Just Stop Oil

[alfapete]

I thought long and hard about whether to post this, but here goes.

I spent the best part of a week with Just Stop Oil and got arrested for the first time in my life. If you have any interest in this at all then go and put the kettle on, it's 5,000 words long. It's the tale of how I got involved and what actually happened. I'd be grateful for any constructive feedback or comment.
Here's the link:   https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/po6bqyt5il23fscl9hdbx/Marching-with-JSO.docx?rlkey=ni8cs5kvf3ztdpth44zpa7q14&dl=0

If you think JSO are a bunch of losers then please save yourself the time and move on.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Excellent write up and it is really cheering to read of your impressions of the police. All we hear in the papers is relentless negative reports.

[nicknack]

Thanks for that. You're a lot braver than me.

[alfapete]

Excellent write up and it is really cheering to read of your impressions of the police. All we hear in the papers is relentless negative reports.

I think they're just relieved to be dealing with mild mannered, civilised people, rather than those looking to head butt them.

[chrisbainbridge]

Thanks for that.  Motivating.  I am still working and an arrest might well lead to problems but I am consistently thinking about it.

Have you shared it elsewhere that I could re-share it?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Prison like university halls? Hmmm.

[Polar Bear]

I shall give it a read later.  I came close to joining up myself but the prospect of arrest didn't appeal to me.

[alfapete]

Prison like university halls? Hmmm.

This quote was referring to a women's prison

I shall give it a read later.  I came close to joining up myself but the prospect of arrest didn't appeal to me.

There are a lot of support roles where you don't risk arrest - manning the phones, for example

[Tim Hall]

Wow Pete. That's an inspiring read.

[alfapete]

Thanks for that.  Motivating.  I am still working and an arrest might well lead to problems but I am consistently thinking about it.

Have you shared it elsewhere that I could re-share it?

Happy for you to share it elsewhere so long as the audience is likely to be reasonably sympathetic.

[Adam]

I shall give it a read later.  I came close to joining up myself but the prospect of arrest didn't appeal to me.

Whilst they're happy for volunteers to sign up for "active duty", there's no massive pressure to actually do so if you say you don't want to.

[Polar Bear]

I shall give it a read later.  I came close to joining up myself but the prospect of arrest didn't appeal to me.

Whilst they're happy for volunteers to sign up for "active duty", there's no massive pressure to actually do so if you say you don't want to.

This may be so but I didn't follow up on it.  The meeting we went to was most definitely oriented towards recruiting front line disruptive activists.   

[Pickled Onion]

That's an excellent write-up, you write very well, perhaps you can help JSO write their pamphlets and press releases.

It was heartening to hear about the people from unexpected quarters who share the concern about climate change. As we (cyclists, middle-class, etc) tend to move in similar circles it can seem that only our demographic are the ones worried.

Well done for getting involved, and in such a serious manner.

[sam]

I'm glad you posted it, though I paused significantly at "don't read… if you're a Tory." (I'm not a Tory, but still.)

Impressive amount of detail given that you only had a crayon to take notes at one point!

[ElyDave]

Whilst I share their overall aim, I'm not sure they're entirely grounded in reality.  I will try and give it a read at some point though.  I've often thought of marching, but I'm not sure how my employer would look on arrest even in support of these kind of aims.  Our CEO is hosting events at COP 28 inclusing on carbon pricing which I've contributed content to, and we have a massive supporting team there as well - not a boast, an illustration of where/how we engage.

[Kim]

It's not a zero-sum game.  There's a place for direct action, just as there's a place for steering government or industry in the right direction, or modelling alternatives, or whatever.

[ian]

I'm not sure I agree with much of what they do, but in principle, I'm agreed that doing something is better than nothing.

[ElyDave]

It's not a zero-sum game.  There's a place for direct action, just as there's a place for steering government or industry in the right direction, or modelling alternatives, or whatever.

Agreed, the timescales are simply not immediate though in my experience.  I've been working with one mining company for 18 months now, and we have a concrete plan for them. The only problem is that it includes action by others such as building a new hydro power dam that they can use to massively decarbonise their electricity supply - from 2030.

They could replace maybe 50% of their current coal usage with biomass which has its own sustainability challenges, but would also likely see them going out of business as it's a significant cost increase.  It's just not as simple as turning off the taps tomorrow.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I will try and give it a read at some point though. 

Do. Despite the warnings of length, it wasn't a slow read. Alfapete writes engagingly and the signal:verbosity ratio is high.

[Basil]

Nice piece, Alphapete.  Thank you.

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's not a zero-sum game.  There's a place for direct action, just as there's a place for steering government or industry in the right direction, or modelling alternatives, or whatever.

Agreed, the timescales are simply not immediate though in my experience.  I've been working with one mining company for 18 months now, and we have a concrete plan for them. The only problem is that it includes action by others such as building a new hydro power dam that they can use to massively decarbonise their electricity supply - from 2030.

They could replace maybe 50% of their current coal usage with biomass which has its own sustainability challenges, but would also likely see them going out of business as it's a significant cost increase.  It's just not as simple as turning off the taps tomorrow.

The timescales are appalling on a lot of the changes.

There is a lot of fuss about an offshore windfarm here; but the windfarm is dependent on a new interconnector, that isn't due to *start* installation until 2030 (which is a year that crops up a lot).

[Pickled Onion]

It's not a zero-sum game.  There's a place for direct action, just as there's a place for steering government or industry in the right direction, or modelling alternatives, or whatever.

I work in financial services, and the majority of what we do at the moment is carbon-aware or ESG-aware. Paris Aligned Benchmarks, Carbon Futures, Carbon-tilted commodity indices, etc, etc. This is driven by demand and a little by expectation. The industry gets it even though the government doesn't. People need to tell their pension companies they want their money invested in renewables funds or climate change tilted funds.

Direct action is important in getting the message out, but we can all play a part in shifting where the money is invested. There's no point throwing paint at the headquarters of Vanguard or whoever, they don't choose to invest in fossil companies, if they track an index and BP or Shell has x% market cap then they have no option but to invest x% of the £billions/£trillions they have under management in those shares. It's all of us, the people held up by a JSO go-slow, or the people who can't get on a train cos someone's glued themself to the roof, who can actually make the shift happen.

[ElyDave]

It's not a zero-sum game.  There's a place for direct action, just as there's a place for steering government or industry in the right direction, or modelling alternatives, or whatever.

I work in financial services, and the majority of what we do at the moment is carbon-aware or ESG-aware. Paris Aligned Benchmarks, Carbon Futures, Carbon-tilted commodity indices, etc, etc. This is driven by demand and a little by expectation. The industry gets it even though the government doesn't. People need to tell their pension companies they want their money invested in renewables funds or climate change tilted funds.

Direct action is important in getting the message out, but we can all play a part in shifting where the money is invested. There's no point throwing paint at the headquarters of Vanguard or whoever, they don't choose to invest in fossil companies, if they track an index and BP or Shell has x% market cap then they have no option but to invest x% of the £billions/£trillions they have under management in those shares. It's all of us, the people held up by a JSO go-slow, or the people who can't get on a train cos someone's glued themself to the roof, who can actually make the shift happen.

This is an area where we do a lot of work, around sustainable finance and how best to deploy capital to drive decarbonisation. The banks and PE houses definitely seem to get it and are trying to use their capital to drive the needed change. I tend to get involved more on the technical side of carbon accounting and decarb potential.

[mrcharly-YHT]

People need to tell their pension companies they want their money invested in renewables funds or climate change tilted funds.

4 of my pensions are with Aviva.

There is no option to choose a renewables fund or even an ethical fund.

I do have one pension in such a fund; it was in Friends Provident, decades ago. That fund will not accept any further contributions (it is now part of Aviva).

So I'm not sure all parts of the industry are getting it.

[mr ben]

Wow Pete, that was an amazing read.  Illuminating in many ways.  I was surprised just how organised JSO are with all the preparation and training, nice to hear how they operate.  Quite the adventure, and inspiring!