Thousands gather to block London bridges in climate rebellion #ExtinctionRebellion

Hierophant · Nov 17, 2018

Dozens arrested after climate protest blocks five London bridges
Eighty-five people have been arrested as thousands of demonstrators occupied five bridges in central London to voice their concern over the looming climate crisis.

Protesters, including families and pensioners, began massing on five of London's main bridges from 10am on Saturday. An hour later, all the crossings had been blocked in one of the biggest acts of peaceful civil disobedience in the UK in decades. Some people locked themselves together, while others linked arms and sang songs.
...
Jenny Jones, the Green party peer, joined the protest on Westminster Bridge. She backed the nonviolent direct action taken by demonstrators.

"We are at the point where if we don't start acting and acting fast we are just going to wipe out our life support system," she said.

"It's fine to think we are a rich country, the sixth biggest economy in the world, but actually we won't do any better than anywhere else because climate change will massively affect us too.

"Basically, conventional politics has failed us – it's even failed me and I'm part of the system – so people have no other choice."
...
However, those disruptions were eclipsed on Saturday, when organisers say 6,000 people took part in protests.

"It is not a step we take lightly," said Tiana Jacout, one of those involved. "If things continue as is, we face an extinction greater than the one that killed the dinosaurs. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be a worthy ancestor."
...
"Given the scale of the ecological crisis we are facing this is the appropriate scale of expansion," said Bradbrook. "Occupying the streets to bring about change as our ancestors have done before us. Only this kind of large-scale economic disruption can rapidly bring the government to the table to discuss our demands. We are prepared to risk it all for our futures."
...
The civil disobedience comes amid growing evidence of looming climate breakdown and follows warnings from the UN that there are only 12 years left to prevent global ecological disaster.

The group is also making international contacts, with 11 events planned in seven countries so far, including the US, Canada, Germany, Australia and France.

"To properly challenge the system that is sending us to an early grave we have to be bold and ambitious," said Read. "Forging new connections across the world and learning from each other."

This kind of protest should go global, climate change is the most pressing concern for the entire human race right now and we need to do literally everything we can to curb it. I know for sure when they come to Sydney, I'll be right there marching with them.

signal · Nov 17, 2018

ColdSun · Nov 17, 2018

I'm quite curious to see how this would play out in a major US city like Los Angeles or in other parts of the world.

At the very least, I'm glad to see people utilizing peaceful civil protest to finally force issues to hopefully begin getting addressed.

Hierophant · Nov 17, 2018

ColdSun said:
I'm quite curious to see how this would play out in a major US city like Los Angeles or in other parts of the world.

At the very least, I'm glad to see people utilizing peaceful civil protest to finally force issues to hopefully begin getting addressed.

Probably more of the same rhetoric that was used again BLM protestors
"You're not going to get anybody on your side by blocking traffic"
Or straight up conservatives saying they were gonna run people over.

Deleted member 2802 · Nov 17, 2018

Hierophant said:
This kind of protest should go global, climate change is the most pressing concern for the entire human race right now and we need to do literally everything we can to curb it. I know for sure when they come to Sydney, I'll be right there marching with them.

Trump: I have a natural instinct for science

Zoc · Nov 17, 2018

I'm interested in the response vs. when BLM did this.

thediamondage · Nov 17, 2018

Would most people be ok with the kind of changes in society that would be required at this point? Civil liberties would have to be thrown out the window. Private housing would have to be abolished, along with the concepts of buying food and most forms of consumption. People would have to share living spaces, get rid of all private transportation, have communal shared kitchens to minimize food waste and implement strict rigorous food consumption, and it would have to be done in such a way that black markets and such don't grow out of hand.

The alternative is a couple billion people dying as we don't change, and sadly I think more people would be ok with that solution as they imagine they are the ones that survive and someone else in a far away country is the one that ends up dying.

Deleted member 13496 · Nov 17, 2018

Doesn't matter, won't do shit. The people in charge of these matters don't give two flying fucks about a bunch of peaceful protests.

Zhukov · Nov 17, 2018

I bet the measures required to actually combat climate change would meet far bigger protests then climate change itself.

Personally I've given up on caring about it. People aren't going to give a shit until the bills start getting high, the food starts running low or the seawater starts washing into their lounge room.

signal · Nov 18, 2018

:think:

Ramathevoice · Nov 18, 2018

To think that on the same day, thousands of people blocked traffic across France to protest the increase in diesel prices :/

John Doe · Nov 18, 2018

thediamondage said:
Would most people be ok with the kind of changes in society that would be required at this point? Civil liberties would have to be thrown out the window. Private housing would have to be abolished, along with the concepts of buying food and most forms of consumption. People would have to share living spaces, get rid of all private transportation, have communal shared kitchens to minimize food waste and implement strict rigorous food consumption, and it would have to be done in such a way that black markets and such don't grow out of hand.

The alternative is a couple billion people dying as we don't change, and sadly I think more people would be ok with that solution as they imagine they are the ones that survive and someone else in a far away country is the one that ends up dying.

What would REALLY make a difference is corporations being forced to change their manufacturing habits.

Countries stop relying on fossil feuls and switch to renewable energy sources and government fixing transportation systems. The burden is on the world governments to combat climate change. None of what you suggest would not make enough of a difference if coal and oil are still in wide use

Civil liberties thrown out the window, abolish private housing............... okay then

ahoyhoy · Nov 18, 2018

thediamondage said:
Would most people be ok with the kind of changes in society that would be required at this point? Civil liberties would have to be thrown out the window. Private housing would have to be abolished, along with the concepts of buying food and most forms of consumption. People would have to share living spaces, get rid of all private transportation, have communal shared kitchens to minimize food waste and implement strict rigorous food consumption, and it would have to be done in such a way that black markets and such don't grow out of hand.

The alternative is a couple billion people dying as we don't change, and sadly I think more people would be ok with that solution as they imagine they are the ones that survive and someone else in a far away country is the one that ends up dying.

That's just an extreme scenario.

We could be doing more of the bare minimum to put that shit off.

show me your skeleton · Nov 18, 2018

thediamondage said:
Would most people be ok with the kind of changes in society that would be required at this point? Civil liberties would have to be thrown out the window. Private housing would have to be abolished, along with the concepts of buying food and most forms of consumption. People would have to share living spaces, get rid of all private transportation, have communal shared kitchens to minimize food waste and implement strict rigorous food consumption, and it would have to be done in such a way that black markets and such don't grow out of hand.

this all sounds pretty damn great tbh.

Mirage · Nov 18, 2018

Switch Back 9 said:
Doesn't matter, won't do shit. The people in charge of these matters don't give two flying fucks about a bunch of peaceful protests.

You won't get anywhere without trying to do something.

Nemesis Warlock · Nov 18, 2018

thediamondage said:
Would most people be ok with the kind of changes in society that would be required at this point? Civil liberties would have to be thrown out the window. Private housing would have to be abolished, along with the concepts of buying food and most forms of consumption. People would have to share living spaces, get rid of all private transportation, have communal shared kitchens to minimize food waste and implement strict rigorous food consumption, and it would have to be done in such a way that black markets and such don't grow out of hand.

The alternative is a couple billion people dying as we don't change, and sadly I think more people would be ok with that solution as they imagine they are the ones that survive and someone else in a far away country is the one that ends up dying.

That's science fiction level over-reaction.

We need corporations to implement much better production and emissions standards, Phase out fossil fuel vehicles in exchange for natural gas/Electrics, and invest at least an order of magnitude more heavily in non-fossil fuel energy sources such as Solar, Wind, Geothermal, and *Especially* Fusion.

John Doe · Nov 18, 2018

ahoyhoy said:
That's just an extreme scenario.

We could be doing more of the bare minimum to put that shit off.

It always amazes me when people put all the blame on individuals when it comes to climate change. The truth is by far the biggest changes in society must come from governments and corporations.

But I suppose, as usual, people will have to do the brunt of the suffering when everyone gets serious about this problem while corporations continue to do the same thing as before.

Even if every person on earth changes their habits on an individual level, once corporations and government still rely on fossil fuel energy, we will get nowhere while increasing our own suffering until the end. Policy change is implemented from the top downwards, people can fight for that policy change of course, but its start and implementation comes from the government.

Galactor · Nov 18, 2018

climate change is a symptom of a disease, its the fever of a sick planet. The cancer is capitalism. We need some systemic chemo. Hope this movement will grow.

UltimusXI · Nov 18, 2018

John Doe said:
It always amazes me when people put all the blame on individuals when it comes to climate change. The truth is by far the biggest changes in society must come from governments and corporations.

It's easy to point to corporation though, but unless ALL corporations in like a single industry change their ways at once, nothing will change. If one corporation changes their products to be climate neutral or more climate friendly, the majority of consumers will just flock to the competitors products, because they will be cheaper.

Consumers' mindset needs to change to make corporations change. And corporations will change very quickly then to stay relevant. I don't see consumers mindset change though, so all must come from governments. Until then though, the only way to make any change at all is to make changes yourself.

SWoS · Nov 18, 2018

UltimusXI said:
It's easy to point to corporation though, but unless ALL corporations in like a single industry change their ways at once, nothing will change. If one corporation changes their products to be climate neutral or more climate friendly, the majority of consumers will just flock to the competitors products, because they will be cheaper.

Consumers' mindset needs to change to make corporations change. And corporations will change very quickly then to stay relevant. I don't see consumers mindset change though, so all must come from governments. Until then though, the only way to make any change at all is to make changes yourself.

Yep, you're absolutely right. Residential users can keep pointing towards other sectors of society, but in the USA at least residential users account for 37% of energy usage (stats from 2013).

https://www.epa.gov/energy/electricity-customers

We can all do our bit and saying that government and industry are solely responsible is just passing the buck. Buy responsibly and reduce, reuse and recycle. Stop heating/cooling your homes to ridiculous temperatures and see what else you can do to cut down on your water/electricity use. Don't buy a new car unless it's necessary, even if it's electric (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/sep/23/carbon-footprint-new-car) and don't expect technology to solve all your problems.

Banzai · Nov 18, 2018

Cool. Make some noise.

DarthSontin · Nov 18, 2018

The more people can make it an issue, the better. We have everything we need, we just need to do it.

Aprikurt · Nov 18, 2018

shira said:
Trump: I have a natural instinct for science

More like

astro · Nov 18, 2018

Switch Back 9 said:
Doesn't matter, won't do shit. The people in charge of these matters don't give two flying fucks about a bunch of peaceful protests.

So let's not even bother to try?

Keikaku · Nov 18, 2018

"If things continue as is, we face an extinction greater than the one that killed the dinosaurs. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be a worthy ancestor."

Kthulhu · Nov 18, 2018

ColdSun said:
I'm quite curious to see how this would play out in a major US city like Los Angeles or in other parts of the world.

At the very least, I'm glad to see people utilizing peaceful civil protest to finally force issues to hopefully begin getting addressed.

You'd probably see the same thing as when BLM blocked streets.

Glasgow Mega-Snake · Nov 18, 2018

John Doe said:
What would REALLY make a difference is corporations being forced to change their manufacturing habits.

Countries stop relying on fossil feuls and switch to renewable energy sources and government fixing transportation systems. The burden is on the world governments to combat climate change. None of what you suggest would not make enough of a difference if coal and oil are still in wide use

Civil liberties thrown out the window, abolish private housing............... okay then

Well corporations are driven by demand. And how many people are going to willingly give up luxuries they've gotten used to? It's too easy to just blame governments and corporations.

Flying is the most harmful form of transportation when it comes to greenhouse emmissions. We should be flying a lot less, but instead the number of flights has been rising for years. Airplanes transported almost 4 billion passengers in 2016. That number is expected to double until 2035. We need drastic kerosene taxes to stop the rise, but people like the convenience of budget airlines and politicians who want to make flying more expensive can only lose.

Only a minority is willing to substantially reduce their meat consumption.

When I was travelling in the US and Canada, I was really surprised how widespread a/cs actually were, because even in Southern Europe few people have them in their flats. Looking at the statistics, 90 % of American households have a/cs, but in hot countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa it's just 8 %. But that's changing as the middle class in those countries is growing. 21 % of the total world electricity growth right now is coming from the demand for air conditioning. Let that sink in. And that demand will only grow because of rising temperatures due to climate change. It's a vicious cycle.

(source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/climate/air-conditioning.html)

Copper · Nov 18, 2018

Try starting to implement policies to actually achieve 0 CO2 emissions, and people would riot on the streets. People may want a green world, but they also want electricity and comforts. A look at France show what happen when the government put a huge tax hike on petrol as a carbon tax. 1 dead and riots on the streets in every big city. We ain't leaving our cars or renouncing to 24h round electricity. Or embark the level of investment in energy storage that we'd need to start today to get anywhere close to be able to actually use renewable energy as a reliable energy source.

Deleted member 41271 · Nov 18, 2018

thediamondage said:
Would most people be ok with the kind of changes in society that would be required at this point? Civil liberties would have to be thrown out the window. Private housing would have to be abolished, along with the concepts of buying food and most forms of consumption. People would have to share living spaces, get rid of all private transportation, have communal shared kitchens to minimize food waste and implement strict rigorous food consumption, and it would have to be done in such a way that black markets and such don't grow out of hand.

We could do that, or we could just require corporations to be more environmental. That seems a lot more reasonable to me, personally.

Why are we always focusing on regular citizens here, and not companies or nations? The latter are what cause the emissions, the former's a drop in the bucket in comparison.

Polioliolio · Nov 18, 2018

John Doe said:
What would REALLY make a difference is corporations being forced to change their manufacturing habits.

Countries stop relying on fossil feuls and switch to renewable energy sources and government fixing transportation systems. The burden is on the world governments to combat climate change. None of what you suggest would not make enough of a difference if coal and oil are still in wide use

Civil liberties thrown out the window, abolish private housing............... okay then

Yep. The blame always falls on the little guy. It's always framed as if you the individual can save the earth if you use less water or if you recycle a tub of yogurt. Fuck off with that. I could recycle my bottles for my entire life and not make a difference. It starts at the top! Corporations need to be controlled by the people, then change can happen and it can happen quite quickly.

John Doe · Nov 18, 2018

Glasgow Mega-Snake said:
Well corporations are driven by demand. And how many people are going to willingly give up luxuries they've gotten used to? It's too easy to just blame governments and corporations.

Flying is the most harmful form of transportation when it comes to greenhouse emmissions. We should be flying a lot less, but instead the number of flights has been rising for years. Airplanes transported almost 4 billion passengers in 2016. That number is expected to double until 2035. We need drastic kerosene taxes to stop the rise, but people like the convenience of budget airlines and politicians who want to make flying more expensive can only lose.

Only a minority is willing to substantially reduce their meat consumption.

When I was travelling in the US and Canada, I was really surprised how widespread a/cs actually were, because even in Southern Europe few people have them in their flats. Looking at the statistics, 90 % of American households have a/cs, but in hot countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa it's just 8 %. But that's changing as the middle class in those countries is growing. 21 % of the total world electricity growth right now is coming from the demand for air conditioning. Let that sink in. And that demand will only grow because of rising temperatures due to climate change. It's a vicious cycle.

(source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/climate/air-conditioning.html)

A lot of people are misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that we don't have a role to play. I'm just saying that our contribution to global warming is a lot less than the government and corporation contribution.

You want people to eat less meat? Then the government needs to: 1. Make it more expensive to consume meat, whether that be by raising taxes on producing meat or 2. Granting concessions and lowering taxes on vegetarian/vegan products to make it more affordable in the eyes of the average person. Yes a lot of people eat meat for taste but by and large everything comes down to economics for most people. If the price of a hamburger shot up by $40 and a lentil burger was $5 you would be surprised how many people change their diets.

Its the same with flying, as long as its cheap, available and people have this "everyone must travel the world" mentality then of course flights are going to increase.

People need to put pressure on governments to change things but at the end of the day only the government has the power to implement real change. This isn't a 1 to 1 comparison and please don't think I'm comparing the struggle for civil rights to climate change. People thought that segregation was wrong and marched, protested and fought to change things, at the end of the day the government listened and made the civil rights act. If everyone kept quiet about it and accepted the status quo, then who knows, segregation might still exist in the United States today. But people fought against it and at the end, the entity with the actual power to change things, changed them.

signal · Nov 18, 2018

Fishtank · Nov 19, 2018

This absolutely needs to be main stream news. This is an event that we are facing everyday! I have done my part by going vegan! I walk as many days as I can to work I do the best I can to recycle and god damn it we need everyone aware of this impending disaster that we are facing.

nelsonroyale · Nov 19, 2018

I mean this issue is potentially much bigger than anything human's have previously faced and we are still at the level of taxing plastic bags. Low hanging fruit is a very over used term, but we are still at the strawberries.

So of course we need this. Even Sweden's commitments, which has the most ambitious carbon reduction targets in Europe, maybe even of any rich country, isn't on track to contribute to below 1.5c - well that is a political target anyway. Government's may be mindful of public concerns as they should, but much of the public is ignorant on the both the scale of the threat of climate change, and how much we are fucking the rest of life with our current consumption practices.

I urge more people to actually get involve, get active. It is important to make changes in your own life, and if you care enough about that, care enough to get socially involved.

Thediamondage: The thing is, we are currently on target to reach a global average increase of above 3c by 2100, at which point all sorts of climate feedback involving albedo, release of carbon from amazon depletion, etc, could take us way beyond that. These scenarios would impact very, very drastically on rich Northern countries...including US, Canada and Australia. Of course, there would very likely be war at the same time. Worse case scenarios could be way beyond World War II.

signal · Nov 21, 2018

Deleted member 25600 · Nov 21, 2018

So what happened to emergency vehicles that needed to cross?

Mr. X · Nov 21, 2018

Whoa I missed something. 12 years? We're boned.

Mr. X · Nov 21, 2018

DrSlek said:
So what happened to emergency vehicles that needed to cross?

Anyone in the ambulance or needing one died.
Fires burnt down entire towns and cities.
Criminals went rampant.
Much chaos.

I Don't Like · Nov 21, 2018

Meanwhile, in America...

Deleted member 25600 · Nov 21, 2018

Mr. X said:
Anyone in the ambulance or needing one died.
Fires burnt down entire towns and cities.
Criminals went rampant.
Much chaos.

Oh dear. That sounds very unlike the British.

Tetrinski · Nov 21, 2018

Proud of these people, we need urgent action and we are not seeing it.

signal · Nov 21, 2018

PlayALLTheGames said:
Meanwhile, in America...

What a dumb fucking idiot. I'm mad I had to read that.

signal · Nov 22, 2018

klonere · Nov 22, 2018

Nothing less than ultra radical reform of capitalism as an economic system de jure is required

basically, lmao lmao

Thousands gather to block London bridges in climate rebellion #ExtinctionRebellion

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