I’m fuming!

Quite agree. I wonder if maybe the birthday lunch might be rescheduled…..not at all the same tho, the shines possibly been taken off. What a great pity.

I think these protestors are shooting themselves in the foot by causing distress (and not just inconvenience) to other people. It means that, while I am concerned about climate change, these protestors have lost any sympathy or support from me.

A surgeon tweeted that he also was held up on by the Stop Oil protester on the gantry by junction 30 M25.

His operation list was cancelled.

It is such a stupid and counter productive demonstartion.

No one needs to be reminded of the urgency of climate change but doing what these protesters do, interfering with ordinary peoples's lives like this does nothing for their cause, just irritates and puts peoples backs up and makes them the story and not the cause.

With COP 27 happening at the moment and grabbing all the headline, s that they are still staging these protests shows just how much these demonstrations are about them and not about the cause.

I wonder how much extra petrol and diesel have been consumed as a result of these demonstrations. I am sure more than one surgeon or emergency response team has been held up. How many people have died or seen their health deteriorate because they could not get to appointment or key staff were missing so they did not get urgent treatment and operations?

How dreadful GG I hope the protestors get prison sentences.

I agree MOnica they are targeting the wrong people. So many people had their days disrupted to achieve what ?

How sad for your friend NanKate and for all those patients, whose ops have been cancelled. So - called Eco-activists 😡

As the protests were in the middle of a motorway, I can’t help wondering how they got there. On pushbikes?

And before anyone says electric vehicles, the pollution caused by mining for lithium batteries and their disposal is enormous.

Hypocrisy looms large.

I can see the general public taking things into their own hands to removed/drag these people from the road or where they are hanging about. Someone is going to loose thier temper before very long, there is only so far you can push people.

Wonder how this bl..dy lot would feel if it was a few of their numbers who needed immediate life saving medical care?Sorry, emergency services can’t get through! 🤬
I am well aware we are a democratic country and agree we should have the right to protest but there must be a limit when their actions are costing lives.
It is sickening that this particular style of protesting and controlling the lives of all is allowed.

I do feel for your friend missing out on her special day with her DD Nankate

the traffic idling over will be causing more pollution surely?

It's a disgrace this all wasn't addressed years ago though. We have known for 2 decades plus about climate change. The reason nothing has been done is because of narcissism of individuals and groups and greed. It's appalling that the UK is an offender too, all the money being wasted on brexit and so many general elections, it beggars belief

I agree.

How, in peoples opinion, could protesters effectively make their point instead?

The thing is Wyllow, I’m not sure anyone knows what their point is.

I mean Stop Oil Now sounds very grand but Stop Oil and what?

Stop oil and bike everywhere.
Stop oil and ground all planes.
Stop oil and have food rationing because we ship in a lot of food.

They don’t actually have any plan for a future without oil, do they?

Leading a movement of people consciously cutting their own carbon footprint and making a big deal of it. Not using any transport that uses hydrocarbons andonly travelling on vehicles either manufactured before we knew of the problem or produced in a carbon neutral manner. Buy only products with very low airmiles.

I am sure if they put their minds to it (and many of them seem to have or be studying for PhDs) they could show us all how to live a carbon neutral life. They could work for social organisations involved in insulating houses. They could use their superior intelligence to work out how to keep these activities in thepublic news. There is a lot they could do if they put their minds to it.

What they are doing at the moment is counter productive to their cause, so even sitting at home doing nothing would do more for their cause than what they are doing now.

I'm sorry to hear that Nankate.
I stayed at my daughter's in Kent last night, I live in Essex. I left her house at 7.45 this morning as I had heard that there may be disruption.
I think I just missed the chaos at J30.
I could see the queues on the other carriageway and really felt for all those being disrupted.
We need to get a grip and arrest these protesters before they start causing chaos.

"They could use their superior intelligence to work out how to keep these activities in the public news."

Problem is, it's still a "how?".

Very little is being delivered at the COP conference, is it?

I'm a Quaker and a number of individuals I know have demonstrated in very imaginative safe peaceful ways and indeed tried to think it all through (with or without PHD's )

and no notice is taken.

Passive resistance has proved extremely effective in the past. Think Ghanaian and Martin Luther King.

I think it was Spike Milligan (maybe not, I can’t remember who) who closed down a chicken factory farm by offering shoppers free range organic eggs for nothing instead.

Now let’s see, how can they reduce reliance on food brought in from great distances say. Starting with themselves of course.

Ghandi.

How do you turn off auto correct?

"Now let’s see, how can they reduce reliance on food brought in from great distances say."

well yes, that bit, and only driving when no choice at all and so on already being done by those I know, how do we get more to do that?

My son was the doctor on an ambulance with a very poorly baby a couple of years ago and they wouldn’t allow the ambulance through. All my sympathy was lost that day.

But what this group are doing is not passive resistance. Passive resistance works because of the huge number of people who support the cost.

This little group of vandalistic and selfish people, have no followers or any purpose beyond causing other people inconvenience and difficulty. Their antics lead to extra petrol and diesel being used.

I think a world wide campaign of passive resistance to governments not reacting fast enough to climate change would be wonderful and, probably could do more to accelerate the move away from carbon based fuels, than almost anything else.

If the population as a whole could be activated to do all they could within their own lives to reduce thei carbon footprint and if more and more people would write to their MPs, ask politicians at every opportunity about responses to climate change, then politicians will push the agenda themselves.

But sticking yourself to pictures and shutting motorways in the rush hour does b*gger all to reduce carbon emissions

I agree, I cant support them.

But this, yes.

"If the population as a whole could be activated to do all they could within their own lives to reduce their carbon footprint and if more and more people would write to their MPs, ask politicians at every opportunity about responses to climate change, then politicians will push the agenda themselves."

“No one needs to be reminded of the urgency of climate change”

Unfortunately @M0nica, the opposite is true, which is why catastrophic climate change is accelerating. A birthday lunch can be rebooked - survival of the human race cannot.

I’d agree climate change needs to be top of the agenda rather than an afterthought. I’m not sure how the importance of it can be highlighted. I have been on peaceful protests but I wouldn’t be up for closing motorways or glueing myself to bridges, I agree doesn’t do much for the message. I don’t hate these protesters, but wonder how their dedication could be better channelled.