Easter season is approaching and you and your family/friends are getting ready for vacation. You get your holiday approved by your employer, you are selecting a place to go – ie North Italy – and you start to plan. As a matter of fact, you decide to take the car. Lets say you are 3 or 4 people, and so you think that even from a CO2 perspective this compares ok with the train. You finish your last day on Thursday, right before Good Friday and start your trip super early in the morning.
You have to go thru Switzerland and the Gotthard tunnel, which means that you are aware of a lot of traffic jam. Nevertheless you and the family/friends are in good mood – lets just get thru this tunnel and we are getting to sunnier weather and start enjoying our vacation. Traffic is at standstill.
Suddenly, right in front of you, six people walk on the highway. With orange coloured warning vests. And right in front of your car, they sit down and stick their hands to the asphalt. The police decides to close the highway. So you wait until 10:30 am and the traffic is released again and you can go on with your vacation.
The six people get arrested for a couple of hours. They make their climate claim, means they use this sticking to the highway as a form of protest, and they are send back home afterwards.
Why do I write down that story? Well, I try to make my mind up about these kind of activists. My values around environment have changed significantly over the last couple of years and I am trying to do as many things as I can to contribute. I do believe, that engagement is key to solve the climate situation. The more people get active, do even small things, the faster we will be able to resolve all the issues. How do you get people to engage? Education, politics, activists, demonstration – there are many ways.
The question is: Is it a good tool, to stop society, by illegal actions, to make them engage more for climate?
Yet, I am not final regarding my opinion. If I would have a larger community to reach out to, I would love to do a poll and get your point of view around this. Look, there are people who are so disappointed about the actual climate activities, that they do not see any other way than making this dramatic way of protest. On the flip side you have to consider where this can lead. Just ignoring law and letting things like this happen without consequences will lead to more and more drastic activities.
And as a matter of fact – is it really necessary to make this mark to all these people heading into their vacation (there had been some car drivers who wanted to start a fist fight with the activists, so the police interfered)?
I am not sure yet, but my main problem is a different one: I do not see a result of better engagement from these activities. I do not see better actions from people for the climate. The only thing I hear and see, is the discussion, if this should be punished hard or not. From politics, from media, from people. Nobody discusses if and how to make a change for the climate because of these activities.
I keep thinking about this – but one thing is sure: Engage more for a better climate and less CO2 – this helps for sure. No matter what you think about these protesters.
