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.

Personally the sooner the planet kills us all off the better. Itll survive after we've been removed.

Protest all you like, the climate will just keep on changing.

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but I wish pensioners (yes, all of them) would get radical on this. The reason i say pensions is because 1. They're listened to and 2. I think they have less to lose generally than others. In that, if they get arrested, they don't have a job or livelihoods to lose. They don't have young children who need looking after, also they have more time to protest. I bet if pensioners started making a noise about this governments would soon listen and take action.

@shallowhalwantsgal and others the evidence is to the contrary - activism makes a difference. For a readable summation, may I recommend Hope in the Dark, by Rebecca Solnit.

And you've completely missed the point.

ER punishes the public through their protests.

You don't slap your daughter because your son's not doing what you want.

YABU because there are legal means to achieve your aims. Engage with people, get them on your side, set up a political movement, get yourselves elected, then you can decide what action is taken.

Progress is made through positive engagement. Frankly, I'd rather live (or die) on a planet that has been wrecked by climate change, than one where a small minority of thugs control what happens because they will disrupt everyone else's lives unless they get their way.

Disruptive behaviour like blocking roads won't achieve your aims. People like me who could be persuaded by your arguments turn off. Personally, since the XR thugs were disrupting my public transport journeys a few years ago, I've tried to minimise the amount I recycle as my own kind of personal protest against the climate protestors. I've intentionally done other things to harm the environment too but I won't go into them here.

Like your protests, mine don't solve my issues. Your issues, climate change, my issues, disruption caused by climate change protestors.

I live in an area heavily impacted by the M25 protests. There's been gridlock on the road for miles around with people taking lengthy diversions and sat in traffic for far longer than necessary with their engines running. To me that's completely counterproductive, the protests don't stop people going out they just drive further and use more fuel, creating even more pollution.

Why don’t you go and protest in China?

So, if we just got rid of gas right now, what would we replace it with? Not years down the road. But now? How would you migrate us from one to the other. Where we are, where we're going, and how we get there. What is the detailed plan for this?

I can't stop using oil. I need to use it.

I'm trying to use less and I'm doing my best but apparently that's not good enough?

There are no legal ways to achieve the aims

We have no laws that we can call on to stop people destroying the environment

And those that do exist are not being enforced

Sorry but this is vastly over simplistic and if anything rather naive.

Most big businesses are owned by pension funds and in the last ten, but particularly five years the shareholders are increasingly putting pressure on businesses to build plans to reach net zero. Businesses see not adapting to net zero an a massive risk, and developing the technologies to reach net zero as a massive opportunity.

The consulting firms Deloitte, PwC, KPMG are all rapidly growing their sustainability offerings.

Loads of pensioners in XR in this country.

and teachers and priests and scientists and doctors and nurses and mums and lawyers and teens and kids.

they aren’t thugs. They’re ordinary people.

You don't slap your daughter because your son's not doing what you want.

Yes. Although they do I believe employ this kind of discipline in the army to get people to do as they are told.

Loads of greenwashing going on.

Flamed? - not really, you've got a point.

Politicians want to get elected. Pensioners are a very big block of the vote. If a politician thought they would not get elected unless they were radical on environmental matters then they'd be wearing tofu shirts and singing kumbaya on a motorway gantry by teatime.

@Summerhillsquare

As I said previously, protesters who have successfully used civil disobedience did not do it when the majority of people already agreed with their cause. That is the key difference for me

Not slapping. Bringing it to their attention because the media isn’t. You don’t get to hear all the other acceptable actions because the media don’t cover it.

I wonder if the public is not wishing the government had listened to Insulate Britain though?

I think you need to actually do some research on the suffrage movement 😬

And this is where I get disappointed in the lack of awareness of the global energy system.

The fact energy companies are making huge profits is irrelevant- they do not fix the prices. They are expected to meet the demand for oil/gas/electricity whether they are barely making a profit or raking it in. Some are fined for failure to do so in some cases.

But the problem is actually the demand for oil & gas. Blaming oil companies is like blaming fast food outlets & deliveroo for the obesity crisis.

The problem is we keep using the stuff- reduce demand and use less. Buy cheap things from China which use dirty cheap fuel is an issue, fast fashion, chopping down the Brazilian rain forest. A medium size dog has the same carbon footprint as an SUV - do you have a dog OP?

From discussions I’ve had with friends, climate protesters originally had sympathy until they started with the sheer mindless vandalism and disruptions. I don’t know anyone that gives a hoot about them anymore, they’re seen as pests with a few screws loose now.

Ordinary people drawing their pensions / benefits / not needing to work, whilst stopping other ordinary people from getting to work / feeding their families / accessing emergency health care. There's one group of people I'm in support of. It's not the first group.

But op is asking about participating in something which may result in her arrest.

You're right though, that only that sort of thing gets covered in the media at the moment and there are more 'acceptable' protests going on all the time and not getting mention

These particular groups do seem somewhat deranged in my opinion.