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

[sst1234]

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.

They are terrible and actively put me off caring about the environment or sustainability, so they are counter to their own purported cause.

What's worse is they're giving the bloody Tories the perfect excuse (and public support) to clamp down and reduce the right to legitimate protest. A blind, arrogant blunder that will have even worse consequences over time

Yes, you are absolutely right

Extinction Rebellion announced a while back that they were going to focus more on strategic targets - banks funding big fossil fuel projects, that kind of thing. Which seemed a more sensible approach. So perhaps that’s why Insulate Britain was set up by Hallam and others who still believe ‘if we cause enough disruption we can bring down the government’.
And as others have pointed out it plays right into the government’s hands, since they can argue they need to crack down on protest rights. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the new legislation gives sweeping powers to ban stuff that isn’t harmful at all and even the police have said it’s not necessary.

@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.

I completely disagree with this. People who think like this are harming their cause and discrediting their movement. The vast majority of the general public are turned off by these antics and comments like this.

They actually DID block an ambulance with a woman who was dying and is now paralysed as a results.
Not quite a Man was taking his mother to hospital who had a stroke, They chose car because they were worried the ambulance wouldnt come in time but in the end the journey took 6 hours instead of 30 minutes. The son begged with the idiots of Insulate britain but they wouldnt budge. The hospital told the son if they hadnt been blocked his DM would not have been paralyzed.

Both ER and IB are idiots, so why are we supposed to take them seriously.
When they blocked the tubes I was at Seven Sister which was heaving, yet there were two idiots from ER trying to get a huge green wheelie bin down the stairs and escalators and then on the tube to get to Oxford Street, they could have easily really hurt someone.
This is the mindset of these type of people, over educated with no common sense.

They really have no clue about how to get the public on their side do they!

I’d certainly support manslaughter convictions if people were to die as a direct result of the actions of these people!

@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.

This is what they believe.

They think it’s okay for some of us to die in order to bring about their great green revolution.

We are excess carbon-producing units.

I expect this to only get worse unless we push back and reject this dangerous ideology.

What context would ever make this an okay thing to say?

It wouldn't, but it's the old "let's cast around for some excuse - any excuse - to make it sound a bit less awful"

What we seem to have here is a teenage-like addiction to trotting out whatever will get most attention through shock value. Pity, really, that supporters can't rely on the "their brains aren't mature until they're 25" or some such

@bruffin

They actually DID block an ambulance with a woman who was dying and is now paralysed as a results. Not quite a Man was taking his mother to hospital who had a stroke, They chose car because they were worried the ambulance wouldnt come in time but in the end the journey took 6 hours instead of 30 minutes. The son begged with the idiots of Insulate britain but they wouldnt budge. The hospital told the son if they hadnt been blocked his DM would not have been paralyzed.

Both ER and IB are idiots, so why are we supposed to take them seriously.
When they blocked the tubes I was at Seven Sister which was heaving, yet there were two idiots from ER trying to get a huge green wheelie bin down the stairs and escalators and then on the tube to get to Oxford Street, they could have easily really hurt someone.
This is the mindset of these type of people, over educated with no common sense.

And anyone who heard the poor man above whose story was on LBC, he was devestated. He said he watched his mother fading away in the back of the car losing all her faculties

Anyone watching Jeremy Vine right now? Liam Norton from Insulate Britain is being interviewed- quite frankly this man is a raving lunatic

Their goal is to promote change. Being outrageous gets media coverage and sometimes negative coverage gets the core message out there faster.

If your core message is that the government should have more powers to restrict protest.

There really hasn’t been any more discussion of climate change over the last few days.

We are running out of time !

Do keep up - that was last week's/month's/whatever message
Isn't the new one that we're already out of time and all we can do is consider the impact?

@bruffin

I saw it! It was difficult to watch! I don’t know how anyone can think that this is okay!

@Chloemol @PurpleParrotfish @sst1234 @NautaOcts
Some people are asking genuine questions, and some people are just refusing to believe the link STILL exists between Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain, but it’s right there:

• Extinction Rebellion was using their private WhatsApp groups to support Insulate Britain even while disowning them

(Source: thecritic.co.uk/astroturfing-xr/)

• Extinction Rebellion was stumping for Insulate Britain “strategy and recruitment” on their Animal Rebellion pages

Source: animalrebellion.org/event/roger-hallam-insulate-britain-strategy-and-recruitment/

• Groups of Extinction Rebellion were welcoming Insulate Britain with open arms to come speak and recruit from their ranks (the link is still on Google though it now leads to a 404 Not Found on their page):

Source: attached image

I think those are enough connections for the skeptics, and hopefully answers your questions for others. I mean, if some enterprising journalist who trolls Mumsnet wants to interview Insulate Britain members and establish they were recruited from Extinction Rebellion, that should take all of five minutes.

This is what they believe.

They think it’s okay for some of us to die in order to bring about their great green revolution.

We are excess carbon-producing units.

I expect this to only get worse unless we push back and reject this dangerous ideology.

Near but not quite. They think it’s okay for other people’s loved ones to die as collateral damage but I’d put money on them feeling differently if it was one of their own family members in an ambulance.

So some stranger’s loved ones die in the pursuit of utopia - yes
One of their kids, grandkids or wives/husbands - nope. I’m sure they’d move to the side.

Yanbu there should be stronger reaction to putting people at risk like this, which I think there will be soon

And it wasnt just about ambulances, there were doctors and surgeons who couldnt get through to do their job and people missing long awaited operations couldnt get to hospital in time

Liam Norton from Insulate Britain is being interviewed- quite frankly this man is a raving lunatic

Yes, but he's a raving lunatic who's getting lots and lots of lovely personal attention, which is clearly what he wants

Much better, surely, to starve him of it - except that wouldn't suit the shock jocks of the media, who all want the best click-baity story

What a cunt. I bet if you asked him if he would block an ambulance carrying his own mother the answer would be different.

@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.

Nah. It does the opposite. Makes me want to be more a problem than necessary.

I wasn’t doing anything to aide climate change (I don’t even recycle) but now I would happily deliberately go out of my way because of these selfish arseholes.

There is no possible justification for that statement. I hope he faces a backlash in response. Anyone (or any group) should be ashamed to be associated with such a callous person.

I bet if you asked him if he would block an ambulance carrying his own mother the answer would be different

Much more likely that you wouldn't get an answer at all because the question would be dodged

A bit like the animal rights co-travellers (and I've known lots) who scream and stamp about animal testing, right up to the point when their loved one needs whatever-it-is

@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.

I can assure you the insulate lot yesterday did not move out the way of an ambulance. Even a paramedic was asking them to move, they refused. People moved them out of the way and they kept returning to their position in the road. They are the lowest of the low.

But .. if climate change isn't mitigated there will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, I'd excess deaths attributable to it? It's an insensitive thing to say and not wise, really, but I think that's his point?

It's outrageous that they think it's their right to block anyone's ability to travel when and where they like. There's no knowing the damage they might inflict.

They move aside for ambulances? Oh, good for them! So kind! But how much extra time do they unnecessarily add to the journey while the ambulance picks its way through any increased traffic or obstruction caused by the protest? Minutes, even seconds count. Utterly selfish, and patting themselves on the back the whole time for saving the world!