Climate change protesters anyone else think they are hypocritical? AIBU

Gonegirl Anyone listening to the man who reported he had been unable to get to his dying father would be in no doubt he was being truthful. However, the "apology" from one of the protesters, after listening to the call, was totally unconvincing and insincere.

Well, that's very sad.

The problem with both Suffragettes and ER, is that they are after the event. Once the movement is really up and running - votes for women, awareness of global warming and the need for urgent action, a noisy group of activists comes running up to the moving band wagon, jump on, elbow their way to the front and start virtue signalling and claiming the moral high ground and leadership of the movement.

Much has been done about global warming already in this country, not enough or fast enough, but it is happening. DH was involved in the installation of his first offshore wind farm 15 years ago and is still working on the installation of offshore wind farms in his mid 70s, there is so much demand for expertise like his.

I have no objections to people protesting, I have never suggested I had, but people like the Civil Rights protesters were doing it when everything was against them, they were there right from the start. The same for the suffragists and anti-slavery campaign. They supported causes when they were unpopular

For ER to have any cridibility they should have come into existence 20 years ago, when the weight of opinion was still largely with the debunkers and when they would have had to face strong opposition, not just come prancing in when the going gets easy.

This has probably been mentioned but a man was unable to get to spend time with his father before he died due to road blockages, I think in the Bristol area. I believe one demonstrator was distraught about that, of course there could be umpteen emergencies that are held up, as well as life being made difficult for those going about their everyday business. Target the embassies of the world's worst polluters, the individual doesn't have any clout. It's all very well that protestor showing remorse for denying that man those final moments with his father, but he's never going to get that time back a regret that he will no doubt carry with him for the rest of his life. Heaven knows what other life changing events will be impeded by such demonstrations.

Apologies I see that the incident has been mentioned by other posters.

I have had a row about this with a friend. I think the ER are going to cause almost the opposite effect that is needed.
Yes they are getting publicity but all the people adversely affected are not going to go home and think that they had best try and save the environment.... I think they will just feel annoyed.

I also think that the ER need to impact on those who do the worst and those with power and money.

Do your friends and family feel more like saving the planet or less?

I think what they are after is that governments are more in favour of halting it. Some people will pay more attention if it is a question of legal sanctions than voluntary ones. Whether the effects are more towards annoying people enough to put them off or are persuasive enough to make them listen or if they just balance each other out is yet to be seen.

Terribull yes, it was mentioned but no harm in it being repeated.
The incident was reported on the local news and on of the ER protestors who had blocked the M32 was interviewed in the studio. He was 'kind of regretful but not very, imo, that a man failed to reach his dying father'.

pinkquartz I tend to agree with you. There demands are so extreme and I have yet to see a properly reviewed policy paper from them that shows how this can be done without a complete economic and social collapse.

And, as I have said, they are just jumping on a band wagon other people got moving.

But Monica, what makes you think they don't want an economical collapse? Because I'm beginning to wonder, after hearing the article on the Today programme earlier this week, and watching the BBC programme.

I don't mean the majority of the protestors. I mean the senior people behind it all.

Let's wait and see what October 7th brings.

I wonder if the odd missed appointment and the pain of finding alternative routes, could be the least of our worries.

Oh, I hope I'm wrong.

I suppose they are the least of OUR worries, because the appointment wasn't ours.
The man dying wasn't one of OUR men...

Not quite the point I was making....

Never mind.

ok.

An XR representative was interviewed on Bristol radio this morning and said the man held up by the protest and not reaching his father before he died was "collateral damage"

Interviewer: "and that is acceptable?"

XR rep. "Yes"

Ian Martin writes in "The Times" today:

"Younger voters tend to be deeply concerned about global warming. They blame climate change on the alleged self-absorption of a consumerist older generation greedy for more GDP growth than the poor old planet can handle. The radicals want immediate action against cars, planes and gas boilers. And they are convinced they are unimpeachably right.

There is a snag. The evidence of recent years is that bossy middle-class people lecturing their supposed inferiors (educationally and economically) is not going well. Will most voters like what comes next on the green front? To deliver on the government's pledge to take Britain carbon neutral by 2050, consumers must be told soon by their betters about the expensive replacement of millions of gas boilers, about compulsory and ineffective induction hobs in the kitchen and potentially punitive taxation on petrol and flying.

Extinction Rebellion says that even the 2050 target is woefully insufficient. Britain must go carbon neutral by 2025: growth must effectively end; and the mass disruption on the streets will intensify until they get what they want."

Of course punitive taxation on petrol and flying isn't going to affect the Emma Thompsons of this world (sorry I know we aren't supposed to mention her) or the the enormous number of private jets that flew into Davos to listen to David Attenborough's speech on the environment, oh the irony just the average family who take their annual holiday abroad.

The article further goes on to state:

"Anyone seeking to do to the economy what Extinction Rebellion plans to do should surely put it in a party manifesto to be scrutinised by the media and voters"

"While the public is receptive to generalised ideas of protecting the planet there will be nothing like a majority of voters for a slate of policies to ban flying and economic growth when British emissions have fallen sharply and new economies are pumping out so much more"

and the mass disruption on the streets will intensify _until they get what they want_"

I thought we lived in a democracy.

Amen!

We have to start somewhere, governments are dragging their feet and people just seem to shrug their shoulders. These protests are a good way of bringing the problem to the forefront and it gets my backing. If I had my way I would have 20 mile limit in all towns and permit parking for residences only in a two mile radius around schools. Harsh, yes, but needed, if not for our generation then certainly for the next.

I saw a photograph of two of them seated comfortably on a red sofa, dumped in a road, while a policewoman stood behind.
Clearly not gentlemen.

Should there not be an onus on the "influencers" who spearhead and lecture the rest of us to lead by example. So I'm going to mention the sainted Emma again and say perhaps you could promote your next whatever project by video link instead of flying there. I've seen Oscar winners who couldn't be at the ceremony to pick up their going do the necessary in such a way. It simply isn't good enough to say "if I could fly clean I would" God that's a classic if ever there was one or "I've planted a few trees". As for the idiots who flew in for the lecture on climate change or whatever, I mean wtf you couldn't make it up! Or the young man who was an organiser of the London demos who stated "flying should only be for emergencies" 'cept he was all over the place on his Instagram on his own personal "emergencies" skiing, beach holidays in the Maldives and the like An end to the buffoonery please or no one's going to listen, it's as Ian Martin states "sick and tired of being lectured by bossy middle class people" Lead by example for heaven's sake!

As for the man who missed those vital last moments with his dying father, how would we feel if that was one of us and we were desperately trying to be by the side of a loved one at such a time

My grin was in response to easybee's post.

The policewoman could hardly have sat down could she?

Yeah. Let them stop. Let governments slip back to doing what they were before. Who cares if the planet is destroyed beyond saving in the next eleven years? Why should we give the proverbial? We won't be here, or if we are it won't concern us will it?

Why should us oldies care about a planet that belongs to our children and grandchildren? So long as we recycle our plastic trays, we are doing our bit.

Sod the lot of it.