What do you think of environmental protest groups?

The planet is being destroyed and the politicians are not doing enough. So activists protest. That's good! I can't imagine being angry at climate activists for ~inconveniencing~ my day; after all, the real culprits are the politicians who don't do enough!

tl;dr: things are bad, things will get worse, be angry at the criminals, not those sounding the alarm

We've known what we're in for for half a century, meanwhile governments have kept catering to fossil industries. What's being destroyed by governmental inaction dwarfs that what you accuse these groups of (art has not been destroyed) and at this point I'm not surprised that people are looking to more disruptive and direct action.

We've had scientists do the researching and informing, public interest groups do litigation, NGOs trying what they can themselves, etc, yet we're still headed to a degree of climate destabilization where large ecosystem tipping points may well launch us into uncharted territory - and even if not, we're already past the point of 'dangerous' climate change and that's something we'll have to bear the human, societal and economic costs for.

I don't think they've ever tried to destroy art. If you're talking about the sunflowers, they knew it was behind glass. Their whole MO is doing shocking things to get attention to the cause and to point out that these things will be gone if we don't stop burning fossil fuels.

Climate change will cause more droughts, fires, and heat waves. Millions of people will die and be displaced.

There's a handful of people who want to do something to prevent this, but, given our system, there's basically nothing they can do to change the outcome. So they're resorting to civil disobedience.

I think it's fine. From what I've heard, these are mostly minor inconveniences. Given the scale of suffering they're warning us about, the inconveniences don't seem minor. Disrupting medical care isn't acceptable, etc.

They've successfully gotten people talking about climate change, so it's working.

Both Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion are great, and protests should be disruptive, otherwise they're just ignored. Maybe they're not doing enough disruption and damage to force governments to listen. Or, maybe someone should go after energy/oil companies directly via sabotage or other means and cause enough economic damage that the cost of polluting and resource extraction becomes too high for them to profit from.

they're not violent enough I think

I glued myself to the streets to protest, I thought it was a good idea to shake things up a bit, get people to join us and confront the governement with their inaction. Instead I was cursed and spit at, got beaten and payed a lot of money. Some people might want change, but hardly anyone wants to change themselves. That hit me the hardest. It's still too cosy, until it is too late.

Anyone doing anything to protest the climate or damage the profits of fossil fuel companies is fine by me. I can't call everyones methods "efficient" but it honestly doesn't matter to me, an extreme response to climate change is reasonable at this point.

...who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”

I think you're MLK's "white moderate": our greatest stumbling block in our stride towards freedom.

They're too peaceful and nonconfrontational.

I think they often go after the wrong targets, usually the working class. To their credit XR has shut down airports used by the private jets of the bourgeoisie before, which seem like the kinda thing they should be doing more of.

I like a lot of these takes and explanations on behalf of the protestors, like that they throw paint to signify "What will be lost in the climate crisis" for instance. It's clever.

But also, asymmetrical warfare is very much about winning "hearts and minds." If all you do is petty vandalism to annoy and or sabotage other working class people, you just succeed in pissing them off while the actual culprits are still laughing their way to the bank.

Worse, it makes it much easier for them to get public support in crushing your movement by turning your own class against you. You've then raised awareness that "People dressed like this are a public nuisance that will get in your way" more than climate change.

Most average people don't know what they can do to actively sabotage the oil industry. Myself included, I feel pretty damn hand-bound when a lot of issues are systemic, like unwalkable cities and forced commutes for instance.

What's the call to action for everyone stuck on a blocked road?

You gotta educate your potential allies instead of merely resorting to performative shock for clout, then you gotta give them the tools to join your plight.

Many groups just shout "awareness! Be aware btw!", and stop there to collect their nonprofit money.

Awareness is made. Cool. Now what? That's what we want to see them answer.

I don't think they've ever tried to destroy art. If you're talking about the sunflowers, they knew it was behind glass. Their whole MO is doing shocking things to get attention to the cause and to point out that these things will be gone if we don't stop burning fossil fuels.

You're right, blocking traffic and other publicity stunts are not effective.

In the pursuit of self defense, any and all actions are legitimate. This includes deadly force.

By and large I support them, including the ones doing more "direct" action. However, not every group calling themselves "environmental" are automatically getting my support. Some are choosing the wrong targets (e.g. Nuclear power, GMOs), others the wrong means (pouring sauces over art is just weird and not related to the environment). Greenpeace in particular is often quite misguided in their positions and actions IMO.

I think the causes are right. The execution is just very poor. I don't understand what blocking traffic has to do with it, I don't understand what throwing paint around has to do with it.

Honestly, I think protests should be a matter of information vs information and using the right information to combat the lies and deceit projected by those they're against.

You lose traction of your cause if all that you're doing is trying to be the biggest intolerant prick.

I didn't like the Black Lives Matter movement, because their ranks contained people that destroyed streets and they seemed to just budge right in on everything.

I didn't like the Stop Oil movement, because all that they did were examples of what I brought up about blocking traffic and throwing paint.

I think ones that block roads are counter productive and just hurt their own causes. They should go bother the actual companies or politicians. Disrupting road ways is just stupid. You have no idea who you are impacting when you do that. Nobody would find it acceptable if my version of protesting was running around spraying a machine gun in the air. Do you think blocking roads can't get people killed?

Unless the protest in a location directly impeding the destructive act, I don't see it as being effective.

It ends up being a feel good measure instead of becoming a vehicle for change.

I've never been inconvenienced by an environmental group, personally, so I think it's really neat they have that much time in their day for those sorts of things.

Depends on their actions. Those that just vandalize random art or monuments that have nothing to do with climate change can fuck right off.