Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, has taken to Twitter to share his frustration in an 11-point thread after being given carrots and a handful of potatoes as a “vegan option” for dinner in the hospital.
Mr Hallam posted a photo of an almost empty plate from his bed showing just a serving of carrots, and wrote 391 words about the environmental benefits of going vegan – but admitted he had already eaten the ‘six’ potatoes served on it the side.
The controversial environmentalist, 56, who also helped form eco-mobs Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, is in hospital after ‘crushing’ his leg in a cycling accident.
He was photographed last Friday with an external fixator on his right leg that is used to hold broken bones in place with metal pins or screws.
It comes after a week of ‘slow marching’ Just Stop Oil protests in central Londonwith expected action on Saturday at 12pm in Westminster.
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam, 56, is currently in hospital with a broken leg
Mr Hallam posted this photo online with the caption ‘vegan option’ and an 11 point Twitter thread
Mr. Hallam wrote next to his meager dinner portion: ’30 [years] after being told that refusing to switch to plant-based diets would result in the greatest spasms of human suffering in our historical experience due to environmental/social collapse, this is what the health department of the 5th largest economy just set me for dinner (plus six new potatoes I ate before taking the picture from my hospital bed).’
He further stressed that he did not blame the NHS or hospital staff, or even the UK’s individual policies on the environment.
Instead, he said the “utter failure of the entire global human system” to adapt to climate change means the world is heading for “mass suicide.”
He added at the end of the tirade, “PS in case you think I’m cherry picking for this photo – I’ve had similar meals for [the] last 5 days.’
While his long thread garnered well wishes from some, other social media users were quick to point out that while the meal looked rather sparse, it was vegan.
They also criticized the 56-year-old for admitting that he had already eaten a significant portion of the food before taking the photo.
One user replied, “Do you want those carrots or not?”
A second said: ‘At least you can see in the dark’.
A third added: “I don’t think he’s understood the vegan thing if he’s left out his veggies.”
Another user, who objected to the sheer length of Mr Hallam’s comments, said: ‘Boiled vegetables causing such gushing, uncontrolled sprays of verbal diarrhea is new, I must admit.’
Other vegans also responded to the thread, with one saying that the provision is not the same in other hospitals.
David Brudnell wrote, ‘Get well soon. My wife was recently hospitalized in Peterborough and we dreaded the lack of vegan options. We were pleasantly surprised. Enough choice.’
Mr Hallam’s thread continues: ‘This situation is far too serious to easily point the finger at rhetorically. This is not a problem for the hard working staff at this hospital, nor a problem for the hospital or the NHS, or any country’s “policy”.
It is deeply and catastrophically SYSTEMIC – as evidenced by the complete failure of the entire global human system (with one or two peripheral exceptions) to produce a system change response.
And the reason for this is because of the totalitarian ethos of short-term utilitarianism and competitive freeriderism – the fundamental logic of billions of decisions made every day.
A reformist regime is by definition incapable of responding to the threat of a systems pathology that is universally existential and exponential. The logic of this system is that it will double short-term responses as the pressure of all systems increases: & become more irrational.
This “flaw” in the system has been known for decades and is mathematically indisputable at the theoretical level and supported by 30 years of data at the empirical level.
“The deepest irrationalism in our human experience is that hundreds of millions of university-educated administrators of this mass suicide still oppose the only solution at this stage.
“To give up their jobs and oppose the system, while at the same time building alternative government assemblies to take over from the carbon regimes that will inevitably collapse over the next two decades.
‘I am involved in building networks of such individuals who can contribute to the growing civil resistance organizations in the Western world. Send me a message for more information.
Sounds crazy? Remember, you only have two options now: wait until you die or take your chance and jump the fence.’
Earlier, Mr Hallam explained his hospitalization, writing: ‘I am writing this from a hospital bed. See the picture. I fell off my bike and shattered my leg bone.”
He posted on the first day of XR’s latest protest weekend entitled “The Big One” – where Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil joined forces with several other campaign groups to mobilize around 50,000 environmental protesters in London from April 21-24.
Writing from the hospital, Mr Hallam – who owns a farm described as ‘poorly insulated’ in an official energy performance certificate – encouraged supporters to take part in further demonstrations, adding: ‘Remember to keep the JSO slow marches to do when you are in the uk.
“But most of all remember that we will have the greatest life experiences imaginable in the next decade and we must all stick together and persevere. And be happy about it.
Lots of love from the hospital! x (courtesy of the NHS)’.
Aside from his environmental campaigning work, Mr Hallam has previously come under scrutiny for comparing the Nazi killing of six million Jewish people to other historic massacres, while also claiming that the memory of the Holocaust held Germany back.
The former organic farmer was quickly condemned by Extinction Rebellion groups in Germany after his comments to a newspaper in the country.
In July 2020, it was announced that Mr. Hallam no longer has a formal role in XR and has since moved to Just Stop Oil.
Just Stop Oil, a group committed to demanding an end to all new fossil fuel projects in the UK, has caused chaos in central London this week after a series of slow marches to stop traffic.
The action prompted Interior Secretary Suella Braverman to announce stricter laws against peaceful protesters, allowing police officers to remove them from the road more quickly.
MailOnline has contacted Mr Hallam for comment.