Do we really care more about Van Gogh's sunflowers than real ones? | George Monbiot

The Just Stop Oil activists are accused of using tactics that will backfire. But 'respectable' protest is roundly ignoredWhat does it take? How far must we go to alert other people to the scale of the crisis we face? Only one answer is clear: further than we have yet gone. We are hurtling towards planetary tipping points: the critical thresholds beyond which Earth systems collapse. The consequences are unimaginable. None of the horrors humanity has suffered, great as they are, even hints at the scale of what we now face.Everywhere I see claims that the "extreme" tactics of environmental campaigners will prompt people to "stop listening". But how could we listen any less to the warnings of scientists and campaigners and eminent committees? How could we pay any less attention to polite objections by "respectable" protesters to the destruction of the habitable planet? Something must shake us out of our stupor. Continue reading...