I work at the Forecasting Research Institute as a Research Analyst. Emergent Ventures Grantee, currently writing about social science at Samstack.io. I previously worked as Research Manager at Social Change Lab.
Sam Glover
Karma: 277
Thanks, good point! I agree that it’s possible that a backlash could occur a while after the disruptive protests actually took place. That being said, it seems likely (at least to me) that if it were the case that these protests were going to lead to people becoming less supportive of climate policies, there would have been at least some evidence of the backlash in the survey data at the height of, or in the immediate aftermath of, the disruption.
Initially, we had planned only to do two surveys, but decided on commissioning a third when it became clear that JSO were receiving additional media coverage and we wanted to make sure that we captured any impact of the continued media coverage. The protests began on the 1st of April, and our third survey took place on the 19th of April, at which point most survey respondents had heard about the protests (or at least claimed that they had), so our hope is that if there had been a backlash we would’ve picked up on it. That being said, you’re right that if there was a backlash or a change in peoples’ views on climate policies that took place a few weeks after the protests (or at an even later point), our surveys wouldn’t have picked up on it.
Disruptive climate protests in the UK didn’t lead to a loss of public support for climate policies
Thanks, yeah I think this was an error on my part rather than anything to do with you. I should have looked more carefully, thought I skipped past the recommendations but the default option of subscribing caught me off guard. This is a shame because I’m now more hesitant about recommending other substacks on my own site.
Looks good—but how come when I subscribed to this I also seem to have been signed up to another newsletter called ‘Bentham’s Bulldog’? Not that I’m necessarily opposed to being signed up to this other substack, but I didn’t opt into it so it seems slightly weird that I’ve been (seemingly) added to the email list.
This isn’t exactly a comprehensive answer to your question about what’s morally permissible and what isn’t, but my view is that if it’s going to be a huge hassle and expense for you to avoid flying, you shouldn’t make yourself feel awful about the fact that you’ve done something you regard as less than ideal. I would just donate to Clean Air Task Force (probably an amount that will more than cover the impact of the flights in expectation) and continue trying to avoid flights in future when feasible if you think that’s something you want to do.