August 22, 2023, 11:31 Aug

How to blow up a pipeline

I'm going to say it straight up so as not to disappoint anyone reading this - this isn't actually about Andreas Malm but about how I felt after watching the film. (Stream of consciousness, again you don't have to read this if you don't want to). I struggle a lot with engaging with this kind of stuff, whether it's interviews with Just Stop Oil protestors or podcasts about Berta Cáceres because my initial reaction is "Why aren't you this committed? Why aren't you prepared to make sacrifices?". If I manage to step back and explore that feeling deeper, it comes from realising, like many people across the globe, just how fucked over I've been by the world and it's refusal to tackle climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and our addiction to growth for the last 50 years. The release I felt from watching that pipeline blow up was as intense as it was bitter, since I know that while such acts have been committed, ultimately justice will never be served. I will never live to see the day when a fossil fuel company executive is jailed (hell, many of those who originally pushed climate denialism are probably dead already). Nor will I ever see any of the vultures in the financial sector jailed and same for those who have covered up the dangers of pesticides. I empathise immensely with the frustration and desperation of the characters who carry out the pipeline sabotage, as well as their love and their care for others. I mourn the fact that it it is extremely unlikely that I will see justice served. For the future that has been robbed from me and billions of other humans on this planet, and the present that has been robbed from billions more. It's times like these where I just wish screaming onto the street could solve something. But it won't.

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