On Friday, Extinction Rebellion campaigners marched from campus to Wageningen town hall. Malik Dasoo is on the right. Photo: Extinction Rebellion Malik Dasoo (24) and Janina Fraas (22), both WUR students and XR representatives, say between 150 and 200 people joined the climate march on Friday 17 May. The protest included the presentation of symbolic demands to WUR and the municipality.
‘The municipality gave a really positive response,’ says Dasoo. ‘Councillor De Brito said she wants to work with us to persuade national politicians to declare a climate emergency.’ But the campaigners are less impressed with the university’s response. Dasoo: ‘It boiled down to WUR saying it already did enough because they share information about climate change and species extinction on the website. We don’t see that as “doing enough”.’ Fraas: ‘This university has such a good reputation that it would send a really powerful message if WUR adopted a firm position.’
We will be organizing more disruptive protests
The campaigners now know ‘what they need to do,’ says Dasoo. ‘The university has rejected our offer so we will start more disruptive protests to make sure the Executive Board makes an offer to us.’ XR wants to do this in a constructive manner. ‘We won’t be interrupting lectures. We will be occupying public spaces and organizing lectures there about climate change and the extinction of species.’