#just stop oil

[madame-helen]

[theemeraldforestgazette]

Sure, Just Stop Oil knew that by targetting Stonehenge they'd get global news coverage, but in terms of the people currently there (for the solstice) chances are they have the same beliefs - regarding oil consumption - but would no-way-in-hell think that this particular protest is a good idea. Same for archaeologists. They are more likely to be against carbon fuel in the long run, than not, but they will be horrified at what has happened today. It just feels like JSO are making enemies with people who generally hold the same beliefs as them. Also, all the other stunt-protests haven't really made much of an impact in terms of change, anyway. This deflecting of anger meant for global leaders onto innocent art works or architecture is just pointless. Let's hope there's no permanent archaeological damage.

[gamer2002]

What is the carbon footprint of Stonehenge?

[ceevee5]

[aceofmoxes]

Bomb more oil refineries!

[lil-tumbles]

I don't care what you think about just stop oil, the fact that peaceful protesters are going to jail for five years for *planning* to protest, not even doing the damn - once again, *peaceful* - protest should be enough to fill you with rage.

[the-nettle-knight]

My thoughts on the Just Stop Oil publicity stunt at Stonehenge, as someone who worked there, an archaeologist and a pagan: I'm massively annoyed.

Not at JSO actually. At the hypocrisy I'm seeing everywhere.

I'm angry at the politicians who haven't said a word about the A303 tunnel that is going to do irreparable damage to the site and the archaeology. (don't get me wrong, I know a lot of the archaeologists who will be on the project, I have every faith in them, but it is a commercial venture, limited by time, budget and frankly just the techniques available to us now). It's going to be really bad for the environment.

I'm also annoyed at the online pagan community. I've seen so many neo pagans/wiccans with the most surface level "they've made an enemy of their closest allies" take. Well, we can see that you don't actually care about the environment if that's all it takes to turn you away from this. Closing a road would have created environmental damage from all the cars hanging around for hours! Also, where have they been in the campaign against the A303?

Or the fact that Salisbury Plain is being eaten up by new build housing estates that don't support the needs of the residents and stresses local services. Because Stonehenge is just the most famous archaeological monument on the Plain but there are tens, if not hundreds of sites that are being lost. I have literally worked on one- a Bronze Age barrow cemetery with several ring ditches, a potential Neolithic god-pole like structure, Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement evidence. All destroyed by a new build estate that cannot be supported by local infrastructure, literally in terms of the roads.

They're also the sort of people who complain about the cost of Stonehenge. There is a very good reason that it's so expensive- it basically funds a significant chunk of Historic England (which is far more than just the monuments and sites you can visit). Many of HE's sites are free and they still need to be maintained, which is incredibly expensive. And they're the sort of people to culturally appropriate from other cultures, rather than looking to the archaeology they're fake outraged by.

The paint was made out of cornflour, so not actually a huge conservation issue (I mean, it would definitely better to have not happened but honestly probably the least worst option). The damage done by smog and other air pollution is significantly worse.

People should be angry that this is what people are being forced to do to have their voices heard.

[sinister-yet-satisfying]

Anyone else ever feel like bludgeoning oil executives and politicians to death with a rusty pipe over what they’ve doomed us all to?

Capitalism is a death sentence for the human race

[convertgrapeling]

It is absolutely valid for climate activists to disrupt events sponsored by oil companies, and if that includes Pride then fair enough. Personally I'm embarassed that we allow oil companies to use our events for public relations purposes like this. Pride is not some sacred event which is too important to be disrupted by protest and if you can't handle that, maybe stay home.

[rebel-by-default]

No matter how you feel about Just Stop Oil, the fact that the girl on the left is going to jail for two years and Huw Edwards got a six month suspended sentence, is astounding.

So what, we care more about protecting the painting then we do protecting young children from having pornagraphic pictures of themselves circulating online?

Insane.

[spider-doctor2]

Oh nooo, the disgustingly wealthy bigot doesn’t like just ONE of the MANY ways in which Just Stop Oil is desperately trying to SAVE THE PLANET? The same reaction she will ALWAYS have regardless of what they do? How awful oh noooo

[feckcops]

The public wants to save the planet – as long as it doesn’t personally inconvenience them

“Back in July, Just Stop Oil (JSO) experienced something unusual – they found they were the ones being protested. An alternative group called Just Stop Pissing People Off attempted to block Just Stop Oil from engaging in disruptive protests and interrupted their events, saying that the climate crisis is real but that JSO is distracting and alienating people. The counter-protests tell us a great deal about Britain’s contradictory attitude to the climate crisis.

“Broadly, Brits understand that the climate crisis climate change is a major problem. 65% of us are worried about the climate crisis (versus just 28% who aren’t) while the same proportion supports the government’s aim of reducing Britain’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 ... Eight in 10 back more tree planting, subsidies for energy-efficient homes and higher taxes for high-carbon companies. 62% would support a requirement for all energy production to come from renewable sources. But this enthusiasm has its limits.

“When asked if they would back policies that would impose limits on what they personally can do, Brits quickly turn against them. For instance, two-thirds oppose the idea of a limit on how much meat they can buy, and a majority oppose banning petrol and diesel cars ... Even though 62% of voters back the idea of requiring all energy to be renewable, just 39% want to ban new North Sea oil fields, and a mere 32% want to prohibit the sale of gas boilers ...

“The British public is not as supportive of action on the climate crisis as many environmentalists would hope. We favour general, uncontentious ideas – net zero, tree-planting, tax rises on high-carbon companies – but when asked for our opinion on a climate policy that would directly affect us personally, we baulk. This is partly due to worries about the cost of living, but it’s also about avoiding personal inconvenience.

“Just Stop Pissing Everyone Off perfectly encapsulates the British attitude to the climate crisis: sure, it’s a problem, but not ours. As Homer Simpson once asked: ‘Can’t someone else do it?’”

[metanoias-substack]

Two Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested after smashing the glass protecting the iconic Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez at the National Gallery in London.

The incident comes hot on the heels of several widely publicised attacks against artworks by climate activists.

Is art vandalism for ostensibly noble political purposes justified, or is there something more sinister — and indefensible — at play?

Read more here.

[probablyasocialecologist]

There are different kinds of courage: physical, legal, interpersonal. Richard Barnard was a participant in one of the Extinction Rebellion train-stopping actions of 2019, variously maligned as ‘tactically stupid’ and a ‘psyop’. Alongside Huda Ammori, Barnard has gone on to co-found the direct action network Palestine Action, which has seen major success in its campaign to attack and close weapons factories raining death on Palestinians. He has done this in the face of both pressure from the state and a wave of popular derision against XR, including from some who one might have hoped would have responded as comrades. Criticisms of XR’s founding branch in Britain circa 2019 – that their ‘apolitical’ approach was deluded, that they were tight with cops – were well-founded in that place and time. Yet they continue to be smeared over that organisation and over environmentalists as a whole, even as offshoots in Australia and elsewhere engage in increasingly abolitionist-inflected resistance, sometimes at great personal cost. While critique in good faith is an act of solidarity, much of what has been thrown is reprehensibly ungenerous. I have often turned to Huey Newton’s words: ‘We should never say a whole movement is dishonest when in fact they are trying to be honest… Friends are allowed to make mistakes.’

It’s hard to imagine how difficult Barnard’s experience must have been, but maybe it doesn’t matter. Richard Barnard is an extraordinary person. So is Mali Cooper, so was Tortuguita. And herein lies a paradox: for a truly mass movement, resistance can’t be the prerogative of a mythologised vanguard, distinct from ordinary people. Yet when they undertake action, climate defenders cease to be ordinary. They become, even if just for a moment, something other than what they were.

I think it matters that Richard Barnard is a Christian. It also matters that Palestine Action connects primarily white activists from XR with anti-imperialist movements, whose cultural and political vocabulary is drawn from sources other than Western liberalism. Some of these movements don’t share XR’s stated commitment to non-violence, instead affirming the right of a colonised people to resist their oppression by all necessary means, including armed struggle. Within such coalitions, a capacity for sacrifice becomes a weapon, transcending spectacle. Palestinian militants have long understood how an experience of pain or renunciation, such as a hunger strike, can have meaning larger than its effects on a single body. After Tortuguita’s execution in Atlanta, comrades smashed bank windows and ATMs, torched construction equipment and wrote ‘Martyrs never die’ – a slogan borrowed from struggles in Rojava, and the Koran.

29 August 2024

[ceevee5]

No lies detected.

[ironmyrmidon]

The UK government just sentenced two Just Stop Oil protestors, one to 20 months imprisonment and one to 24 months, which is quite the sentence for vandalism. The judge even stated that the punishment was harsh in part to deter other Just Stop Oil protestors from committing further acts of vandalism. A lot of people say that Just Stop Oil aren't making a difference, but the UK government wouldn't be cracking down on them if they weren't causing problems for the government and the petrochemical companies.

Also, some Just Stop Oil protestors repeated the same act of vandalism later that day.