tl;dr: things are bad, things will get worse, be angry at the criminals, not those sounding the alarm

We've known what we're in for for half a century, meanwhile governments have kept catering to fossil industries. What's being destroyed by governmental inaction dwarfs that what you accuse these groups of (art has not been destroyed) and at this point I'm not surprised that people are looking to more disruptive and direct action.

We've had scientists do the researching and informing, public interest groups do litigation, NGOs trying what they can themselves, etc, yet we're still headed to a degree of climate destabilization where large ecosystem tipping points may well launch us into uncharted territory - and even if not, we're already past the point of 'dangerous' climate change and that's something we'll have to bear the human, societal and economic costs for.

Yes! I got it again on PS1 a while back and still like to play it.

I got a teddy bird and a puzzle! Worth it.

I do in fact sit down for an hour once or twice a month to give plasma without compensation and many other people do so as well, given that it’s illegal to be paid for blood or plasma here in the Netherlands, but I can see why paying people a bit would help.

The reason people can’t get paid for it here is to avoid perverse incentives, mainly people donating when they shouldn’t, lying on the form or to the doctor to pass the pre-donation check.

I wouldn’t mind it for that reason. The Red Cross do good work that need to be financed.

Here in the Netherlands they do that by contracting out volunteers for first aid services to events like fairs and runs. The volunteer donates their time, gets trained for free, the Red Cross gets paid by the organiser and makes money for their mission and an small army of experienced first aid people and EMTs to help out when disaster strikes.

I’m such a volunteer and it’s a great distraction from my normal job. I also get to use my skills outside of the Red Cross, e.g. as an action medic at protests.

Cool sidenote: there’s this network any CPR certified person can join to get alerted by emergency dispatch when CPR is needed close to your home or work. This has helped massively to get CPR started within 6 minutes mostly anywhere in the country, even when ambulances can’t get there that quickly.

I donate plasma regularly - at least once per month. It’s illegal to pay people for blood or plasma here in the Netherlands so I’m just in it for the good feels. I also like the downtime and relaxed chatting and joking with the people who work there.

“I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, 'cause you guys paid for all this. So seriously, for every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart, very much. It's very appreciated.”

~ Jeff Bezos, July 2021, as he departs for space tourism

It did happen: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy

With fossil giants continuing to endanger our very civilisation and government cracking down on not them but on non-violent activists, what are they expecting to happen next? It has to end somewhere.

How does that work? There’s already shops, dentists, etc in many residential neighbourhoods in the UK, no?

It’s the mayor’s choice to mass arrest people and send in water cannons. He could have facilitated the protes, in fact the the government is by law obligated to attempt to facilitate protests in the way the protestors intend to have them.

It’s telling that the prosecutor doesn’t even attempt to charge those arrested - they write on their own website that judges have ruled these protests to be peaceful and orderly.

Be aware that street blockade are not, as a rule, categorically excluded as a valid way of protesting and that this stretch to road is not in fact a highway - a sign says a much and the speed limit is 50km/h. There are traffic lights at both ends and detours are just a few 100 meters.

Furthermore the public prosecutor doesn’t charge the protestors because judges have ruled repeatedly that these are peaceful and orderly protests and hence people are acquitted or not sentenced.