tough one for me. i'm sympathetic to protest generally and think the scale of the climate crisis means that dramatic gestures are on the table.

on the other hand. . . i mean it's literally a footrace. maybe protest the formula 1 instead or something?

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

The scale of the climate crisis???

have you heard? it's a pretty big deal.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I think these kind of stunts have the opposite effect of what the protesters would actually like to achieve. It just makes them look like a bunch of wacko extremists and doesn't change anyone's opinion about climate change.

People are swayed by informative campaigns, education, and by witnessing the effects from hurricanes, wild fires, heat waves, etc., not by a bunch of crazed looking nuts harassing people, shouting, gluing themselves to the floor, or throwing paint on artwork. That's all counterproductive in my opinion.

Gluing oneself to the street while 47 000 people run toward you is also not a wise choice, but let's see what they come up with...

I agree with this. And I am someone who is very aware and concerned about climate change. But this is not how to change hearts and minds.

I do sympathize with the younger generation who are protesting. I can't imagine what the future holds for them and their children/grandchildren. But disrupting marathons and bike races and other events is not going to bring much change. It only angers people. It's not an effective or efficient way to bring about change.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

They really are making it easier for climate change deniers to win their case. It's not enough to prove the science, you need to win popular opinion as well.

I think in Europe popular opinion is that there is a climate crisis. At least in some countries?. The problem is taking action to reverse it. That is more complex and needs to be done sooner than later. I am not sure if it's too late to reverse climate change. Big change takes time and moves slowly. I personally don't think it will happen in time. Fossil fuel corporations and other industries contributing to greenhouse gas push back on environmental regulations. And many politicians and law makers are backed by these powerful companies. It's going to take generations to change this in my book and by then it will be too late.

So in the meantime, disrupting marathons, especially the Berlin Marathon who is taking steps to be "greener" is not the best route to change course in my opinion. Iron Mike suggested doing these stunts at a race car event. That would be more appropriate. "muscles not motors"

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Protesters now confirm that they will disrupt the race on Sunday. Cool.

Protesting:

• during a running event (healthy),
• in Berlin (one of the most lefty-sided cities in Germany),
• in Germany (leading the eco-transformation in Europe),
• in Europe (generally leading the eco-transformation in the world)

is a ridiculous idea.

Go and protest prisoners/child labour in polluting factories in China or people dumping waste to rivers in India or F1 race in UAE...

I feel really sorry for the people who traveled here for the race and for the professionals whose livelihood may be impacted. This will be a huge embarrassment for the race and for Berlin if the protesters manage to do this.

Didn’t they protest at an F1 event and it got cleaned up pretty quickly? I imagine these big events are pretty good at stopping this sort of thing especially when it’s announced days in advanced. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t even hear about it.

Maybe a better way is gluing themselves to an autobahn going into Berlin and disrupting general fossil fuel burning traffic on a randon day during rush hour. At least then they make the point of all the vehicles burning all that carbon and stopping them. Stuff like this makes them look like idiots and gets in the way of the rest of us trying to do something about it in our small way. I am sympathetic to the cause, I just don't like how these idiots do it. As a point of reference, I am biased in the energy transition camp and have tried (so far no very successfully) to penetrate the German market. Berlin is a great place supportive place to impact climate actions, but their method won't help .

That’s because this has NOTHING to do with influencing any kind if change (whatever that is). It’s about virtual signaling and screaming “look at me!”

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Not everything is as it seems -Mr. Miyagi

They glue themselves to the Autobahn that goes around Berlin probably three times a week. They don't consider that all the cars sitting idle while the police deal with the mess isn't good for the environment either.

They have blocked ambulances on multiple occasions.

Looks like the race will go ahead

https://www.exberliner.com/...unding-the-marathon/

these protests have been going on all over, and in Germany for a bit. A few days before WTCS Hamburg/Sprint and Relay tri world champs, the Hamburg airport was shut down for a few hours when they glued themselves to the tarmac. None of them disrupted the race itself, although with the live TV coverage, that was definitely a possibility. These protests have hit symphonies, sporting events, basically anything where there is a camera with a potentially large audience... Now most organizers for large televised sporting or cultural events around the world are working with authorities to have plans in place for protests or attacks targeting the events. I am sure that the organizers are working with police and security officials to mitigate impacts to the race, the participants and the reputation of the event and the city.

I'm certain the protesters traveled there by completely environmental methods. Similar to the dignitarys who fly private jets to various climate "summits."

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

I'll jump in the fun. Tie themselves to tracks of ICE trains which are now power sourced by coal instead of nuclear

Umm ...

people are (were) not swayed by education. We tried: we brought our own bags* ... but we are living in a world that is irreparably worse because of years of willful ignorance.

Witnessing the effects of climate change as a means to sway people is like ... well ... I don't have an analogy. Maybe dehydrating one's self to bring awareness to the issues of not drinking? Counting on minimally observable damages to inform us of worse damages to come? When it's already too late?

It will get so, so much worse. extreme measures and activism are in store because other measures have been demonstrably inadequate, and there is nothing more threatening to our species or the planet than continued inaction.

off the soapbox now.

* I stole that line from Marc Maron.

I’ll be there. Corral C wave 1. Hopefully they don’t disrupt my 3:15 attempt but not the end of the world if they do. Im here for the WMM star/medal first and foremost.

Your weren't on a soap box. Instead it's cloud cuckoo land.

The protests are virtue signalling, nothing more.

If they were serious, they would protest in areas having a serious effect. Example, industrial china.

Instead, they protest in nice areas. Like central London. Berlin. Anywhere where there is no real risk.

It's laughable.

Real protests with real meaning protest in the right place.

On top of that, there are plenty of young people who instead of gluing themselves to roads do something constructive - like building technology to help, learning the science to study the effects, etc

There is a lot people can do instead of disrupting the lives of others.

"Soap Box" .. the arrogance.

Well, because you called me arrogant ...

Just so I follow: are the climate protests and climate activism that actions are virtue signalling? Or is it protest / activism regarding any issue? If I understand correctly, it's the means of addressing a social issue that's the problem here, and if I'm further understanding, it's because it's selfish instead of altruistic. Correct? Have you told protesters and activists who achieved social change in the past about that distinction? They would probably be embarrassed that their motives have been exposed.

(Also, I'm guessing the protests are occurring where protesters live. Or could readily deploy. Also guessing: I don't know if it's as much 'risk-adverse' as it is 'readily deployable and achieves an impact.'. I have protested locally about issues that occur in places that are not the protest site, but I hadn't really calculated that I should go only to the eye of the storm, or just not protest at all.)

i disagree. the reality is that people who don't give a fuck, won't give a fuck. then there are people like me. who care about the environment. i recycle. i try to buy soaps etc that don't affect the environment as much. i try to eat/buy local foods. i purposely found a job that allowed me to be remote because it reduced my carbon footprint. i "care" about the environment, but there are a whole TON of things that i do that are bad for the environment.

for example. i purchase from amazon, that can't be good, i use natural gas at home to cook, etc. what these protests do is garner attention. like they say, bad publicity is better than no publicity. inevitably, articles will be written, there will be forum posts, and someone, someway, somehow will post a link and i'll learn something and i'll say damn. i had no idea, i need to make these changes in my life. there is a carryover effect, people like me will make lifestyle changes, and others will see and may follow.

being vegetarian (i'm not one) is one way to really really reduce your carbon footprint. my co-worker is one. he never told me, i just asked him after we had lunch together a few times and i saw that he didn't have any animal protein. i asked him why, he said because he wanted to reduce his carbon footprint. i already don't eat a lot of animal protein, but it did make me pause and think.... you know. of all the things i can do, this is probably the best way to reduce my carbon footprint.

the people that these protesters are going to get to, are the people in the middle... i'm not angry at them... the reality is that shit works... remember black lives matter too, protests? i remember soooo many of my white friends were anti black lives matters too, protests when it started. not even 2-3 years after they started, i have conservative white friends start saying shit like black lives matters...