And There Was Dame Emma Thompson Right At The Front Of....

Yesterday the repeat of horrific wildfires which have started up again was on the news.

Correct, nicenanny, it's part of international concerns. Thats not an argument for not starting at home, though.

Kate1949

Emma Thompson a champagne socialist.

I'm missing your point?

What a lot of snide comments about Emma Thompson. I agree with the aims of the march and respect Emma Thompson for being at the front of it.

cc

Galaxy

Emma Thompsons activism has always made me wince. I have never forgotten the interview with her where she explained how she needed to fly for work but that people needed to stop flying to hen parties.

Flying in general makes me wince as I live under a Heathrow flightpath. Personally I don't think that anybody should make unnecessary flights. Sometimes we can actually see the planes dumping surplus fuel from their wings prior to landing - though we are of course told that this never happens.

Please define "unnecessary". I make one return plane journey a year to visit my son and family in Canada. There is no practical alternative. I deem my journey necessary, but I'm guessing plenty would say it's not.
Emma Thompson does not need to fly between Italy and the UK that journey can easily be done by train.
It's the hypocrisy of telling others what they should do that puts people off.

To other posters, calling out hypocrisy does not mean the critics don't think anything should be done, but let's not pretend all the protestors are doing everything they advocate for others.

Delila

I live in a very rural area & I’ve noticed there’s no longer a dawn chorus…. surely something has gone terribly wrong? I’ve also noticed a shortage of insects, particularly honey bees 🐝 I don’t mind who leads a protest in support of Restore Nature Now, as long as it happens.

Goodness you need to come to my part of London. I love the birds, feed them all year round, and in return they do me the pleasure of singing loudly around 5am to wake me

I too have noticed fewer honey bees, but have seen tons of butterflies and other insects in my small garden. I plant insect friendly plants, something everybody with a plot of earth can do.

That’s my observation, but as you can imagine Rosie51, birds are very well fed around here too, but I think perhaps rural wildlife is more affected by the use of pesticides in the countryside than in London & other cities. I’ve seen very few butterflies, and solitary bees have been more abundant than honey bees.

Yes, a wildlife-friendly, pesticide-free garden is something many of us can, and do, provide. Gardens are so important.

Nicenanny3

China pumps out more pollution in eight years than UK since Industrial Revolution
CO2 emissions of 80bn tonnes from 2013 to 2020 is higher than Britain’s 78bn over 220 years

So no-one else should bother doing anything then?

eazybee

Well, Emma Thompson is a Very, Very Good Actress.
No more to be said.

For my money, her sister Sophie is better.

Maybe Emma Thompson is terrified, like many of us, about the irreparable damage that human beings are doing to the earth. We're already at the tipping point where climate change is concerned - the point at which it becomes irreversible. We probably won't live to see the full effects of ecological disaster but our children and grandchildren will have to suffer them. Good for Emma Thompson, Greta Thunberg and anyone else prepared to speak up for a desperately important cause.

Bluecat well said.

Emma Thompson could be in the news coming out of a fancy restaurant if she chose to, she didn’t have to March through the streets to get attention.

Anything that publicises what this Government is failing to do to combat the fight against sewage in our rivers, allowing pesticides to be used that is killing the honey bees ( you couldn’t make it up could you) and trying to slow down Climate Change is to be praised.

MzOops was also there and I’m pleased she was.

Outcast52

Nicenanny3

China pumps out more pollution in eight years than UK since Industrial Revolution
CO2 emissions of 80bn tonnes from 2013 to 2020 is higher than Britain’s 78bn over 220 years

So no-one else should bother doing anything then?

Perhaps if China would be made to do so something, then others will gladly follow.
Don't buy cheap rubbish from them for starters. If I see anything from China it goes back on the shelf.
Shein , Temu, cheap rubbish made in China, all you shoppers are increasing their carbon output.

Heaven save us from the “luvvies!!!”

Freya5

Perhaps if China would be made to do so something, then others will gladly follow.

Great strategy. Let's all sit and watch the planet burn until China does something. God help us

Clean energy contributed a record 11.4tn yuan ($1.6tn) to China’s economy in 2023, accounting for all of the growth in investment and a larger share of economic growth than any other sector.

The new sector-by-sector analysis for Carbon Brief, based on official figures, industry data and analyst reports, illustrates the huge surge in investment in Chinese clean energy last year – in particular, the so-called “new three” industries of solar power, electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries.

Solar power, along with manufacturing capacity for solar panels, EVs and batteries, were the main focus of China’s clean-energy investments in 2023, the analysis shows.

Globally, China’s unprecedented clean-energy manufacturing boom has pushed down prices, with the cost of solar panels falling 42% year-on-year – a dramatic drop even compared to the historical average of around 17% per year, while battery prices fell by an even steeper 50%.

This, in turn, has encouraged much faster take-up of clean-energy technologies.

www.carbonbrief.org/

Which does not in any way excuse China's continuing burning of fossil fuels. But please stop repeating the "Wait until China does something,,," mantra.

I agree with marches but don't with gluing themselves to roads and throwing paint over things like Stonehenge. Trouble with these marches is that most of the people genuinely what to demonstrate peacefully but there is that element of people who join any march just to cause trouble. The Rent A-Crowd people who ruin everything. I think Emma Thomson has always been a bit of a rebel.

Kate1949

Emma Thompson a champagne socialist.

I'm sure that if well-heeled Tory MPs with healthy bank-balances can claim solidary with hard-working families - those on the Left who drink champagne and live in nice houses can emphasise as socialists.

Socialism and the Labour party have come a long way since the days when the working class wore flat caps, and factory-owners really did own the factories in which the flat-caps worked. It and they have evolved.

You don't need to be poor to recognise poverty and the impoverishment it creates. Both socialists and Tories understand that. Which is why we have had one-nation conservatism in the past. And why the well-heeled can identify with socialism, too.

The scene in Love Actually" where Emma Thompson realises that her husband is having an affair is a masterclass of acting without a word being spoken.
I don't know what is is about her that winds people up so much o here

Ilovecheese

The scene in Love Actually" where Emma Thompson realises that her husband is having an affair is a masterclass of acting without a word being spoken.
I don't know what is is about her that winds people up so much o here

The scene in Love Actually" where Emma Thompson realises that her husband is having an affair is a masterclass of acting without a word being spoken.

Isn't it just!

I don't think people have a problem with her acting - just her opinion(s).

Outcast52

Freya5

Perhaps if China would be made to do so something, then others will gladly follow.

Great strategy. Let's all sit and watch the planet burn until China does something. God help us

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Kate1949

Emma Thompson a champagne socialist.

Too true.

Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda plus other loveys.

We had a very alarming talk at last week's WI about the climate emergency and how close we are to the point of no return. Anything we can do is better than doing nothing.

While pollution and damage by humans is obvious, the science behind human-induced global warming is in dispute - or would be, if the dissenters were not rigorously censored. Please check out 'Climate - the Movie: The Cold Truth.' The sun is hotter because of solar cycles. We need to get into the habit of questioning what we are told and not being ruled by fear. Net zero will costs jobs, and even lives. And I for one think it does matter that China carries on, unabated. What on earth is the point of sacrificing our people, our economy, our way of life, for no good at all?

Kate1949

Emma Thompson a champagne socialist.

So what - there will always be the rich and the poor…but it’s good to see the rich DOING something!!