Modernity’s machine – the merging of industrial, bureaucratic, and cultural systems – was hailed as humanity’s savior. Instead, it has become the architect of humanity’s demise. The hyperobject of the climate crisis is the machine’s ultimate creation: vast, uncontrollable, and devastating. It grows from a past riddled with injustice and destruction, erupting into a present where we imprison those who resist it. And this points to a future where our survival hangs by a thread.

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The machine – the complex system that governs us – is where the horror lies. It takes time for us to fully recognize this, especially because it feels so abstract. But deep down, we know. There’s reluctance to confront it, yet the truth is undeniable. If you’re reading this, step away for a moment, take a walk, then come back. It’s time to confront this head-on.

One billion displaced people. That’s the primary scenario we face. It could be more, maybe less. The number is not the point. The point is the scale of catastrophe. This is the reality we’re heading towards.

Excerpts from  Suicide: The Political and Legal Implications of Creating Endless Mass Death by Roger Hallam with Robin Boardman, published by Hard Rain Books, United Kingdom, 2025, pp. 113 & 131-132.  

Synopsis (back cover): In the age of climate collapse, telling the truth has become a criminal act. From a cell in Wayland Prison, Roger Hallam—farmer, researcher, and co-founder of Just Stop Oil—delivers a searing indictment of a legal system that punishes those who resist, while protecting those who destroy. In July 2024, Hallam was dragged from a British courtroom for refusing to stay silent about the climate crisis. For “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” he was sentenced to five years in prison. The case made front-page news and drew global outcry.

Suicide is part memoir, part political reckoning. Drawing on Hallam’s award-winning research and experience representing himself in four Crown Court trials, the book lays bare the moral and legal failures of a society sleepwalking into catastrophe. From climate science and the right of necessity to the collapse of democratic norms and the illusions of secular reason, this is a radical call to rethink justice, truth, and duty in the face of extinction.

As quoted by Pulitzer-winning author Chris Hedges in his Foreword, during an interview in Wayland Prison, Norfolk, England, in October 2024, Hallam said (p. 10): “The time for pretending is over. We are facing the end of the old world, and we are going to have to battle to create what comes next.”

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Roger Hallam, a British environmental activist, is a leading figure in the global climate movement. He gained notoriety as the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, and Just Stop Oil—the most prominent social movements of recent years in the UK. A lifelong advocate for social justice, Hallam dropped out of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in his twenties to join the peace movement. Later, he spent thirty years as an organic farmer in South Wales until extreme weather conditions destroyed his crops.

Hallam’s personal experience of climate breakdown led him to King’s College London, where he produced award-winning research on civil disobedience and the psychology of mobilization. In 2018 he wrote the Tate Modern Book of the Month, Common Sense for the 21st Century, a widely read guide to launching mass movements and his introduction manual to Extinction Rebellion. In 2023, the New Statesman ranked him as the UK’s 34th most influential progressive—second only to David Attenborough among environmentalists. He has advised climate action movements across Europe and written for news outlets, such as The Guardian and The Daily Mail. On British TV, he has appeared on BBC Hard Talk and GB News.

In July 2024, a British judge sentenced Hallam to five years in prison—the longest sentence for civil disobedience in modern UK history—for refusing to remain silent about climate collapse in court. His prison sentence made front-page news across the political spectrum. He continued to write from prison at rogerhallam.com.

In March 2025, the Court of Appeal reduced Hallam’s five-year sentence to four years. Then, on August 14, 2025, he was released on parole. Despite restrictions to his movement, he remains fully committed to continuing the work for which he was imprisoned—the creation of a global nonviolent revolutionary movement opposing the greatest crime in human history caused by the continued emission of carbon.

Robin Boardman is the youngest co-founder of Extinction Rebellion (XR) and a prominent voice for youth-led climate action. He helped lead a campaign which resulted in the University of Bristol’s full £2 million fossil fuel divestment. Since suspending his studies in Spanish and Portuguese to focus on climate activism, he undertook a two-week hunger strike against the Heathrow Airport Expansion, coordinated Communities and Operations at XR, and has been a spokesperson on various media outlets.

Since May 2020, Boardman is now living with chronic Long Covid symptoms of headaches and fatigue. Through articles and talks, he focuses on making complex scholarly research on civil resistance and climate science more accessible for younger generations.

His work has been featured on BBC News, Byline Times, Resilience, and the Centre for Nonviolent Conflict. He writes regularly at robinboardman.com.