Climate Disobedience Waning? – Watts Up With That?

From MasterResource

By Robert Bradley Jr.

“[Climate activists] should continue to spray paint stuff, block traffic, disrupt speeches, shows and performances, throw food and much, much more.” – Dana R. Fisher and Hajar Yazdiha (below)

Climate disobedience has quieted. The Progressive Left is in shock at the Trump Administration’s dismantlement of Deep-state Climatism. And there is little news from the UK, a hotbed of alarmism with their economy being sacrificed in return for no effect on global climate.

This was not the call from the beginning of this year. Consider “Why climate activists are becoming more radicalized (and why that’s not a bad thing)” by Dana R. Fisher and Hajar Yazdiha, which began:

In 2024, they spray painted Stonehenge, held “die-ins,” teach-ins and other actions in front of Citibank HQ, blocked the entrance to the Department of Energy and spray-painted planes on a private airfield. As these performative and disruptive tactics have spread, so too has the criminalisation and repression of climate activists.   

A false analogy to the civil rights and women’s rights movement was then made:

 But climate activists are not the first radical activists to be demonized and repressed…. Like the struggle for civil rights, the climate movement is fighting to get its battle cry for systemic changes to be heard over the entrenched interests that are clinging to the status quo. So too might the climate movement — and its sympathizers — lean into its efforts to ruffle feathers and wake people up.

Fisher and Yazdiha conclude:

In other words, it should continue to spray paint stuff, block traffic, disrupt speeches, shows and performances, throw food and much, much more. 

“Saving the world is not for the faint of heart,” the article ends.

Peter Kalmus Joins In

Climate zealot Peter Kalmus wrote in the New York Times, [“As a Climate Scientist, I Knew It Was Time to Leave Los Angeles” (January 10, 2025)]: “I moved my family away two years ago because, as California’s climate kept growing drier, hotter and more fiery, I feared that our neighborhood would burn.” But did he also understand the role of the Green, DEI ideology in setting up the state for failure? Why was all-things-climate a priority over modern forest management?

Kalmus blames Big Oil to end with vitriol:

Nothing will change until our anger gets powerful enough. But once you accept the truth of loss, and the truth of who perpetrated and profited from that loss, the anger comes rushing in, as fierce as the Santa Ana winds. [2]

Timothy Martin Conviction

Swift penalties for climate-inspired crimes are sending a message. In response to a 2023 defacement of an art exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, a federal jury recently found Timothy Martin guilty with a long jail sentence possible. Martin’s accomplice, Johanna Smith, spent 60 days in jail and paid a fine and additional money for restitution. Declare Emergency claimed to be behind the vandalism. [3]

Martin’s plea carried little weight:

When I was asked to do this action, it was a no-brainer. Yes, because I come from an art background and the little dancer [the defaced object] is so, so beautiful and she represents the children of the world that are under major threat because of the climate emergency. So, I could not resist the opportunity to turn her beautiful, vulnerable, symbolic self into a message [against] fossil fuel.

Cooler heads and law-and-order are prevailing to the benefit of consumers, taxpayers, and a greener, more productive world. The time for anger and futile, wasteful mitigation policies is over. It is adaptation time.

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[1] Dana R. Fisher is director, Center for Environment, Community & Equity; professor in the School of International Service; and author of “Saving Ourselves: from Climate Shocks to Climate Action.” Hajar Yazdiha is assistant professor of sociology, University of Southern California. 

[2] Kalmus declares: “I feel I need to do everything I can to shift society toward climate emergency mode. I’ve tried a lot of different forms of activism, but civil disobedience has been by far the most effective, in my experience. Shifting social norms quickly requires taking risks! Now is the time to become an activist and take some risks. I’ve yet to meet a climate activist who regrets it.”

[3] Declare Emergency urges “resolute nonviolent climate action” on the premise that:

millions of people will starve to death in the coming decades, as elites fill our atmospheric “gas chamber” with fossil fuels for power and profit. Our food systems will break down. Billions will be forced out of their homes and countries. This means war, starvation, slaughter, and rape on a global scale. And the collapse is coming here, too.

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