The @guardian should be thoroughly ashamed for publishing this steaming pile of sophistry. It's why I regard it as having a troublesome position. Yes, it has better climate crisis coverage, but that is because the rest are dire, it's just less dire.
The premise of the argument is that whilst the sentences given to @RogerHallamCS21 et al, are harsh, that @JustStop_Oil are using the wrong tactics, because they are inconveniencing ordinary road users. This is such an ignorant argument, from a position of privilege.
2/
Firstly, the elephant in the room, and this is why this argument, is sophistry, about traffic delays, people missing appointments, is it tacitly implies, that without @JustStop_Oil protests, the traffic would flow freely.
3/
This is just laughable, in its crass intellectual dishonesty, stupidity and ignorance. Traffic flow through the London area is notoriously congested, often with gridlocks, traffic jams, and huge delays, to travel, which have nothing to do with @JustStop_Oil.
4/
The average journey speed through central London is 8.7-7.1 mph, and pretty slow even in outer London. Remember, these are averages, and there are considerable delays on many days.
Protests by @JustStop_Oil etc, are very brief and temporary. So whilst they could cause temporary delays, those delays are often similar or worse in the 365 day yearly cycle, when JSO are not protesting. The elephant in the room is being ignored.
6/
The reason for this congestion, and delays, are the holier than thou car drivers getting riled by @JustStop_Oil protests, cyclists etc. They rarely acknowledge, that driving a car in the London area, causes these delays, far worse than JSO. Lock 'em all up. Tongue-in-cheek.
7/
For clarity, and before going on, let me make it clear that I am not saying @JustStop_Oil tactics are perfect, but I will also defend them to the death, because no other tactics are working to change the globally suicidal course we are on.
8/
Currently, we are heading towards civilization collapse, and mass starvation, driven by the climate crisis, and the overall ecological crisis. This is not an extremist position. Read this by Sir David King, former UK Chief Scientist.
Believe it or not, civilization collapse, and mass starvation will disrupt people's lives far more than a few small protests by @JustStop_Oil. This is the absurdity of these arguments.
10/
All these arguments that @JustStop_Oil are using the wrong tactics. Well, please tell me what the right tactics are? Our leaders promised to address the climate crisis, but according to the UN Secretary General @antonioguterres, they're liars.
Personally, I'm not involved with @JustStop_Oil and I have my own views on what is necessary to prevent this crisis turning into global suicide. But I refuse to criticize any activists or tactics, when so far nothing has worked. They might be right in their choice of tactics.
12/
This is why that Observer/Guardian article, is so crass, stupid, ignorant and is outright false argument.
None of these criticisms of @JustStop_Oil acknowledge that we are currently in a climate crisis heading towards globally suicidal civilization collapse.
13/
I make no excuse for my "alarmism". If you're not alarmed by the climate crisis, it's because you're uninformed, ignorant, & are in some sort of serious denial.
I've not suddenly become a fanatic, it is our leadership who are the dangerous fanatics.
The previous excuse was that our leadership, weren't going to let the climate crisis get out of hand, because they had plans to address it. But as @antonioguterres says, there is a litany of broke climate promises, and our leaders are liars.
15/
Even with the most ambitious Net Zero plans, we are actually heading towards 3-4C of warming, because as Professor Kevin Anderson @KevinClimate says, these plans are Not Zero. They are not actually Net Zero, but pretend Net Zero.
16/
The climate and ecological crisis is a strange state of affairs. It has always been a preventable catastrophe, and 32 years ago at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, our leaders promised to address the crisis. The problem is, they've done nothing since.
Our leaders have squandered all the time they had to organize a credible response, by promising action, and then doing nothing. This is why it is a real emergency, and this is not exaggerated alarmism.
18/
Anyone attacking the tactics of @JustStop_Oil is engaging in a classic, ignoring the massive elephant in the room fallacy, of being in total denial about the actual situation, which is infinitely worse than any "alarmist" climate activists, could describe.
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I see there are a lot of gullible Tory Press reading muppets, trotting out the lie that people died because of @JustStop_Oil protests, ambulance delays etc.
Are they not aware of how many people died, because of ambulance delays in general.
I mean, come on, it is not @JustStop_Oil protests that delayed ambulances for up to 15 hours. However, it is the policy promoted by the same said Tory Press and their proprietors that caused these deaths. Where are their trials and prosecutions? 2/3 independent.co.uk/news/uk/nhs-en…
Anyone opposed to taxing the very rich, to pay for these public services, is culpable for massively more deaths, due to ambulance delays, than @JustStop_Oil. The wealth of the very rich is massively increasing. They can afford to pay far more tax.
3/4
In my opinion, the greatest obstacle to addressing the climate and ecological crisis, is what I call the "walk around problem" of perception and thinking.
This is where, in their thinking, people can just walk around inconvenient reality, as if it isn't there.
1/🧵
Therefore, although the climate and ecological crisis, is demonstrable, and supported by the science, it is possible for even intelligent, and otherwise sensible people, to just walk around the inconvenient truth, and to not acknowledge the situation.
2/
The huge problem, is the ease and simplicity from which it is possible, to totally ignore, and not even think about inconvenient realities, even for one second.
This is quite easy to observe, with the climate crisis, and much other suffering in the world.
3/
I'd like to clarify my position on capitalism, as I am often mistakenly criticized for not being critical of it, or blaming it for driving the climate and ecological crisis.
Anyone reading my commenting, should be aware this is implicit in my critique.
1/🧵
My main caution about criticizing "capitalism" per se, is not that I am an advocate or apologist for capitalism, but that in reality, there is no clear or generally understood definition as to what capitalism actually is. There is no defining ideology of it.
2/
Capitalism, is essentially the investment of excess wealth for big returns on your investment. Whilst this can be traced back to ancient times, it really came to the fore, during the first voyages of colonization by the European powers.
3/
This is crazy. There's a problem with prison overcrowding, and the government decided to criminalize peaceful protest, demanding, sincere peaceful people, trying to save humanity from itself, be locked up and given substantial prison sentences.
Oppressive laws were essentially written by a right wing think tank, and there's some sort of coordinated international attempt to suppress and criminalize, peaceful climate protest, and other humanitarian protest.
No government in the world has got a strategy to deal with the climate and other ecological impacts - we are going to start experiencing in the coming years - NOT in the distant future.
None of them seem to understand how serious a threat this is. 1/3
THE big mistake, is not understanding that this is going to get much worse, and keep getting worse, relatively soon.
The future isn't going to be like it is now, just a bit warmer, the future will be radically altered. It will have massive impacts on our societies.
2/3
It's not so much the direct impacts of extreme heat and extreme weather.
It is the secondary impacts, like potential food shortages, and major perception change and panic, because we were unprepared for what is coming, which are the danger to our system.
3/3
I've been meaning to address this most crucial thing about the climate and ecological emergency, but I was not sure I could explain it right. I'm still not sure.
It is about a way of thinking, of seeing things. When you see things properly, this is all that matters.
1/🧵
Unless we address the climate and ecological emergency, nothing at all matters, as nothing else will be possible, as us, our civilization, and our societies, are all totally rely on Earth based ecosystems, and other natural systems.
2/
By address, I don't mean solve as in a puzzle, with a simple solution. I mean first to acknowledge the situation, and understand what we are doing wrong.
You see, whilst everything is just so unbelievably complex, some things are very simple and a simple dichotomy.
3/