More climate change protests in Central London

[phes]

Nice to see people's champ and street fighter Sadiq wade in with status quo disapproval over this small blip of mild disruption. Just wait until the momentum gets going mate.

His choice of words was so fucking unfortunate that one has to wonder if he did it on purpose

[Poisson Du Jour]

Deep adaptation, an interesting article, a breezy read. He says we have to stop being materialistic, seems a very anti-capitalist message despite never using that word. He gave recommendations for university professors to help the situation. He said his recommendations for lay people would be published in another outlet. Any luck finding these? All I've got is this, Fourteen Recommendations on Living Beyond Collapse-Denial, which does not help the hippy angle.

1) Return to, or explore afresh, the idea of a divine or a spirit or a consciousness or a God that is prior to the Earth and moves through the Universe right now and forever more. Do so without seeking a simple story of explanation but a sense of faith that there is an existence and a meaning beyond our culture, our species and our planet. Such 'faith' helps anyone to experience and process the inevitable difficulties and traumas of life.

2) Listen to those stories from people both past and present who tell us that despair is not the end and therefore does not have to be avoided. Recognise how many spiritual traditions see despair as a gateway to our growth.

3) Beware when people are promoting their views on what they think the implications of information will be, rather than views on the information itself. The impacts of certain information about climate on other people's motivations are not certain, and in many cases the darkest analyses have triggered a new level of creativity and boldness. Instead, look at the information and analysis directly for yourself, without second guessing what some interpretations might lead to.

4) Recognize that any emotional or intellectual resistance you may experience to information which implies catastrophe may come from what you have been consciously or subconsciously telling yourself about your own self-worth, purpose and meaning. Then remember how your views of yourself and the world have evolved through your life and still can.

5) Don't panic. Give yourself time to evolve both personally and professionally in response to your emerging awareness, but ensure you stay connected to a group or an activity which keeps reminding you of the basis for your emerging awareness.

6) Recognize there is much work ahead for you to reconstitute concepts of meaning and what's good and to align your life with those. It will not happen overnight, yet it will not happen if you do not give time to this work. There may be some time needed to bridge your existing life with the way you will want to live in future.

7) Plan more time and resources for you to do things which inspire wonder at life. This could be more time in beautiful environments, or with uplifting music, or in contemplation, or through creative writing, or being with loved ones and close friends. That means freeing up time from other activities such as TV, social media and mainstream news. It may also mean downshifting from your workload.

8) Look for opportunities for supported self-reflection and sense-making. This is because your worldview and self-identity will undoubtedly transform overtime as you process the new information and analysis.

9) Expect a catharsis, both personal and professional. This will occur because the subconscious or conscious limits that you placed on yourself until now will be lifted. Go with that rush of energy and creativity, but be vigilant that those new activities don't become so consuming they distract you from the personal work you still need to do.

10) If you are a mission-driven professional in fields related to environment or social justice then expect that you may be driven to rebuild a sense of self-worth and that this need of the ego, while natural and potentially useful, could become a frantic distraction.

11) Expect a change in your personal relationships and how you spend your spare time. Some forms of small talk and light-hearted social interaction with acquaintances may seem pointless, while you may wish to spend more time with close friends and family. While for some this could be a welcome rebalancing, for others this can become a vector of reclusiveness and loneliness. Therefore, it is important to find new ways of connecting with people on the new levels that feel meaningful to you.

12) Create a positive vision of people sharing compassion, love and play. It may feel that an eco-tragic outlook means you cannot have any meaningful vision of a better future for yourself, your community, or humanity. An absence of something positive to work towards can be destabilising and limiting. Some people will think you are depressed – or depressing – and need some "positive thinking". For a personal vision, the answer may lie in developing a vision for how you will be approaching life, rather than imagining attributes of a lifestyle. This may parallel the dimensions of a collective vision. A future full of love and learning, rather than flying cars and fancy robots, could be a way to imagine a more beautiful world. And remember, the future will still be beautiful in its own way, no matter what life forms are in it – or if your favourite town is under water!

13) Don't get dogmatic and avoid those who do. That comes from recognising that our terms for phenomena are not the same as the phenomena themselves. The words we use imply things which may have effects on us but aren't necessarily so. Words like near-term, civilisation, collapse, and tragedy, are our words, and may trigger ideas, images and emotions which aren't inevitable consequences of the phenomena being described.

14) Do not prioritise maintaining your own mental and physical situation at the expense of the need to act in solidarity with future generations who will live with the future we are creating for them. Tomorrow's children won't thank us much for having joined a support group on Facebook or taken up yoga, unless it aligned with us remaining active in the world.

I really want him to tell me that I am evil because I own a cheap second-hand car and drive to the gym twice a week as it's a 40 minute walk, and to a park sometimes as you can't take dogs on public transport, and if I didn't accept her dogs my girlfriend would probably leave me, so better give her up as well.

There are some interesting problems here. Am I only interested in calling out everyone's hypocrisy? "We're all hurting the environment but at least I admit it". Am I waiting for other people to start doing something before I join in? Seems like there's basically no action in modern society that you can justify. 

[Buelligan]

I don't think you're evil but I do think it's pretty odd to drive to a gym to save yourself a walk.

[BlodwynPig]

I don't think you're evil but I do think it's pretty odd to drive to a gym to save yourself a wank.

[BlodwynPig]

I don't think you're evil but I do think it's pretty odd to drive to a gym to save yourself a walk.

8.5 hours and 18.9 miles today. All the animals in God's kingdom came out to play. Joyous.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I can kind of excuse it in this case, because as London Mayor he does have a stake in London transport running smoothly. On the other hand, I doubt he'd be out on the streets painting his fave and chanting if he wasn't directly responsible so...

What does the really forward thinking London Mayor do? Support ER. Set off a flash of major cities that grind to a halt and costs corporations billions unless they commit to demands for change.

Sadiq of course fails immediately in even the most rudimentary way to capture the mood of the time, much as he did when calling for Corbyn to resign.

[Poisson Du Jour]

I don't think you're evil but I do think it's pretty odd to drive to a gym to save yourself a walk.

Fair example, I already walk an hour a day to and from work, either end of the public transport, but maybe I need to add 3 hours a week to that for the gym. I don't want to cos it's boring and I'm tired after lifting in the gym, and I run long distances at the weekend. This is perhaps an example of something I should do to adapt to the coming collapse in society, when our lives will supposedly become dratically more inconvenient, boring, endangered etc because of everything we have to give up. It will be hard to get used to.

[Paul Calf]

A tip: don't admit to driving anywhere, ever. CaB's militant pedestrians will tut so loudly you'll think it's started raining.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Fair example, I already walk an hour a day to and from work, either end of the public transport, but maybe I need to add 3 hours a week to that for the gym. I don't want to cos it's boring and I'm tired after lifting in the gym, and I run long distances at the weekend. This is perhaps an example of something I should do to adapt to the coming collapse in society, when our lives will supposedly become dratically more inconvenient, boring, endangered etc because of everything we have to give up. It will be hard to get used to.

Your public transport sounds really crap. It's silly they won't let you take dogs on as well.

[biggytitbo]

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, has given her support for a general strike for the climate, saying the student movement she inspired needs more support from older generations to ensure politicians keep their promises under the Paris agreement.

How about we organise a general strike on Chinese made consumer goods? Or is that too inconvenient?

[Zetetic]

Do you mean a boycott?

(There are attempts to link sustainable production globally with consumption in the West. Baby steps, of course, and there's plenty to worry about on pay and conditions even before we consider energy and environment, alas.)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

How about we organise a general strike on Chinese made consumer goods? Or is that too inconvenient?

It's about forcing corporations and governments to change, reform consumer capitalism, so goes hand in hand with a general strike.

Of course if you were a desperate Betelgeuse 5 streak of libertarian shit you might just want to point and go Look Are Hipercrites

[Zetetic]

Apologies for the irritating link-post but I thought that this bloke's perspective was a bit interesting as a positive appraisal:

https://twitter.com/thomasforth/status/1118466007440424962?s=19

(Tom Forth, ODI Leeds. I find him quite irritating in general, in a useful way.)

[biggytitbo]

Obviously yes, there's only a very limited amount of impact we can make within the UK. China are currently building coal powered stations that will be the equivalent of 3x the UK's total electricity generation. You could switch the UK off tomorrow and it'd barely make a difference.


Our greatest power to reduce emissions in a really substantial way is as consumers, who in the West create the vast demand for cheap Chinese goods that fuels their massive scale of emissions. So a giant organised boycott of Chinese produced goods is the single best thing we could do to avert a 'climate emergency'. It would also encourage manufacturing of goods locally, using cleaner energy, which would be very good for our economy.


Of course it does mean a massive reduction in our consumer lifestyles and much more expensive goods, which would be a far bigger sacrifice than disrupting traffic.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Quite an interesting article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48015293

Cancelling the third runway at Heathrow and a tax on frequent flyers would be a good start. Perhaps we should also ration flights so people can only book a certain number a year.

Electric cars are a good idea but we also need to reduce congestion. Won't a lot of electric cars in traffic jams throbbing away also damage the environment?

Nothing about improving public transport in that BBC article, or cycle lanes separate from roads and pavements.

[Sin Agog]

I wish there was a way of cycling through the Channel Tunnel.  30 flat miles on a bike is a doddle, but as it is the only option is getting some Range Rover to pick you up for £30 one way, and it only comes twice a day.  It's also usually more expensive crossing the channel on a ferry with a bike than a car.  Feels like a rigged game.

[Zetetic]

It's a shame that it's a ballache to take them via Eurostar.

[phes]

Obviously yes, there's only a very limited amount of impact we can make within the UK. China are currently building coal powered stations that will be the equivalent of 3x the UK's total electricity generation. You could switch the UK off tomorrow and it'd barely make a difference.


Our greatest power to reduce emissions in a really substantial way is as consumers, who in the West create the vast demand for cheap Chinese goods that fuels their massive scale of emissions. So a giant organised boycott of Chinese produced goods is the single best thing we could do to avert a 'climate emergency'. It would also encourage manufacturing of goods locally, using cleaner energy, which would be very good for our economy.


Of course it does mean a massive reduction in our consumer lifestyles and much more expensive goods, which would be a far bigger sacrifice than disrupting traffic.

Recently climate change deniers and general right-wing racist dog-whistling fucks have shifted stance from a position of direct climate denial to one of claiming great pride in the UKs post 1990 emissions reductions (and these are with merit though not as clear cut as presented) and to pointing the finger at China. It's true that we can improve our record on imported consumables but these only make up about the same % as services so presenting it as something we can fix with individual consumer choice is not helpful. Also of note is that China's exported embodied CO2 emissions have long since peaked and with this along with them openly acknowledging the scale of the problem and having actual solid policy in place to address this it would seem sensible to monitor who might be springing up to take a share of that manufacturing base.

Unsurprisingly a lot of the basically racist finger pointers don't have much to say about the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and hurtling backwards at home

[buzby]

I wish there was a way of cycling through the Channel Tunnel.  30 flat miles on a bike is a doddle, but as it is the only option is getting some Range Rover to pick you up for £30 one way, and it only comes twice a day.  It's also usually more expensive crossing the channel on a ferry with a bike than a car.  Feels like a rigged game.

It's certainly not flat (as anyone who has cycled the Mersey Tunnels will tell you) - it's basically a flattened V-shape with the lowest point about 150m from the surface portals.

The biggest problem is that it is airlocked at each end to keep the service tunnel at a higher pressure than the rail tunnels to prevent smoke ingress in the event of a fire, as can be seen in this video of Chris Froome's 2014 ride through it to promote the Tour De France (he currently holds the record of 55 minutes for the 50km).

[GMTV]

Quite an interesting article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48015293

Cancelling the third runway at Heathrow and a tax on frequent flyers would be a good start. Perhaps we should also ration flights so people can only book a certain number a year.

Electric cars are a good idea but we also need to reduce congestion. Won't a lot of electric cars in traffic jams throbbing away also damage the environment?

Nothing about improving public transport in that BBC article, or cycle lanes separate from roads and pavements.

Ration Internet usage.

Legislation on new technology? As in not just allow market forces to march us to IoT's ubiquity.

Obviously limit road travel. Potentially limit other travel.

You're all going on holiday to Blackpool etc this year.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Quite an interesting article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48015293

Cancelling the third runway at Heathrow and a tax on frequent flyers would be a good start. Perhaps we should also ration flights so people can only book a certain number a year.

Electric cars are a good idea but we also need to reduce congestion. Won't a lot of electric cars in traffic jams throbbing away also damage the environment?

Nothing about improving public transport in that BBC article, or cycle lanes separate from roads and pavements.

Electric cars don't have engines to idle so the worst case scenario is a load of cars sat with their radios and air con running. A bit like if you were to turn a key one click in a petrol car.

[biggytitbo]

Its racist dog whistling to point out the China is by far the biggest polluter in the world, and is currently building loads of new coal powered power stations? Emissions twice the size of the US, 3 times more than the whole EU, 30 times that of the UK. Compared to 1990 levels, the UK is down to 64% (1% of world total), one of the best figures in the developed world, US is 100%, India is 405% and China is 453%.

The US, like the UK and other western economies have benefited massively from deflation and cheap consumer goods imported from China over the last 30 years (not to mention the amount of stuff flown in from other countries around the world), the same period their carbon emissions have massively increased.  So there's loads of scope for consumers in the West to do something about climate change, but it requires a major change to their lifestyles and actual sacrifices, rather than performative adventure holidays and apocalyptic death cults. Claiming that glueing yourself to stuff is setting an example to 1.8bn people in an authoritarian capitalist dystopia like China is just fantasy, you do it economically - but that is going to be at the cost of our lifestyles aswell. The same would go if the idea is we should pressure our governments to engage in some sort of trade war with these rapidly developing countries that we currently exploit as part of 'globalisation'.

[Sin Agog]

Doubt there's much in there any of the protestors would disagree with.

[GMTV]

Mass migration and global Multiculturalism is also fairly bad for the planet. But that's obviously going to be a bitter pill to swallow for the type of people likely to be most vocal about earth conservation, and perhaps is maybe not the worst ill to focus on at present.

[Buelligan]

Surely the one important thing people can do is change the things that they can change. 

Pointing fingers at others whilst doing sweet fuck all about our own actions is a great long-standing human tradition but we simply don't have time for it.

[GMTV]

Surely the one important thing people can do is change the things that they can change. 

Pointing fingers at others whilst doing sweet fuck all about our own actions is a great long-standing human tradition but we simply don't have time for it.

Lets face it probably 99% certain this is what will happen..

[Sin Agog]

Mass migration and global Multiculturalism is also fairly bad for the planet. But that's obviously going to be a bitter pill to swallow for the type of people likely to be most vocal about earth conservation, and perhaps is maybe not the worst ill to focus on at present.

It's also going to be unavoidable.  The Syria crisis was largely caused by Syria drying-up pretty much overnight, and the rise of nationalism is in a way a rolling up of the drawbridges in anticipation of much of the world going the same way.

[Buelligan]

Lets face it probably 99% certain this is what will happen..

I'm just glad I've had my fun.


_{Massive junglist, earlier}

[Paul Calf]

What's global multiculturalism when it's at home?

[greenman]

Obviously yes, there's only a very limited amount of impact we can make within the UK. China are currently building coal powered stations that will be the equivalent of 3x the UK's total electricity generation. You could switch the UK off tomorrow and it'd barely make a difference.

Our greatest power to reduce emissions in a really substantial way is as consumers, who in the West create the vast demand for cheap Chinese goods that fuels their massive scale of emissions. So a giant organised boycott of Chinese produced goods is the single best thing we could do to avert a 'climate emergency'. It would also encourage manufacturing of goods locally, using cleaner energy, which would be very good for our economy.

Of course it does mean a massive reduction in our consumer lifestyles and much more expensive goods, which would be a far bigger sacrifice than disrupting traffic.

Certainly I think the biggest divide in the environmental argument is those who think current globalist neoliberialsm can be tweeked a little to solve the problem and those who think it is a lot of the problem.

Forcing any imported goods to meet the same kind of low CO2 energy standards we hope to create in the UK does seem an obvious choice, prices might wise somewhat but in a UK with big investment in renewables and one where more manufacturing returns to this country wages are likely to increase significantly, especially at the lower end were demand for cheap imports is strongest.