“I support climate action, and that makes me want to go buy a Hummer.”
Stephen Colbert, referring to the vandalism of Stonehenge
If you stop by my house on a summer Sunday afternoon, you are likely to find golf on TV. When I saw protestors storm and vandalize the green at last weekend’s PGA tournament, I cringed. My first thought was: please let them not be climate protestors. Facepalm…it turns out they were. I just want to say this – the climate vandals don’t speak for me.
With increasing frequency, climate protestors are vandalizing art and buildings, obstructing traffic, and ruining events. Last week they defaced Stonehenge. Their strategies are generally designed to draw attention without doing lasting damage. For example, the Stonehenge paint washed off. Regardless, these acts are creating chaos and disruption on top of breaking the law. It’s worth asking the question – is this helpful?
I truly understand why these (mostly) young climate protestors are angry, and feel leaders aren’t doing enough to help transition away from fossil fuels. And I agree that we need to be doing more to protect the future for them (and for all of us). But, their actions don’t speak for me, or for the majority of people trying to solve the problem.
In the US, most people care about climate change and want to see it fixed, but only a small percentage is actively involved. My guess is nobody new will be moved to action by these protestors. In fact, to Stephen Colbert’s point, their strategy is probably backfiring.
The goal of this website and blog is to “unheat” the conversation so more people will engage. The climate vandals illustrate how the extreme viewpoints of a few outliers are sucking the oxygen out of the room and turning people off. So, these vandals don’t speak for me, and I hope you will separate them from the people working constructively on solutions. Oh, and one more thing, please don’t go buy a Hummer!
What do you think? I would love to hear from you on this, or on any topic that’s on your mind.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.