Environmental activists have caused disruptions outside Montreal Trudeau International Airport for three consecutive days protesting Canadian fossil fuel policy.
  • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
    15·
    5 months ago

    I was actually going to the airport yesterday, and was wondering why the otherwise 30 minute drive took over an hour, with the lineups already reaching the hwy exit. I was explaining to my relative, that see, Montreal has such little foresight, they couldn’t build a train to reach the airport in fifty years, unlike Toronto and their Union-Pearson express, which makes YYZ a superior departure point.

    Little did I know that this was a sit-in by activists. And the First Nation & Eco activists do this stuff in Toronto all the time. As in block the UP / CN lines, so it’s not like that would be exempt from delays either.

    All the power to them mind you. I’m just trying to highlight my smugness and bias towards Toronto transit interconnectedness.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
      10·
      5 months ago

      Nearly every other developed country on the planet has rail connecting their major airports. It just makes sense. Of course i didn’t bring my personal car with me on the flight. The train is often cheaper than a taxi too.

  • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caEnglish
    98·
    5 months ago

    From a recent ruling in the UK.

    “I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns motivating you are, at least to some extent, shared by many,” he said.

    “But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law.

    “And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.”

    • Leviathan@lemmy.world
      166·
      5 months ago

      What an absolutely tone deaf and patronizing statement. The world is ending but god forbid we inconvenience anyone while trying to do something about it.

      • ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        91·
        5 months ago

        No, no you misunderstand. Let me translate:

        “Die in a hole you filthy peasant. Your life is expendable and you won’t be missed when the police gun you down in the climate riots 20 years from now.”

      • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caEnglish
        49·
        5 months ago

        Read it again. You are NOT morally superior. The three people he was writing about are now spending 2, 2, and 3 years in prison because they mistakenly believe that they are absolutely morally superior and that that absolute moral superiority justifies anything that they do to anyone they see as inferior. This is the same mistake that every extremist makes.

        • Leviathan@lemmy.world
          4·
          5 months ago

          I think it’s safe to say that if they gave up their freedom for the cause of trying to save us and our descendants from climate catastrophe then they are absolutely morally superior to both of us. The mistake you make is thinking that the law has a single thing to do with moral superiority, it only deals in financial superiority.

          • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caEnglish
            11·
            5 months ago

            That’s an interesting point but I disagree. They treated thousands other people with utter contempt. That is not the act of someone who is morally superior. It’s absolutely disqualifying.

            • Leviathan@lemmy.world
              3·
              5 months ago

              I really don’t mind if the mildly inconvenienced thousands of people. If in a functioning democracy our powers are threefold - the vote, the media and protest, and peaceful protest by its very nature is a protest that can be ignored, then no change can be affected by non disruptive protest. In my opinion this isn’t disruptive enough. If we treated this climate crisis with the urgency it deserves then we would take a page out of the European book and block highways with concrete bollards.

              Make no mistake, our children will burn and we’re worried about missing a flight.

              • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caEnglish
                11·
                5 months ago

                Just as long as they are prepared to answer to the rest of a society who, don’t agree with their methods. The three who the judge in the UK was writing about are spending 2, 2, and 3 years in prison for their protest which showed utter contempt for other citizens.

                • Leviathan@lemmy.world
                  3·
                  5 months ago

                  I’m part of the rest of society and I agree with their methods. I haven’t been propagandized into thinking protests shouldn’t be disruptive (ignorable). They’ve got you thinking minor inconvenience = utter contempt (which for some reason you chose to write two comments in a row), and that for some reason deserves prison time.

                  Think about it, really, imagine this was coming from someone you respect enough to make you consider changing your mind; should protests that cause no bodily harm be a criminal offence? Should the people not have a way to truly disrupt the system if our existence is at stake? Is the convenience of the ignorant more important than our survival? I’d love to hear your honest answers to these questions.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
      149·
      5 months ago

      Yes the harm of being delayed a coupled minutes while siting in a nice climate controled vehicle that has comfy seats and an entertainment system.

      • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
        713·
        5 months ago

        Have you ever been to the Montreal airport? 45 minutes to drive the loop is normal without protesters. It took hours with the protesters. What if someone missed a flight and didn’t get to the hospital to see their dying patent or child for the last time? What if someone missed a court appearance and ended up in prison? There are so many reasons that this protest could cause real, lasting harm to the people who are, “inconvenienced”. I think that the judges words, voices on the ruling where he sentenced the people to two and the hearts in prison for the same sort of protest, really last it out perfectly well. Your comment and the protesters are utterly tone deaf.

        • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
          125·
          5 months ago

          Okay, lets just keep burning fuel until all of us are harmed by earth’s wrath. Will you show the same sympathy to flood and wildfire victims? Those events are going to happen more frequently if we do not bring an end to climate change. Many currently inhabited places may become too hot or too dry to survive.

          • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
            313·
            5 months ago

            I’ve been an environmental activist and protester since the 1970s. I live in a straw bale house that I built with my own two hands and the hands of my family and around 40 volunteers 20 years ago. It has a carbon footprint 80% lower then our neigbors much smaller house. I’ve taught more than 1,000 building officials how to inspect straw bale houses and intervened in over 100 disputes between people wanting straw bale houses and their building officials with a 100% success rate. I have contributed to the reduction of carbon emissions in a very personal and direct way that these fanatics can only dream about in their wettest circle jerk fantasies.

            Don’t lecture me, child.

            The mistake that these people are making, and that you are making, is the same mistake that ALL extramists make. All extremists believe that they are somehow absolutely superior to everyone else. That superiority may be genetic, racial, religious, sexual, political, ethical, moral, dietary, or any of many other factors. They believe that that absolute superiority justifies anything that they do to anyone who doesn’t share that absolute superiorty. They can self-absolve any transgressing or crime because their goals are pure and the people they are harming are not.

            They are wrong and you are wrong.

            • anachronist@midwest.socialEnglish
              93·
              5 months ago

              It’s cool that you’re in the well-insulated house business. But we’re still cooking the planet and jet aircraft are bad.

            • Carl
              3·
              5 months ago

              I will huff, I will puff, I will blow down your straw bale house.

              • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
                22·
                5 months ago

                We tell kids, when we talk about straw bale houses, that the fourth pig combined all three of the systems that the first three used, straw for insulation and structural integrity, wood for headers, window framing, and interior walls, and cement (Portland lime) for load bearing skins and fire resistance.

                Our walls are 10 times as strong as a 2x6 wall in a vertical load, 6 times as strong in a vertical load, have a 2 hour commercial fire rating, a Catgory 5 missile penetration rating (a 2x4 fired at Categort 5 hurricane speed will not penetrate the wall, and an isolated section R value of 70 with a system R value of 40.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
              3·
              5 months ago

              The mistake that these people are making, and that you are making, is the same mistake that ALL extramists make. All extremists believe that they are somehow absolutely superior to everyone else.

              Meanwhile, you’re calling people children and acting superior to everyone else.

              I’m glad you live in a low-carbon house. Congratulations. Assuming you 80% number is accurate, and applying it to your entire lifetime for all activities, you will save approximately 100 miles of airline travel worth of CO2, assuming your usage is similar to an average American. Great. That’s effectively nothing.

              We have to change systems to actually have an impact, not just our own habits. Reducing your output is great and I appreciate it, but stopping there means you have done nothing. We need to stop industries that emit CO2. Average people have very little effect, but their votes and power can change the things that do.

              • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
                12·
                5 months ago

                Meanwhile, you’re calling people children and acting superior to everyone else.

                They are acting like petulant children. I have never once said that I was superior to anyone. Not a single time. Never. (Go ahead and try to find an instance where I did. You’re mistaking my saying that they/you are not superior for me being superior. They are NOT the same thing.) What I said was that THEY were mistaken about being absolutely morally superior. They are. It is the mistake that all extremists make.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
                  3·
                  5 months ago

                  No, you didn’t say you’re superior. You acted like you were superior. Do you not see how calling other people children is implying they’re beneath you? If you don’t then you’re lost. Of course you only recognize when some “other” is doing something wrong but not yourself.

      • MapleEngineer@lemmy.caEnglish
        11·
        5 months ago

        The UK is deporting innocent people to fucking Rwanda, lmao.

        They were. The new government killed that plan on day 1.

        “I acknowledge that at least some of your concerns are shared by many but since we don’t want to do anything about it because that would mean changing our western week-end-at-the-resort lifestyle, we’ll just put you in prison. Fuck you.”

        “But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law.

        “And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.”

        I suspect that it’s very clear to most people at this point that the actions of these fanatics and the whinging, feeble attempts at shaming, insults, name calling, and harassment by fanatics and their apologists online aren’t actually intended to change anyone’s minds. It’s a fanatical circle jerk, as the judge suggested in the quoted ruling.

  • Somethingcheezie@lemmy.world
    12·
    5 months ago

    Glued their hands to the road. My forth thought was solvent which might give them chemical burns. Then I thought leaving them there for days in the sun to sit in their own filth.