‘Shambolic, bizarre and upsetting’: Moment climate protesters lost us for good

They think they’re fighting the good fight — but without realising it, climate protesters have made a huge mistake they can’t recover from.

Let’s talk about bees.

In some parts of the world, one third of the bee population has disappeared. If bees vanished, it is estimated that humans would not survive for more than four years. After all, 35 per cent of crops globally and 90 per cent of wild plants are pollinated by bees, making them an integral link in the ecological world.

There is no getting away from the fate of humanity being inextricably linked to the survival of these buzzy little buggers.

But at the moment, in cities around the world, a different breed of bees is causing headaches. I mean, of course, the climate change protesters who have been dressing up as bees and “dying” en masse in public places as part of the global Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement.

Over the past week, thousands of people, many clad in black and orange insect get-ups, have taken to the streets in cities around the world, including London, New York, Athens, Berlin, Amsterdam, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, in an effort to draw attention to the climate emergency.

Protesters dressed as bees stage a ‘die-in’ in Sydney. Picture: AAP Image/James Gourley

On paper, it’s a powerful idea because, right now, inaction is simply not an option. The numbers paint a harrowing picture. The hottest year on record was 2016. Last year, there were 11 fires in the Arctic Circle with Sweden having to ask the European Union for emergency assistance to put them out. The Amazon is burning. Greenland lost 12.5 billion tons of ice in one day in August this year. It’s enough to make any reasonable individual consider stockpiling tinned goods and investigating bunker options.

Sadly, the recent XR marches have led to shambolic, bizarre and upsetting scenes on streets across the country: from a septuagenarian in an immaculate suit being dragged by the police to baffling manic bee protesters “buzzing” to people slathered in horrifyingly realistic fake blood and gaggles of wraithlike people clad in haunting red who looked like the chorus from a suburban amateur dramatic society production.

Serious protest or frustrated amateur thespians? Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP

The XR demonstrations have caused havoc globally with activists blocking streets and major thoroughfares of cities. A woman in Melbourne was barred from reaching the home of her mother, who had died on Sunday.

In New York, protesters covered Wall St’s famous Raging Bull in prop blood and staged a mock funeral replete with “corpses”.

Protesters covered in fake blood gather around the Wall Street bull during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration in New York. Picture: Timothy A Clary/AFP

In Athens, people drenched themselves in black paint to represent oil.

And in Australia there were bird costumes, bare bottoms and one baffling hat made up of toilet rolls strategically arranged vertically like an Easter hat parade entry gone wrong.

All of which would make for a comic moment if the stakes weren’t so high.

The Melbourne protester’s get-up would be amusing if the stakes weren’t so high. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The display of oddball costumes makes the whole XR push seem like an exercise in adolescent theatrics. I get the necessity of a bit of shock and awe, but there comes a point where the insects and prop paint just make the whole situation resemble a jamboree for the disenfranchised and craftily inclined rather than an influential protest movement. (Not to mention unfortunately attracting the lunatic fringe and those fatally drawn to mayhem like, well, a bee to honey.)

Watch this lady in the red hat go! #ExtinctionRebellion pic.twitter.com/yijldyJTij

— Stephanie Bedo (@stephanie_bedo) October 7, 2019

The bigger issue here is the underlying XR strategy. A key tenet of the XR approach is that their marches block traffic and clog cities. (One protester even blocked a train in inner-city Brisbane today.)

This is inherently counter-productive. Making it dramatically harder for working people to go about their day simply breeds frustration and resentment and the XR message about the need for urgent climate action is lost.

A member of Extinction Rebellion lies on the ground in fake blood on the Trocadero esplanade in Paris. Picture: Francois Guillot/AFP

Don’t get me wrong: The climate picture is grim and action is desperately needed, however I am doubtful that a vast dress-up parade is going to achieve anything concrete.

Anyone who takes the time to get off their couch, forgo the lure of Netflix and overcome any lingering apathy to make their voice heard is commendable in my book.

I’m just very, very concerned that rather than forcing governments to better (or at least start *cough* Scott Morrison *cough*) to address climate change through policy and planning, the XR movement and its merry band of face-paint-happy protesters is instead damaging the cause.

Sadly, we are seeing what should be a galvanising show of collective strength descend into a hullabaloo, all the while giving climate change deniers more ammunition to unfairly paint the entire movement as nothing but the product of the “loony” left.

Critical momentum is achieved in any campaign like this when the indifferent and the undecided middle comes on board.

Unfortunately, I fear the ER circus is self-sabotaging by dramatically putting off those who sit in the centre of the political spectrum.

There is a long history of civil disobedience being used to push for political action and to move the dial on issues from racial equality to nuclear proliferation to the Vietnam War.

However, there is a line between civic protest and causing bedlam. The means are in no way helping achieve the desired result.

Governments including our own aren’t about to wildly change tack and institute sweeping climate change policies because thousands of commuters were late for work or a bunch of adults dressed like insects blocked intersections.

As soon as you made it harder for normal people to get to work, you lost us. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Havoc is not going to change hearts and (stubborn, science-resistant) minds. It will only infuriate and frustrate everyone and do nothing to sway those sceptics wavering over which side they want to join in the climate trenches.

The fear and anger people are feeling about the apocalyptic threat of climate change is encouraging. The challenge now is to channel and corral that verve and that incredibly powerful force in a more constructive way. And I wager you wouldn’t even need a bee outfit.

Daniela Elser is a freelance writer

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