Climate activists too radical? They point to suffragettes as a comparison.

For members of German-Austrian climate activist group Last Generation, the stakes could not be higher.

“It’s the climate crisis that is hurting people, that’s endangering lives,” says member and university student Zoe Rüge. She’s shocked by society’s blasé attitude toward climate change, and says leaders have two to three years before certain tipping points make it impossible to meet the 1.5-degree Celsius global warming limit set by the Paris agreement. 

To draw society’s attention to the issue, the group has staged disruptive protests, usually by gluing themselves to roads and tarmacs. In October, members halted traffic on a major Berlin highway, which ended up blocking a rescue vehicle whose patient later died. In November, they paralyzed operations at Berlin’s airport, diverting