Protesters have risen to a whole new level of helpfulness. Most people have to pay to have horse manure delivered to their garden to spread on the roses, but Jeremy Clarkson has had it delivered for free. If you are going to make a protest against global warming and someone’s attitude towards it, then you might at least deliver something to them that would be of little use. Better still, if you want to make it a positive gesture, why not turn up and plant a forest of trees in their front garden to counteract the global warming they are otherwise causing?
I’ll grant that global warming is an important issue, but suffragette style protests weren’t what worked for the suffragettes at the end of the day. All they are likely to do is cause maximum annoyance and anger. You can’t really see someone who has just had horse manure left in their garden looking out and thinking ‘Oh, I must change my ways and stop driving fast cars.’ It just isn’t going to happen. It might work as a publicity stunt and get everyone talking about the day someone left horse manure in Jeremy Clarkson’s front garden, but as long as humans produce adrenalin, they will be talking far longer about the cars that Mr Clarkson is test driving on our behalf. You only have to think of the deeply ingrained fight or flight instinct to realise if you manage to find a faster way of flight then a human being is going to be interested in it. The answer is to get manufacturers to produce those means of travel in a way that doesn’t damage the environment at the same time. That would be a very good use of the protesters money.