What would YOU do??

[spread-tee]

I was somewhat surprised to learn that earlier this week one of the Just Stop Oil protesters at Wimbledon Tennis was one of our good customers. We did a whole house refurb for him a few years ago during which we had many interesting chats about environmental issues. He is very clued up and passionate about trying to bring about change and is not afraid to put his money where his mouth is, nor is he afraid to be unpopular when voicing his opinion, but he is considered and considerate.

I have mostly had mixed feelings about these protests and sympathy with the inconvenience ordinary folk experience during their daily lives. But also I fully support the need to put intense pressure on our leaders to act swiftly. When I put this argument to him, his point was that the small inconvenience is nothing compared to that we will all feel when the climate goes nuts. A lot of people say that the right place to protest is at the ballot box, but he maintains that this only works if politicians actually carry out the policies they campaign for, if that is not the case we have no idea what we are voting for and how does a meaningful protest come about??

All good points.

He posits that we have to force the politicians to act in a big way on a global scale, what we do individually is almost invisible on a Planetary scale, and many people are supportive until it affects them or their pocket personally, as I have found myself on the doorstep campaign trail. He also thinks it is less about getting the public onside rather than pee-ing them off just enough that they will start demanding action from the leader, which will rely heavily on getting the message across..

I wasn’t so sure of his last point, so he asked me bluntly, you don’t want to upset the public, fair enough, so what would you do as an effective protest?

TBH I haven’t been able to answer that so far, but for fun I am going to a JSO meeting this week to see where this all leads. Personally I find this fascinating, how about you, what would YOU do?? Or how could JSO be more effective??

[Mr Gus]

I feel for them, they are right in that the upset is small in comparison to the tsunami effect of inconvenience when standing in a foot of sewage laden thames flood water annually & all that go's with it.

No-one blinks when I say about our experience with arctic sea ice loss we witness, the glacial chunks we see cascading in summer, not the fact that my glacial climb as a young teen no longer exists ..it is too much bother.

Love island garners more attention ..which is when you know humanity is essentially comprised of western living pop glibulace & we are phucked.

An inconvenient truth needs airing again with a catch up as to how the numbers are crunching.. cascade effect etc.

It reminds me of CND in the 80's many were opposed to missiles on usaf bases, but in an era of tarnishing all with the same brush as crusties (that lasted several decades, ..a campaign worth a lot of cash if you'd employed an ad agency for that) so not many stepped to the plate.

It needs to be lots of groups by association not one group ..for starters, but a combined, concentrated simultaneous set of actions.
I also think we need folk like comedian mark thomas paid to comment & communicate, he has a good base of support, is a gigger, & can argue a toss in a productive manner to take the steam out of peoples ears a bit.

The name of stop oil is a bad one, maybe if they communicated with us BEV drivers & asked us to assist in petition campaigns (eg, get onto EV forums & gauge interest, ditto cycling, drum up a wider base)

In the countryside we don't have many road hold ups, but often on the fens edge when the commercial "utterly for profit" cycle weekend occurs it screws you over with roads shut off for days / hours / uncertain hours with coppers at roadblocks, ...& that pisses many off, at least with a london route you have travel options, for us it might mean staying at home all weekend, or limiting going out, or a BIG diversion on scant few connecting roads, ..& london has a helluva lot of alternate routes, so I cannot see why the drama, other than those glb, vacuous love island type viewers claiming "busy lives" ..enabled by the police not doing 5h1t when the legal (all the paperwork submitted) protestors do what they are entitled to do.

I hope to see the met in court over that ASAP, ..failure of duty.

(angry gus, who of course got stitched up & convicted of performing "assault bye beating" ((NOPE)) yet you see dangerous moped riders & cars assaulting in police sight & getting away scot free ....exactly why I wouldn't nowadays assist a copper taking a kicking on the ground, likely they earned it along the way, & have given too many unwarranted punches, kicks, sprays & weighted baton hits along the way)

[Mr Gus]

..Hmm, ask them what rear windscreen . bumper stickers they think BEV drivers would tolerate (even some sniffy tesla owners) that indirectly ramp & link the cause, small things wider audience, the biggest hinderance is then paying for a sticker, so maybe get some funding from patagonia (clothing & outdoor pursuits) to cover costs, my kid would have it on her laptop, as likely would a lot of "driving age, not necessarily driving" teens & college goers.

If our fricking camera's & sensors worked, i'd consider a JSO type sticker, but with cops letting MAF public assault JSO members willy nilly not being able to record possible keying of our car makes it a no no currently, as it is my limit is likely a POW affiliated sticker (protect our winters) ..not too many self entitled car eying vandals about for that one.

[Ken]

Getting public opinion to change and then force politicians to change is caused by sheer numbers. Gov has to constantly battle public opinions to keep in power they do not dictate policy up to the point they have to carry the MAJORITY of public opinion. This JSO lot are not winning the argument and the majority of people are totally disconnected to this climate change "nonsense"

They need people who can carry public opinion and lead the "sheep" into battle. Like Greta and the schools. Like Farage and UKIP, These people are born to this not made.

Pissing people off does not win any argument but persuasion and education does. We need people who can influence people is what they need.

Whilst i agree with their aims i note that this is all cheap talk and the changes are taking place. Rome was not built in a day nor was the 35M cars on the road nor the leccy infrastructure. The UK in general is doing a good job and unless we go on a war footing and bankrupt ourselves we cannot go much faster. The amount of R&D and investment going into RE is colosssal.

What would i do probably is start with the Daily Mail and get them to change their rhetoric, just pis.. people off gives the DM the perfect story.

[Swwils]

It's pretty simple. Support nuclear and allow your local representative to also do this.

Many can't because the political capital is too expensive.

The alternative is deindustrialization which noone seems happy with.

[Mr Gus]

Without even seeing it I'm guessing the last reply was "something something nuclear"

[dan_b]

I don't really know what the answer is - especially as our Government has effectively outlawed all forms of legal civil protest. But I don't really think Just Stop Oil's tactics are winning them any fans, or doing anything to shift the needle against burning fossil fuels and towards renewables.

Because they're small scale, individual protests, it's far to easy for most people to just dismiss them as individual idiots who are out to spoil a good time - like the cricket, tennis, football, rugby etc. I'm not sure I even think the dumping of orange confetti at George Osbourne's wedding was helpful to the cause either. They're not winning any arguments, just pissing people off. They're not engaging in effective lobbying to change policy or get people onside, they're just pissing people off. They're not saying "do this instead and this is how", they're just pissing people off.

[Marcus]

I'm not sure either, but as we're only legally allowed to protest on condition we don't draw attantion to ourselves then it does beg the question what should JSO do to persuade the government to act?

I myself went on the (approved) XR organised protest on the london marathon weekend: 100,000 people turned up to protest and the mainstream media failed to report it (which begs the question was it worth going?).

But the purpose of protest is to get the public to notice the issue, then they can legally pressure the government by voting or writing to their MP, etc. JSOs tactics do get the pro-government media to report their actions, which makes it harder for your average joe to put climate change out of their minds ( you would think that the extreme weather around the world would be motivation enough, but a lot of folks only care about extreme weather when it hits them).

So, broadly speaking, I'm supportive of JSOs actions, after all their causing minor disruption to trivialities like snooker or tennis, to draw attention to something that's already killing people by the 1000, and is going to get much worse.

[spread-tee]

Thanks for those thoughts gents, I am going to one of the local meetings probably tomorrow to see what their set up is like.
Like many of you I don't see much advantage in cheesing off too many of the general public, but maybe their strategy is deeper than that? Only one way to find out.

Desp

[smegal]

Thanks for those thoughts gents, I am going to one of the local meetings probably tomorrow to see what their set up is like.
Like many of you I don't see much advantage in cheesing off too many of the general public, but maybe their strategy is deeper than that? Only one way to find out.

Desp

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

There seems to be two ways that people think they can make a difference. Be part of the solution, e.g. investor, technical specialist scientist etc. Or gluing themselves to trains.