Climate change activists shooting themselves in the foot?

[2beesornot2beesthatisthehoney]

I had sympathy with the both the cause and actions (though not the vandalism) until today. They are now paralysing the public transport system. Isn’t the main thrust of encouraging better habits for climate change , getting people out of their cars and onto public transport.
Fact 1: people need to work
Fact 2 : most need to commute , short journeys or long.
Fact 3: protests are to promote awareness and get the people on your side.

THIS WON’T !

It’s civil disobedience, the arrests are expected and protestors are warned prior to attending.

Would you have been even thinking about climate change if it wasn’t for you getting pissed off at the protests? Probably not. Maybe now you’ll realise just how utterly dire the situation is.

I think it is great. No one has listened to our concerns so far, have they? We are killing the planet and widespread changes have to happen NOW!

It’s not about getting the general public to not use cars for one day, it’s about getting out government to declare a climate emergency.

There is only so much the public can do without the govt actually getting behind it and making serious changes to policies and how things are done. That’s why it is a good thing.

I got caught up in the Edinburgh climate protests yesterday - that unsurprisingly haven’t made the news beyond Scotland at all. There were around 20 arrests, and traffic was held up for about 6 hours in the city centre. I don’t see how blocking the roads out of a main city, leaving cars on the road for ridiculously long times emitting exhaust fumes into an already crowded city is helping the environment.

I do as much as I can for the environment but everyone is fighting a losing battle until the government bans plastic wrapping in supermarkets and countries such as China which have the worst levels of pollution in the world get on board with everyone else I don’t see how blocking access to a major city will help anyone.
If anything it probably has the counter effect as the people protesting are seen as the enemies and no one sees the message they are trying to promote in the first place.

Mustard I have a really small carbon footprint, have worked on it for about 30 years. I use a couple of calculators each year to check.

I do drive, as does DH, but as we both work across wide areas that is imposible to negate. You wouldn't want DH to stop, you'd lose rail, road, mobile phone, internet and all sorts of other essential infrastructure if he and his colleagues stopped!

No flights, he might for work, once a year internal flight at the very most, maybe. I don't, we don't do foreign holidays.

Recycling, well, we no longer have chickens, but the dog takes care of quite a lot of veg ends. Very little else goes to waste - no bag, natch cos I use my biodegradable bag allowance for dog poo!

And I have posted before about unpacking items in supermarkets and giving them back their unecessary packaging! Oooh! That's 25 years and counting for that one ]smile]

Cleaning: well I haven't used a commerical cleaner for decades. Old socks as cloths, bicarb, water and vinegar for all cleaning.

Clothing: apart from H+S requirements, mainly from charity shops, re-sewn, patched, repaired until they too get used as cleaning cloths.

Food: Local, almost all from within a 30mile radius. So very seasonal and home grown. I no longer have a veg plot but have friends with allotments and a number of very good farm shops nearby.

Books local library - 100 yard walk.

I really AM SMUG as I worked hard to get this normalised into our lives. And I bet there will be omeoine along soon that does more than I do!

Catastrophsing about the end of the world and trying to shame posters with "what about the kids" is not the way to win people to any cause!

For goodness sake. It’s not about whether or not they cause a few more emissions on any one give day. It’s about getting the nation to wake up to the fact that we are a climate change crises.

Do you really all not care about the sort of world your children and grandchildren will live, and probably die miserably in?

Cross posted with you Curious but really, you can be as smug as you like. What you are doing is less than a drop in the ocean. As good as irrelevant. We need the governments of the world to take action.

Ah yes the old catastrophising dig! It’s not btw, we have 10 years as reported by the IPCC. 10 years in which to make huge, drastic changes to almost every aspect of how we live our daily lives to prevent the planet dying. If that doesn’t panic you then you’re made of sterner stuff than I.

www.ipcc.ch/ - read the report here. Tell me I’m still being dramatic once you have.

I think the OP and some others are missing the point about the protests. They're MEANT to be disruptive - to public transport, to road transport, to everyone. And that's just tough. That's what civil disobedience is, and thank god there are people willing to put themselves on the line over this issue.

You might childishly 'loose sympathy' with the protestors because you think you have to change your plans in some way for a few days, but your children and grandchildren will be thanking people like this for taking a stand now in a real and tangible way. You'd rather they all went home and wrote nice letters to their local MPs, would you?

These people are trying to do something about an overwhelmingly bleak worldwide issue which is going to affect your offspring's futures so much more markedly and dramatically than it will ever affect yours. Thank them for it and stop yer moaning.

@GidgetGirl hear bloody hear!

Just had a look thought the photos online. Plenty of carrier bags, plastic water bottles and that well known environmental friendly super glue in use.

If it been raining this week I am sure they would all still be in mummy and daddy’s triple garage making new placards and munching on lentil carrerole with their lentils flown half the way across the world before ending up on their plate.

we have 10 years as reported by the IPCC. I have little faith in the IPCC as many of their reports are/were based on questionable information. That and a certain gentleman who was quite brazen in his totally refutable science.

It has been about 15 years since I took them seriously. I almost have a kneejerk reaction whenever I hear they are involved with any claims. Sad really as they have a global position, lots of money and support from various influential funders, countries. Yet they persist in not cleaning up their own house, being seen to be right, having impeccable credentials! It really devalues the great work done by scientists whose work they then bastardise to make a point that could have been made without the lies and hyperbole.

It is the biggest challenge the WORLD faces. The UK isn't doing a bad job in cutting out omissions but until USA & China join in then its a drop in the ocean. I'm a science teacher and part our our curriculum is teaching climate change and how we can prevent it. So I'm helping by educating the next generation - the one that will need to solve this. I rarely fly (can't afford it) but do need to drive as live rurally and no public transport to shops or work. When I lived in London I never owned a car as it's easy not to if you live in a city.

Anyway, we are approaching Waterloo bridge so prepare to see mum dancing. Cabbie very happy to stop so she can pop out for a boogie. She's got mild dementia so any conversation could be interesting.

@Dontsweatthelittlestuff What an unnecessary and nasty post. The people protesting are doing a hell of a lot more than you are currently, and if anything changes you’ll be thanking them for a long time to come. You seem to have a very narrow view of people standing up for what they believe in. How incredibly sad.

You might childishly 'loose sympathy' with the protestors because you think you have to change your plans in some way for a few days, but your children and grandchildren will be thanking people like this for taking a stand now in a real and tangible way. You'd rather they all went home and wrote nice letters to their local MPs, would you? If that was to me you have chosen the wrong person.

Start with I have no kids so who cares?

Then re-read my post about my own carbon footprint and ask yourself why I do all of that?

It may help if you know that my first acts of civil disobedience were to sign up for Greenpeace at a time when membership was used to identify "Persons of Interest / Public Enemies" in case of nuclear war and to go to Greenham Common and join the sit in. I was 15/16years old and have posted about both before!

Bloody hell. The amount of crap these demonstrators have left blowing around is disgusting. Plastic bags are made of oil you bunch of hypocrites. The bullring roundabout looks like it's snowing polythene. NOT a way to make a point.

@Dontsweatthelittlestuff Oh god, you sound like this horrific, clueless, wilfully ignorant Sloaney monster I encountered at a meeting in Mayfair on Monday.. Moaning that her cabbie had to go all round the houses before dropping her off. It's such a cliched mindset - it makes my skin crawl.

Mustard you have no idea of what I do and the life style choices I make and I don’t need a bunch of professional protestors to preach to me.

Why don’t they go and protest outside the Chinese embassy as China is a major environmental disaster rather than disrupting the whole of London, costing our economy millions and disrupting normal working people’s lives?

They're literally a bunch of rent-a-crowd anarchists who want to shout and clash with the police over anything.

I don't care about these idiots and jolly well hope they're fined for the amount they've cost TFL and the met. Disgusting behaviour for a pointless cause - the U.K. is NOT the issue WRT climate change.

Protests during parliament recess...
Yeah, that was well thought out...
It's not an inconvenience for the people that can actually make a difference. Its inconvenient for the poor sods that rely on that public transport to get to their jobs, to get to hospital appointments, to visit family etc.
Bravo.
slow clap

Well done on making people resent your cause.

@Curiousaboutsamphire Well, have a fucking biscuit.

Honestly, all this 'but I do my bit' spiel before going on about how these ruffians shouldn't be so disruptive is missing the point of the protests by a country mile. Wilful ignorance, again. It suits you to put your waste into the right bags (etc...), but you just don't like the cut of these protestors' jibs.

Just heard that easter leave may be cancelled for the police

Which seems a shame

Gadgit I am far from a Sloan ranger. I have had a lovely day today in my garden, planting my bee friendly seeds, weeding and hand picking lily beetles and slugs off my emerging plants.

Of course I could have just sprayed some weed killer, bug killer and thrown a handful of slug pellets down hoped on a train to make an 80 mile journey and danced around in the spring sun with my carrier bag of bottled water and tube of superglue.