In recent days, the citizenry of South Dublin’s leafiest suburbs have encountered a new and – I fear – destined to be widely copied form of eco-bullying: They’ve emerged from their homes for their morning commutes, only to find the tires on their SUV’s deflated, and a note stuck on their windshields chiding them for the sin of emitting too many particles of carbon dioxide into the skies over Churchtown. Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond is not amused:
I’ve had calls from constituents who last night had their tyres slashed in Churchtown by a supposed climate action group.
It’s now with the local Gardaí.
This thuggery is unacceptable, I’m hopeful the investigation can put a stop to this carry on but be vigilant. pic.twitter.com/NnQUFSGUpu
— Neale Richmond (@nealerichmond) June 14, 2023
There are a few observations worth making about this:
The first is that unless the authorities get on it and make a few examples out of the perpetrators, this is a tactic that is likely to be widely adopted. It has all the ingredients to appeal to young activists who want to engage in a bit of pretended rebelry: It targets the (on the face of it) wealthy. It is peaceful and non-violent, which allows one to imagine oneself a sort of modern-day Gandhi. It is destined to get acres of coverage thus, in theory, starting a national conversation about the perils of over-large cars. And finally, of course, it will have those in elected office who, while officially disapproving, are eager to let it be known that they think it’s cool:
Bring back hanging https://t.co/bmoyLyzzjw
— Paul Murphy 🏳️⚧️ (@paulmurphy_TD) June 14, 2023
It has one other sparkling benefit, too, if you are an activist: It provides a tremendous excuse for a bit of begrudgery. Go read through the quote tweets on Richmond’s complaint above and you will not find a shortage of people declaring that “nobody needs” an SUV or a large vehicle, and that ownership of one, while not technically illegal, is a form of crime against taste. Thus there will be many willing to enjoy your actions not because of any real concern about the climate, but because of prejudices about the kind of people who can afford cars more expensive than their own.
And yet, it seems to me vanishingly unlikely that this will be an effective form of protest on its own terms: Those who emerge into the morning sunlight to find their tires deflated, and a preachy message from some crusty activists about their sins are not, I’d wager, likely to consider themselves converts to the Green cause. At the same time, those who find the acts either amusing or a deserved form of vigilante justice against the rich are unlikely to alter their existing views on SUVs and the climate, which were hardly favourable to begin with.
And of course, it’s all for naught anyway: Anyone who’s ever driven on an American Freeway knows full well that the relatively midget-sized SUV’s of South Dublin are having an impact on the climate comparable to the impact on the environment made by a lone ant relative to a lone elephant. Whatever Ireland does or does not do in this regard, Americans are going to keep buying enormous Ford and Cadillac trucks, entirely oblivious to the protests of the Cabinteely branch of extinction rebellion.
The only question of genuine interest here is how seriously the authorities take it: Given the locales in which the vandals are operating, there’s a better than reasonable chance that some of them have already been caught on somebody’s CCTV system. They are guilty of criminal damage (on the basis that re-inflating a tyre or calling somebody out to re-inflate a tyre costs money). At a bare minimum, they should be arrested, prosecuted, and have their names published – if for no other reason than it will be amusing to identify them in a few years when they end up working for a car dealership.
The final point I’d make is that if deflating tires is a legitimate form of protest, as some appear to think, then it is a legitimate form of protest for everybody – not just environmental activists. Bus companies involved in transporting migrants around the state, for example, could surely be legitimate targets of this kind of protest, if the environmental activists in Churchtown get away with it.
It is, after all, peaceful and pointed, and nobody gets hurt. If that’s the defence that is mounted for targeting SUVs, then it can be mounted in any case of the deflation of tires to achieve a political end.
We either live in a country of laws, or we do not.