Prometheus » Blog Archive » Public Opinion and Climate Policy: How about a completely voluntary "keep your tires inflated properly" policy?

I have long argued that public opinion on climate policy is sufficiently robust to allow for action to take place — the key question being, what action?

300 of 6.7 billion people protest against carbon dioxide in Brussels

It was an impressive feat and an amazing sight, over 300 people in Greenpeace jackets sealing off an entire building. We sat pushed hard up next to one another, three or four people deep, arms locked together to create a human wall. Inside our campaigners told the finance ministers that we would not move to let them out until they agreed to commit the money necessary for a climate bailout.
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The police eventually swooped in on our building and arrested everyone there. We were all handcuffed with cable ties behind our backs, many of the police officers were incredibly brutal and four people ended up being taken to hospital as a result. I could see people being crushed by truncheons, being pulled away by their jaw bones. Faces were harshly forced into the wet concrete ground, knees violently pushed into backs as we were thrust to the ground to be handcuffed. Faces were contorted in pain as ankles were twisted and legs were forced. Each person was then dragged across the concrete and dropped in groups, hands bound, and we waited. Eventually we were all taken on busses to a large basement building for processing by the Belgian police and released without charge a few hours later.