Greta Thunberg: poster woman of eco-austerity
Contemporary from her arrest on Wednesday exterior an oil-industry convention in London, Greta Thunberg was again out protesting once more the subsequent day. This time, she had joined the ‘Fossil Free London’ demo exterior the Canary Wharf headquarters of banking large JP Morgan.
It wasn’t a big demo by any means. There have been a couple of hundred folks, and some banners calling for an finish to grease and gasoline. Chatting with these current, the message was clear sufficient. ‘JP Morgan is likely one of the largest funders of fossil-fuel tasks around the globe’, mentioned Etienne Stott, a one-time Olympic canoeist and now an Extinction Rebel activist. ‘It’s partaking in acts which can be utterly at odds with the survival of the human race.’
The disproportionately massive press contingent at this demo was all the way down to Greta. We had been all there to catch a glimpse of the star of the climate-alarmist roadshow and to attempt to snag an interview, which was made all however not possible by the protecting ring of protesters surrounding the 20-year-old Swede.
Greta Thunberg shielded by fellow protesters exterior JP Morgan’s headquarters in Canary Wharf, October 19 2023.
Nonetheless, Greta and her not-so-merry band of activists do want interrogating. In spite of everything, they current themselves as being on the facet of unusual folks towards the ‘evil’ fossil-fuel {industry} and its buyers, like JP Morgan. But it’s clear that these activists even have little or no concern for the folks, particularly the least well-off.
A close to speedy finish of fossil-fuel use, which is what the likes of Thunberg, Extinction Rebel and the remainder demand, would have a horrific influence on folks around the globe. It will make life extremely powerful for the poorest. I requested Stott if he was involved about this prospect. ‘That is what the idea of local weather justice is all about’, he mentioned, vaguely, earlier than muttering one thing about ‘residents’ assemblies’.
One younger feminine protester was much less circumspect concerning the doable impacts of eco-austerity. ‘We all know that what we live in is an period of extreme capitalism’, she instructed me. ‘Everybody must have the fundamentals of what they should survive and thrive, however what we now have within the West is completely extreme.’
This can be a telling assertion. It captures the actual object of those protesters’ anger and disdain. It’s not JP Morgan and the banks. It’s the supposedly ‘extreme’ ranges of consumption of working folks. Local weather activists’ aim is to pressure us to simply accept a decrease way of life, to desert this period of extreme capitalism, and embrace an period of austere capitalism.
Protesters chanting exterior the Barclays Financial institution department in Canary Wharf after marching from the close by JP Morgan constructing, October 19 2023.
This isn’t a radical demand in any respect. The identical implicit demand is made by our globe-trotting, inexperienced elites. It’s what underpins the search for Internet Zero and the countless speak of ‘sustainability’. The United Nations even revealed a report this month calling for the cessation of fossil-fuel exploration by 2030. Most of the world’s strongest individuals are paid-up eco-extremists.
Skilled local weather activists like Greta Thunberg may pose as champions of the downtrodden. They could line up exterior JP Morgan in a show of anti-capitalist advantage. However make no mistake, they aren’t on the facet of the folks. They’re the vanguard of our inexperienced elites.
Angie Speaks is an intern at Spiked.
Photos by: Getty and Spiked.
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