. Photo by Eva Clifford
Extinction Rebellion blockade the bridges of London, November 2018. Photo by Eva Clifford
Climate protestors block roads to ‘disrupt’ Fashion Week, February 2019. Photo by Theo McInnes
XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda
Global Climate Strike, London. Photo by Theo McInnes
XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda
XR protest, 2018. Photo by Theo McInnes
XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda
Climate protestors block roads to ‘disrupt’ Fashion Week, February 2019. Photo by Theo McInnes
XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda
XR protest, 2018. Photo by Theo McInnes
COP26 takes place between 31 October – 12 November 2021. Keep an eye on Huck’s live coverage of COP on our Twitter and Instagram, and read more about our climate takeover here.
Latest on Huck
Inside New York City’s hedonistic 2000s skateboarding scene
New photobook, ‘Epicly Later’d’ is a lucid survey of the early naughties New York skate scene and its party culture.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Did we create a generation of prudes?
Has the crushing of ‘teen’ entertainment and our failure to represent the full breadth of adolescent experience produced generation Zzz? Emma Garland investigates.
Written by: Emma Garland
How to shoot the world’s most gruelling race
Photographer R. Perry Flowers documented the 2023 edition of the Winter Death Race and talked through the experience in Huck 81.
Written by: Josh Jones
An epic portrait of 20th Century America
‘Al Satterwhite: A Retrospective’ brings together scenes from this storied chapter of American life, when long form reportage was the hallmark of legacy media.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Bobby Gillespie: “This country is poisoned by class”
Primal Scream’s legendary lead singer writes about the band’s latest album ‘Come Ahead’ and the themes of class, conflict and compassion that run throughout it.
Written by: Bobby Gillespie
Vibrant photos of New York’s Downtown performance scene
‘Balloons and Feathers’ is an eclectic collection of images documenting the scene for over two decades.
Written by: Miss Rosen