Blocking roads isn’t crazy – it’s our last hope for sanity on the climate crisis
JVL Introduction
Jonathan Cook gives unambiguous support to those taking direct action on climate change.
Many of their actions are ignored by the media and where they are noted the line is invariably that they are “counter-productive”.
As if, says Cook, the decades of endless scientific analyses and warnings had been heeded and publicised by the media, as if governments who pay lip service to the need to do something had actually pulled their collective fingers out decades ago and were on top of the problem.
In Cook’s words:
“Civil disobedience is a symptom not of the climate crisis – nature won’t listen to the protesters – but of the inaction that continues to be the default position of governing political elites, as well as the billionaire-owned media that is supposed to serve as a watchdog on their power.”
All power to it!
Reposted with permission of Middle East Eye.
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Tue 8 Nov 2022. Read the original here.
Climate crisis: Blocking roads isn’t crazy - it’s our last hope that sanity will prevail
A lack of public concern in the West at dealing with the impending climate catastrophe isn’t accidental. It’s been engineered by political elites to serve their own interests
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It has taken far too long for the reality of the climate catastrophe to be taken seriously – and astonishingly there are still some climate change deniers!! (And some of them are in governments). When I have heard people, especially younger people from, eg Just Stop Oil interviewed, I hear the desperation and deep distress at what is being done to their future in the so called developed world and their recognition of what is already happening in far too many places such as Pakistan. What makes me angriest about Starmer and many others is their total failure to acknowledge why people feel the need to take such actions; the lack of compassion for people in other countries and for future generations here is staggering and shameful.
Jonathan Cook makes the point implicitly that only a total economic change (with the social and political impact that such will have have) is necessary to tackle climate change and therefore links it to mass political change. The climate is not a separate category that can be dealt with in isolation from everything else.
I usually agree with Jonathon Cook, but not this time. This is not about the need for civil disobedience nor direcet action, which are necessary forms of protest; it is about me telling you that you cannot attend your father’s funeral or your hospital appointment It is me telling you that I control your actions such as where & when you can journey while increasing traffic pollution. You will stay in your car because my morality is superior to yours.
Climate change is not about white privilege, it is about Capitalism (not mentioned) & social class, not skin colour. Attack anything but the actual historic cause of climate change………CAPITALISM, but you dare not?
Here are a couple of clips from a recent MediaLens piece which exemplify and illustrate Starmer’s integrity, or complete lack of, that is:
Following the interview, Bastani used Twitter to highlight the glaring contrast between Packham’s cogent remarks on climate activism and the disparaging comments by establishment stooge Sir Keir Starmer. Bastani presented a clip of Starmer, the supposed ‘Leader of the Opposition’, addressing Just Stop Oil as though he were a fossil-fuel-friendly government minister:
‘Get up, go home. I’m opposed to what you’re doing. It’s not the way to deal with the climate crisis. And that’s why we’ve wanted longer sentences for those that are glueing themselves and stuck on roads.’
And:
Alex Nunns, author of ‘The Candidate – Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path To Power’ and former Corbyn speechwriter, tweeted ‘A short video about fraud’ showing Starmer’s transition from a supposed supporter of climate activism in 2019 when he had said:
‘Climate change is the issue of our time, and as the Extinction Rebellion protest showed us this week, the next generation are not going to forgive us if we don’t take action. There’s been lots of talk. Now we need action.’
Three years later, you see an authoritarian, right-wing politician calling for longer sentences for climate activists. Fraud, indeed.
https://www.medialens.org/2022/on-the-highway-to-climate-hell-the-climate-crisis-activism-and-broken-politics/