During the first weekend of September, a number of environmental activists were arrested outside the entrance of a Muller dairy facility in Droitwich, Worcestershire. Protesters convened on the Hampton Lovett site and proceeded to climb onto company trucks in an attempt to cut off the supply of fresh milk across England. Others decided to superglue themselves to the entrance to stop the trucks from leaving the premises. Meanwhile, about 100 miles southeast, another section of the group—armed with cordless power drills—managed to scale a fence at an Arla distribution centre in Hertfordshire and drill the tyres of roughly 50 delivery lorries, proudly declaring on social media that the supply had been immobilised at the Hatfield depot. It was the beginning of what became a week of activism targeted against the dairy industry. The group, which campaigns for a ‘plant-based future,’ has threatened further action unless progress towards their demands is made.
This is the latest in a long line of ridiculous stunts engaged in by Animal Rebellion—an offshoot from the equally frustrating and highly provocative Extinction Rebellion (XR). Like their more established sister group, they have adopted a new tactical approach to protesting. Now, as we enter autumn, the rebellion family have teamed up with Just Stop Oil for a month-long campaign of disruption. Throughout October, the groups have been blocking roads in and around Westminster, throwing paint into the doorways of hunting and fishing supply shops, and supergluing themselves to the pavement. They may share an ideological conviction, but this is a campaign at variance with the methodology of earlier incarnations of the green movement.
In the last decade, environmental protests have drastically deviated from the traditional form of demonstration. A typical protest normally involves a march with a set route specifying a location where it will come to an end. Along the route, people will hold up placards and chant slogans; this is usually accompanied by some impromptu music: drums, whistles, etc. After all, they want their voices to be heard. A demonstration is the manifestation of popular support for a policy or shared anger over a social problem. Within a crowd, passion and anger provide a kind of group euphoria—what the sociologist Emile Durkheim called “collective effervescence.”
Now, it would appear the goal is to frustrate and infuriate as many people as possible—minimum effort, maximum chaos. Just a few weeks ago, members of Animal Rebellion entered a Harrods department store in London and poured bottles of milk all over the floor, much to the chagrin of passersby. Not to mention the staff who had to clean it up. As with XR, there’s a distinct disregard for working class people.
Animal Rebellion are concerned about the ecological destruction of the planet supposedly brought about by the dairy industry. But not all plant-based products are as environmentally friendly as they appear. Take almond milk. Almonds are one of the most water-intensive crops on the plane—requiring 2,000 litres of water to produce a single kilo of the nut. It’s not much better with Soya milk. Nottingham University in conjunction with the Sustainable Food Trust produced a study in 2020 which determined that a kilogram of soya beans produced 13 pints of milk—but upwards of 150 pints of dairy milk if fed to a cow. The trust shocked some when they suggested that those who drink soya milk would “do better to switch to milk from cows, especially cows traditionally grazed on grass, if they want to help make a more sustainable planet.”
Professor Frank Mitloehner, an expert in air quality from the University of California-Davis, calculated that if an omnivore switched to a vegan diet for one year, the individual’s carbon footprint would be reduced by just 0.8 metric tons. By contrast, a single transatlantic flight per passenger emits 1.6 metric tons. So that means two years of tofu to offset your long weekend in New York. Worse, even if the entire United States went vegan for a year, the overall reduction in greenhouse gasses would be just 2%. Michael Shellenberger came to a similar conclusion in his book Apocalypse Never. While it is certainly a start, it is hardly saving the planet, eh?
As with their older, more annoying cousins in Extinction Rebellion, Animal Rebellion have coalesced around a single solitary theme: climate change. More specifically, climate alarmism. If we don’t immediately switch to a ‘plant-based’ diet, we are all going to die! No nuance, and therein lies the problem. The righteousness of their cause means they feel they can do what they want. According to Animal Rebellion co-founder, Dan Kidby, their protests are proportional, “compared to the complete devastation and catastrophe of our entire ecosystem.”
When you’re able to instantly upload the latest ‘protest’ to thousands of like-minded individuals, activism has become the 21st century way to show you’re on board with the latest fashionable cause. It is less about intention and more about the dopamine hit from all the likes and clicks your video will receive. This is not a meaningful protest, as that would involve personal sacrifice. This is performative activism. A self-indulgent pastime to signal you are part of the high-status/luxury belief clique. Radical chic for the #Instagram activist.
Radicalism lies at the heart of their ideology. This is not about the peaceful transition to a vegan diet; it’s a call for the wholesale eradication of farming. They want to take farmland out of production and re-appropriate it for rewilding. A major cause of concern, seeing as self-sufficiency in food production has dropped nearly 15 percent since the 1980s. With a cost of living crisis and major disruptions to supply lines caused in part by the war in Ukraine, this is as stupid as it gets. Who cares about property rights and free choice when the planet is about to face imminent heat death? That’s progressivism for you!
A vast majority of these contemporary activists are young. The potent mix of youthful idealism and inexperience—not to mention the teenage brain is yet to fully develop the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part—means adolescents are more susceptible to manipulation. Study any cult leader and you’ll quickly realise that fear is a great form of social control. Roger Hallam has been directly involved in Extinction Rebellion since its inception. Hallam made the infamous (and unscientific) claim that climate change would kill “billions” of people. When you push this kind of apocalyptic rhetoric, it should surely come as no surprise that “eco-anxiety”—or the chronic fear of environmental doom—is having a disproportionate impact on the mental health of the young.
From XR to Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and now Animal Rebellion, each successive iteration will look to build on the success of the last campaign. The direct action used by these groups cannot be legitimately covered under the concept of freedom of assembly as it involves taking away the freedom of others to peacefully go about their lives. This is not activism. This is moral absolutism dressed in the robes of compassion.
I fervently believe in the right to protest. But it must be kept in check with the freedoms and rights of other citizens. When you violate property rights and commit criminal damage in the name of a cause you subjectively declare as justified, you set a dangerous precedent. The freedom for individuals to go about their lives must surpass the freedom of political activists to engage in direct action.
The Green New Zeal: A Very Bourgeois Malady
During the first weekend of September, a number of environmental activists were arrested outside the entrance of a Muller dairy facility in Droitwich, Worcestershire. Protesters convened on the Hampton Lovett site and proceeded to climb onto company trucks in an attempt to cut off the supply of fresh milk across England. Others decided to superglue themselves to the entrance to stop the trucks from leaving the premises. Meanwhile, about 100 miles southeast, another section of the group—armed with cordless power drills—managed to scale a fence at an Arla distribution centre in Hertfordshire and drill the tyres of roughly 50 delivery lorries, proudly declaring on social media that the supply had been immobilised at the Hatfield depot. It was the beginning of what became a week of activism targeted against the dairy industry. The group, which campaigns for a ‘plant-based future,’ has threatened further action unless progress towards their demands is made.
This is the latest in a long line of ridiculous stunts engaged in by Animal Rebellion—an offshoot from the equally frustrating and highly provocative Extinction Rebellion (XR). Like their more established sister group, they have adopted a new tactical approach to protesting. Now, as we enter autumn, the rebellion family have teamed up with Just Stop Oil for a month-long campaign of disruption. Throughout October, the groups have been blocking roads in and around Westminster, throwing paint into the doorways of hunting and fishing supply shops, and supergluing themselves to the pavement. They may share an ideological conviction, but this is a campaign at variance with the methodology of earlier incarnations of the green movement.
In the last decade, environmental protests have drastically deviated from the traditional form of demonstration. A typical protest normally involves a march with a set route specifying a location where it will come to an end. Along the route, people will hold up placards and chant slogans; this is usually accompanied by some impromptu music: drums, whistles, etc. After all, they want their voices to be heard. A demonstration is the manifestation of popular support for a policy or shared anger over a social problem. Within a crowd, passion and anger provide a kind of group euphoria—what the sociologist Emile Durkheim called “collective effervescence.”
Now, it would appear the goal is to frustrate and infuriate as many people as possible—minimum effort, maximum chaos. Just a few weeks ago, members of Animal Rebellion entered a Harrods department store in London and poured bottles of milk all over the floor, much to the chagrin of passersby. Not to mention the staff who had to clean it up. As with XR, there’s a distinct disregard for working class people.
Animal Rebellion are concerned about the ecological destruction of the planet supposedly brought about by the dairy industry. But not all plant-based products are as environmentally friendly as they appear. Take almond milk. Almonds are one of the most water-intensive crops on the plane—requiring 2,000 litres of water to produce a single kilo of the nut. It’s not much better with Soya milk. Nottingham University in conjunction with the Sustainable Food Trust produced a study in 2020 which determined that a kilogram of soya beans produced 13 pints of milk—but upwards of 150 pints of dairy milk if fed to a cow. The trust shocked some when they suggested that those who drink soya milk would “do better to switch to milk from cows, especially cows traditionally grazed on grass, if they want to help make a more sustainable planet.”
Professor Frank Mitloehner, an expert in air quality from the University of California-Davis, calculated that if an omnivore switched to a vegan diet for one year, the individual’s carbon footprint would be reduced by just 0.8 metric tons. By contrast, a single transatlantic flight per passenger emits 1.6 metric tons. So that means two years of tofu to offset your long weekend in New York. Worse, even if the entire United States went vegan for a year, the overall reduction in greenhouse gasses would be just 2%. Michael Shellenberger came to a similar conclusion in his book Apocalypse Never. While it is certainly a start, it is hardly saving the planet, eh?
As with their older, more annoying cousins in Extinction Rebellion, Animal Rebellion have coalesced around a single solitary theme: climate change. More specifically, climate alarmism. If we don’t immediately switch to a ‘plant-based’ diet, we are all going to die! No nuance, and therein lies the problem. The righteousness of their cause means they feel they can do what they want. According to Animal Rebellion co-founder, Dan Kidby, their protests are proportional, “compared to the complete devastation and catastrophe of our entire ecosystem.”
When you’re able to instantly upload the latest ‘protest’ to thousands of like-minded individuals, activism has become the 21st century way to show you’re on board with the latest fashionable cause. It is less about intention and more about the dopamine hit from all the likes and clicks your video will receive. This is not a meaningful protest, as that would involve personal sacrifice. This is performative activism. A self-indulgent pastime to signal you are part of the high-status/luxury belief clique. Radical chic for the #Instagram activist.
Radicalism lies at the heart of their ideology. This is not about the peaceful transition to a vegan diet; it’s a call for the wholesale eradication of farming. They want to take farmland out of production and re-appropriate it for rewilding. A major cause of concern, seeing as self-sufficiency in food production has dropped nearly 15 percent since the 1980s. With a cost of living crisis and major disruptions to supply lines caused in part by the war in Ukraine, this is as stupid as it gets. Who cares about property rights and free choice when the planet is about to face imminent heat death? That’s progressivism for you!
A vast majority of these contemporary activists are young. The potent mix of youthful idealism and inexperience—not to mention the teenage brain is yet to fully develop the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part—means adolescents are more susceptible to manipulation. Study any cult leader and you’ll quickly realise that fear is a great form of social control. Roger Hallam has been directly involved in Extinction Rebellion since its inception. Hallam made the infamous (and unscientific) claim that climate change would kill “billions” of people. When you push this kind of apocalyptic rhetoric, it should surely come as no surprise that “eco-anxiety”—or the chronic fear of environmental doom—is having a disproportionate impact on the mental health of the young.
From XR to Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and now Animal Rebellion, each successive iteration will look to build on the success of the last campaign. The direct action used by these groups cannot be legitimately covered under the concept of freedom of assembly as it involves taking away the freedom of others to peacefully go about their lives. This is not activism. This is moral absolutism dressed in the robes of compassion.
I fervently believe in the right to protest. But it must be kept in check with the freedoms and rights of other citizens. When you violate property rights and commit criminal damage in the name of a cause you subjectively declare as justified, you set a dangerous precedent. The freedom for individuals to go about their lives must surpass the freedom of political activists to engage in direct action.
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