Climate Change Protests - will they make a difference?

Spot on crystaltipps

There is too much traffic in all major cities - but the public transport is dire and then people protest if Park and Ride centres are suggested.
If they scrapped HS2 and put that money towards better public transport it would be a start.

However, the MPs were all off on their Easter hols.

Well all I can say is lucky people who can book a week off and have it honoured, our police had all leave cancelled and were ordered to work 12 hour shifts for the foreseeable future!!!! They will have lost money that is not reimbursed, kids won't see mum or dad, but that's OK as long as people like Robin Boardman-Pattison get to pontificate on what the rest of the population should do, but not him of course.

The only hatred I've seen is towards anyone who thinks this protest has employed faulty logic and tactics. I defy anyone to demonstrate that the vast majority of people aren't concerned about the future of this planet, but most don't employ a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude. Dear Emma Thompson doesn't fly as much as she used to, and would fly clean if she could. Does she really imagine that everybody else prefers to fly dirty?? I'm sorry but is Hollywood and Ellen Degeneres' show really that important? Oh sorry she plants lots of trees. I do carbon offsetting too for my 1 return flight a year, think that puts me a million miles ahead of Miss Preachy.

It puzzles me to understand the rationale of these protests most Western nations acknowledge the science behind climate change and are taking all actions as appropriate to try and address the main causes. You cannot turn a ship in minutes nor can we become carbon neutral overnight however this is what I feel those protesting are expecting. Can we quickly ground all the planes, stop all of the traffic discard all of the plastic and stop the power stations. No our societies cannot survive now without these. What we can and is being done is to allow science to develop replacements for the fuels currently required for our existence, but this is not an overnight or even short term process as the protesters seemingly expect.

Rather than protesting shouldn’t we be celebrating how far we have come in (probably) the last 50 years in tackling the use of fossil fuels. Look at the wind farms that are now providing a good % of our electricity, the solar panels that adorn many roofs, our hybrid cars, the hydrogen engines coming on line and the myriad other initiatives already striving to put a brake on CO2 emissions. A celebratory demonstration would be far better than being told to ‘Wake up’ when we’ve been up for hours.

Joelsnan you'd be better off banging your head against a brick wall. Unless you're like our heroes Robin Boardman-Pattison, Emma Thompson or the other "bigwigs" of the movement then you are of no consequence, and your opinion is worth even less. Their "white privileged lifestyles" are truly irrelevant, honestly!

The point is we aren’t taking all appropriate actions to halt the climate emergency. Industry and manufacturing and individuals have really got to be forced into change while governments faff around. We should have a deposit scheme on plastic bottles so manufacturers are forced to recycle. Single use plastics should be banned especially in the fishing and farming industries which are the worse polluters of the seas and countryside with plastic waste. That’s just a start. Perhaps we should have. A “carbon allowance” to limit air travel and energy use. Lots of ideas around. More action definitely needed.

Joelsnan if only that was so. Most nations are not really getting to grips with the problem. CO2 and other emissions continue to rise and the window of change is getting smaller and closer.

We knew about this in the 1960s when I did my degree in Environmental Science and yet time after time Governments have put off measures that would have been quite effective 50+ years ago. Fuel companies have bought up, and sat on, patents that could have been developed long since, so that they could continue to sell petrol.

It’s all about money and profit and these big companies lobby governments and try to halt measures that might be effective but knock their profits. Then you have the deny lobby and those like Trump.

These protesters are trying to break through this level of self-interest in politics and break the power these companies have over government policy.

Why people who can help influence this, such as slebs, are being knocked for doing their bit I can’t understand. Anyone who has the guts and drive to get out there and stamp their feet and say ‘enough is enough’ deserves our support.

If you aren’t part of the solution then you are part of the problem.

If you aren’t part of the solution then you are part of the problem

There are millions of us just going about our daily lives quietly trying to do the right thing with regards climate change Anja . We don’t need to shout about it, virtue signal or dance in the street.

I really don’t consider a load of people with a lot of free time (and clearly money or how else could they do it?) on their hands dancing around bringing the capital to a standstill to be part of a solution.

Wonder if Emma Thompson will be content with using public transport, no calling a taxi, wait for a bus.

They (the protestors) are trying to get the message over to the government.

They want things speeded up. They succeed to a certain extent. So it's worth doing.

Yes, individuals are doing the best they can, but individuals alone can't solve this.

Why is this being turned into an 'us and them' thing with regard to who has the most money/easy life circumstances? Look a bit further than the end of your noses. See the bigger picture.

Yawn.

should have they may succeed...

Gillybob's post is only one of many Grans' posts, perhaps the majority ,in support of 'decent frugality 'if you will; together with disapproval of the disruption of the huge public protests with accompanying disruption.

" I really don’t consider a load of people with a lot of free time (and clearly money or how else could they do it?) on their hands dancing around bringing the capital to a standstill to be part of a solution. "

I am interested in Gransnet contributors as an indicator of a certain section of society and the median opinion of grans.

Gransnet contributors are not the whole demographic of older people. Grans are 1.English speakers who 2. can afford the money to run a computer and don't include 3. grans who are not interested in any weighty matters that are connected with politics.

This is quite a small demographic compared with older people as a whole group. Varian has already noted that most Gransnet contributors don't contribute to threads like this one.

Is there any useful statistic about older women's attitudes to be got from such an analysis?

It is being said that this protest is getting people talking about climate change - except of course what most people are talking about is the disruption being caused not the message they are trying to put across.

Alexa I guess it just shows that most people prefer a quiet life.

I can be accused of many things but a quiet life is certainly not one of them !

But you are on the thread gillybob.

Gonegirl:
" Alexa I guess it just shows that most people prefer a quiet life. grin "

That's the default attitude Gonegirl, however I might also say that

despite that the great majority of demonstrators prefer a quiet life thousands have demonstrated on the streets of London and other big affluent cities .

Varian and Alexa I think it's unwise to make assumptions based on contributions to political GN threads. I'm sure I'm not alone in being one of the people who is doing as much as I possibly can, but just not virtue signalling on here or on FB.

I have commented on hypocrisy because it makes me angry, but other than that I don't post my own political views online because I am a private person.

Climate change is NOT about politics (btw).

Sparklefizz, you are right. I forgot that variable.

Alexa I hope you don't use such flimsy assumptions to extrapolate information and use as conclusions for reports in RL.

Climate change is NOT about politics
But politicians have the means to change things.
If it's not about politics, then why were the protestors not targeting specific businesses?

If it's not about politics, then why were the protestors not targeting specific businesses?

They can't target Costa because many of them, including Emma Thompson, have been photographed with their Costa one-cup plastic coffee cups!! [grin} Hypocrisy again.

Callistemon, what is RL ?

I have not concluded anything. I am trying to get an overall impression of the main sections of opinion in these more serious threads in Gransnet.

"most gransnetters don't contribute to threads like this one"

Fear of being admonished I imagine if they present an opposing point of view, not everyone has the confidence to do that.

Regarding the specific action by the Climate Change Protesters:

Two main points:

1. People who spearhead such movements are likely to be ridiculed if it's found out that they have clocked up air miles themselves on holidays to far flung places for holidays and then tell others flying should be undertaken in emergency scenarios only Being interviewed on a US talk show, is I would imagine not an "emergency". I don't think it's very wise to then further put your foot in it by declaring "if I could fly clean I would", subliminal message coming from that statement, maybe not everyone who flies thinks like this, just me

2. Disrupting ordinary people's lives going to work and particularly smaller business is not the way to garner support for what is undoubtedly a massively important issue and making fatuous invitations to the workforce "to take the day off to come and join in the fun" is pretty banal and shows that person to be lacking in any kind of understanding of the vast majority of the working population.

All this just reinforces the "them and us". Just too presumptuous for words.

Finally it seems to me that there are those who like to make the assumption that anyone who opposes the methods employed by the current protesters clearly doesn't care about climate change