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.

Tell me about all the other acceptable actions then. Write it here, get it out for people to see. And whilst you're about it, tell me what people will use as an alternative right now, if we literally just stop using oil now.

Thing is, its NOT good enough. This isn't a go at you by the way, I drive and heat my home as well. There's only so much the public can do (which isn't to say we shouldn't all, including me, be doing more).

Because people need to get to work
Do you drive
Fly on holidays
Use a mobile which is made from a number of metals that are mined
Use gas
These people should be protesting outside the Chinese embassy - China opened 80 new coal fired power stations last week
They should stop buying their mobile phones and lap tops that have parts made in China
They need to stop flying on holiday
But they will not do that as it will affect their lives
They want others to change how they live but not themselves
But they are too stupid to see that
If you want to get arrested that is up top you but it will bar you from a lot of jobs

@Musti Loads of greenwashing going on.

Some certainly but not nearly as much as purported, businesses expose themselves to huge reputational damage if they do this. Some of media and pressure group coverage is far more disingenuous.

"I will kill you and the man next to you" sort of thing.
In the movies, maybe.

ER are calling for systemic change. But do they understand the steps needed to get there? Or is that all someone else's problem to solve?

You do know that they are trying to make a better world for us, or rather to stop it dying. Unlike the fossil fuel companies, these people aren’t doing it for personal gain.

Have you noticed the heatwaves in this country for the last few years? Do you know what will happen to our food if the climate changes radically? Do you know what happens when there is unprecedented and sudden rain fall? Do you know how many towns will be lost - have a look at what will happen in London. Do food crops survive months of heatwaves followed by flooding?

It’s up to you, whether you want to take the risk.

On a bigger scale not sure what’s going on wrt Africa and gas reserves plus oth climate reparations starting to rear - it’s going to be tough

Nope. It is to be done through citizens assemblies.

It's a pathetic course of action.

My daughter works in a hospital. It's taken her 3 hours to get to work, instead of 20 minutes, because of the idiots on the M25.

The consultants and some of the nurses still haven't arrived, and are still stuck, so they've had to cancel all appointments for today.

So, well done to them on that one. Hope they feel righteous.😡

And how do you get those?

YANBU, it wouldn't be how I'd go about it personally though. I feel the answer as always is to go after the money. If we want change we have to hurt profits, so convince people to stop spending money, as simple as that. No using anything unnecessary, no journey/shopping other than absolutely essential. Turn off phones and TVs etc. Get enough people to sign up to that the government will be falling over themselves to bring in green measures within the week.

Rosa Parks is the one that sticks in people's minds, though, isn't it? Because she made her point very clearly.

Perhaps it would help if you explained what kind of civil disobedience you had in mind.

Are you close to pension age? Maybe you can start it off

Generally younger people have more to lose from lack of change. Plus more energy and motivation although some older people are in the XR images.

Problem is the way our way of life runs.
You need to work, then You earn and can eat and have a home, to work you need a demand for something that people will pay for. So we need to stop the demand for things. But if people don't work how do they eat?

It needs a complete overhaul of the western capitalist world.

If we stopped using oil today, the climate would just carry on changing, no?

@Ihateboris - how should this happen?

if no one uses a car then hospitals can't get staff in

It's lose loss lose for us all

That argumant's already been trotted out, and it's still idiotic. HTH.

I don't want a bunch of activists dictating what is a better world for me. Do you not think ordinary people understand climate change? So fucking arrogant. Noone elected them to come and sit on the motorway and stop people getting to work. And achieving absolutely nothing. Worse than nothing. They don't even have a fucking plan of what the immediate alternative would be. I have no doubt that many of them are less concerned about the message and gaining more from the activism itself. At the expense of ordinary people trying to make ends meet in a time of financial crises.

I actually think we've probably lost this battle already. I console myself with the thought that this isn't about saving the planet, the planet will be just fine, it's about saving human beings.

Why is it idiotic? Do explain. If you're so passionate about this I'm sure you can go into more detail as to why it's idiotic.

Stopping my DH getting to his minimum wage job is definitely a really intelligent way to garner support for the cause. If you don't have support for a cause, no change will come about. I'm sure the attention these people are getting is floating their boats but it isn't actually doing anything for climate change.

@CatJumperTwat - XR actions 2019 prompted the government to declare a climate emergency. Civil disobedienec has raised the profile of the climate emergency and has increased suporrt for action. I would say that is relative success

The planet will be fine. The people on it may not.