Emma wrote on May 13
th, 2013 at 1:50am:
I don't entirely agree with that.
The ONLY way things change..outside the square..IS if enough individuals get together and make lots of protests and pester their parliamentarian... for example.
You are suggesting there has never been a successful result from peaceful activism.
Surely not... do you..?
... there are many many examples to show your view is not so.
The difficulty is in getting ENOUGH people to commit... but do NOT denigrate and minimise the power of public opinion and mutally beneficial activism.
Is that tough commitment is it? If you ask me it's weak as piss.
I'm not saying that environmental activism isn't beneficial
in any way, but activists often point the finger with one hand whilst holding out the other for the spoils of company profits.
When I was involved with some of the protest dives against the deepening of the Port Phillip shipping channel, I saw plenty to convince me that although the people were well meaning, they seemed to disregard the ecological impact from a lot of their own actions.
There was Johnno who was so committed that he motored 2 hrs each way in his V8 ute to join the protest dives. There was Sonja with her brand new dry suit and Suunto dive computer. There was Tony and Jan who were jetting off to Vanuato the next week to dive the president Coolidge shipwreck.
Ok, it's good that care was taken to cause minimal damage and special studies were done to ensure this.
If the deepening of the channel had not gone ahead at all, we would've required more ships to transport the same amount of cargo. So what do you do?
What
you need to do is to get seriously tough, take the lead, and start walking the walk.
Take nothing from the government. Never use hospitals, medications, roads, buildings, parks, bridges, footpaths, etc. Use only self-generated power...if you don't have solar already, then fart into bottles made from coconuts. Grow your own fruit & vegies, make your own clothes with hand spun threads, capture your own water, hunt your own meat with handmade tools..never use manufactured tools including cutlery. Make your own furniture..etc.,etc.,etc.
Then if we could all take your lead, the nation may have a chance of getting our carbon emissions to somewhere near that of Bangladesh, where it needs to be. ie: from 18.5 tonnes per person P.A. to 0.1
..and we can all stop climate change together