With the collapse of the anti HS2 ‘protection’ camps and protest on the ground, the shambolic remnants of their campaign (and I use that word loosely) spend more and more of the little time they have trying to shore-up their social media efforts to oppose HS2. Like the folks on the ground, this has mostly evaporated as the young people recruited via Extinction Rebellion who made up the bulk of it have (like many young people) short attention-spans. Most have already moved on to whatever lost cause is the latest ‘thing’. What’s left are retreating into an increasingly out of touch world which makes me wonder what some of them have been smoking/ingesting. Here’s an absolute classic of that genre!
Step forward ‘Tellheed Green’, yet another anonymous person supposedly based in London who’s just churned out this rebranded poster and posted it on the Facebook page of the Bluebell woods ‘protection’ camp. I’ve no idea who did the original artwork or where it’s been pinched from, but ‘Green’ has stuck a ‘stop HS2’ logo on it to turn it into something that’s truly ‘through the looking glass’!
Oil companies want HS2? HS2 is a carbon-neutral, electrically powered railway that will get people out of planes and cars to provide a real alternative to fossil fuel use and allow us to wean ourselves off them. Oil companies hate it! It’s the antithesis of everything Shell, Exxon and the others want! This is so bonkers it’s beyond words, yet it’s lapped up by some stophs2 supporters who’ve shared it dozens of times, or left comments like this:
Of course, the fossil fuel companies and their supporters like the Taxpayers Alliance and others must be absolutely p*ssing themselves laughing at this weapons-grade stupidity. The UK ‘green’ movement has swallowed their propaganda hook, line and sinker in order to oppose a carbon-neutral, green railway. The irony? Not one of these supposed ‘environmentalists’ has stopped, looked at this, engaged a brain cell and spoke up to say “Hey, guys? Just stop and think about this for a minute”? Their campaign is so intellectually bereft and bankrupt this stuff gets shared without any thought or question. You genuinely couldn’t make this stuff up. Well, unless you’re the likes of @hs2rebellion and it’s supporters, obviously.
And you wonder why I argue that the UK ‘green’ movement’s completely unfit for purpose? I wonder what madness they’ll come up with next?
UPDATE.
Thanks to a tip-off from Pete Johnson (@pedrojuk) on Twitter I now have the source of the original artwork which was stolen for this. Needless to say the original by Namaya Productions carried a very different message.
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Carbon neutral??, how?? with the amount that’s being used to build it, how can it then subsequently ‘capture’ that carbon to make it neutral??
Well that might have something to do with people travelling in a far less carbon intensive way, don’t forget HS2 is just part of a much bigger picture. A single internal air passenger emits 27 times the carbon of a rail passenger.
Not to mention all the environmental mitigation being done.
But then the Stop HS2 narrative has never been able to see beyond its echo chamber.
It’s very simple. The amount of carbon emitted in the construction of HS2 is never put into perspective. In truth, it’s less than the amount of Co2 emitted by UK road transport in ONE MONTH! Yet for that we get a high capacity railway designed for a working life of 120 years. In fact, the structures will last far longer than that, but engineers are asked to guarantee they last at least that long. HS2 (and the right government policies) will then allow people to transfer from far more carbon-intensive transport (air and road), thus reducing the amount of carbon they emit. Plus, the existing rail network capacity HS2 releases will allow more freight trains to run, taking lorries off the roads. It’s a win-win.
Good explanation Paul, not sure I’m totally convinced but time will tell I suppose.
Just to clarify Phil, I’m nothing to do with StopHS2 and as to your last comment the fact that I am engaging with someone who is so pro-HS2 would perhaps indicate that I’m not in an echo chamber. Also works both ways of course…..
Hi James, no problem. There’s nothing wrong with healthy skepticism and an enquiring mind. It’s very difficult to knw who or what to believe nowadays (hence today’s blog). May I suggest you take a look at these people for some in-depth scientific facts and rational explanations? https://hs2.green/explainers-evidence/
Jame, OK benefit of the doubt given. But please be aware the Stop HS2 narrative has pumped out so much hyperbole and mythology that those with genuine questions and concerns tend to get lost in a storm of hyperbole and mythology.