To risk arrest for protesting about the climate emergency?

[medicellen]

I have recently taken part in climate protests with Extinction Rebellion but have stopped short of activities that would lead to an arrest.

I am a scientist and it has been beyond doubt for some years that the climate emergency is accelerating.

And yet, global carbon emissions continue to increase. Our government is granting new licences for fossil fuels, whilst oil companies rake in massive profits. This is utter madness (aka "collective suicide" according to the lead of the UN).

I have an 8-year old son who says one day he might like to have children. I have avoided saying that this may be either not possible or not desirable due to the state of the climate by then.

Petitions, campaigning, pleas, marches have failed. In my mind, the only option left is civil disobedience. Mass arrests advanced the causes of suffrage and civil rights and I am now contemplating arrest as the only meaningful contribution I have left.

I don’t think that will work either tbh. Too many people need to sacrifice what they perceive to be too much to halt the climate crisis.

I’ll be discouraging my DC having kids 😢.

Do it if you want, but you’ll turn more people off the cause than you’ll attract.

It won't make any difference, so don't bother.

@Violettaa - what makes you say that? Would arrests at the time of civil rights protests have put you off the cause?

@MyLovelyPen - if it worked for suffrage and civil rights, why should be doomed for this cause?

It doesn't matter now. I know the evidence and the pleas suggest otherwise but it's very clear the tipping point is now behind us.

@Moonmelodies - do you think anything will make any difference?

It's the super rich that need to be identified and targeted - that 1% with 90% of the uk footprint

Their names and carbon footprints should be made public

The Just Stop Oil protests are counter productive in my opinion. They annoy so many people (by causing massive delays for drivers) that it turns people against the cause rather than towards it. Even though they are making some valid points, they're not succeeding in winning public support. Politicians won't care until there is public support (as that's what affects votes). They're shooting themselves in the foot IMO.

@Unananana . There is no need to be abusive. Civil disobedience does not need to mean blocking ambulances, and rarely does. What do you think is an appropriate response to the climate emergency?

I think you are bloody incredible OP and its people like you that change the world. I wish I had your balls and I have nothing but utter respect for you. Civil disobedience is sometimes the only way and even then so many people will just complain as it causes short term inconvenience to them, but long term we are destroying our kids futures if we don't act.

Concentrate on stuff that big business can do rather than hurting the public... who generally support the idea not the method. Do you think the Amazon bosses care that ambulances couldn't get over the QE bridge last month? Or that a minimum wage worker lost a days pay as they couldn't get to their job?

I don’t think being “against the cause” should even be an option. There needs to be massive seismic change. Getting to work whining is stacking deckchairs on the titanic. There won’t be any work or life if parts of our country is under water with no infrastructure.

@Chomolungma - evidence suggests that disruptive protest is seen as acceptable by the majority: www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/24/huge-uk-public-support-for-direct-action-to-protect-environment-poll?link_id=6&can_id=ddc7efd699929efc5967b4b326ef65bb&source=email-want-to-help-build-alliances-in-november&email_referrer=email_1723713&email_subject=want-to-help-build-alliances-in-november

theconversation.com/just-stop-oil-do-radical-protests-turn-the-public-away-from-a-cause-heres-the-evidence-192901

The public by and large do want change

The public by and large are making changes

Where they can and what they understand to matter

They are not supported by the government to make bigger changes

That's support for insulation and public transport for example
That's raising taxes on carbon footprints - anyone who uses more carbon than the acceptable limit should be whacked with taxes - or a simpler version would be to have a limit on certain activities - like 1 flight a year allowance - cheaper but less acceptable I think

And Climate change summits involving hundreds of people flying... why not do it online?

It didn't work for suffrage and many people at the time considered extremist acts to have delayed the cause. It's just that now we only hear about the crazy things they did and laud them as heroes.

Literally everyone is fully aware of the climate emergency at this point. I understand your frustration. But extreme acts aren't going to effect any change and I can't see why you'd even think so. What would the reasoning be? The government will absolutely never engage with people causing extreme disruption or, worst case, terrorism.

Who's going to look after your child when you're arrested?

The last "protests" were a bunch of hippies getting day drunk and drugged up listening to loud shit music, sitting in roads. Blocking ambulance services from doing their jobs and saving lives. Meaning even more ambulances eventually queuing outside A and E for people like me to have to deal with. Anyone involved in that is a self righteous dickhead.

Because the super rich know that they are most likely to survive

It's not clear that it worked for women's suffrage. The chaining themselves to railings approach actually may have actually set the movement back as it made women look a bit hysterical and not the kind of rational, level-headed people you could trust with the vote - jury is out on that one. With Civil Rights, weren't they getting arrested for breaking laws that shouldn't have been there in the first place? There's a really big difference between getting arrested for sitting down in a seat on a bus that you've paid for and blocking the motorway so that people can't get their kids to school or sick relatives to hospital.

A woman from Extinction Rebellion came knocking on my door the other day to ask what my perception was, and I had to be honest. I told her, I know that they block roads and cause problems, I couldn't tell you what their actual message is - not getting it across very well.

@PuttingDownRoots - how would that work? Big business has no incentive other than profits. If the public support the idea, what is the way forwards?

Have fun stopping people get to hospital 😡. Why don’t you do something useful like planting trees or cleaning up beaches instead ?? I am all for the environment (I am a Druid) but you are going about it the wrong way. Do small changes they all add up. Here are some I have done. Bamboo toothbrush instead of plastic. Soap and shampoo bars so no packaging. Electric car. Loose produce etc. Local tree schemes. We have an oak nursery we look after.

@midgetastic I agree, but how can that be initiated without the government legislating for it?