Hey Kids, You're All Going to Die.

Extinction Rebellion and an Industry that doesn't care

There are many stupid things I’ve said in my life that have left a stain of shame, but there are a couple of things I’ve said for years that I’m not ashamed of.

“Electric cars won’t save the world, but they open a door that allows us to see an alternative to the drill and burn energy world we inherited.”

and

“We are going through an industrial revolution in terms of energy, and it’s going to be very disruptive and unsettling as well as long term beneficial.”

So you can tell from that I have certainly been focussed on potential solutions for our insane reliance on endlessly burning fossil fuel.

I have been focussed on alternatives which will, given time, result in a massive drop in that reliance. I have also said it’s going to be more like 100 years until we truly no longer use gas or crude oil for anything, I believe it will happen but it’s going to take a long time.

I accept that burning billions of tons of fossil fuel is having a direct impact on the environment we all rely on, which leads me on to the question of what we should do about it.

I also accept that turning off the taps today, with near zero alternative in place, would be utterly catastrophic for the human race.

Although I have never openly or publicly supported their actions, I totally understand the frustration and anger expressed by Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, two active campaigning groups in the UK.

It’s a frustration and anger I also feel on a daily basis is which is without question sparked by the actions of the fossil fuel industry and the governments that are controlled by them.

I also understand the fact that the actions of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, walking slowly on busy urban streets causing massive traffic blockages will annoy the majority of the population in the UK.

But of course that is their intention. If you find their antics annoying, they’ve succeeded.

And they have brought the topic of the challenges we all face, the unthinking burning of fossil fuel, into the public discourse. Even if it’s just for some furious men to scream abuse and point the finger at their hypocrisy.

It still makes you consider and discuss the reasoning behind their annoying stunts even if it’s just to slag them of and call them idiots and deluded zealots.

Activists like Rupert Read and Roger Hallam in the UK, have been very involved with Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil don’t pull their punches.

I certainly found it hard when I watched a video of Rupert Read talking to what appears to be children between the age of 11 and 13 at an event back in 2019.

He said to these kids, and I quote: “People will sometimes ask you, what are you going to be when you grow up. But we’ve reached a point in human history where the question has to be asked, what are you going to do if you grow up.”

That is a very stark comment to make to very young people, no question, it will have frightened some of them.

I had to take my mind back 55 or more years to try and imagine what my reaction would have been if I’d had some bloke had come into my school say that to me when I was 11 or 12 years old.

I did have to listen to old men give talks when I was at school, but they were all World War 2 veterans with suppressed and unrecognised PTSD and extremely right wing, racist views.

We thought they were ridiculous and often terrifying and didn’t pay much attention to anything they had to say, but they didn’t ever say “We screwed everything up and you’re all going to die when the world comes to an end very very soon.”

Which is sort of what Rupert Read is saying.

I also flash back to my peak hippiedom, back in the early 1970’s when I had thick long hair, and a load of truly pathetic white people who dressed in orange cotton clothing and followed some con artist Indian guru who owned 12 Rolls Royce limousines, no, I’m not making this up.

Anyway, this happy fellow told the droopy idiots who followed him that the world would end on a certain date in 1973.

They all gathered somewhere, did a bit of cultural appropriation chanting while waiting to all float up to Nirvana while the world exploded or something.

Of course nothing happened and they all had to make up excuses as to why not.

It was so embarrassing, and being the slightly nasty natured person I am, I was relentless in my cruel teasing of these tossers.

End of the world predictions and ‘we’re all going to die’ statements are fraught with danger. For all I know, Rupert Read may have modified his stance since 2019, I don’t know, but I take his stance as a guide post.

I want to remind my reader that I essentially agree with Mr Read.

He is right. The global fossil fuel industry, and the current UK administration who work for them are doing everything they can to ensure we remain reliant on this toxic fuel and it is causing untold damage.

One of the Extinction Rebellion protesters was recently imprisoned for 6 months for a peaceful, annoying, but essentially lawful protest against the positive, financial and moral support our government are giving to the fossil fuel industry

So this question has been hanging over anyone concerned about the enduring power the fossil fuel industry has to crush all opposition. What can we do that doesn’t result in going to prison?

While that might be an option for a few brave souls, I’m not one of them.

Lobbying and making a noise about the negative aspects of burning fossil fuels, highlighting the massive tax breaks and subsidies the oil companies are handed by governments around the world.

Doing everything you can, within reason, to buy as little fossil fuel as you possibly can.

Acknowledging that if you eat food bought in a store, it will have been transported to that store by a diesel truck.

If you buy a phone, laptop/tablet it will have been made in a fossil fuel powered factory in China and transported here on a fossil fuel powered container ship.

If you wear any clothing that isn’t 100% cotton or wool, then that is made from oil, if your shoes are not 100% canvas or leather then they are wholly or partly made from oil.

If you take a very wide variety of medicines then a large amount of the chemical compounds in those products are derived from oil.

Right now (I just checked) about 21% of our electricity is coming from burning gas to heat water to produce stream to power a turbine and spin a generator.

BUT.

It doesn’t have to be that way, and it IS changing. It needs to change faster but changes to our energy and transport systems are happening, all around the world.

The transition to electric ground transport, renewable energy generation, smarter grids and electricity storage systems is now unstoppable.

The fossil fuel industry is doomed, they know it, and they are fighting dirty.

Don’t automatically believe a word you hear or read in any outlet, they are spreading negative stories by the thousand, every day.

The latest barking mad claim in the utter tragedy of a moronic newspaper in the UK called The Sun, states that electric vehicle charging hubs will become a ‘hotbed for crime’ where ‘sexual services will be on offer.’

Seriously? WTF.

When you’re faced with desperate stories like this being ejactlated on an hourly basis, you know the grubby dirtbags who lobby and spin for the fossil fuel industry are really grabbing at straws.

Which, I increasingly believe, shows beyond doubt that no matter what they do, this transition is happening and it will make a difference.

It will make a differencfe a lot sooner if we have governments around the world who finally, firmly, make the fossil fuel industry take responsibility for the damage they are doing.

Not us, them.