Difference between revisions of "Just Stop Oil"

Revision as of 02:45, 10 February 2023

Crude oil and other fossil fuels such as coal and oil are bad, plain and simple. They had their use at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and helped spur technological development and massively increased human living standards (though depending on who you are, you may view this as a bad thing, but we're going to assume you're sane), however in the modern age, given the development of cleaner and more effective power sources they have become not only obsolete energy sources, but dangerous ones as well.

It's beyond any reasonable doubt that climate change will be a serious problem in the coming years for humanity (especially those living in developing countries), and usage of oil, coal, and gas is one the the main contributers, so yes, it's a good idea to get off of them as soon as possible, lest we suffer the consequences. This is largely a political issue however, and given the partisan divide on environmental matters, progress on this issue tends to be slow, so slow in fact that people get frustrated by all the bureaucracy, and will take to the streets to protest, often in the form of civil disobedience, such as vandalism and mass demonstrations.

If you're involved with Vegan Activism, this may ring familiar. Animal Rights Activists protesting certain events or causing some other form of dispruption tends to be mostly ineffective, and possibly counterproductive, because of how it negatively affects how people at large view the movement. If we really care about accomplishing what we want as a movement, we should take care to ensure that what we're doing is actually getting results; This tends to involve educational outreach, donating to the right charities and knowing where to spend our money, or simply having productive conversations with friends and family. If we aren't concerning ourselves with what's actually effective and insist on a certain method even though it's clearly a lost cause, that might raise questions as to whether our hearts truly are in the right place.

The same standards apply to the British Environmentalist Group known as Just Stop Oil (JSO). Similar to the animal rights movement's Animal Liberation Front (ALF), it is a leaderless and largely decentralized group that has the goal of "ending all new licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK." While there does not seem to be anything egregious about their organization as far as positions are concerned (such as taking anti-nuclear and anti-capitalist stances), the effectiveness of their movement is questiontionable.

Positions of the Movement

Before we get into criticisms of the organization itself, it's important to note that currently, there appears to be a large anti-capitalist wave of environmentalists that are involved in the movement.

Making climate change a partisan political issue is the worst thing you can do if you want to do anything about it (moreso if you think the best way to solve it is political outreach), though at this point it's too far gone to undo. That doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to slow down the polarization however, but it's becoming even more excacerbated when people outside of the overton window attempt to coopt the movement for their own agendas.

As mentioned earlier, JSO does not appear to hold these extremist views (though it is possible a large number of their members do) which is something that should be condoned. Something we're concerned with in the animal rights movement is left-wing political extremists attempting to turn veganism into a communist ideology, which wouldn't be very good for converting people across the political spectrum. We'll also give them credit for not opposing nuclear energy, which would be counterprodutive to their overall goals.

However that's pretty much all the credit we're gonna give them as far as their positions are concerned.

Methods of Activism

In just about every movement, there will always be those who are really passionate about their cause, which is respectable, but often this is done through rather extreme means, which tend to be less than optimal, and often, counterproductive.

The animal rights movement especially is plagued by this, with demonstrations and other public dispruptions being done by a very visible minority of activists. The biggest offender of this would be the aforementioned Animal Libertation Front, which also has questionable effectiveness.

While it's great to care about your cause, you ideally should go about contributing to it in the right way, and this is something the Animal Rights Movement and JSO need to understand; If you aren't going about it in the most effective way possible, do you really care about the issue, or is it more just performative?

JSO has been known to do things such as slow down traffic, disrupt ceremonies and sports games, and vandalize public spaces. We hate to be buzzkills, but if you want to rally the general public behind your movement, don't do crap like this. When people are having their daily lives made more difficult by a group of activists, 9 times out of 10 that's going to brew resentment amongst the common folk, who will not only be less likely to support your movement, but more likely to oppose it.