Extinction Rebellion co-founder says he would block an ambulance carrying a dying patient

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How can anyone support this bunch of nasty idiots who are willing to commit what can only be described as murder. How can anyone justify this? Imagine how you would feel it was one of you family members in that ambulance, this man would not hesitate to cause their death.

@FreeBritnee

Well of course he would because they are a collection of selfish cunts. They’d happily walk over the body of a dead child to prove their point.

Where’s the link for that statement? I must have missed it. Or is that just you making stuff up?

I’m not sure why anyone’s shocked by this. The XR founders from the start have always said their movement is about anarchy and political upheaval.

They deliberately use inflammatory language to make their supporters feel like heroes when all they are doing is sitting on their arse doing nothing.

There are plenty of brilliant things happening in conservation right now and some really productive conversations happening and new legislation being drafted up as we speak (so not just empty handwringing or statements). So the people in the video saying “no one is doing anything” is spouting complete bollocks.

They're a minority willing to use extreme, potentially lethal methods to force political change on a majority.

Does sound like terrorism

@NautaOcts

Isn’t it Insulate Britain rather than Extinction Rebellion who are doing the most recent road blocks?

Yeah I thought it was the insulation people.

@Dyrne

I’m not sure why anyone’s shocked by this. The XR founders from the start have always said their movement is about anarchy and political upheaval.

They deliberately use inflammatory language to make their supporters feel like heroes when all they are doing is sitting on their arse doing nothing.

There are plenty of brilliant things happening in conservation right now and some really productive conversations happening and new legislation being drafted up as we speak (so not just empty handwringing or statements). So the people in the video saying “no one is doing anything” is spouting complete bollocks.

This is so true. There are people out there who are actually doing constructive work for the environment while this useless bunch sit in the road doing nothing.

This is so true. There are people out there who are actually doing constructive work for the environment while this useless bunch sit in the road doing nothing.

I don’t think they actually care much about the environment, think it’s a bandwagon and an opportunity to cause upheaval, which is what they really want.

A few months in Belmarsh would wipe the smug looks off their faces.

ER are doing everything they can to get climate change in the front of peoples thoughts. Climate Change is a huge tsunami approaching us and people don't want to look at it. We are running out of time !

The ambulance comment is straight out of the Trump schoolbook of what the fuckery. Say something super controversial and outrageous, everyone talks about it in an outraged manner but the core message Climate Change will hopefully enter people's consciousness enough to promote the action needed. The fact is the protesters do get out of the way of ambulances. Their goal is to promote change. Being outrageous gets media coverage and sometimes negative coverage gets the core message out there faster.

I think these people are severely damaging their cause with their behaviour.

@tenredthings

ER are doing everything they can to get climate change in the front of peoples thoughts. Climate Change is a huge tsunami approaching us and people don't want to look at it. We are running out of time !

The ambulance comment is straight out of the Trump schoolbook of what the fuckery. Say something super controversial and outrageous, everyone talks about it in an outraged manner but the core message Climate Change will hopefully enter people's consciousness enough to promote the action needed. The fact is the protesters do get out of the way of ambulances. Their goal is to promote change. Being outrageous gets media coverage and sometimes negative coverage gets the core message out there faster.

Or just makes people think you're a cunt and cease to listen to what you're spouting on about. As has been said, plenty of organisations and individuals are doing valuable work towards helping the planet, these are self indulgent arses who aren't going to affect any real change; they are targeting the wrong people.

ER are doing everything they can to get climate change in the front of peoples thoughts. Climate Change is a huge tsunami approaching us and people don't want to look at it. We are running out of time !

I get tired of this argument. Us mere mortals are all too aware of climate change and most of us are doing our best to help tackle the issue. It's beyond patronising to think people are ignoring it and don't want to discuss it. Most of us do our best and then deal with all the other shit we have have to do in our lives. Just because people are not solely focused on the issue doesn't mean we are all burying our heads in the sand.

Ecocide is genocide. He’s not doing himself any favours by saying it out loud but he’s right. The dying person in the ambulance has human drama. But the fact that the dying person could be one of the 50,000 deaths a year in the uk from air pollution (house of commons air audit 2010) isn’t as dramatic.

Humans are really bad at caring about the big picture.

The vast majority of XR roadblocks let ambulances through, they often talk to the police when planning routes and close roads that are closed during marathons etc so that there are established alternative routes for emergency services.

Well having read the bs response from extinction rebellion all 8 can say is do they honestly expect people to believe them when we have seen the way they behave and heard their founders words.
Tbh most of us who are old enough to remember the animal rights extremists and the harm that their behaviour (bombs, fire bombs etc) did to the cause are just waiting on XR destroying themselves in the same way

@Franklyfrost

Ecocide is genocide. He’s not doing himself any favours by saying it out loud but he’s right. The dying person in the ambulance has human drama. But the fact that the dying person could be one of the 50,000 deaths a year in the uk from air pollution (house of commons air audit 2010) isn’t as dramatic.

But who are they to decide that individual should be condemned to death? What fucking right do they have, none. That person might burn fossil fuel for breakfast, similarly they might be a vegan who has never owned a car or been on holiday, doesn't use plastic and has spent their life working for an environmental organisation. It's manslaughter.

@Franklyfrost

Humans are really bad at caring about the big picture.

The vast majority of XR roadblocks let ambulances through, they often talk to the police when planning routes and close roads that are closed during marathons etc so that there are established alternative routes for emergency services.

People do care about the big picture but individuals do not get to decide to take a life which by blocking an ambulance is what they could effectively be doing. If my mum was in the car and he said it to me when she needed medical treatment, I'd see red.

My response - “I’m aware of climate change - now move or I will bulldoze you with my ambulance”.

Hallam is a twat and Extinction Rebellion are rightly trying to distance themselves from his comments.
I don’t agree with Extinction Rebellion’s theory of change and find some of their stuff a bit cringey. But I have a lot more sympathy with their approach than the “No one’s ignoring it, we’re all doing our little bit, we need to be constructive (and what about China)” crowd.
The actions of humanity over the next few years are going to determine just how bad the future is in terms of sea level rise, mass species extinction, which regions we can grow food in, severe floods, heatwaves, hurricanes and wildfires. And what we are doing to the planet is irreversible on human timescales. Meanwhile the government are spending £27 billion on new roads and expanding airports. It’s an existential crisis and at least Extinction Rebellion are acting like it is, and calling for action that matches what the science calls for.

I said on another thread; if these idiots prevented me getting a loved one to hospital my foot would just hit the accelerator and keep going. I'm sure they would just love to die for their cause but my loved one isn't going to die for it.

I’m so so pleased he said it

In one fell swoop he would have lost a list of support for the cause

@PurpleParrotfish

But when Extinction Rebellion block roads they do let ambulances through. It’s a huge diverse group of people and I think pretty much all of them would be shocked by RH’s statement as well. Whatever you think of their tactics of causing inconvenience to draw attention to the fact we are fucking up our planet’s life support system, they are not signed up to kill people. I know RH is one of the founders but he should have been booted out of XR when he went to Germany and trivialised the Holocaust. By the way, Insulate Britain, the M25 lot, are a different group.

In one of the recent BBC series Ambulance, they were tracking London ambulances and on one of their filming days the crew they were following was in an ambulance stuck in traffic up near Oxford Circus, IIRC, because Extinction Rebellion had closed off Westminster Bridge. St Thomas's Hospital, which has a major A&E department, is at the south end of the bridge. It's all very well saying 'they let ambulances through' - if they see them. How about the ambulances, police cars and fire engines stuck in traffic miles away because of the tailbacks? Buses, taxis and private cars taking people to hospital appointments, job interviews, exams, weddings, funerals? Self-employed tradespeople unable to get to jobs and losing money hand over fist as a result?

They do their cause no good at all by these tactics. The one where they glued themselves to the top of a tube train was particularly stupid. Why would you try to bring the capital's public transport system to a halt? Surely environmentalists should be trying to get people onto the tube, not off it? And of course the people badly affected by that, who lost wages and possibly even jobs, would be the ones on lower incomes. The rich could nip up to street level and get a cab.

They make me furious, and I've been a supporter of Green causes for over 40 years.

Lost

I just found part of the interview on YT, I'm genuinely shocked. What a vile little man.

I can’t really understand what they are protesting. The government has free schemes to insulate and provide new boilers for free to low income families through things like Warm Front.

I spent a year at uni applying for grants for people to insulate their homes during my summer job for a large landlord. Those that qualified had it free, the landlord paid the rest.

@Franklyfrost

Humans are really bad at caring about the big picture.

The vast majority of XR roadblocks let ambulances through, they often talk to the police when planning routes and close roads that are closed during marathons etc so that there are established alternative routes for emergency services.

the vast majority

How would you feel if one of the ones that weren’t the “vast majority” was your toddler. Not breathing. And died as a result of the delay?

Wok you still be thinking “well, big picture”?