Climate Change/Mass Extinction Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

Why would a minority kid give the police a reason to arrest him?

Same reason as the white kid, because they believe in the cause.

[Sheilbh]

I was under the impression that a lot of the XR people were quite old; getting arrested is not such a big deal once one's career is over. On that basis one of my nieces will be participating in their protests; she subsists on small earnings from freelance writing, it really doesn't matter if she gets arrested. Clearly that would be a no-go area for people like civil servants or accountants.

There are lots of older people at them, but the core is a but like UK Uncut. They are very young and painfully naive about the police.

There was one of the leaders of their attempts Gatwick who did a video about how the police basically said he should come in for a chat which would be the painless way to help, or they would do it the difficult way and arrest him.

He turns up at the police station and is stood waiting for his lawyer. Police come out and say, you know, why don't you just come in - you can wait for your lawyer inside.

Second he steps in the door they arrest him and take his phone (and watch him enter the code to lock it).

Environmentalists, of all movements, should be pretty cynical of the police and yet here we are.

[Sheilbh]

I think there is potential here for a mistake to be made. It is pretty obvious that XR protests do not reflect the ethnic makeup of the capital. But, on the other hand, it is the capital for all of the UK so protests in general might seem to be "too white" simply because of concerned citizens bussing themselves in from the parts of the country that are still overwhelmingly white.

My first instinct is to suspect that, like you said, a lot of worthy protests are bourgeois. So perhaps we should be asking why so few ethnic minority folk have found it possible to join this social category.

Sure and I get the Zephaniah point. Though I also think there's a point about class.

But I don't think it's crazy to say that Green politics in general - whether it's protests or the party - is a very middle class, well-heeled, white section of society. And it may be that the message doesn't resonate or the style which is probably worth considering because if they want change they need to build a broader coalition than a younger version of the middle class, well-heeled white folks who've made up the Green movement for the last fifty years.

And I think you can draw a contrast with Greta's approach which is getting far broader involvement and support.

[Sheilbh]

Nothing to see hear, there is not problem with identity politics on the left. Move along.

I think it's way overblown. I mean I've always thought all politics at heart is identitiy politics.

Absurd fratricidal divisions on the left among different groupuscules has been a joke in the West for decades. It used to be six people in a flat in Cambridge arguing over the correct definition of a "vanguard party", now it's about identity, experience and history. I don't see a wild difference between this stuff and the world of the left in the 80s that John O'Farrell describes in Things Can Only Get Better.

Some of the ideas will survive and others will be rather odd details.

[Berkut]

I don't know how many made it to the end of the article but i thought that Benjamin Zephaniah was spot on.

Executive summary?

If minorities are bitching about being left out, they should show up. Nobody is stopping them.

Also, the fact that a bunch of white people are protesting in a manner that aligns with their culture should come as no surprise. If they all showed up to a protest with dreadlocks we would bitch about cultural appropriation.

[The Brain]

I don't know how many made it to the end of the article but i thought that Benjamin Zephaniah was spot on.

Executive summary?

If minorities are bitching about being left out, they should show up. Nobody is stopping them.

Also, the fact that a bunch of white people are protesting in a manner that aligns with their culture should come as no surprise. If they all showed up to a protest with dreadlocks we would bitch about cultural appropriation.

Thanks.

[Valmy]

I think it's way overblown. I mean I've always thought all politics at heart is identitiy politics.

Sure. In the same sense that everything is political. But blatant propaganda and virulent exclusionary nationalist shit are still bad, Trying to excuse it by claiming everything else is also tainted is not convincing to me. Sure there might be no platonically pure things out there, but so what?

[Tamas]

But I don't think it's crazy to say that Green politics in general - whether it's protests or the party - is a very middle class, well-heeled, white section of society.

But there's a very simple answer to that I think. Being environment-conscious is the more expensive option both in terms of time and money, something the lower classes will have less of. And that's just about adopting your lifestyle choices, let alone spending even more time and money on protesting etc.


The fact that the middle class is largely white thus means that the environmental movement will largely be white.

[Valmy]

That does not mean caring about the environment is a form of white nationalist racism though. Since that seems to be a claim for some reason.

[Sheilbh]

But there's a very simple answer to that I think. Being environment-conscious is the more expensive option both in terms of time and money, something the lower classes will have less of. And that's just about adopting your lifestyle choices, let alone spending even more time and money on protesting etc.

The fact that the middle class is largely white thus means that the environmental movement will largely be white.

I think that's part of it, there's also cultural factors going on. And with the more hardline environmental movement when you want zero or minus growth, or to severely reduce access to heavy polluters like airlines, all of that is an easier burden if you've got or are inheriting a nice house in Richmond.

For a long time green politics was home for people, middle class people, to be political without any risk of power. So it could be a place of purity and worthiness - see the Brighton Green Council experience where they won power and immediately collapsed into conflict between the mangoes (greens on the outside lib-dems on the inside) and watermelons (greens on the outside hard-left on the inside).

I think that's shifting all over Europe, especially Germany. But, and I know several people who are involved in XR and Green politics (currently big debate is whether you should abolish the military or decarbonise the military), it does still live on a little bit. And if environmentalist movements are to succeed they need to build a coaltion and engage with people who can't afford a Riverford box.

That does not mean caring about the environment is a form of white nationalist racism though. Since that seems to be a claim for some reason.

Not in this case, which is more about their strategy of getting arrested which works more if you're in a position or background is that you'll probably have access to a lawyer and, honestly, more sympathy from a judge.

Though separately there's been an online eco-fascist movement percolating for a while and I think of sort-of "left-wing" movements environmentalism is particularly at risk from the far-right.

[mongers]

But I don't think it's crazy to say that Green politics in general - whether it's protests or the party - is a very middle class, well-heeled, white section of society.

But there's a very simple answer to that I think. Being environment-conscious is the more expensive option both in terms of time and money, something the lower classes will have less of. And that's just about adopting your lifestyle choices, let alone spending even more time and money on protesting etc.


The fact that the middle class is largely white thus means that the environmental movement will largely be white.

It is? 

[Eddie Teach]

Takes you longer to bike to the next village than to drive.

[mongers]

Takes you longer to bike to the next village than to drive.

Does it?

[Eddie Teach]

Generally.

[Syt]

https://www.dw.com/en/german-government-waters-down-climate-bill-report/a-50719441

German government waters down climate bill — report

German government is preparing a law to fight climate change, but many of its elements have now been cut or scaled back, the Spiegel magazine has reported. The news comes ahead of an Extinction Rebellion rally.

The final draft of the new climate protection law, set to be adopted by Germany's government this week, has been significantly watered down from earlier proposals, Spiegel magazine reported.

German officials have cut the goal to limit national CO2 emission by 2040, according to the Sunday report. Also, the latest version of the bill drops the pledge that Germany would reach greenhouse-gas neutrality by 2050. Instead, it only says this goal should be "pursued."

Another change considers the national climate council, the body of experts appointed by the government. The final draft removes the demand for the council to produce a yearly evaluation report. Also, the experts would no longer be required to provide advice to ministries on adjusting their CO2 rate to keep them on track.

However, the bill keeps the goal for Germany to reduce its CO2 emissions by 2030 to a level corresponding to 55% percent of what the nation's output was in 1990.

Conservatives opposed

The partners in Germany's ruling coalition, Angela Merkel's conservative bloc and the center-left SPD, debated on a new climate protection bill in March. The proposals circulated at the time envisioned a much deeper change than the law's current iteration seen by Spiegel. Even so, climate activists and political opponents slammed the original draft as insufficient.

The conservative bloc has since pushed for the law to be scaled back, according to sources inside the ruling coalition cited by the magazine.

Several lawmakers slammed the changes after Spiegel published its report on Sunday evening. Senior SPD representative Karl Lauterbach warned against standing "on the wrong side of history."

"If the climate protection package gets even more weakened by the conservatives, it will be just a paper tiger," he said.

Read more: Extinction Rebellion: How far can the protests go?

'Incredible!'

Britta Hasselmann, from the opposition Green party, described the move as a "declaration of bankruptcy."

"Incredible!" she wrote on Twitter, noting that even the original proposal would not be able to deliver on the goals set by the Paris climate accords. "It would seem that the government is lagging behind even that — it can't get any worse," she added.

The timing of the report could prove to be particularly harmful for the ruling coalition. On Monday, the global Extinction Rebellion movement is staging worldwide protests to protect the climate. The activists are expected to protest the limitation of the upcoming climate law in Berlin. Protesters have already set up camp in front of Angela Merkel's office and were reportedly preparing to block the streets.

TL;DR: German government, in long sessions agreed to a climate protection plan that was considered to either be insufficient or the bare minimum. This plan has now been further watered down.