Just Stop Oil - I couldn't care less

[savannahowl]

Those protestors actually make me feel even less bothered by climate change. I genuinely don't give a shit anymore.

Have they managed to convince anyone?

Agree, we need to give up a lot of modern things we take for granted to address the problem. We may have to accept that we won't live as long as a result. Our children are already going to have to deal with a post-antibiotic era.

I think it's big businesses that need to start for the most impact.

You do realise the planet will one day turn to helium and all human life will cease??

Climate change is just part of the process.

I do not care one tiny bit.

Agree with you. They utterly put me off.

Is this sarcasm? I genuinely can't tell. We haven't even been back to the moon in decades.

I didn't need them to convince me. I was already convinced and gave up my car in the pandemic. Don't miss it.

And yet here you are doing exactly what just oil protesters want to achieve 🤷‍♀️

When I hear about them I do randomly think ‘why won’t people do more?’ but simultaneously’what the f do just stop oil think they’re achieving by doing such awful stuff. I can’t think of anything they’ve done that hasn’t been scumbaggy!!

I'm not sure that some soup on a van Gough disrupted any ambulances?

I don't really understand how Just Stop Oil are 'turning people off from climate change'? Can you explain why they have? Surely your view is based on the situation we are in and the science that backs is, the lobbying and propaganda from fossil fuel companies? Surely this is completely separate to the actions of a few people - what they are doing doesn't change the situation.

All the anger for stopped ambulances - agree. Also seeing a real gap in anger for fossil fuel companies who have charged so high that many people have died from not being able to afford fuel and who have manipulated the science and governments. They are the tobacco companies of today - only we are literally watching them do it....? Do you feel angry towards them and have they changed your mind about climate change. Or do they get a pass because they are enormous companies, Putin and dictatorships?

We're not waiting on the technology a lot is already here and not that groundbreaking - like home insulation and renewables. For the majority of emissions technology isn't the issue - it's political will, which is driven by the oil lobby and a lack of pressure from the media.

@PuppiesLove Thank you for flagging the reality of a post-antibiotic world. It's rarely mentioned yet is a huge worry! I say that as someone currently on a course of antibiotics and immensely aware of both my good fortune and the precariousness of the availability of viable antibiotics.
In response to your other point, I think waiting for business interests and large corporations to lead the way on carbon reduction will lead us down a dangerous path. Sure, they will all need to adapt, but a big part in bringing that change about will be the response to public demand, of consumers indicating clearly the change they wish to see. We can be proactive and lead through our consumer choices. The discourse that 'it's down to corporations and governments to adapt, it doesn't matter what individuals do' is only partially true: individual efforts in isolation may appear frustratingly insignificant but consumers carry plenty of clout en masse.

Another poster brought up science: deferring to emerging scientific solutions is similarly dangerous, akin to what Soda refers to as waiting for a knight in shining armour. New technologies are being developed, but will they be 'ready' in time to avert the ecological crisis and major loss of life which constitutes the impending mass extinction event we're at the brink of? Would it not be great if the new generation of adaptive technology only had to use our limited resources to fix the bare necessities of infrastructure, transport and food production as opposed to also find workarounds to enable Disenchanted of Worcester's gratuitous air-travel and rampant consumerism?

Hence, I think it is important that we do go out on a bit of a social limb when relevant and speak about the green choices and carbon-reducing adaptations we may be making in our own lives on a regular basis, to normalise it in a familial and social context. I'm always really pleased when I realise that a colleague has turned vegan or that a school mum I chat to has decided to forego flying. I get that some might see such sharing as tiresome virtue-signalling, but that brings us loosely back to the opening sentiment of this thread: in the greater context of the climate emergency, our personal peeves -such as finding JSO 'annoying'- fade into insignificance.

It's ironic that you feel a painting is more valuable than the planet we live on. If the planet cannot survive then there will be no point in having possessions.

There were threads like this about insulate Britian. As soon as they dissappeared, politicians suddenly started talking about the lack of adequately insulated houses in the UK. Now with the fuel allowance being cut, there's calls from the same people who condemned the movement to insulate the homes of pensioners.

Their actions have just made me much less willing to engage with the topic. When they stop blocking ambulances and other actions they should be arrested for (IMO), then I might be willing to hear their message.

I feel powerless to do anything about the fossil fuel companies. The big change has to happen at corporate level to make any real difference.

I'm also not entirely convinced a natural human extinction is such a disaster. The world will adapt to a new humanless reality, if that happens. Like when the dinosaurs died out. Why are we humans so special?

I'm also not convinced it's not already too late.

I mean she isn't wrong that ultimately there is no future for us if we stay on just one planet, our solar won't exist eventually.

Solar system

I think we're a long way from even being able to consider settling outside our solar system. Even inside it.

I can accept that the human race may one day evolve out of existence.

I’m not commenting on JSOs actions. I’m pointing out that regardless of them, we are facing something that is already killing people and causing suffering. It’s only going to get worse and it affects us all. Saying you don’t care about climate breakdown because you don’t like what they are doing is just illogical. You can dislike and condemn what they do and care about climate breakdown and take action. It’s not an either/or situation.

What’s the time scale for that compared to climate breakdown?

Climate breakdown is due to our own actions and whilst we can no longer prevent it (it’s already happening) we could minimise the effects. It’s in our power to lessen the catastrophe. It’s a different kind of thing altogether.

They're certainly crummy.

I have lost my youthful ideal that I can really do much to change the world. I just focus on making little differences in local lives and for animals, as much as I can, now.

I have quoted the BBC and Guardian because they are easy to read. Mostly they are articles about actual events happening now.

Facts.

Floods are fact. Heatwaves are fact.

I could put up links to the the long documents that contain more detail of the decades of work, by 100s of scientists, across countless countries, using different climate models, I could link to the document showing the figures for increased mortality and illness in the UK due to climate change. But it’s doubtful anyone would read it all.

OF COURSE we have all benefited from the use of oil. That goes without saying. I wouldn’t be able to post this otherwise. I’m fully aware that I’m reliant on it for many things.

We now know that we have to phase that out. Most of us in the richer nations can reduce our consumption.

Capitalism and greed is absolutely the context under which this issue has arisen and it maintains and worsens it. Really we do need a whole new way of doing things.

But as consumers and voters we do hold power.

No one can produce no carbon here in the U.K. and in the richer nations, but most of us can reduce our consumption if we choose to.

So may be there is a small chance that something will come along to save us. But why risk it?

With any risk assessment you weigh up the likelihood of it happening and what the consequences might be. Well, we know it’s already happening and at a much accelerated rate than predicted, and we know the impact is catastrophic and already happening.

So do we keep our fingers crossed, or do we take the actions we know could lessen the worst of it?

Imagine your roof was leaking and about to cave in and all but one of the builders in town have said it will collapse in the next year without remedial work. The one builder that said ‘nah, it will be ok’ was, at the time, down the pub nursing his fifth pint. Would you just hope the drunk builder was right and keep your fingers crossed that someone will invent a sky umbrella to stop the rain getting in?

This

This