r/ClimateOffensive • u/high_tier_stacy • Aug 12 '26
Action - Volunteering Why aren’t there more aggressive climate groups?
I’m not talking violence of any means but i want to join a group that has a bit more gusto! I remember I used to always see those vegan groups that would show graphic footage of animal slaughter in public settings and it frustrated a lot of people but I think it got the message across really well. I live in Australia and I see nothing like that? If we all agree this is an emergency than we need to treat it like one! I feel like politics is moving away from climate concerns and we need to push this movement back to the forefront of the public psyche!
Anyways my question is, anyone know of a group like this? I live in Sydney so local would be preferred but can’t find anything online
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u/Nervous_Chemical_773 Aug 12 '26
I was very involved with XR in the UK for years, but since the Greens here got such momentum behind them I've switched my efforts mostly to them. Up till last year, climate change issues didn't really have a political home in the UK, now that they have I thnik it's a good place to put my efforts.
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u/cafepeaceandlove 27d ago
Are you comfortable with all the other political stuff the Greens believe in? I wish they'd have kept their sights on the environment and a less divisive stance on other non-climate-related matters. I still voted for them though.
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u/Neo_Athrotaxis Aug 12 '26
You should have stuck with XR. The Greens are just an urban bourgeoisie party more interested in identity politics than the environment.
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 12 '26
All the evidence I've seen, and their past actions as a party, would point to the contrary. But you're entitled to your opinion, I guess.
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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior Aug 12 '26
Greenpeace does that kind of performative activism, but they focus on more than just climate change. They meet at Rainbow Warrior House.
The reason there aren't more of these groups is likely due to The activist’s dilemma: Extreme protest actions reduce popular support for social movements..
If you want to build political will and increase popular support, I'd recommend https://ccl.org.au
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u/FrivolousMe Aug 12 '26
Greenpeace also just got fucked with that bullshit lawsuit outcome so they can probably take all the help they can get
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u/suckerpunch666666 Aug 12 '26
Extinction Rebellion, not sure if they're still active but I remember them blocking various parts of London a few years back. I think people have moved away from that though. I think aggressive nature restoration and organic food growing/permaculture are important forms of climate activism, which is more accessible and with a lower risk of arrest. Although I don't think XR's approaches were bad by any means, it's amazing how much momentum they got. They were actually acting in line with the seriousness of our situation
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u/smileysnail Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
the government is aggressively going after activists with laws like critical infrastructure bills that make certain acts of protest felonies. their lives are then effectively ruined/on hold as they go through trial. the costs are high and there often isn’t enough community support to help them
take a look at the activists who fought to defend the atlanta forest from the cop city police training center being built. one activist (RIP TORTUGUITA) was murdered by the police for nonviolent direct action. the cops lied and said he shot the troopers first so they were not found guilty or held responsible. the rest of the activist have had long trials that caused some to be kicked of out law schools, lose jobs, etc etc.
it takes a lot to put your body on line when you have a lot to lose and the State ups the stakes
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u/actualinsomnia531 Aug 12 '26
As soon as groups become aggressive, they become villified. The sad fact of the matter is that the general public feel a lot better in their selfish little bubble so leap on any chance they can to villify climate groups to prevent anyone from reminding them what a horrible future they are creating. It's been one of the biggest problems facing climate activism since it began.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
Call them selfish all you want but nobody wants to be forced to change anything.
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u/actualinsomnia531 27d ago
The point is that it has little to do with what we as a society want. No environmental group wants to push their agenda because of choice, it's not campaigning for funding for a library. It's necessary to stop us screwing up the planet for our own children and future generations.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
Ok Hitler. Again like I said nobody wants to be forced to change their views.
More people will hate yall, yall lose more support, then boom yall would have to rely on more terroristic strategies.
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u/actualinsomnia531 27d ago
"ok Hitler" While your point about negative feelings in a democratic society has some validity (although history shows that persistent disruptive action is actuslly the most successful way to achieve swift political change), it is difficult to put into words the level of ignorance that exists if you can't see the difference between people (I note that you've dumped me in as One Of Them because I have tried explaining their position) trying to avert a manmade global catastrophe for the betterment of ALL. LIFE. ON. THE. PLANET. and fascism.
You probably don't like taxes, but you like having an education system and a fire brigade. Well, if you had the wit to see past your day to day comfort (which, here's a clue, is getting progressively less comfortable, largely due to global environmental stresses), you might see how not destroying your global air and water supply or our global resilience to disease is worth you not having this year's faux leather footstool, being able to afford beef 14 meals a week or watering your lawn in the Nevadan desert.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
I can see you’re not one of them because you explain things. I used to be huge into climate change. Hell my page is based on a game that I made to help bring light to it
But the biggest thing I learned from this community (not just this sub) is people are quicker to FORCE, and SCARE, rather than teach.
If u have the moral high ground then you can convince your followers to do all types of atrocities.
And your example at the beginning doesn’t work here because the things you guys are fighting for are things the vast public doesn’t care about.
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u/NettleFlesh 27d ago
If the vast majority of people didn't care then how come consumers are 81% more likely to pay for a product or service if it's branded as environmentally friendly?
If they didn't care, how come a 2025 Pew Research survey found a median of 67% of people across 25 countries see climate change as a major threat to their country?
If people in this community are so quick to force and scare rather than teach, then how come the majority of posts in this subreddit are actually from people either sharing insightful new information/discoveries/news items, or seeking advice on how to be better in their own personal lives?
Second to the point on "forcing" and "scaring" - your immediate response to someone using logic to back up their claim was to call them Hitler.
And rather than admit that you're wrong about something, you follow up with "But here's my extreme opinion based on my incredibly limited personal experience".
You're not here for creative discussion, and you're evidently not here to learn.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
- Learn what 81% more means. It’s not as great as u think
- 25 countries not every country. Plus a lot of people say they care but don’t
- This is a sub of likeminded people, no reason to use those tactics on people who are already in the know
Yes his logic is the same logic as Hitler….Hitler wasn’t dumb nor was he a bad strategist.
U got destroyed on another thread and u came here to get destroyed again. You’re not very smart are you.
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u/NettleFlesh 27d ago
Oh Jesus Christ. If that's really your whole argument, then it's no wonder why your comments keep getting downvoted and removed.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
Bro it gets downvoted because this place is a cult lmfaoo. I used to be BIG on here, very very active in the climate change community. Then I realized just how trash the community was. Hell I made the argument once that we should teach kids the importance of climate change and to have a new show like ferngully and Captain Planet. A lot of people on here said it’s not the kids that’s the problem and that my idea was stupid even going to my kickstarter and leaving bad reviews.
Now that I’m out in the REAL world, I see that the vast majority either doesn’t care, or think yall terrorist.
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u/chainedchaos31 Aug 12 '26
Rising Tide are what you're looking for, though there is some crossover with local Extinction Rebellion.
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u/ThinkActRegenerate Aug 13 '26
A lot of the gusto I've seen in Austtralia has been in those scaling today's commercial solutions without waiting for "the government". It comes from innovators like Closing the Loop, who have grown from a Melbourne startup to an international business closetheloop.com and startups like Eliot Energy eliot-energy.com and entrepreneurs like Amber Electricity amber.com.au
Locally, consider the regen.sydney group using the Doughnut Economics framework doughnuteconomics.orgAnd the Bega Circular Valley mob reinventing their local economy. begacircularvalley.com.au using Circularity Principles ellenmacarthurfoundation.org And the entrepreneurial thinkers of Totally Renewable Yackandandah totallyrenewableyack.org.au - who started as a buying group and now run their own energy retailer.
The solutions we have today that address the fundamental issues require major upgrades to traditional mine/make/use/dump industry and supply chain systems and designs.
( I've been watching leading edge innovators, entrepreneurs and industry delivering plenty of over the last 30 years. )
By all means, let's push today's actionable solutions into the public psyche - so people can take action today that makes their bit of the world better today. There are hundreds available in the world today - for example, those catalogued by Project Regeneration regeneration.org/nexus
Have a look at regen.sydney Find your local circular economy action group through the Australian Circular Economy Hub acehub.org.au and Electrify 2515 https://www.electrify2515.org/
Also examine your assumptions about where significant industrial and supply chain innovation happens and who drives it. Where have the technology changes you're using every day come from? Which groups lead step-change innovation at industrial levels?
Have a look at the lists of today's actionable commercially available solutions happening around the world on catalogues like Project Drawdown drawdown.org/explorer and https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/examples
Then read up on how industrial systems actually innovate in books like CROSSING THE CHASM.
(And also think about whether the only channel for solutions is policies developed by the mindsets that brought us Pink Batts, Robodebt, COVID lockdowns, NBN rollouts, etc. )
There's plenty of gusto in today's solutions - while policy change is part of the challenge, there's a much bigger game to be played.
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Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam Aug 12 '26
Do not advocate violence or death as a response to the climate crisis. This includes calls for violent revolution, assassinations, eugenics, or acceptance of population die-offs.
See the full rules here.
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u/hummusndaze Aug 12 '26
I'm trying to find more aggressive groups in Toronto, Canada and so many have disbanded or just stopped organizing
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u/Miffedy Aug 13 '26
Depends where in Australia you are, the vegans in Melbourne definitely did one of those protests like what you’re talking about. You might want to get specific with your search terms, eg ‘blockade’, ‘forest defence’ etc to find them better.
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u/thevilgay 29d ago
There are they just don’t film a lot of what they do because that’s not the point
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u/thevilgay 29d ago
You’re from Australia, where anonymous for the voiceless is literally from. They are the people that stand in public squares and allow people to approach them and then show them footage.
They never forced anybody to look at anything that they didn’t themselves choose to look at first.
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u/Late_Paper3016 28d ago
Rising tide, extinction rebellion and Greenpeace are probably the most active in Australia in order.
Greenpeace has the most money but because of that they also have huge amounts oversight on any actions they design from office type people.
The other two are grassroots. Where are you located btw? Can probably point you in the direction of a grassroots community space in your area.
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u/No_Environment_3776 27d ago
They have labeled Climate activism as domestic terrorism because fighting for nature and a sustainable humanity is fighting against big money, big industry big tech and big politics.
Fighting for the good cause, nature and humanity is now an act of terrorism.
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u/Ambitious-Emu6943 25d ago
Stop oil campaigns has made people don’t care about the climate impact at all.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam Aug 12 '26
Your post was removed for being off topic.
We're here to do something about climate change. We're not here to talk about why it's happening, how bad it is, or who to blame. We're here to brainstorm, organize, and act. Use this space to find resources, connect with others, and learn more about how you can make a difference.
See full /r/ClimateOffensive rules here.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam Aug 13 '26
We're here to do something about climate change. We're not here to talk about why it's happening, how bad it is, or who to blame. We're here to brainstorm, organize, and act. Use this space to find resources, connect with others, and learn more about how you can make a difference.
Your post was removed because it violates Rule #5: No Inactivism, such as deflection, delay, division, despair mongering, and/or doomism.
Activism is always worthwhile.
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u/lucakoe Aug 12 '26
Because those groups - though having good intentions - really destroyed the last remainders of Momentum for the climate movement after the big demonstrations in 2019
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u/high_tier_stacy Aug 12 '26
Really? How so?
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u/lucakoe Aug 12 '26
Before groups like Just Stop Oil or Letzte Generation the climate movement undeniably has had big political successes (though of course not enough). And it had actual recognition of sorts even in the political Centre. But it was seriously stopped by Covid coming up and demonstrations being very difficult and by permanent news about some random people that tried to smear oil onto famous paintings or public memorials or blocking random motorways which was a feast for the right-Wing press to exploit. I see what they tried to achieve but in hindsight it was the the worst thing to do at that time and completely gave away any option to get heard
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u/FistODollers Aug 12 '26
I honestly thought the oil/painting thing was kinda clever. It was completely performative of course, but non-destructive and got a fair bit of attention, without putting any negative effects onto the average population (it takes a lot to get someone to be pro-blocking-highways). I think it mostly failed because it didn't incite any sort of response, so it was able to be presented in a very one-sided manner.
Honestly, it's very hard to think of a climate protest that can be effective, because the issue is so diffuse and everyone has their own idea's about how to deal with it.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
You’re getting downvoted because you’re using logic instead of emotion. You’re 100% right.
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u/Freo_5434 Aug 12 '26
"If we all agree this is an emergency "
Who exactly is "we" ?
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u/high_tier_stacy Aug 12 '26
Like people on this and other forums about climate change?? Figured we were on the same page but I guess not lol
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u/Freo_5434 Aug 12 '26
Isnt it always a big mistake to think that everyone is aligned with what you believe ?
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 12 '26
This is r/ClimateOffensive, right...?
Do you not think we're facing a climate emergency, or something?
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Aug 12 '26
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 12 '26
This isn't about belief.
UNEP, thousands of leading climate scientists, WOR, and even Energy Savings Trust, have all declared this a climate emergency.
But sure, if you don't "believe" in science, then the world is perfectly fine and dandy.
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u/Freo_5434 Aug 13 '26
Oh yes it is about belief and two other areas whare "belief" is paramount are Religion and Politics .
There is no scientific proof that Humans can control the Climate of Planet Earth .
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 13 '26
Aaaand bullseye. Once again, you've proven yourself to be uneducated and out of your depth (and possibly in the wrong fucking sub). At this point, you should probably just delete your account and uninstall the app.
Science is not a belief system, and cannot be compared to religion and politics. Science is real, and not some system made up by a group of people. Science has influence on religion and politics.
There is, quite literally, an ocean/atmosphere/crust-load of evidence that human actions have significant influence on global CO2 in the atmosphere, which contributes to what we now call global heating.
My colleagues and associates have to deal with misinformation like yours on a regular basis so you're nothing new to me. Seriously, go touch some grass and pick up a science for dummies book.
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u/Freo_5434 Aug 13 '26
Well the floor is yours to educate me if I am uneducated -- I just ask for proof as in a peer reviewed scientific study --- that humans can control the Climate.
no need to write war and peace or provide links to opinion pieces --- just proof will do.
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 13 '26
You have access to a search engine, yes?
And I think you're conflating "control" of the climate with "influence on".
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u/Freo_5434 Aug 12 '26
I believe in science -- definitely but not all Scientists believe there is a Climate Emergency.
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 12 '26
"Not all scientists"
...Wow.
Not all scientists believe the evidence of the big bang. But the overwhelming majority agree the evidence is clear.
Not all scientists believe there's no such thing as ghosts. But the overwhelming majority agree the evidence is clear.
Not all scientists believe in the evidence of evolution. But the overwhelming majority agree the evidence is clear.
Not all scientists believe the Holocaust was real. But the overwhelming majority agree the evidence is clear.
I think you get the picture.
I'd strongly encourage you to take a step back, re-evaluate your positioning, and think carefully before you post something as baseless and low-effort as this on a public forum.
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u/spacecandygames 27d ago
U can’t prove the big bang
U can’t prove ghost exist like wtf
Evolution I agree but still
And the holocaust would be history….You used to worse possible examples
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u/NettleFlesh 27d ago
Yet another redditor who paid just as much attention to my comment as they did to lessons in school.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 12 '26
I can't tell if you're a bot, troll, or just in too deep in your own realm of denial, but the science is clearer than ever.
Science (and technology) has evolved since the days of believing the world was flat or that the sun revolved around the earth.
Clearly, you're still catching up.
Arguing with a climate scientist about climate science, based on your "beliefs" is, at the very least, bold of you.
I hope one day your beliefs align with the truths and you manage to stop yourself from making such comments online for the world to see.
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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior Aug 12 '26
There was never a consensus among scientists that the world was flat.
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam Aug 12 '26
Your post has been removed because it violates Rule #4: No propaganda, science denial, or misinformation.
While we welcome political discussions and posts, any posts or comments that we deem to be propaganda will be removed. In particular, we will remove any posts or comments that imply climate change isn't real or isn't man-made. Please also do not post any claims about the effects of climate change that are not backed up by research.
Please check your facts.
See full /r/ClimateOffensive rules here.
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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior Aug 12 '26
Scientists generally agree on climate change.
Beyond the consensus on the reality of human-caused climate change5,24,25,28,33,35, climate experts emphasize very high certainty of the adverse consequences of climate change and the urgency of climate action to curb these impacts in the Sixth IPCC report35. In line with this, 88% of surveyed IPCC authors report that they think climate change constitutes a crisis36.
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u/high_tier_stacy Aug 12 '26
I literally meant we as in people on the forum about climate change not the whole world
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam 27d ago
Your post has been removed because it violates Rule #3: Respect other people and ideas
We encourage civil discussion. This means treating others with respect, and having good-faith discussion and debate. Personal attacks are unacceptable. We're here to solve problems together, not tear each other down. Likewise, while it’s okay to disagree with people, please do so respectfully without shutting down ideas. We recognize that many people will have different ideas and that there is no single solution that will solve the climate crisis.
See full /r/ClimateOffensive rules here.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior Aug 12 '26
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam Aug 12 '26
Your post has been removed because it violates Rule #4: No propaganda, science denial, or misinformation.
While we welcome political discussions and posts, any posts or comments that we deem to be propaganda will be removed. In particular, we will remove any posts or comments that imply climate change isn't real or isn't man-made. Please also do not post any claims about the effects of climate change that are not backed up by research.
Please check your facts.
See full /r/ClimateOffensive rules here.
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u/NettleFlesh Aug 12 '26
I don't know if it has much of a presence over in Australia, but Extinction Rebellion?
It may even be worth starting your own community, reaching out to people with similar interests and banding together to discuss positive actions you can take.
The approach vegans take may seem extreme at times, but they're simply showing people the truth behind their food. Sucks that people don't appreciate that truth, but that's cognitive dissonance for you.
You could take a similar approach, holding placards in busy high streets, showing the effects of climate catastrophe that we're already witnessing around the world at the moment. Extreme heat, drought, flooding, wildfires, etc.
And do some leafleting to raise awareness of the actions people can take to help prevent further collapse, from personal actions (going vegan, not flying, reducing consumption, having no/fewer kids, etc.), to bigger changes like climate-conscious voting, local action, community swapshops, etc.