Climate Activism Under Attack: COP21 - Climate Emergency (Dispatch 2)

At the COP21 Paris Climate Talks, the prospect of nations reaching an agreement preventing irrevocable climate change is looking bleak, and discontent is growing among the activists on the ground. Environmentalists feel particularly targeted under the state of emergency imposed after the terror attacks. Squats are being raided by police, climate activists are being put under house arrest around France without committing any crime, and hundreds of people who defied the protest ban to attend a mass demonstration were tear gassed and arrested.

In this dispatch, VICE News hears from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at a chic COP21 opening party, visits the COP21 to talk to an expert to find out why we’ve had 20 summits and still no agreements, while carbon emission levels continue to rise. We visit one of the 24 climate activists under house arrest, and we attend an international climate justice conference hoping to achieve what it believes the UN can’t.

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[StandedInUtah]

Why protest Nuclear plants? If the goal is to cut carbon the two most proven, effective, efficient, clean air maintaining ways are Nuclear and hydroelectric.

[AtticusAmericanus]

The protesters must know that France is still under a state of emergency, right? They expressly told everyone beforehand that protests would be broken up. I agree with most of them, but gods this is idiotic.

[martinaustin]

Regardless whether climate change is real or not we need to start moving towards renewable resources. We are quickly depleting the non-renewable resources we have, and if that happens with no alternative to switch over too, it will be a global crysis.

[slovokia]

How much carbon dioxide did the Paris Climate Talks generate?

[xXspectreXx]

Angry hippies converging on fission nuclear power plants sounds like a bad idea...

[SuperLazyCat]

“Science isn’t a democracy. It’s a dictatorship. Evidence does the dictating.” - John Reisman

[MistakenMedia]

Will Russian Roulette ever come back? I miss Simon.

[AmSw]

What happened to COP (Dispatch 3)?? I just watched it then i went back and it was no longer avaible.

[RedBloodedAmerica]

What is "irrevocable climate change." Who determined this?

[FisZionEdits]

I would love to see some radical environmentalist groups begin to take matters into their own hands, such as the Earth Liberation Front. The longer we wait and do nothing, the worse the situation is going to become, and soon we will not be able to do anything about the problem at all. Its coming to a point where the corporations and organizations that refuse to take action and continue polluting the earth needs to be acted upon by outside forces, which I envision should be more radical groups that may resort to violence in some scenarios.

[VICENews]

VICE News hears from Ban Ki-Moon at a COP21 party, attends an anti-COP21 conference, and meets one of the 24 climate activists currently under house arrest in France.

[mobspeak]

We must protest the government because they don't want us to pay a carbon tax, bad government bad, tax us more government tax us more! Why is the government not letting us protest? QQ QQ QQ TAKE OUR NOW!!! NATURE NEEDS IT!!!

[butch]

It is a movement for science we need, not a "green" movement.

[namrog]

7:50 About nuclear power plants: where I live there's a nuclear power plant shutting down over the next few years and almost a thousand people in the community will lose their jobs. So the local, monthly protests are about keeping the nuke plant running, not  closing it down. The eco-activists are part-time protesters and not full-time workers. That's why their protests are ineffective as one-offs... Hopefully this won't be the fate of the local communities' protests. Their goal is not just a noble one (like the eco-activists) but practical: to encourage state government to keep nuke stations open and running.

[brucearmstrong]

They are about to tax us in Western Australia for having solars We are calling it a Sun Tax

[murrayian]

I havent heard anyone talk about using thorium for fissioning yet. its way more plentyful and can not be weaponized

[Alif_YouTube]

Astonishing how western nation states have the gall to complain to developing nations like India and China about climate change and avoiding their "mistakes"

Western culture of insane mass consumerism, individualism and the human centred worldview has caused so much harm to this planet.

Whereas cultures that have always lived as part of a wider ecology, a balance between the material and spiritual world and harmony with the environment are those who we should aspire to be like

[narlycat]

she said at the end of the video that "environmental groups should all come down on NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS"??? Nuclear power plants have no CO2 emissions. they are safer if the facilities are underground. and the burden of waste disposal, nuclear power comes right after solar, wind, tidal renewable energy and right ahead of natural gas, oil, and coal as far as preferable energy sources.

[juaninamillion]

I believe that we should support Nuclear development for the use of energy and energy alone.

[NicolasPerez]

Hey Vice, how about a piece on RT? Most people don;t seem to know they are Kremlin sponsored.