We have a report out today on Criminalisation & Repression of Climate & Environmental Protest 1/10 Over 2,000 environmental defenders have been killed since 2012 and police violence and arrests are common 2/10bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristol.…

🧵I have always found the discussion about whether it’s wise or not to ‘admit’ that warming will surpass 1.5°C soon a bit silly. 1/15 1.5°C is an arbitrary target set within capitalist climate governance because it likes targets. Some use targets to galvanise action. Others use them to organise accounting practises & come up with hocus pocus technological solutions. We know this double function of targets 2/15

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New Open Access article in @JournalPolitics. Basically the sum total of my knowledge & research of studying civil disobedience & direct action for 10 years 1/6 doi.org/10.1177/026339… Through studying @LA_PAH & @ExtinctionR I argue that disruptive protests give actors ‘prefigurative legitimacy’ 2/6

🚨New Open Access paper from @djbailey231 & I in @Env_Pol. ‘Whose system, what change? A critical political economy approach to the UK climate movement’. Point is that wildly different ideas of what ‘system change’ means are often brushed over. 1/8

doi.org/10.1080/096440… We set out three broad politica economy models: 1. Liberal 2. Socialist/Social Democratic 3. Radical/Anarchist. With differing views on a. Individual agency b. Action towards the state c. Challenge to private property. 2/8

These results about unpopular climate protests are very much in line with surveys frequently conducted by various polling companies. We know that people report that their support for climate action decreases if they don’t like the protest. That’s not surprising. 1/5

https://twitter.com/michaelemann/status/1592154631651852288

But that doesn’t actually mean that support for climate policy decreases, because we can’t see any drop in support for policies such as reducing fossil fuels or insulating homes, which are the demands of the relevant activist groups. 2/5

🧵Thread of stuff I’ve learnt from studying civil disobedience/direct action/disruptive protest for the last decade. Not least climate activism. (Academic references & examples can be provided on request). 1/11 Disruptive protest is by far the easiest way to get media attention. March through a town with a thousand people and nobody will care. Block a road, occupy an important building or important infrastructure and the media is much more likely to engage. 2/11

#PolicingBill & Protest 🧵. The PCSC Bill is authoritarian & part of a global attack on the right to protest. It is not least aimed at climate protests, protecting fossil fuel interests. But it won’t work. 1/9

https://twitter.com/CarolineLucas/status/1482009649239011328

Last year @JKSteinberger, @CharlieJGardner & I organised a letter signed by hundreds of climate academics, warning against the criminalisation of climate protests 2/9 theguardian.com/environment/20…

🧵 After watching #DontLookUp, following some debate & critique, I can’t help but feel that we really need some good Gramscian analysis about what may happen as the climate breaks down and how we can salvage something from that 1/12 So much of the debate is led by scientists and commentators that have really poor understanding of both capitalism and social forces. Many of course have a misplaced belief in current institutions and powerful actors being able to address it if they really want to 2/12

This was the last week of my Climate Emergency unit, my evolving lab for how to save the world with young folk who’ll help to save it. We do this with the help of inspirational scholars & activists from around the world & our own @cabotinstitute 1/13 I try to engage students in a holistic study of the challenge we face. First, we explore the basics of how climate change happens and some consequences & projections, interpreting the science for social science students with help of @ClimateDann & @DrEmilyGrossman 2/13

Thread with some questions about wtf is going on in 🇬🇧 Universities. Is the Covid crisis being used to push through changes, killing the campus, reducing the number of academics, re-shaping degree courses & devaluing our profession? 1/10 I have noticed two trends. 1. Increase the number of mandatory units & reduce the number of options. 2. Move more teaching permanently online. Both these are visible in Bristol but appear more pronounced elsewhere. 2/10

Sorry, I’m with @MichaelEMann here. We live in a society that pushes the responsibility of the individual above the structural. It is our duty to push for structural change.

https://twitter.com/thierryaaron/status/1385579318273843209

By all means, be vegan, don’t travel, use blankets instead of radiators, but those will always be fringe activities that separate you from the majority.

This week I felt the battle between the world and the fossil fuel industry. @JKSteinberger @CharlieJGardner & I organised a letter from scientists calling out the criminalisation of climate protest. 1/8 msn.com/en-gb/news/wor… Climate scientists know that it has been the efforts of activists that have pushed climate up the political agenda. The fossil fuel industry have therefore moved their investments from denying climate change to suppressing climate activism docs.google.com/forms/d/1_hsYL… 2/8