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.

Vitrioil should be vitriol, of course. Talk about a Freudian slip.

When someone starts using Nostr-fucking-damus as a reason why we should support JSO and XR, the shark has been leapt and all sense of sanity and wisdom lost.

Nothing says 'we take science seriously' quite like talking about bloody fortune tellers.

Nothing says 'we take science seriously' quite like talking about bloody fortune tellers.

😅

A 16th century man whose 'predictions' are so gnomic and obscure that they can be used to predict pretty much anything the reader wants.

Only ignorant Daily Mail readers don't believe in Nostradamus! Apparently.

Various people have concluded that I am somehow a cheerleader for road blocks on the M25 and care nothing for anyone involved.

You don't care about people who can't go to work, may be attending chemo sessions which failure to get to could cause no end of complications. You don't care about pregnant women needing to go to a scan to find out if the baby they are carrying is still alive. You don't care about relatives trying to get to the funeral of a loved one but can't because idiots gluing themselves to the roads prevent them from doing so. But the most ironic thing is you don't care about climate change scientists not being able to get to their place of work because they are being obstructed from doing so.

It's absolutely clear that you care nothing for anyone involved if you are willing to be a part of the virtue signalling tossers who actively promote such behaviour. So well done you and when someone inevitably dies as a direct result of actions taken by you and others like you I doubt anyone one of you will care.

What @TimBoothseyes said. In spades.

The thing is tho...

How, genuinely, are we going to turn this juggernaut around??

Gluing oneself to things is not the point. The only point is, what exactly are we going to do? Politicians care only for business and profit. We are all going down if we blindly carry on like this.

If you really care and want to be involved and not become a fuckwit activist, there is plenty you can do and If you care enough become involved in the real movement not those bloody awful eco-warrior idiots.

Let me tell you what I did. In my early 50`s I quit my cushy office job, and went back to univerity as a very mature student. I studied hard with mydyslexia, and got my BSc in environmetal science, I then went on to get my masters and now work in the environment industry activly making a diffrence, this is where I met my DH who is a scientist (not saying more as to out us both).

We both work on major projects and do make a diffence and this is why it pissed me off so much when I see childish silly little eco warriors doing their shit. There nothing more than vocal pathetic troublemakers who are in it for their own ego.

If you want to make a diffrence, learn the science get invoved in a productive way or get involved at a local level with politics. That is how change is made, eco warriors are nobodys and I can promise you they have ZERO influence over what we do. If you want change you have to step up and become a valued member not a spoilt brat.

Wow!!

Well, no one can deny that you are indeed walking your talk, and I applaud you and take off my hat.

But I dislike the way you speak about people who campaign. Maybe even for multiple ideas / constant campaigns. I do live in Glastonbury after all.

Carry on doing your thing, but two fingers to the way you speak about other people who are actually on your team.

Wish I could like this. I no longer believe the OP is a scientist. Her engagement in the discussion has been unimpressive.

Shouting into the wind vs doing the hard work are very different things

banning all domestic flights under a certain length as someone posted has been done in France is a good example. It’s a simple concept. It is probably an effective idea. But someone has to sit down and make sure that it will actually help the environment.

1. start by making a list of every domestic flight path that is now banned
2. investigate existing alternative transportation paths
3. collect data on historical usage of both flights and the alternative paths
4. gather historical economic data that may impact trends in the data from step 3
5. develop a statistical model that predicts shifts in transportation behavior choice.
6. collect engineering data that provides estimates of the environmental impact of the shifts estimated in step 5 and compare to simply allowing flights to continue

One final attempt to contextualise this discussion. Having taken part in (legal) protests with Extinction Rebellion, I posed a theoretical question about taking part in a future protest action with the risk of arrest.

I have no problem with people disagreeing about the idea of non-violent direct action – that’s the whole point of having a discussion on social media. For those of you who expressed your views in a reasonable way, I thank-you and have taken on board your comments.

However, there are a series of responses to thinking about a possible future action, that I think are unjustified. NVDA takes many forms and does not necessarily mean blocking roads. To recap:

@Prinnny You stopped a man trying to get to the hospital to see his dying mother. To be honest you’re lucky it happened down south as northerners would have dragged yous all out the way and hoyed you in the Tyne

@Alexandernevermind Pooring poo over a Captain Tom memorial didn't do you any favours, nor did trying to destroy a Van Gogh, and what was custard pieing King Charles's wax work all about, he's long been a environmental advocate?

@CourtneeLuv Most people think you are behaving like cunts.

@Theluggage15 The middle class handwringing over this issue is pathetic. If the U.K. disappeared tomorrow it would make absolutely no difference to the climate. But yeah stop people getting to work, delay ambulances while you fuck about and piss people off.

@Biker47 Blocking me getting to work or where I need to be isn't going to get me on your side, I'd just think you're a cunt. Same goes if you throw some soup over a painting, grade A cunt.

@fernfen XR and Just stop oil are pathetic always have been and always will, spoilt little brats desperately looking for attention and achieving nothing.

@CMZ2018 I hope you get an absolute leathering off the public then locked up.

@TheSomersetGimp Fucking twats the lot of them

😂😂😂

So OP, have you left your child and stuck yourself to a gantry yet???

I broadly agree with the aims of the protests but not the means. It’s not the way to win round the public or influence politicians. There was a guy on radio yesterday who missed his father’s funeral because of it, and sounded heartbroken. I get there’s a much bigger picture, but I’m not sure I could live with myself if I’d deliberately caused something like that to happen.

Thanks, I’m going to stay a fuckwit activist though! I guess you’ll just have to stay pissed off. Believe me the people I’ve met by doing it are so are lovely, I can never imagine them talking about other people like you do. Anyone reading this join us if you want to be with the lovers not the haters like this poster!

You'll probably end up in prison at some point then. If someone doesn't flatten you to the tarmac with their motor that is. Enjoy.

So if you had a sick child who couldn't get to hospital in time because of protests and died or have life changing consequences are you okay with that? Just asking out of curiosity? Are you ok about missing your parents funeral?

Why are you out demonstrating and throwing shit over embassies of those countries who are the biggest polluters in the world and show no sign of stopping?

I'm not saying we in the uk sit back and do nothing but christ if other countries just carry on and have a bigger impact it does feel pointless.

Thanks. My sister got there in time thankfully. But I cannot tell you how much I loathe the people who made a really stressful situation even harder.

Do you honestly believe those countries/organisations you are protesting about think "ooh we better change our ways because there are a group of people in the UK gluing themselves to roads"? Of course they aren't you know it,, we know it so what's the point? If you want people to be on your side then making them angry and turning them against you isn't going to cut it. Target the right people/places and then you may get more support. Remember the old adage "you catch more flies with honey".

Good to know how happy you are at having caused the physical and emotional pain described so eloquently by many people on this thread. And good to see your delight at correctly identifying yourself as a 'fuckwit'.

I don't even drive, my family doesn't own a car, and I still think you are absolute scum. I would have given birth in a taxi if the road was blocked by people like you and my son probably would have died.

I don't understand what you think you've achieved here. Every one of those posters reflects the views of the overwhelming majority of people who have actual jobs and lives and responsibilities and illnesses and real life to deal with. Your protests target and damage normal people, people who are already struggling, people who are trying to do their best in a really tough situation. Almost everyone in the country who isn't an overprivileged self-indulgent narcissist agrees with them. I found it quite heartening to read your 'recap' - not for (presumably) the reason you intended.

The op hasn't achieved anything. Although it has been helpful to clarify that the majority of people think that demonstrators who block roads are not achieving much, their message is lost, and that the people carrying out these protests are a self absorbed bunch of twats.

OP's final post is all a bit 'I hate you all and I'm right SO THERE!!' before slamming the sitting room door and running upstairs to cry in her bedroom, isn't it?

Well at least she hasn't glued herself to the thread 😂