As the climate crisis continues to accelerate, wealthy governments in the West are clamping down on climate protest. According to a new report from Climate Rights International, demonstrators around the world are being arrested, charged, prosecuted and silenced, simply for using their rights to free expression. One of those prosecuted is activist Joanna Smith, who last year applied washable school finger paint on the exterior glass case enclosing Edgar Degas’s renowned wax sculpture, Little Dancer, at the National Gallery of Art to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis. She was charged and later sentenced to two months in federal prison for her civil disobedience. We speak to Smith just a week after her release, and to Linda Lakhdir, the legal director of Climate Rights International. “Countries who have held themselves up as beacons of rule of law are essentially repressing peaceful protest,” says Lakhdir. Smith says the nonviolent action she took was intended to highlight the disparity between a sculpture of a child protected from the elements with a strong plexiglass case and the billions of children around the world left unsafe and vulnerable by climate change’s effects. “The crisis is here now, it’s unfolding in front of us, and our governments are failing us,” she explains.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to look at how many Western governments, including the United States, are cracking down and even jailing climate protesters. The group Climate Rights International has just issued a report titled “On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries.” This is a short video accompanying the report.

MORGAN TROWLAND: Hello. It’s Morgan. I’m a civil engineer from London. As part of Just Stop Oil, I’m occupying the QE2 Bridge. We’ve just survived the first night up here. We’re up here until the government makes a meaningful statement to cancel all new licenses and consents for oil and gas extraction, because oil and gas is killing us now and it’s driving millions into poverty.

MARCUS DECKER: It needs to be done, because we act on behalf of life.

NARRATOR: Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker climbed the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge outside London to raise awareness about climate change. For 36 hours, they stayed on top of the bridge. For their peaceful protest, Trowland served 14 months in prison, and Decker spent over 16, the longest sentences ever for a peaceful protest in the United Kingdom. Decker, a German national, is now being threatened with deportation.

The United Kingdom is not the only government responding harshly to climate protesters. Many democratic governments in the Global North are passing harsh new laws which restrict the fundamental right to peaceful protest and imposing heavy penalties, including prison.

LUISA NEUBAUER: In Germany, which considers itself a strong democracy, a very free country, we’re seeing increasing charges against climate activists who are part of peaceful civil disobedience actions. I would say it’s one of the most terrifying effects that we’re seeing worldwide. As the climate crisis demands us to act drastically, radically and promptly, we see governments being busy bullying climate activists.

CHRISTIAN BERGEMANN: The name “Letzte Generation,” which is the name of the group I belong to, translates to “Last Generation.” This name is derived from a Barack Obama quote, which was, I think, in 2015. We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it. Maybe the most dramatic response from German authorities to the peaceful protests of Letzte Generation have been house raids, on the accusation that these people were a criminal organization.

SIEGER SLOOT: To me, climate activists are like the canaries in the coal mines. We are not protesting for fun. We’re not protesting to gain on a personal level anything, except a livable future.

NARRATOR: The escalating impacts of the climate crisis and frustration with governmental inaction are fueling protests. Climate protesters in many Western democracies are resorting to the kinds of peaceful civil disobedience used by the civil rights and similar movements.

LUISA NEUBAUER: This is no longer action against climate activists; this is action against democracies and the freedom of the people.

CHRISTIAN BERGEMANN: The way the authorities are looking at us is basically as a problem to get rid of.

TIM MARTIN: They’re hoping, with enough repression, we’ll give up and we won’t get any building of the movement.

NARRATOR: Many of........

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