Quote Originally Posted by danhibees1875 View Post
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I'd disagree that "nothing is being done" about climate change.

Perhaps, or even probably or definitely, not enough. But it seems to me like a fair bit is actually being done. My company are investing significantly with a very ambitious target of being net zero by 2030 - in line with Edinburgh Council plans, derived from government plans. Companies generally seem to be doing similar and those that aren't/won't will likely find themselves at the wrong side of public opinion and seeing those results in their sales.

As for JSO, I'm in favour of their cause but I'm just not sure I fully agree with their methods. Disrupting normal people going about their normal day doesn't sit right with me. Disrupting events I can better understand, particularly if they're overly carbon intensive. JSO overall get a positive green tick from me so long as they're only annoying Londoners.
When it comes to JSO I'm torn.

On the one hand I agree with their arguments and don't really object to their methods either. Others do though and it's such an important cause that they really have to take the public with them. If they have public opinion turn against them (or allow it to be manipulated against them) then they risk that same public opinion also turning against their cause. Too much energy is currently spent discussing their methods rather than their argument and, rightly or wrongly, that isn't changing imminently.

I posted a link a fair few pages back on this thread now to comments by one of the founders of the Green Party in the UK, Michael Benfield. He said the battle for environmental survival as it stood was lost. The article and Benfield himself came in for a bit of stick on here but I think he had a point. His argument wasn't we just give up and abandon our children and grandchildren to oblivion. Rather he said the green movement has succeeded in educating the public and indeed the scientific community. Man made climate change is widely accepted as the fact it is and there is general consensus there has to be change. Where the battle has been lost is politically and forcing mainstream parties to propose the radical changes needed and take the public with them in voting for it. I think it's an inarguable fact that battle has been lost as it stands and the full time whistle has already blown on the 1.5 degrees target. His argument is we are now in an age of mitigation and laying the foundations for future reversal.

I worry that JSO provide a soft target for climate change sceptics and disaster capitalists to rally against. Easy to brand them as 'professional protestors' or 'lunatics' and there are cheap laughs to be had from 'giving them a taste of their own medicine' by interrupting their own function the other day. As I say I support their aims and don't personally object to their methods, however we need public opinion to shift enough that real meaningful change becomes the political mainstream and I'm not sure they are driving that change in any meaningful way currently.