Many people don’t need something as dramatic as Hurricane Milton to tell them our climate is spiraling out of control. It’s evident everywhere, from the U.K. recently reporting its second worst harvest on record to Antarctica turning green to the U.S. spending $150 billion a year on climate change-related extreme weather events.

But this isn’t some mysterious crisis. We know fossil fuel companies are responsible for the emissions heating the globe. But instead of fixing it, these corporations have lied to the public, bribed politicians and sowed distrust in science. Meanwhile, governments are giving more money than ever to fossil fuel companies via subsidies, with a record $7 trillion cashed out to Big Oil in 2022.

Some climate activist groups would like to bring your attention to this issue. But they are often arrested and get the book thrown at them when they demonstrate. Climate activist Roger Hallam knows this all too well, as he serves a five-year prison sentence for blocking traffic — and, as he explained to Salon, his plight is a warning to Americans who vote for politicians that deny climate science.

Hallam, who described himself as a political prisoner, was incarcerated for his role in leading and participating in an anti-climate change demonstration in November 2022. For four days, Hallam and more than three dozen other activists climbed a gantry and thereby blocked traffic in London’s critically important M25 motorway.

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Hallam, who co-founded the climate activist groups Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was given his sentence in July while his fellow activists Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were each given four year sentences. They were all denied the right to speak about climate science during their trials.

Now when Roger Hallam speaks to the outside world, he must do so in 500 word spurts. That is the word limit in the primitive email system with which Hallam is hooked up to the rest of the world. While the British legal system has not silenced him, they have undoubtedly made it extremely inconvenient for him to spread his message of climate activism to the world.

"We don't need to talk about the climate, we don't need to talk about change. What we need to talk about is power and criminality and evil."

When he spoke with Salon, Hallam didn’t want to dwell on his personal situation. He is well-read on American history, comparing his own plight to that of the anti-Vietnam War protesters who were arrested for allegedly starting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. With such history in mind, Hallam had a warning for the American public: He believes the rest of the world is relying on America to lead. If we go the way of politicians, like those who incarcerated Hallam and his friends, we will lead the planet in the worst possible direction. As he bluntly put it, “It's not a cause. The end of the world is not a cause. It's a total disaster. It is the end of civilization.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

First, I want to talk about the length of your sentence. I compare it to the sentence that Eugene Debs, the leader of the American Railway Union, received in 1894 for shutting down America's railway system during a strike. He received a six-month sentence. You received a five-year sentence for what was comparatively a much lighter transportation disruption, what you did to the M25. My question is, why do you think your sentence was so severe?

I suppose the obvious at the outset is Just Stop Oil has been the biggest climate resistance campaign in the U.K. for several years. It's done many, many confrontations with the British regime, as you might say. Hundreds of people have already been put in prison. New legislation came in an attempt to stop this “agitation.” And for that reason, they started giving people three, four, five year sentences. It's really a matter of attrition, as you might say, over the next few years until we finally push these regimes into some sort of shape or replace them.

You may have heard that right-wing politicians like former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are censoring and banning mention of climate change in government documents while also banning the teaching of it in schools. Do you see a connection between these political attempts to stifle climate change awareness and what you are experiencing by being incarcerated?

Again, it’s quite understandable in a way, because if we are going to decarbonize to the extent that is objectively necessary to prevent social breakdown in the coming two decades, then we are inevitably the heart of the catalyst system, broadly defined. And we all know that if you substantially challenge the powers that be, then they'll use all available means to respond to that: Repression, manipulate the public sphere so it doesn't get talked about or doesn't get mentioned.

Co-Founder of Just Stop Oil Roger........

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