Forum Topic

Extinction Rebellion

How stupid is that having children put posters on cars in Putney and sending one to the Queen. Keep your children safe indoors, nobody is taking any notice of you don't you think the world is trying to keep us alive. Their letting children touch all cars that they think should be band.

Barbara Stevens ● 2259d30 Comments

Sorry to hear that.  I think a lot of people who are now working from home and video-conferencing with colleagues for work and for coffee breaks will start to wonder why they didn't do more of this before.  Not all of the time because the "Daddy I want a poo" moments can be a little distracting.  Maybe they will think again also about why they have that car/second car.I do wish it was possible to catch people before they rip everything out to show them how much better it is when greenery is left and included and the options.  Too many think that pots are the easy answer but in fact they do need quite a lot of care.  You see so many which obviously just don't get watered. 

Philippa Bond ● 2255d

Philippa, thank you for mentioning the Putney Society garden competition. We were hoping to run another this year but we’ve had to postpone it this year for obvious reasons. It will be back, though, possibly in a different format, next year.  A lot of us feel very strongly about the proliferation of paved-over front gardens. Sadly we see this trend continuing but hope that council policies will change - especially given their declaration of a climate emergency - and somehow the trend will reverse. If you walk the streets of West Putney you will see a lot of lovely front gardens, but even more bare concrete ones with one or more cars parked on them.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2255d

Interesting guardian articles, thank you Philippa. I'm sure that most of us must have noticed the improvement in air quality since the lock-down. And noise pollution. Nature is definitely sending us a message.

Bill Christie ● 2255d

I definitely don't think you're on the same planet as me and as for my brain I really don't find that at all strange.

Philippa Bond ● 2255d

Philippa are you on the same planet as everybody else. I find it really strange what goes on in your brain.

Barbara Stevens ● 2256d

The Putney Society's front garden competition had a brilliant piece about  the importance of not concreting over front gardens and showing us how much nicer it is to have plants there even if they are sharing the space with a car.  Hopefully there will be another competition this year  - and more planting around street trees.  The daffodils are really cheerful.

Philippa Bond ● 2256d

Time at home may give people a chance to appreciate the empty streets and cleaner air and think about changing their car.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/27/coronavirus-uk-lockdown-big-drop-air-pollutionhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-nature-is-sending-us-a-message-says-un-environment-chief

Philippa Bond ● 2257d

Or stop certain people eating bats.

Barbara Stevens ● 2258d

No fun working from home holding conference calls etc  with two small boys demanding attention so I gather from my eldest daughter. Her  husband is also working from home.

Lucille Grant ● 2258d

Sue, WFH has its pros and cons. Great for focusing on getting reports written without interruptions but some think it's not so good for team work like software development. I was talking to a developer working for a company who develop remote access software used for WFH and she said they were discouraged from warking out of the office - it was far quicker and easier resolving a query by shouting across the desk or wandering into the next cubicle, and in industries like financial services there can be security and regulatory issues. Normally those can be resolved with good structured management and policies, and it can widen the scope for recruiting and retaining good employees: I know as games software developer who moved from London to Bathgate (nr Edinburgh) - they could still work remotely for the same company but could by a four bedroom detached family home rather than a shoebox flat in the London suburbs. (But I believe frames developers work a lot more independently than commercial development teams.) I've run IT support team dispersed around the UK and it is reliant on having good people who can work without too much supervision 😺

Michael Ixer ● 2258d

It must be bliss to work from home.  No sharing the🚽a ☕️whenever you fancy one and cuddles with 🐈!

Sue Hammond ● 2258d

Vehicles are already taxed based on CO2 emissions but the scale no way goes high enough at the top end. And it has encouraged manufacturers of diesels to cheat the emissions tests and thus undermine the whole system. The solutions are obvious but are buried in some DfT in-tray because the motoring lobby opposes any attempt to modify their freedom of choice.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2258d

It's not entirely true to say one can spend one's money on what you want: in the UK its not legal to buy guns or cocaine to name some prohibited goods; however, there's not necessarily a correspondence between environmentally friendly options and price. Tesla cars aren't in many people's price ranges.

Michael Ixer ● 2258d

John we don’t live in a communist state and people can choose to spend their money how they like.  Who cares about the cost of the vehicles anyway, surely it’s the pollution they emit that is important.  Our working lives will change when things return to normal with so many companies now realising that people don’t need to commute to their offices 5 days a week.

Robert Wheeler ● 2258d

It could be argued that the actions of these protesters are pointless - especially if you do not believe the country should do anything to mitigate the man made effects of climate change as probably is the case with many posters here.However is it not the case that the use of massive 4x4s (some Range Rovers as big as Humvees used in Iraq) in suburban areas like Putney and other parts of SW London ridiculous and in many different ways ways offensive ?Not only do they emit excessive and unnecessary fumes (especially when stuck in traffic in Putney High Street) , they take up far too much space on our busy and crowded roads.Apparently the average car journey across the country is about 15 miles.In my area the figure must be about 4, usually one woman on her own driving to the Southfield shops or taking one precious child to school.Sheer idleness or probably just a way of flaunting wealth.As Harry Enfield used to say "loads 'a money" though our privileged middle class would never be so common.They just want to show how better off they are by driving past in their £60, 000 status symbols when an £8,000 Nissan Micra would serve their purpose just as well.

John Hawkes ● 2258d

I think you'll find it more likely that the children are "indoctrinating" (actually, informing) their parents, because they have a lot more to lose than the older generation as the world lurches towards the dangers of global heating.It's not the "fruitloops" (eh?) or the "brainless" who are the problem, but the ignorant climate emergency deniers who can't or won't understand what's happening.

Richard Carter ● 2258d

Fruitloops all of them. Now they are indoctrinating their kids. Notice how the West Putney member of the group was nameless as well as brainless.

Mick Cunningham ● 2258d

Michael, lots of young people living in flats return to the family nest at Easter, Christmas & bank holiday weekends, lock-down is an extended version. Currently Disraeli Rd is beautifully quite as is the sky, good weather on the way too :)As an aside, for anyone who feels a little bored or has children who are bored, have a look at duolingo.com it's a fun way to learn a language, good health everyone.

Adam Tripp ● 2258d

As the shut-down has progressed, air quality and even the weather have markedly improved. Maybe pollution had crept upon us so stealthily that we hadn't realised that miserable grey murk that we called 'weather' was in part caused by human activity. Anyway, am loving this weather.

Bill Christie ● 2258d

Just a thought, and this is something that will probably happen after my time. Perhaps the pandemic will alert people to the fact there are some events they can't control and if we don't take preemptive action to stop greenhouse gas missions this is just a little taster of the pending disaster if we allow the greenhouse effect to start? 

Michael Ixer ● 2258d

"Are there a large number of Putney residents who have stately homes in the country to retire to?"Or are there a lot more small builders living in Putney?

David Ainsworth ● 2258d

I'm puzzled: since the lockdown there see to be a number of free residents' parking spaces in East Putney. With everyone being at home you'd think they would all be at home competing for spaces? Have I missed something? Are there a large number of Putney residents who have stately homes in the country to retire to?

Michael Ixer ● 2258d

I agree about the big ugly lumps of metal that all look the same anyway, I'd tax them so highly most of them would disappear. You can blame the parking concrete jungle on WBC for giving planning permission for the requisite dropped kerbs.

Sue Hammond ● 2258d

Johnathan, it wasn't about the vehicles my concern was for the little children, if you look on the front page of the forum it has a picture of little children, but at that time didn't say it was an old post as it was near the top of the page. Yes we all know about the large vehicles and not necessary for a single person to have one just as a status symbol. If they have children and dogs etc well that's up to them.

Barbara Stevens ● 2258d

Hear, hear Jonathan.

Lucille Grant ● 2258d

West Putney has an excess of SUVs, many of them parked on what used to be a front garden but is now an arid concrete desert. If XR persuade even a few folk to swap their giant machines for something more modest they will have done us all a service.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2258d

At least the lockdown is keeping the XR nuisance mobs off the streets!  😺

Sue Hammond ● 2258d

Matt, the first thing I noticed was they didn't have gloves on. I thought the post was up to date.

Barbara Stevens ● 2259d

Hi Barbara,I am part of this campaign, and that photo was taken in February, long before COVID-19. I was surprised to see this story posted just now and dated April 2, as a fellow member submitted the press release at the end of February to a variety of news outlets, including Putney SW15.com. Here's some more coverage from that same press release, posted on Energy News Live. Please note the date (shortly after the release was sent out): https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/02/21/extinction-rebellion-tells-queen-one-should-not-drive-an-suv/Anyway, I can assure you that our children (and ourselves) are safely indoors as per the advice and not touching cars during a pandemic. I will contact the editor and ask her to clarify this on the article.Kind regards,Brenna

Brenna Lattimore ● 2259d

Hi Barbara, as one of the people who was doing it I can tell you it stopped well before this crisis started.I have no idea why it's just made it to the front page of this site now!

Matt Palmer ● 2259d