Climate protests are meant to be disruptive – how else can we get your attention?

Campaigns of mass nonviolent civil disobedience are not popular, they are either physically, economically or emotionally disruptive, all of which are unpleasant

Resistance has nothing to do with ‘protest’. (AFP via Getty Images)

Last week we ran an article by Sophie Church arguing climate protestors should stop alienating public opinion with protests. This is a response.

Over the last week hundreds of people engaged in civil resistance have blockaded and occupied oil terminals. They have been painted on both the left and right as another bunch of “environmental protestors” going through the motions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Resistance has nothing to do with “protest”. Protest is when you express your disapproval. You do not express disapproval when governments engage in an act of annihilation against our planet.

We must resist now, or we are forever lost. In the future we will look back with longing at all we have lost. The last 250 years of blood, sweat and tears – expended by generations of working people to create decent societies – is about to be sniffed out. Why? Because people are sitting with their heads in the sand. The word betrayal does not even approach the reality of what is going on. All our traditions, all our values, all that we claim to stand for is about to be lost.

To support the continuation of the carbon economy and the continued damage of our common home is now a betrayal of past, present and future generations.

Campaigns of mass nonviolent civil disobedience are not popular, they are either physically, economically or emotionally disruptive, all of which are unpleasant. They are nearly always hugely unpopular, and it is only when they have been coloured with the patina of age they appear heroic and acceptable.

If you think this is an exaggeration, here is just one of several gut-wrenching predictions from the International Panel on Climate Change over the last month: “By 2030 about 250 million people may experience high water stress in Africa, with up to 700 million people displaced.”

The IPCC has always published conversative predictions, so the reality could be much worse – if that is possible. 700 million “displaced” is half the population of Africa. Then we have to add in Central America, the Middle East, India, SE Asia. At a minimum we are looking at the loss of the world trading system, a global depression, and if we let it, the imposition of grinding poverty upon billions across the world while the rich desperately try to hold onto power.

What we must do now is block and disable the cogs of the fossil-fuel machine. This is not anything as trivial as a “tactic” – it is an act of self-respect, an act of solidarity, an act of necessity.

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“Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels." - Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, 4 April 2022.

Right now, as we step out into an unknown world, for we no longer know what our planet is capable of (40C above normal at both poles), we must do what is right, not what is popular. To must enter into civil resistance to a government which is betraying us, our children and future generations.

It’s not about winning at this stage. It’s about doing what must be done. The next thousand generations are looking at you right now. They are saying: “Are you f***ing mad – get out there, and stop this shit – otherwise you will condemn us forever.”

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Miranda Whelehan is an undergraduate in International Development with French at the University of Sussex