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Scapenator1 t1_j69nfkv wrote

No matter the topic, both right ánd left extremists should not be given a stage or an exception.

−45

autotldr t1_j69ozds wrote

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 79%. (I'm a bot)


> Hundreds of climate activists were arrested in The Hague after blocking the A12 highway in both ways on Saturday afternoon in protest at government subsidies for fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

> By late afternoon, police said at least 200 people were arrested but Extinction Rebellion, which organised the protest, said some 500 people had been picked up.

> Earlier this week, seven people were arrested in their homes for calling on people to attended today's demonstration.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: arrest^#1 people^#2 police^#3 activists^#4 around^#5

4

Regularguy10369 t1_j69qpnp wrote

These protests need to spread to every country. Solar is the future no matter what anyone says, panels on every roof in the eu would mean there was an abundance of electricity possibly double or even triple what is used right now.

There are just too many examples of where solar has been more successful than even the developers have anticipated.

−10

derkonigistnackt t1_j6a1jbh wrote

Maybe in 15 or 20 years when/if materials science has figured a way to store this stuff. As it currently is, not only is solar ineffective in most geographies, but the carbon footprint of panels and batteries is faaaaarr from carbon neutral, and the effort it would take to scale it up to every green's wet dream is unsustainable.

Source before I get screamed at https://youtu.be/LtH9rJAHbEA

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WalkerMx t1_j6a45o3 wrote

Batteries will pretty much never be the way to go, but we've had the technology to store energy en-mass for nearly a century.

Store it as hydro. During the day, use the surplus solar power to pump water into a reservoir. At night, when the solar wanes, begin emptying the reservoir and generating hydro power.

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APigNamedLucy t1_j6ab7r1 wrote

The civil unrest when the climate and food supply really take a dive will make this look like nothing. Nothing extreme about wanting a habitable planet.

You've been tricked into believing this is extremism.

8

green_flash t1_j6ah0p3 wrote

Phasing out government subsidies for fossil fuels should be completely non-controversial.

It's crazy that we still subsidize climate-damaging actions.

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Anakin8108 t1_j6ahltx wrote

Right wing extremists :everyone who isnt white straight and christian deserves to die

Left wing extremists: people destroying the planet should be stopped by any means necessary

Ultra Giga Brain 9000+ IQ centrists: “b0tH sIdeS bAd”

17

GMFPs_sweat_towel t1_j6ai4o9 wrote

Hate to break it to you, but the world runs on fossil fuels. Life in an industrialized nation requires a shit ton of energy and unless people are willing to drastically lower their standard of living, they will continue to demand cheap energy. Just look how upset people are when gas prices spike or their heating bill goes up.

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IkLms t1_j6aiv2i wrote

>Earlier this week, seven people were arrested in their homes for calling on people to attended today’s demonstration.

Because that's not dystopian as fuck.

103

green_flash t1_j6ajpi5 wrote

No need to subsidize fossil fuels for that. Just give people a transport premium or a heating premium and let them decide for themselves how they want to use it. Forcing people to buy fossil fuels so they can benefit is exactly the wrong way to go about it.

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nexusband t1_j6artzx wrote

I don't know how it is in the Netherlands, but in Germany, if that demo has been forbidden after registering, it's a felony.

That has been like this for years and has happened quite a few times. Also, Demos are not forbidden because of political reasons (a judge would be removed from office immediately), but because it's a hazard that can't be controlled ,the police has not enough people or other reasons like that...

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MonitorSuper9042 t1_j6axmpg wrote

And how many anti-environmental regulations protesters got arrested?

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memus_dankus t1_j6azhet wrote

Blocking the roads is illegal, making the protest illegal. Wether you agree with it or not, the judge is upholding the law. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

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Torifyme12 t1_j6b0etu wrote

I dunno plenty of Europeans were telling us we should just listen to what the people blocking the freeways here in the US said.

​

I guess it's annoying when it's your freeway not someone else's

4

memus_dankus t1_j6b0zka wrote

I didn’t say that and I’m not saying that now.

I’m just giving the reason why they were arrested. It doesn’t really effect me because I don’t live in The Hague and don’t even have a car. But personally I don’t think protestors should block roads for any reason.

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memus_dankus t1_j6b98sq wrote

Can you give me a source?

Because article 162 of the Dutch code of law states this:

>Any person who willfully destroys, renders unusable or damages any work serving public or air traffic, obstructs any public land or waterway or defeats any safety measure taken with regard to such work or road, shall be punished: 1 a term of imprisonment not exceeding nine years or a fine of the fifth category, if this is likely to endanger the safety of traffic; 2 a term of imprisonment not exceeding fifteen years or a fine of the fifth category, if this is likely to endanger the safety of traffic and the act results in the death of someone.

Which seems pretty reasonable imo

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CasperIG t1_j6b9wud wrote

Source is the lawyer of the people that got arrested before they even went to the protest: https://twitter.com/khalidensophie/status/1618675855626014724 (Dutch video)

Better source that you can translate;

> Ook uit Europeesrechtelijke jurisprudentie blijkt dat een blokkadeactie wel degelijk de bescherming van het demonstratierecht kan toekomen. Zo oordeelde het Europese Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens (EHRM) in de zaak Kudrevičius e.a. tegen Litouwen (2015) bijvoorbeeld dat een demonstratieve blokkade van drie autosnelwegen door boeren onder de reikwijdte van de vrijheid van demonstreren in de zin van artikel 11 EVRM valt.

https://www.openbareorde.nl/tijdschrift/de-grenzen-van-het-recht-om-te-demonstreren/

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Kaito__1412 t1_j6bb41q wrote

> unless people are willing to drastically lower their standard of living die.

There. I fixed it for you. Modern human civilization can not function without hydrocarbons. I'm all for transitioning to renewables (+ nuclear), but it's nowhere near close to replacing hydrocarbons. transition is going to take a long time if we want to do it without collapsing the current system. There is no other way.

​

Pointing the urgency is a good thing, but one need to be careful about the communication. Protests like this can be inspiring, but it can also have the opposite. Take the previous protests by extinction rebellion for example. The general public turned on them very quickly.

0

keithps t1_j6bdr5t wrote

It's not quite that simple. The subsidies pay for things like upgrades to refineries, because the fossil fuel company knows its life is short and thus won't invest the money. But without the upgrades it will shut down, driving the cost up for consumers.

−5

Telemachuss t1_j6be4j2 wrote

“Hate to break it to you” but stuffing cash into the pockets of oil and gas companies is nit the only way to keep the world running. We could just as easily directly offer people premiums to assist in their living.

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MrYogiMan t1_j6bg334 wrote

I love how these demonstrations always take place in the already most green conscious countries. Can't go wrong with protesting for the popular I guess.

−4

JustMrNic3 t1_j6bg57u wrote

WTF is with Netherlands, why doesn't it care about the climate changes?

−4

magic1623 t1_j6bg7ra wrote

On a linear scale the there are actually some pretty bad groups that fall on the left side of things. Anarchism and communism would both fall into the category of left wing extremists.

−1

memus_dankus t1_j6bhtgp wrote

Oh, fuck off, I was only giving the reason why they were arrested. It doesn’t even matter what you think. As it turns out, Inciting people to do something that is illegal is also illegal by itself.

Blocking roads not only inconveniences people, it also endangers them. We either allow all protestors to block roads or we allow none. I’m going for the latter.

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O_K_D t1_j6bizmi wrote

It doesnt make the alternative cheaper though. It just means everything becomes more expensive, hence a reduction in standards of living and purchasing power.

The key is to make the alternative more competitive by making it cheaper than fossil fuels, not by making fossil fuels more expensive than renewables. And that can only happen if industry keeps doing R&D at low costs by using the cheapest form of energy possible (fossil fuels) until they bring down the price of renewable technology to the level of fossil fuels. Then society will naturally switch to using renewables.

−3

Nose-Nuggets t1_j6bkdo7 wrote

Don't block roads, dont block emergency vehicles. But do protest.

4

AGVann t1_j6bsli0 wrote

And that switch is being delayed because there's an artificial economic lever being pulled in favor of oil and gas corporations. You can't have this bullshit about the invisible hand of the free market but also argue for interventions in the market to prevent transitions.

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Mycroft_Cadburry t1_j6bu9ft wrote

You’re basically just making the case for nationalizing energy companies since they will gladly take record profits and refuse to pay for their own equipment. They are blood sucking parasites on Government treasuries, why should they be private.

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arthoer t1_j6bxakv wrote

Blocking that specific road is dangerous as fuck. Even attempting it is a felony as people can get hurt. Let alone being stuck during any protest for a day with a newborn in your car. Aside from that; its the only entry into the city out of 3. Going to the other 2 is a massive detour for anyone; let alone emergency responses. Even if it was legal; screw those guys. We have plenty of ways of protesting in a sensible manner. I 100% stand by their cause, but not on how they handle this. Cause what happens now is that their protest has a negative vibe and the news is only talking about the road block instead of their cause.

Regardless, the protestors complimented the police for their emphatic approach. It all went peaceful. As it should. I personally just think its not a smart idea to sit on a highway in a tunnel. Greenpeace, oxfam novib and many others think the same. So they protested on thr Malieveld; which is a designated default terrain (besides the highway entry) for protesting/ festivals, etc.

4

AGVann t1_j6bz18t wrote

No, because the price of oil and gas is artificially inflated already due to OPEC. Every time there's a risk of competition, Saudi Arabia intentionally crashes the price of oil to force companies into unprofitability. The US fracking industry was collateral in the Russo-Saudi oil price war.

All these subsidies do is guarantee that western nations are subsidizing the extremely high price of oil and gas that Saudi Arabia sets. If there was genuine competition, the price of energy overall would fall.

3

koreamax t1_j6bz9hf wrote

Yes, Opec artificially inflates prices. What does that have to do with the Netherlands? Industrialized society is build on fossil fuels and you can't just replace them right away. Especially with the extremely high start up cost for renewables

0

SandAndAlum t1_j6c1c2x wrote

If this is necessary (it's not, but pretend that it is), tax it back out downstream (or upstream) the distribute it as a dividend.

People will have the same net buying power, the 'necessary' investment still gets made, and there's no net subsidy. There's no downside.

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SandAndAlum t1_j6c1kmj wrote

If the cars are a major part of the problem, then the means of directly stopping the problem to indirectly stop the problem because literally everything else has been tried seem pretty justified.

Your logic would say someone who responded to being shot at by disarming the gunman was a thief.

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SandAndAlum t1_j6c1p7y wrote

So oil is making the wealthy parts of their society money and they don't want to. Gotchya.

Seems like the solution is to stop them making money until they figure out a better answer.

−2

MrTimscampi t1_j6c1z63 wrote

Because paid holidays, unemployment benefits and other social changes were brought by the kindness of the ruling class, through peaceful discussions, not through disruption and violence.

5

SandAndAlum t1_j6c3n22 wrote

You've got the second part down if you believe that subsidizing oil infrastructure with public money whilst oil companies make record profits is the only possible way to have a stable society.

If they have an operating profit, they don't need subsidy, they need to pay for it themselves. If they don't want to after knowingly signing the death warrants of hundreds of millions for the last 50 years, seize their assets and throw them in jail.

0

whiteandyellowcat t1_j6capiy wrote

Demonstrating is allowed on public roads in the Netherlands, otherwise you could just protest on side walks. Next to this highway there was another road which emergency services could take.

The main reason for the blocking wasn't to block normal people, the road lies right in between the parliament and the ministry of economic affairs and climate.

5

v052020 t1_j6cbkr8 wrote

For all you know-it-all nerds out there outside NL:

Yes we care about our climate

Yes you can demonstrate if approved.

In case it has been denied, you provoke and tell everyone to protest anyway, you're breaking the law and can therefore be arrested.

Why was it denied? Blocking a high road is stupid and dangerous.

1

OrduninGalbraith t1_j6ccrdq wrote

I was replying to a comment about both sides bad on a post about people blocking traffic by lying in the streets. There have been more mass shootings in the US in the last year than there have been days. Didn't need to go cherry picking at all.

1

ImjusttestingBANG t1_j6cfupp wrote

People have know how the world works they also know what will will happen if we don’t do act.

Fossil fuel companies have been playing delaying and denying tactics for years(since the 70s). They have lied , set up organisations to deny it’s happening, paid influencers and bought our politicians. We can’t leave it to companies whose best interest is served by maintaining the status quo. Continued sponsorship of their activities puts all our futures in danger.

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myles_cassidy t1_j6cj28i wrote

> It has nothing to do with freedom of speech

People were literally being arrested for speaking. That definitrly makes it a freedom if speech matter. Unless you are suggesting it can't be because it's lawful?

2

_carmimarrill t1_j6cqhxw wrote

I should note, I never said that occupying the road was a good way to protest. It might be, but it usually won’t be, that kind if thing is highly contextual. But I gotta say what an excellent way to shut down all nuance. “Only kids and poors would ever do this, but NORMAL people know better”. That’s gotta be the douchiest way to be anti-protester I’ve ever seen, one glance at the photos of the incident and obviously it isn’t just minors and the unemployed there. You will make an excellent propagandist one day

2

ZoDalek t1_j6cxeq3 wrote

> Blocking that specific road is dangerous as fuck.

It’s not. Police (and traffic lights) reroute traffic so the protestors can enter safely. There are plenty of other routes available. This isn’t much different from similar road closures like sports events, like this very road for the CPC run.

> We have plenty of ways of protesting in a sensible manner. > ... > Greenpeace, oxfam novib and many others think the same

Greenpeace was blocking a private jet platform just a few months ago and people were similarly going on the “it’s not safe! go to the proper place!” angle.

But when back in 2019 Greenpace had a protest at Schiphol Plaza (a lawful place to protest) the municipality tried to forbid it anyway and sent in the military police. Afterwards of course the judge overturned the ban, the emergency order (to clear the protest), and the clearing of the protest in itself.

> Malieveld; which is a designated default terrain

This is simply not how the law works, protests are not a favour to be granted at a specific place. Instead, the starting point is the protestor’s choice where and how to protest and that the government must do their very best to facilitate this. Restrictions and bans can only be instituted for a handful of specific reasons and must a applied as sparingly as possible.

It was quite egregious that police tried to clear out the support protest on the viaduct. People there were standing peacefully in safe places and there were no lawful grounds (in the WOM) to evict them.

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ZoDalek t1_j6cz1lb wrote

> Yes you can demonstrate if approved.

You can protest full stop. There is no approval process, despite some local governments trying to turn the registration requirement into a de facto permit system.

The government may impose restrictions for a handful of reasons, but only ever the least possible to alleviate them.

This blockade may have been unlawful (that’s really up for a judge to decide if it comes to that) but you can’t turn protest law upside down like this.

> Blocking a high road is stupid and dangerous.

It’s done all the time for road works, sporting events, etc. Traffic is rerouted. No one gets hurt.

3

ZoDalek t1_j6cz9nq wrote

It’s subsidising fossil fuels by € 17,5 bn yearly, not meeting binding targets (like the Paris Accord) and ignoring court orders to protect their citizens from climate change (Urgenda), not to speak of other environmental issues like nitrogen (again that had to come to the high court).

2

OrduninGalbraith t1_j6d8ao6 wrote

>No matter the topic, both right ánd left extremists should not be given a stage or an exception.

This you? Did you comment this on this post about people lying on the highway? Don't try to back track now, own your views you fucking loser.

0

Kaito__1412 t1_j6dao56 wrote

The whole conversation about climate change is getting super emotional and cynical. Everyone want's to lecture, instead of educate, inspire or motivate. I really don't see how this is going to change anything.
No one disagrees that fossil fuel companies overstayed their welcome and should be on their way out. But the conversations we have about that should be realistic and rational.

0

memus_dankus t1_j6dl4p0 wrote

You can be arrested for Inciting people to commit criminal behaviour.

If you were openly conspiring to do something illegal in the US and tried using social media to recruit people to help you, you’d also get a knock on the door.

Plenty of people get arrested for such things, it’s how we stop terrorism, assassinations, etc.

While blocking highways is not as bad as murder or terrorism, it’s still considered a major offense in most countries. But I’m sure that in this case the circumstances will be taken into account and these people won’t face any serious punishment.

−4

CasperIG t1_j6dy2e8 wrote

Actually the article I shared in the parent thread says

> In de zogeheten ‘blokkeerfriezen’-zaak oordeelt de Rechtbank Noord-Nederland dat de door de blokkeerfriezen opgeworpen blokkadeactie op de snelweg niet de bescherming van het recht om te demonsteren toekomt.

So I’d assume some people got arrested.

2

GreenPowerTrader t1_j6el0s1 wrote

Not denying the overall point that the Netherlands still need a long way, but this source is from 2016. In the western european power world this is an eternity ago. The current renewable percentage of ELECTRICITY is roughly 40 percent (with e.g. solar growing by 4GWp yearly!) - albeit with like 15-20 percentage points biomass.

The overall renewable share of energy, i.e including fuels, is still super mediocre at 15% or so. So enough reason to protest.

P.S. if you want to be green, using less energy in general is the single best way to save carbon. Your electric SUV is not making anything better.

1

Victor_2501 t1_j6f6e0c wrote

Yeah, busting into peoples houses and drag them out seems to be a thing for Americans, domestic and abroad. You say it's not as bad as terrorism but justifies similar procedures.

Come on dude, no one takes you seriously outside of the US. Blocking roads is somewhat terroristic but blowing someone's face of for being on "your" lawn or you feeling threatened is just your God given right? :D Seems like a sane approach, for sure.

1

memus_dankus t1_j6fby2c wrote

I’m Dutch for the record.

And most of us are sick of people blocking our infrastructure for their protests. So don’t try to speak for us.

I’m not ok with farmers doing it and I’m not ok with climate protestors doing it. And it’s certainly not something that should be normalised.

All crimes require similar procedures. It’s the punishments that are different.

1

Victor_2501 t1_j6hobu8 wrote

We know that you don't like that :D That's the point. Yeah yeah, people get mad about it but didn't give a single shit about all the other protests, warnings and major events that you should have cared about. You always want to ignore things so you just can live in your small world, believing that would be the solution. You thinking that blocking of the infrastructure would be problematic? Having years of drought, a dying eco-system and collapse of societal structures are kinda more devastating.

I don't need to frame you. You give away your worldview pretty easily and it's not that complex.

1