‘I’m not some scraggly hippy’: Doctor quits $110,000 job to join Extinction Rebellion protests

A doctor who left his job to live on couches. A scientist who has frozen her eggs. These are the people who gave up everything for a cause.

A hipster co-working space in London’s Soho was a likely venue for Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) headquarters ahead of their two-week protest that paralysed parts of the city and led to more than 1700 arrests.

With a bar stocked with oat milk, red wine and more than your average number of topknots in sight, volunteers keenly ticked people off lists with the fervour of a student party where everyone wants to be involved.

A leather jacket may have been a bad choice. But no judgment, it was all cheery inclusivity and a short meditation before getting down to business as the group detailed plans for the protest that has taken over central London.

Doctors for Extinction Rebellion (XR) at Jubilee Gardens, London. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP

A woman is arrested in Brisbane after activists took over a bridge. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

Extinction Rebellion climate protesters blocking Whitehall at the bottom of Trafalgar Square. More than 1700 arrests have been made in London. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

For two weeks, activists aged from under one to over 80 have occupied spaces outside tech companies, finance and media organisations, glued themselves to buildings and conducted high profile stunts as part of a worldwide call for governments to act on climate change.

They’ve attracted widespread support but also sparked anger with tactics including chaining bike locks to their necks and gluing themselves to trains which have disrupted daily life for many. On Thursday, some London commuters clearly had enough with a video showing a protester being yanked from the roof of a train before a violent platform clash.

So who are the people behind the protests, and how do they really live? News.com.au met some of those taking part and here’s what they had to say.

VISHAL CHAUHAM, 29, former doctor

Vishal recently quit his £60,000 (A$108,000) a year job as an accident and emergency room doctor with Britain’s NHS to move back in with his parents and live off £400 (A$724) a month expenses from Extinction Rebellion — a decision he sees as part of his duty of care to patients.

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The thoughtful and softly-spoken doctor said he initially got involved by offering to run a meditation course for activists but eventually came to believe the environmental crisis is bigger than any single case he might be able to help in hospital.

“The health impacts that people will feel [from climate change] will be far more severe than any of the issues I’m dealing with in hospital right now and the government is not doing enough to stop that,” he told news.com.au.

“I don’t see what I’m doing now as being separate from my work. I’m a doctor, I took an oath, I have a duty of care to British people and I feel like that duty is best served through trying to stop this disaster.”

Vishal said he believes protesting is part of a “duty of care” to patients. Picture: Victoria Craw/News.com.au

Campaigners against a third runway at Britain’s Heathrow outside the Supreme Court. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

He has put himself forward as an “arrestable” and said he doesn’t see himself as a “scraggly hippy”, but rather someone who is carrying out preventive healthcare for the public.

“I do this as a doctor. In our duties of care as a doctor it says ‘I will act in the best interests of patients, if there is an emergency and patient safety is compromised I will act swiftly and proportionately to stop the crisis,” he said, likening the current situation to the “crash call” you get when things get dire in hospitals.

“I know in A & E we respond to emergencies and what we’re doing in society right now is not responding to that emergency. A patient collapses and we’re just leaving that patient there while we go for lunch. Or asking them to come back in a week’s time and giving them a packet of paracetamol when we need to be giving them resuscitation.”

MORE: Glued to a plane — wildest protest yet

He said his family are “gutted” at the decision to quit his job, having previously supported him switching from a finance degree to medicine. He said it’s heartbreaking to see them struggle with his decision, but that “they don’t’ fully understand that I’m doing this for them.”

“They’re starting to come to but at the moment all they feel is that loss. They’re like ‘why you? Why can’t someone else be doing this?’ But this is the issue, no one else is doing it. I don’t want to do this, you know. No one else is doing this.”

He initially lived off savings after quitting his job but when they ran out, he moved home, started to couch surf and survives off £400 a month XR provides to some volunteers. He struggles with missing his job but still feels he is doing the right thing.

“I spent 29 years of my life being told that being a doctor is a great service for humanity,” he said. “There’s no better feeling than being present for someone at their time of need and knowing that you have both the knowledge and the practical skills and the emotional skills to be able to support them through that.

“There’s no better feeling and I’ve lost that. I don’t get to enjoy that, I don’t get to be there for people immediately.”

XR protesters take up residence in a London Street. Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA via AP

SARAH MINTRAM, 29, ENGLISH TEACHER

Newlywed Sarah, 29, got married in Tuscany in June but after a few days off was straight back into answering emails and taking phone calls on honeymoon.

The former online English teacher runs a business with her husband, but the vegan activists now devote 90 per cent of their time to XR, pulling 17 hour days working on logistics with other XR groups around the world.

The couple have spent the last decade travelling and living overseas in places from Brazil to South Africa and describe themselves as “professional squatters”. They now use house-sitting sites to travel and connect with other groups.

While some climate protesters have sworn off having children, she’s not quite ready to do that and cited a quote saying “without hope all we have left is despair.”

“For me that’s really key because if I was to give up the dream of having kids I would only be left with despair. I would be admitting that that’s it and we’re not going to change it and we really all are going to end and I’m just not ready to quite admit that,” she said.

“I still have faith that we’re going to change it and we’re going to make a difference.”

Mothers stage a sit-in outside Google. Picture: Paul Ellis/AFP

The group are calling on governments and media organisations to “tell the truth” on climate change. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of the Extinction Rebellion climate action movement, speaks before smashing a window at Britain’s Transport Department. Picture: Isabel Infantes/AFP

ROBIN BOARDMAN, 21, FORMER STUDENT

Former Spanish and Portuguese student Robin, 21, had his tickets booked for a university exchange when he decided he couldn’t go through with it and dropped out of his course to join XR full-time.

To the shock and horror of his civil-servant mum and Waitrose worker dad, he stayed home and started working as a climate activist, living off “bread and hummus”, going on hunger strike and putting himself forward for arrestable actions with the group.

He seems particularly galled to note that the negative effects of climate change have been known since before he was born and yet more work still needs to be done. While his parents were “definitely not happy” with his alternative career move, he said they were starting to come around to his way of thinking.

“This future they’d laid out for me, this future with a great education, I’d be throwing it away and for what?” he said.

“To them I said, ‘this future path you’ve prepared me for no longer exists …. I’m thinking about food shortages for our family in the next few years’.”

They have allowed him back to live on the family couch after worrying about how thin he was becoming and said he’s prepared to go to prison for his beliefs. He was arrested ahead of the London event and said despite the adversarial roles, they “chat all the time” with British police.

“They often say a line like: ‘I’m not sure about your tactics but I respect you for standing up for what you believe in’. So it’s again this idea that we’re not just saying it’s an emergency, we are walking the talk as well.”

Activists glued their hands to a bridge in Brisbane. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

Protesters have used a “go floppy” tactic in the face of police. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

DR EMILY GROSSMAN, 41, SCIENCE BROADCASTER AND AUTHOR

It was April 2019 when the multi-talented cancer researcher, broadcaster and children’s author realised that despite building a career on talking about science, she had little knowledge about what was actually happening to the planet.

She started her own investigation and realised with “increasing horror” what is not widely known and now coordinates Scientists for Extinction Rebellion to help verify scientific claims and draw attention to new resources for the group.

Dr Emily Grossman is a science broadcaster who is active in Scientists for XR. Picture: Victoria Craw/News.com.au

Emily is also an expert in fertility and froze her eggs two years ago with the intention of using one if she decided to have children. Now however, she is not so sure given the fact she believes we’re due for decades of resource scarcity and civil unrest.

“The more I understand and the more I hear about what’s going on in the world and where we’re going to be in 10, 20 years time, I don’t want to bring children into this world who are not going to have a chance to have a childhood,” she said.

“I really don’t think for myself it’s a great future that we can bring children up into and I also want to focus my energy into making sure the public know what’s going on.”