CLIMATE PROTEST
The recent four- and five-year jail sentences handed down to the “Just Stop Oil” activists who caused four days of gridlock on the M25 in 2022 are unprecedented. According to the judge the activists “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic” and needed to be taught a lesson.
My own personal view is that given the extensive disruption caused by their protest, they certainly deserved a severe sentence. However, given our overcrowded prisons, some exceptional non-custodial sentence ought to have been found.
How does the Torah view environmental protest?
There is a significant insight we can gain from a phrase in the second of our two parshiot this week:
‘Velo Tachanifu Et Ha’aretz’ – You shall not pollute the land. (Bamidbar 35:33)
On the face of it, this is an appropriate clarion call for environmental health. Keep our environment healthy. Keep it clean from pollution.
However, ‘tachanifu’ literally means ‘to flatter.’ Its normal use is in respect of excessive or insincere praise directed towards another person.
How can you ‘flatter’ a land?
Rabbi Binyamin Weinberger (Shemen HaTov, v.2, 354) explains that this occurs when you raise environmental concerns above the needs of people.
Of course, we know we are living in an interconnected world. Irresponsible use of fossil fuels leads to global warming which, in turn, leads to floods, droughts, wildfires and unliveable conditions affecting the lives of billions of people. International agencies and national governments are right to coordinate action and set targets to tackle these problems.
But do environmental values ever trump human values? It can never be permitted to take the life of a person to save a tree or a rare animal species. We cannot endanger human life in a protest to draw attention to climate change.
What about inconvenience? How far can protesters go? Is it ever right to disrupt airport departure boards or throw soup over a Van Gogh? The “Just Stop Oil” protestors in blocking London’s major orbital motorway may have thought they were simply causing inconvenience but in fact they caused a lot more. People missed funerals, flights and exams. A patient suffering from an aggressive cancer missed his appointment. A special-needs child who was late for school missed taking vital medication. In punishing the protestors, the judge said that their action was intended to produce gridlock throughout southern England, which would have threatened food supplies, emergency services, and the maintenance of law and order.
The underlying ethic of the Torah is “Don’t flatter the land.” Don’t blow concern for the environment out of proportion to the extent that it endangers people’s lives. Finding the correct balance is a challenge for us all.