Every few years a certain type of protestation begins to appear that I find to be utterly confusing. The beliefs held by the protestors are sincerely held, yet the means by which they seek to distribute their message is poisonous to their own cause. And interestingly, those with similar held beliefs, yet with more common sense, are extremely hesitant to call out these tactics.
I give to you, the climate activists.
Let's take a look at some incidents that have occurred over just the past month and examine the flaws in their methodology and how it ultimately serves to undermine their cause.
June 20 - Rome, Italy
Activists from a group called "Last Generation" walked into and blocked the Raccordo Motorway in Rome. The group, dressed in yellow vests and carrying banners denouncing climate change, quickly endeared themselves to the motorists they were inconveniencing.
Wait, did I say "endeared themselves to the motorists?" I'm sorry, I meant to say "enraged the crap out of the motorists!" Turns out the Italian Motorists were none too pleased and dragged the protestors out of the street repeatedly. Futher, the group’s calls for the government to end all fuel extraction projects and not restart its coal-plants have not gained the desired results. It turns out that the threat of Russia cutting its oil exports to Europe is forcing the hands of the European bloc. For instance - Germany is turning the coal power plants back on again! Trying to make sure the lights stay on is slightly more important than making a few protesters happy.
So, after that fail, surely this style of protesting would fall out of favor.
July 4 - Washington D.C.
Activists from a group called "Declare Emergency" claim responsibility for a protest that blocked 4 lanes of traffic on Inner Loop 495 in Montgomery County, Maryland. The protestors were demanding that President Biden immediately declare a national state of climate emergency. Oh, so that's where their name comes from... Clever!
Videos of a man on parole pleading with the protestors to allow one lane of traffic to be opened, such that he could get to his job on time and avoid breaking his parole orders, went viral. When the people you are directly affecting with your protest are more visibly sympathetic than yourselves, the protesters… you probably aren't protesting right. 13 of the protesters were taken into custody and to date, Biden hasn't declared a national state of climate emergency. Although he did go to Saudi Arabia to plead with them to export more oil. Nailing it!
July 6 - Utrecht, Netherlands
Activists from a group called "Extinction Rebellion" blocked traffic on the A12 Highway in Utrecht. A couple of the protesters had stopped an automobile in the highway, a Citroen C8, and chained themselves to the roof to stop traffic. And no, the Citroen C8 is not electric. Two hours, a couple dozen arrests, and an angle grinder later (used to cut the car's roof & chains) traffic was restored.
While one might make the point that these protests are no different than the farmer protests occurring right now, there is an important difference. Much like the Canadian Trucker protests, the farmers are not surprising people with where they are protesting and people can plan around them accordingly. It is clear that the farmers are not trying to inconvenience the public, rather have their concerns heard. This is likely why this style of protesting has been effective in affecting popular opinion in their favor.
So, now that we're discussing the Dutch, let us discuss another, um, interesting manner of climate protests.
June 30 - London, England
Activists from a group called “Just Stop Oil” glued themselves to the frame of "Peach Trees in Blossom" by Dutch Master, Vincent Van Gogh. Look, I feel a little awkward standing and admiring a piece of art in regular scenarios, so the thought of looking at a piece of art with two nutcases looking right back at me sounds terrible. But this form of protesting is clearly ridiculous. I mean, at least with the road blockages you could make a very weak argument that they were stopping traffic to slow climate change... gluing thyself to a piece of artwork painted with, checks notes, oil doesn't seem to make much sense. I mean, would the world be better without oil paintings?
So this form of protest has got to be a one off, right.
July 4/5 - London, England
Activists from... blah blah blah... You know the drill by now. The Hay Wain by John Constable and a copy of the "Last Supper" believed to be by Giampietrino, a pupil of Da Vinci are targeted. And in the latter case these idiots spray painted "No New Oil '' just underneath the painting. This is why we can't have nice things, I swear.
But "Just Stop Oil" isn't only attempting to annoy the hell out of art lovers... nope, apparently these clowns have a death wish!
July 3 - Silverstone, England
Activists from the clearly prolific “Just Stop Oil” group decide a great way to spread their message is to get run over by a Formula 1 car. Because if there is one group of people that are going to be highly receptive to your cause to get rid of all oil, it's going to be fans of the highest profile sport that is reliant on said oil. This COULD have been a terrifying thing to witness. F1 cars can run at roughly 220 miles per hour, but these 6 morons got VERY lucky.
Just prior to their foray onto the track, which they had planned to take place during lap one of the race, a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad crash occurred. The crash was so bad that the race was immediately suspended and all cars significantly reduced their speed as they trundled back to the pits.
This meant that the morons were gathered by event marshalls (race assistants around the track) prior to when the F1 cars arrived on track. Deliciously these idiots didn't even get the media attention they clearly wanted as this was never broadcast on the global feed.
Side Note - Amazingly F1 Driver Zhou Guanyu walked away from this with NO significant injuries!
Alright, the activists clearly would be happy if we just rode bikes from now on. They are self powered and about as good for the environment as you can get for a method of transportation that can get you significant distances.
July 12 - Magland, France
Activists from the group “Dernière Rènovation” temporarily block the 10th stage of the Tour de France, 22 miles from the end of that day's stage. The TOUR DE FRANCE. A BICYCLE RACE! Because that is what we need to stop... the bicycles! Apparently we only have until March 27, 2025 to save humanity according the the shirts being worn by the protesters proclaiming we only have 989 more days. They need to check with AOC, I believe we still have a little more time than that. I was promised 12 years 3 years ago.
July - New York City, NY; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Scranton, PA
Activists from the group “Tyre Extinguishers”, you guessed it, slashed the tires of a bunch of SUVs across the United States to fight climate change. Seriously. I'm at a loss for words. I'm sure that those that walk out to see their tires slashed are going to want to take up the fight against climate change. Even more bizarrely, they even slash the tires of Electric SUVs.
I could go on... Heck, on July 28th of this year several groups are going to attempt to disrupt the Congressional Baseball Game. Baseball can be a drag when watching professionals... I can only imagine that congressmen playing against each other is significantly worse. Do we need to ruin it even more with protests?
What are we to make of this?
This much is clear, these are not the signs of an authentic political movement. These are the signs of a cult. The devotees of this climate cult will accept nothing less than absolute devotion to their agenda. Any deviation is unacceptable. No coal use is acceptable. No oil use is acceptable. No natural gas use is acceptable. No nuclear power is acceptable. No amount of chemical fertilizers are acceptable.
Political movements generally act in a manner to persuade as many people to their cause as possible. Now this can appear to not be the case if you are on the diametrically opposing viewpoint of an issue, but I assure you that it is. The cardinal sin of a political movement would be to alienate those on your own side of an issue. These climate protesters do just that. Potential allies to their cause are driven away by the unreasonableness of their demands.
The broad demonization of oil is incredibly stupid on any sort of objective scale. Even if you were only to see oil ONLY as an energy source and ignore all of the derivatives of petroleum, you are demonizing one of the most influential discoveries in mankind. It is arguably as important as the wheel in how much its discovery pushed society forward. Just “stopping oil now” is an untenable proposition. And the left leaning parties of the world would be extremely wise to start turning on these eco-terrorists. They are hurting the cause.
Luckily there are environmentalist out there that are proposing a much more reasonable way forward. Sadly they aren’t nearly as famous as the ever hyper-ventilating / “How Dare You” Greta Thunberg and Green New Deal / “World will end in 12 years” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Michael Shellenberger and Bjørn Lomborg are both leading the charge against the eco-terrorism of the day. They offer a much more nuanced view of the current climate challenges we face and potential solutions to them. They are solutions that are rooted in reality in a way that the Thunberg and AOC solutions are not. Oil will not and cannot disappear overnight, nor should it. The same applies to coal. And also to nuclear energy.
Furthermore, the political left needs to recognize the toxicity of such radical eco-terrorism. Rather than aid and abet it by either ignoring it or shielding it from criticism. More of the left needs to challenge these ideologies. Point out what the ramifications would be if we “just stopped oil” now. They aren’t good. And they need to be discussed to relegate these idiotic ideas to the realm of the flat earthers and the like.
As the world faces more and more scarcity of energy sources, the allies of protesters such as these are going to become increasingly unpopular. It is easy to see these as protesters as silly nuisances in times of abundant energy. Once energy becomes scarce… once people are facing power blackouts and brownouts in the summers when they need the reprieve of A/C… when they are freezing in the winter… they will not be looking at these protesters with a graceful eye. They will rightfully be seen as enemies of the people whom politicians bowed to with deadly consequences. The media and politicians would be wise to look around, recognize these realities, and realign themselves accordingly.
https://x.com/protest_nyc/status/1774256577706365133?s=46&t=LxKX2Lqugnjm2ywN5mHPrQ
https://x.com/mrandyngo/status/1774100980818178177?s=46&t=LxKX2Lqugnjm2ywN5mHPrQ