to support extinction rebellion - more London action tomorrow

[54321nought]

I am not sure what, but I have seen their previous demonstrations, and support their cause.

We were given badges at one event, and travelled home on public transport wearing them, and received absolutely nothing but 100% support from other travellers, which was nice, as I expected some hostility, publicly wearing their badges while roads in London were closed by them

@54321nought they blocked ambulances on blue lights going to St Thomas hospital the last time around - I know as I was there so I think you may need to check your facts about them transporting people to hospitals / medical appointments.

I will most likely support them this time (it's Monday by the way today - according to XR London) but I won't support them if they block life saving access to hospitals in this manner; many of their own supporters won't this time around.

@Mrsjayy

Middle class people with their badges wailing and crying whilst lying on roads and trains preventing people getting to work and their day whilst getting the bus home 😂

Why this obsession with whether they are middle class or not? Many are, many are not.

As I said, many are retired

retired teachers, lawyers, doctors, builders, plumbers, - that I have met

The reason many wait until retirement is because of the risk of arrest and a criminal record impinging on working life

What I have witnessed is many of the retired members trying to protect the younger members from arrest, etc, by putting themselves between younger members and police

Of course a lot of the very young members are also very passionate, and don't care about getting a record

I suggest that everyone who supports extinction rebellion goes back to a 1950s lifestyle. No central heating, no technology, no replacing clothes until they are really worn out, in fact buy nothing until the item is kaput, walk or use a bike to get around, no car, no foreign holidays, no 'gap years' travelling to exotic places, don't buy a coffee on your way to work (because of the rubbish created), no food that isn't produced locally, (so bang goes the quinoa then). Have I made my point !
This isn’t quite the gotcha you think it is; lots of us are doing most of this, and it is exactly the way forward. (Except for the no tech right this minute, as I’m arguing with you on MN – you’re right that this is a waste of energy in all senses.) As for central heating, why go backwards to none when the government could subsidise heat pump technology and other net zero solutions?

@Terhou

You are still putting excuses forward, the poster had to dump her car.
The problem wasn't a basic lack of care. It was caused by XR blocking the streets and not allowing the poster to get to her appointment.

She had to leave her car because of XR
She had to rush because of XR

Do you not see the causal link?

@PlanDeRaccordement

I dislike their name “Extinction Rebellion” because extinction is not imminent. They know that. But they run around doomsaying and I’m sure in 20yrs they’ll claim credit for “averting extinction” and demand to be added to the history books as heros.

Extinction is imminent for many species. The planet has already warmed. Sea level rise can no longer be averted.

Get your head out of the sand.

@DillonPanthersTexas Totally agree. DH is a train driver and was stuck for 2 hours with over 200 passengers whilst these twats were on the tracks. Idiots.

@Whattheflecker

Reading the responses on here, our kids are totally fucked aren't they 😞

They are if anyone thinks twats supergluing themselves to tube trains will help

Hopefully this thread will be fucked by MNHQ soon just like anything vaguely controversial is now.

@maddening

"The U.K. is responsible for 1% of global carbon emissions, why don’t they protest somewhere like China and see how that goes down."

And the stuff manufactured in China is what we transport around the world using fossil fuel to bring to the UK, it is cheaper to do this on the backs of people paid a pittance in China with no employment rights than to pay UK wages and manufacture here, obviously manufacturing here would raise our carbon production.

Alot of the crap manufactured there and transported here is shitty plastic tat which we use once and then throw away and pay Malaysia or other poorer nations to take away as "plastic recycling " which then rots forever on what was a beautiful beach far away. But we don't have to count it as our carbon footprint as we have "recycled" it.

I agree @maddening

It is deeply shocking to see so many people on here believe Uk is "one of the greenest countries on the planet" without realising that is because we pay poorer countries to offload so much of our pollution and environmental problems onto them

People need to open their eyes

ER does help with that

Not one single negative comment all the way - which surprised me, because I expected hostility
Reminds me of the time climate protesters stopped me and husband who were travelling on foot whilst they protested on a crossing light. They started with their 'facts' which were very basic. Husband and I said we were vegan so knew the facts about climate change. We didn't challenge them and obviously agreed that climate change was bad.
We then walked away agreeing it was antagonising people unnecessarily and if anything would put people off. We don't go around being aggressive or challenging people so our silence was deemed as consent.
I always feel very cross when xr crop up because they create bad feeling for vegans and showcases as hypocrites when most of us aren't and are just quietly living our lives as environmentally conscious as possible (as do most non vegans)

Lives will be far more seriously disrupted if the government dong make changes now

Quite, @Marikali. I'd have thought that people might have realised that after a summer of floods, wildfires and record temperatures.

I'm also somewhat shocked by the vitriol directed by people exercising their right to protest. It's a cornerstone of a democratic society, and even if I didn't agree with their objectives, I wouldn't object to the demonstrating.

@FourTeaFallOut

Urgh, extinction rebellion

Has there been one single person who has been saved from their climate denying ways by a bunch of anarchist blue hair wannabees running round London hopped up on their own self righteousness?

thousands

@Polkabott

I agree that things need to change and I'd happily get behind an organisation that was making realistic headway, but I don't agree with the way they go about it. Some posts seem to be alluding the thought that if you aren't a fan of XR you're happy to see the world burn, which isn't the case

What would you change about the way ER goes about it then?

Darker

I agree with everything you've written but ER look like massively privileged twats when they protest at Canning Town rather than Aldegate or Mansion House for example.

Bollocks.

@PlanDeRaccordement

I dislike their name “Extinction Rebellion” because extinction is not imminent. They know that. But they run around doomsaying and I’m sure in 20yrs they’ll claim credit for “averting extinction” and demand to be added to the history books as heros.

….whilst I’m not a supporter of XR because their methods are ill judged, their message is correct. We are fucked.

@Terhou

About time they got a bloody job.

It's a Saturday demonstration, @AngryWhompingWillow. What makes you think they haven't got jobs?

AS I have already said, many are retired, I have met retired doctors, lawyers. teachers, builders and plumbers

You can't argue "about time they got a job" to people who have worked 40 years!

That doesn't really stand up as an argument against ER activists!

I watched a parade of theirs. They held up traffic for ages. It was a boiling hot day so people left their cars running to use their air cons. They had dressed themselves in a load of plastic tat like deely boppers etc, and we’re covered in glitter and face paint. There is NO SUCH THING as biodegradable glitter, so their choices were further damaging the environment. Their message is vital, but they need to address some of their actions. What they did with the poppy wreaths was idiotic - yes, vital message, but all they did was further push people away. They need to rethink their methods.

@Darker
Extinction is imminent for many species. The planet has already warmed. Sea level rise can no longer be averted. Get your head out of the sand.

99% of all species have gone extinct....we all go extinct eventually. So it is normal for species to be going extinct while we humans exist. That’s normal for the planet. But human extinction is not imminent and that is a key part of the XR catastrophe propaganda.

Sea levels have been rising since the Ice Age ended 26,000 yrs ago. What do you mean they can’t be averted now? They never could be averted. We are in an interglacial warm period where the ice caps melt and the sea levels rise. This too is normal for the planet.

My head isn’t in any sand. It’s fully aware of the millions of years of geological history. It’s not panicking based on cartoons or records that only go back a few hundred or few thousand years. Yes climate change exists, it always has. Yes humans have influenced it and yes CO2 is a greenhouse gas. But guess what, we have technology to pull CO2 out of any atmosphere and convert it to O2 with a net gain of reducing overall CO2. They’re testing it on Mars now. And these can absolutely be scaled up and deployed worldwide to take care of the CO2 that was released fifty years ago which is warming the planet now.

You can't argue "about time they got a job" to people who have worked 40 years!
Plus plenty of XR take annual leave to protest. My work is giving people the time off if they want to go.

@GinJeanie

This is an aside really. Not sure I understand all this middle class/working class dichotomy. My family are are working class, my DH's family are "middle class". We've all always gone to work to eat/maintain a door over our heads. It's not just working class people who work or get stopped from getting to their workplace as some previous posters might suggest. I've never attended an ER protest and haven't really been inconvenienced by one either. I agree with *@Eskarina1* though. If I took direct action in this way and got in trouble with the police, there's a high chance I'd lose my job as a teacher. There are many people attending protests such as these who face this type of risk. There are a lot of generalisations and hate when the reality is lots of ER protesters are retired, lots work, lots are activist who live in relative poverty most of the time, some could be described as hypocritical and are wealthy, fly etc, a small majority are out for trouble, many are young people who are angry/scared/frustrated about their lack of future. They're all just people. We ALL have an impact on the environment whatever we do but many seem obsessed with pointing the finger at what others are/are not doing and shouting "hypocrite". I loathe all this generalising and othering of people when folk disagree with them or don't like their actions. Calling people "middle-class twats" when they're willing to stand up and do something/anything doesn't reflect well on us either. I agree the environment is fucked, I agree ER has been counter-productive in many ways but not sure there how people get heard tbh.

This is a lovely post

I very much value our environment, thats why I don’t make needless journeys, litter, use single use plastic or smash glass windows.

Well said.

The ' many retired ' enjoyed flying off on their holidays while motoring around in their cars and banging their central heating on in the winter.
The rest of them need to get a wash and a job.

are these the same climate worrying people who went to a music festival and left tons of rubbish behind them I wonder.