Violence Against Climate Activists — And Why We Should Worry About It
We can see a rise in violence against climate activists all around the world, but most people don’t get what that means for their freedom.
The urgency of climate change has been made very clear by scientists all around the world. So why are climate activists still the bad guys, the only thing they do is remind us about what needs to be done. Not only are they referred to as the bad guys, no, they become victims of violence, both physical and psychological.
What people don’t understand
Apart from the urgency of climate change which some people still don’t understand, it’s the definition of good and bad in this matter.
Yes, these activists may annoy you in your daily lives by blocking the road when you are trying to get to work. But it doesn’t matter if you support their actions or not, you just can’t say that they aren’t doing something good. They just do this because the politicians don’t act according to their promises.
So, why do so many people keep saying the activists should stop with this nonsense, but so few people demand change from the politicians who could end all protests by fighting climate change?
Activists aren’t the bad guys, they are just drawing attention to the problem. I know that ignoring the problem is easier than facing reality, but that changes nothing.
It’s like being angry at the fire alarm (activists) because it is so loud while your house is burning (climate change) and the firefighters (politicians) have decided they don’t want to save you.
Why people get violent
The shocking thing in this dilemma at the moment is that people feel annoyed and disturbed in their daily lives in a way that they think violence is justified.
We see activists being kicked in their stomachs, in their backs, and even their heads. Activists are being spit on and forcefully ripped off the streets where they glued themselves on. We even see activists hit by a car or a truck.
But what leads people to get this angry?
The answer to that is not really clear to me, but I assume that it is a combination of fake news, a lack of education, irresponsible comments or viewpoints of politicians as well as fear and insecurity about the truth.
Police violence
It is even more sad that we live in a society where we can’t trust the police to stop violence against activists. On the contrary, the police is part of the problem.
Videos of brutal arrests and unnecessary use of water cannons and pepper spray against peaceful protesters are all over the internet. But there is also footage of civilians attacking activists while police are standing next to them without trying to stop the violence.
Only a few examples are of police brutality against peaceful climate activists:
- The protest against the expansion of a coal mine in Lutzerath (Germany) 2023
- The protest at the COP26 in Glasgow 2021
- The protests against the European Gas Conference in Vienna 2023
The role of politics
The general secretary of the UN, António Guterres as well as many international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch have called out governments and police forces to stop the criminalisation of legitimate peaceful protest against climate change.
Criminalization, is probably the best word to describe the work of politicians when it comes to climate change. Politicians work with this populistic attempt to undermine the climate activism movement. By presenting climate activists as criminals and treating them this way, they try to reduce the pressure on them for not doing their work. They want to break this movement by scaring allies away. It is just easier than actually doing something against climate change and everybody who says they need to do more is a radical-left-eco-terrorist.
The problem is that it works, it is just easier to look at those activists as criminals than to accept an uncomfortable truth.
Pressure is rising, criminalization and violence won’t stop the movement. There is still time to act on climate change, and our planet shows dramatically that we need to act. This can’t be ignored for long. Humans might be easy to manipulate but we are not blind.
Education and continuous activism will increase visibility and awareness of the problem. History will judge. The fire alarm won’t stop.
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.” — George Orwell
