this is good, but I think we should build our own (illegal) stonehenge. Or maybe a pyramid. Not only it'd be nice to have something other than microplastic standing after the society collapse, it'd be a huge powerplay. As we seem to be wanting to join earlier civilizations that are no longer here (nor remembered that fondly) it seems only adequate.
My geographic area doesn't really have stone available, best I can do is a mound :(
maybe it is time to leave a lasting megastructure as our tombstone
The entirety of Dubai doesn't count?
What, Like Bezos 10000yr Clock of the Long Now? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_of_the_Long_Now
Ironically, a plastic megastructure could probably outlast a stone one... Lego-henge?
I don't think that's how it works. Plastic degrades fast (especially with UV radiation), it just doesn't fully go away. That's how we get microplastic and harmful chemicals everywhere.
What does stone henge have to do with climate change? Is it owned by a oil company? Is it spewing emissions from a hidden tail pipe?
Nothing really, but the protest does shine a light on humanities superficial respect for historically important monuments and cultural sites especially when it comes to climate change.
Stonehenge is a culturally important site, no doubt about it, and the reaction to the protest has been swift and strong and includes criminal charges. But the same state that condemns these actions in the harshest terms is timid in the face of the much more destructive acts of climate change.
Where is the outrage over the climate driven erosion of the Cliffs of Dover? Or the surge risk to the tower Of London? Or Orkney Islands? Not even to mention the risks to human health, food production, invasive species, and fires.
Personally, I'm done carrying water for big oil and climate deniers by focusing on the method of protest instead of the message.
Just a note for anyone disagreeing with the sentiment of my last line. I would have agreed with you a year or two ago, but then I read Martin Luther King's Letter from the Birmingham jail and it changed my mind entirely on the nature of protest, nessecary tension, and the role of so called moderates in perpetuating injustice.
Give the letter a read, hear some analysis on it, it might change your mind like it did mine.
very well said, carry on
protest does shine a light on humanities superficial respect for historically important monuments and cultural sites
Interestingly the former leader of the Taliban argued exactly the same way when asked why they destroyed some world famous statues in Afghanistan (but compared it to the total lack of care for the actual humans living in Afghanistan, which is ironic considering the source... but hey, everyone is the hero in their own story 🤷♂️ ).
It’s a great way to remind people of the disaster ahead, and force people to mention it. Even if in a bad tone, they still have to remind themselves that it exists .
Just Stop Oil targets culturally significant objects to highlight that the viewer's outrage at direct attacks on those objects is greater than the viewer's outrage at the same attacks against those objects by the creators of climate change.
If throwing washable paint on Stonehenge pisses you off, you should be even more angry at big oil for progressively destroying the entire planet. Any call for the arrest and immediate punishment of Just Stop Oil members should also match calls for the immediate punishment of big oil execs.
It's juvenile, but it's pointed.
but i've already been angry at them for that. why assume i wasn't? now i'm just also worried about historical sites. personally, so lost on what this accomplished
I once read a conspiracy theory that these "activists" are actually funded or hired by oil companies to lower peoples' respect for activists. Sounds plausible, but I've never seen proof or evidence.
I think it's a reference to the mechanisms under stone henge and the heat they produce, it has to reach the surface of Earth eventually.
If they’d just turn the damn thing off for a hundred years or so we’d have no problem
In another thread someone was arguing that stonehenge is valued. And it’s the implication that’s the message.
He didn’t elaborate on the implication, but he said “What do you think people are gonna do next if this doesn’t work?”
So maybe the strategy is just attack things people value until climate change is fixed
A thousand wrongs won't equal a right.
Notice they aren't doing this to the biggest contributing countries to global carbon emissions. Shameful display.
Yeah what a shame that the UK still allows some form of protest and does not just shoot them like the Chinese. /s
Seriously the UK is the fithed largest cumulative emitter and even though that is over litterally centuries even recent emissions are well above the global average. Combine that with a government, which allows even more oil and gas drilling, while even opening up a new coal mine. The UK is doing better then quite a few other countries, but it is not exactly great.
Wait, do you really expect British citizens to fly to the US or China in order to commit vandalism?
What do you think they'd put on their visa application? "Purpose of travel: throw paint on the Statue of Liberty"?
In a world full of bad faith "I support your cause but not your methods" attacks on environmental activism, this is one of the most ridiculous ones I've ever heard.
I'm not sure what to take from this second half, is protest only valid if it happens under a set of circumstances and targets you've chosen? Is protest by a westerner invalid if they don't take a net zero canoe to India or China or Saudi Arabia to deface something there? Surely not.
Well, depending on who you ask, a protest from a westerner is invalid simply because it's a westerner.
Doesn't even matter if it's supporting a "non-westerner" cause, because then you're just another colonizing westerner appropriating something you couldn't possibly undertand. Regardless of your actual understanding, of course.
I really don't know what the OP comment is even trying to say, it just comes off as weirdly confrontational.
