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Any large protest needs an increased police presence. It's not hard.

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We have been exhausted by a thousand cuts. Our places of work have become sites of exploitation and abuse, our positions precarised. Anxiety has replaced confidence, branded products have eclipsed community in our hearts. No wonder we find it hard to focus on our interests when we have been repeatedly disciplined to accept that we must embrace the privations and displacements of austerity in order to achieve some sunlit upland somewhere, some day, only to find that promise empty. Thus the future has gone. We no longer see a future, so the notion of a tomorrow being menaced by such catastrophe as that represented by global warming and climate disaster paralyses our exhausted collective intellect. No wonder we are fearful, it is not surprising that we ridicule those who try to stimulate our sluggish imaginations and alert us to the horrors that are already hidden in the future. They remind us of our humiliation.

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41 minutes ago, Staunton said:

We have been exhausted by a thousand cuts. Our places of work have become sites of exploitation and abuse, our positions precarised. Anxiety has replaced confidence, branded products have eclipsed community in our hearts. No wonder we find it hard to focus on our interests when we have been repeatedly disciplined to accept that we must embrace the privations and displacements of austerity in order to achieve some sunlit upland somewhere, some day, only to find that promise empty. Thus the future has gone. We no longer see a future, so the notion of a tomorrow being menaced by such catastrophe as that represented by global warming and climate disaster paralyses our exhausted collective intellect. No wonder we are fearful, it is not surprising that we ridicule those who try to stimulate our sluggish imaginations and alert us to the horrors that are already hidden in the future. They remind us of our humiliation.

Bloody hell Staunton, lighten up a bit. The human race is nothing if not ingenious. It's faced disaster many times in the past and come through. We do however need to recognize the problems before we can tackle them, and that seems to be the problem -too much complacency. I know a lot of people have it really tough, which is why we must all do our best to help each other out where we can, and insist on more long term equality, but I believe we do have a future.

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5 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Bloody hell Staunton, lighten up a bit. The human race is nothing if not ingenious. It's faced disaster many times in the past and come through. We do however need to recognize the problems before we can tackle them, and that seems to be the problem -too much complacency. I know a lot of people have it really tough, which is why we must all do our best to help each other out where we can, and insist on more long term equality, but I believe we do have a future.

What do we do when it seems that nothing can be done?

 

If we accept that ethical action is pointless then we are left with cynicism. We sign off from any hope and simply retreat. This is precisely what the corporations desire - that we should just leave them alone.

 

I am hopeful. That is why I suggest that Extinction Rebellion is the last chance we have. But maybe my hope is misplaced? Maybe it is already too late?

 

So, I recommend and honour Anna B's admonition.

 

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2 hours ago, Staunton said:

We have been exhausted by a thousand cuts. Our places of work have become sites of exploitation and abuse, our positions precarised. Anxiety has replaced confidence, branded products have eclipsed community in our hearts. No wonder we find it hard to focus on our interests when we have been repeatedly disciplined to accept that we must embrace the privations and displacements of austerity in order to achieve some sunlit upland somewhere, some day, only to find that promise empty. Thus the future has gone. We no longer see a future, so the notion of a tomorrow being menaced by such catastrophe as that represented by global warming and climate disaster paralyses our exhausted collective intellect. No wonder we are fearful, it is not surprising that we ridicule those who try to stimulate our sluggish imaginations and alert us to the horrors that are already hidden in the future. They remind us of our humiliation.

My Lord, that's biblical

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One of the reasons that Occupy features large in my current thinking is that it is now possible to see a feature of that movement unknowable at the time - that it represented the last opportunity for democracy. My own lack of foresight, my inability to imagine that, should neoliberalism fail, it might give way to something yet more destructive in the form of the neo-reactionary demagogue, haunts my analysis of Extinction Rebellion activism. The current struggle for environmental responsibility seems likely to be our very final chance. These are, as hackney lad rightly discerns, themes of biblical proportion. I make a plea that we might all look beyond the tactics and the character of those engaged in the current street protest, and allow ourselves to acknowledge and embrace the urgent need for radical change that they seek to communicate.

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17 hours ago, Car Boot said:

The enormous carbon footprint of wealthy globe trotting people such as Dame Emma Thompson has been mentioned because, to put it simply, the rich are NOT - and can never be - a part of the solution. They are a part of the problem.

 

The effects of money cannot be discounted in the climate change debate. Wealthy people emit more carbon. Despite what good intentions they might have regarding recycling, organic practices, tree planting etc to 'offset' their carbon pollution. These things will always have a very low impact on the damage they are actually responsible for. Impact orientated research has shown time and again that the primary determinant of a person’s actual carbon footprint is income. 

 

So when Prince Harry, who belongs to the most environmentally damaging family in Europe, or Dame Emma Thompson (who will only travel business class on a jumbo jet) lecture the rest of us on carbon emissions I know that these people are carbon criminals and should be facing prosecution and imprisonment for their extravagant lifestyles that are at the expense of the planet.

 

Ah yes the irony of Dame Thompson, flying in from Los Angeles then making her way to central London to address the masses & apologies for her generation for screwing up the plant.  Perfect irony. 

 

While I do support the issue that global warming is a real & credible threat not only to places such as the Maldives with increasing sea levels, (& any US doubters should check the pictures that were on the BBC a few nights ago, showing land loss around Louisiana), & rising temperatures that will affect crop production & add to ecosystems' extinction, the way the protesters are acting in London will not garner the support of the millions required to actually change things.  At the moment they are coming across in the main as a bunch of over-privilaged, wealthy, yet Lefty idealists looking for something to do on their gap year.  They also need to attract people from the middle ground & the Right. 

 

Of course the real elephant in the room is overpopulation, something that Attenborough, (& the likes of Chris Packham has mentioned on more than one occasion), but somehow this part of the argument quickly swept under the carpet for fear of offending emerging nations. 

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The privately educated posh folk who masterminded the 'Extinction Rebellion' protests have succeeded in bringing the climate change cause into disrepute. Only the most out of touch, clueless and incompetent could give saving the planet a bad name.

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54 minutes ago, Car Boot said:

The privately educated posh folk who masterminded the 'Extinction Rebellion' protests have succeeded in bringing the climate change cause into disrepute. Only the most out of touch, clueless and incompetent could give saving the planet a bad name.

A few issues here. There is nothing wrong with being educated privately or not. You are at least educated, unlike some. Only the uneducated will not be able to see through the rhetoric and to see that the overwhelming scientific consensus is that climate change is real and a threat. 

 

Also, what is your definition of posh? People who can actually speak properly with the Queen’s English maybe. Those who are privately educated? Or those with just more money than you?

 

 

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Baron99 identifies a fault line in post- democratic politics, a disparity between the ageing indigenous white populations of Europe and the USA and the turbulent demographics of the global South. During the era of globalised capital we were witness to planetary upheavals as the legacy of Western colonialism and the recent Bush/Blair adventures of death and plunder coalesced to deliver a legacy of rage and provoked the logic of migratory imperative. Our institutions proved vulnerable to dissolution by the corrosive of free-market doctrine, and the ensuing failure of Western democracy has allowed neo-reactionary dogma to exploit the natural fears of European and US citizens as we struggle to comprehend contemporary population redefinition. 

 

These are troubled times and our exhausted and anxious intellect craves the stability that strong leaders love to promise. It is a savage irony that we must simultaneously suffer the shocks that the environment is delivering. As Baron99 also notes, the Extinction Rebellion comprises a broad spectrum of activists, from lefties to the privileged, from media stars to wealthy individuals. It seems like an impossible mix of trends, personalities and theories, but the unexpected is always friend to action. And no one can deny that action on an unprecedented scale has been mobilised in London over the last few days.

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I wonder if Jon Snow will be commenting again that he's never seen so many white faces at a protest in central London?

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Not a lot of people know what,

 

"The BBC continued its climate change propaganda season last night with David Attenborough’s well trailered “Climate Change – The Facts?”

The opening sequences, recorded against film of hot weather and including these quotes, left no doubt of where the programme was headed:"

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/attenboroughs-climate-change-the-facts/

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