Two Just Stop Oil supporters have painted multiple private jets on the airfield where Taylor Swift’s jet landed mere hours before. They are demanding that the incoming UK government commit to working with other governments to agree an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and ...
I didn't say that I disagreed with their goals. I just understand that they did hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage to those jets that will make absolutely zero difference to their carbon footprint and will probably be held financially responsible. A big win for the activists for sure.
How does this harden public opinion against their cause? This is the type of shit we want to see. There's a difference between this and inconveniencing those who are commuting to work.
We were all clueless about this at one time. Conversations like this educate people, I think it's obvious a lot more people will be upset with the emissions of private jets after this, than before the group vandalized.
But this is the point. Conversations will do it, activists like this won't. I don't think its obvious or even feasible, that many or any will change their mind about emissions based on these activists vandalizing planes.
I do support the cause, but I don't understand the means
I wrote that badly. I wanted to say that this sort of activism is valuable because it starts conversations like this. Which educates people, raising awareness.
Its fair but looking through the discussions here it seems like mostly people discussing the efficiency of demonstrations and supporting each other on it being the right thing to do (and a few dis agreeing on that too). But it seems like the point of the discussion is not the environmental crisis but the demonstration and vandalism
I dont see many becoming convinced or becoming aware about the environmental crisis, who were not already aware.
Do you think it convinced the motorists who have beaten them and dragged them off the road by their hair? Or the people responsible for the preservation of Stone Henge? Or the wealthy people whose jets they painted? I can't prove a negative, of course, or religion would be gone but you may be right, they may have convinced someone.
And I built a straw bale house 20 years ago that saves 75% on heating and cooling over my next door neighbours smaller house. I am making a real difference by making personal changes instead of trying to ram my moral superiority down other people's throats.
The richest 10 percent accounted for over half (52 percent) of the emissions added to the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015. The richest one percent were responsible for 15 percent of emissions during this time – more than all the citizens of the EU and more than twice that of the poorest half of humanity (7 percent).
I think what you built is legitimately cool but your efforts are erased many times over by a single flight these people take. I think thats enough to suggest you shouldnt empathise with the rich being given an inconvenient message, not that it was meant to change their minds, its to raise awareness in us, the general populace.
Also, we need systemic change, not just individual effort. We will have energy needs irrespective of how efficient we make things, and political pressure is how we will force away from fossil fuels.
No doubt. My point was that I'm actually taking concrete action to dramatically reduce my own carbon footprint rather than pissing off a bunch of people whose support I really need for my cause by trying to ram my misguided sense of moral superiority down their throats.
No, but the public have shown that they are frustrated with the extremists and the courts have handed down multi-year sentences of incarceration in a growing number of cases. The public react with revulsion to extremists.
We should be extreme in our opposition to the climate disaster currently unfolding. The heat is extreme, the hurricanes extreme, the drought is extreme, the crop failures are extreme and the dead and dying ecosystems are extreme.
We the public have been politely asking for climate solutions for decades while the extremist oil and gas companies hid the extent of their knowledge from us and used lies to convince half the population nothing is wrong. Even now, the oil and gas lobby lie and plan for expansion into poorer countries where western regulations can't touch touch them. They'll burn every drop, take every dollar, and Fuck over everything in doing it.
So you know what? When I see these people throwing paint on things, gluing themselves down, and causing tension I say good, good for them, be extreme. These protestors have convinced me over the last couple of years with these acts and nothing they've done is anywhere near as extreme as climate change.
Climate change is killing people, right now, probably thousands every year, that's fucking extreme and its getting worse. These protestors threw paint on objects.
Maybe it will work. I guess we'll see if they can convince the people who control the governemnt, military, and police that a few people glued to the road should change their unchecked avarice.
Well it would help an awful lot for so called moderate allies to stop whinging over the methods and start focusing on the message. Everyone who pours into a comment section to opine over their "agreeing with the cause, but not the act of protest" is carrying water for the oil companies. It's these people who help establish and maintain the permission structure for the out of hand dismissal of climate protests.
We should be uncomfortable with protests, people should be made to feel discomfort, tension, and cognitive dissonance. These things work to end injustice better than all the polite ignorable protests that have ever happened.
Well it would help an awful lot for so called moderate allies to stop whinging over the methods and start focusing on the message. Everyone who pours into a comment section to opine over their “agreeing with the cause, but not the act of protest” is carrying water for the oil companies. It’s these people who help establish and maintain the permission structure for the out of hand dismissal of climate protests.
Dude, calm down. I live in a straw bale house. I've been doing my part since before most of these people gluing themselves to roadways were born. I do something useful every election and vote for the parties that are for saving the environment.
This isn't "a few people glued to a road," this is a threat. "Fix society, or tensions will escalate."
The way you keep minimizing these efforts tell me you either don't really understand protests or are actively trying to make them seem trivial.
I saw you complaining earlier about them "shoving moral superiority down your throat," which is curious. It's like your biggest problem with them is just that you have to hear about it.
I'm sure your shed is nice. We need other people to build nice sheds.
I'm not minimizing their efforts. I'm pointing out that they are being annoying at best with no hope of affecting real change. It's protesturbation. Tantrumism. They're not terrorizing anyone with their stunts, they just being annoying.
I was protesting and active to save the St.
Lawrence River when it was so polluted you couldn't eat the fish. We did outreach and educatiom without annoying and endangering people. That was almost 50 years ago. I was very active in the straw bale building community for years helping other people to build straw bale buildings of all types. I trained the building officials to inspect straw bale buildings and intervened in disputes between people wanting to build a straw bale building and building officials with a 100% success rate.
I’m getting more and more sure - you’re just making things up claiming to know what the “public” thinks. Did you call up 1800 British people to know this or are you just assuming everyone thinks like you do?
The public who would otherwise care so much about this nightmare that we keep barrelling towards... people who use that "frustration with extremists" are just justifying to themselves what they would have done anyway, which is nothing.
They believe that their actions are justified because they believe that they are morally superior. They are self-absolving. That is the hallmark of extremists of all types.
It is obvious that they feel justified in inconveniencing or endangering hundreds or thousands of people at a time by blocking roads and bridges, invading the stage at performances, etc. Any one of those people could be rushing home to meet their children, or to a hospital to see a dying parent, or facing the loss of their job if they're late. An inattentive HGV driver could plow into the back of stopped traffic and kill people. But, it's totally ok because their motives are pure. That's self-absolution. That is the hallmark of an extremist.
Perhaps. With the near iron grip that the wealthy have on most governments I don't expect anything to change because a few people glued themselves to the road or threw a bit of paint on some rich assholes jets.
It's apparently water soluable so the paint should come off easily. The expensive part is going to be cleaning the engines and external instruments if they need to be cleaned and reccalibrated or recertified. The courts have been handing out serious sentences running into the multiple years so they may have that coming as well.
Edit to add - I meant to add, and they'll find a whole bunch of disaffected people ripe for recruiting to a direct action cause. But my ADHD brain forgot. :(