Environmental Activists Are Getting On Everyone’s Nerves

October 11, 2019

Environmental activists are out of control, stopping traffic, delaying flights and racking up arrests. Only a few weeks after the infamous Extinction Rebellion climate activist group blocked traffic in Washington, D.C., annoying commuters and actually increasing net CO2 production from stalled cars, a new set of antics is grabbing headlines.

An activist from the group delayed air travelers yesterday by climbing on top of a plane at a London airport. Setting aside the safety risk and potential damage to the aircraft, travelers were less than enthused about having their flight delayed.

From CNN:

Extinction Rebellion are attempting to “shut down” London’s fifth largest and most central airport from Thursday to Saturday, to protest a planned expansion of the site which the group says will make it “impossible” for the government to reach carbon neutral status by 2050…

“We have two generations of human civilization left if we carry on doing what we’re doing,” the protester said, as passengers heckled him and urged staff to remove him from the flight.

They have also staged a graphic scene in New York and stopped traffic in Mumbai. Today they topped themselves again, camping outside the BBC offices demanding the news network spend more airtime promoting their political agenda.

From The Guardian:

Protesters held a banner stating: “BBC, your silence is deadly”, and chanted: “Whose BBC? Our BBC”, and: “BBC, can’t you see, this is an emergency”.

It came as the Metropolitan police continued to arrest activists at Trafalgar Square, XR’s last remaining protest site in Westminster, after the police commissioner, Cressida Dick, used an Evening Standard article to criticise protesters, saying that their strategy pulled her officers “away from priorities”.

“We are not anti-protest – but we are against them repeatedly breaking the law,” she wrote.

It looks like this won’t be stopping anytime soon.

They may be making news, but they aren’t making any friends.