As the fracking protesters show, a people’s rebellion is the only way to fight climate breakdown | George Monbiot

Our politicians, under the influence of big business, have failed us. As they take the planet to the brink, it's time for disruptive, nonviolent disobedience

It is hard to believe today, but the prevailing ethos among the educated elite was once public service. As the historian Tony Judt documented in Ill Fares the Land, the foremost ambition among graduates in the 1950s and 60s was, through government or the liberal professions, to serve their country. Their approach might have been patrician and often blinkered, but their intentions were mostly public and civic, not private and pecuniary.

Today, the notion of public service seems as quaint as a local post office. We expect those who govern us to grab what they can, permitting predatory banks and corporations to fleece the public realm, then collect their reward in the form of lucrative directorships. As the Edelman Corporation's Trust Barometer survey reveals, trust worldwide has collapsed in all major institutions, and government is less trusted than any other.