Insulate Britain Was a Bargain
Insulate Britain (https://insulatebritain.com) is an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion which demanded that the British government fund insulation for all public housing by 2025, and, by the end of 2021, the government must create a plan to fund retrofitting of insulation of all homes in Britain by 2030. Someone estimated that it would cost £5 billion to insulate all public housing by 2025, which I’m sure was “too much” for conventional wisdom.
Insulate Britain demonstrated for these demands by blocking major highways around the UK, a dozen or more times, starting in September 2021 through February 2022 when the group announced "with a heavy heart" that the series of protests had failed in their aim to force the government into taking action. One poll from October 2021 showed that only 18% supported the protests while 72% of those surveyed opposed the protesters' actions, with 10% that "did not know."
Energy prices are soaring in the UK and, according to columnist Caitlin Moran, "the present UK Energy Rebate Scheme will cost £9.1 billion for just one year"
and the Guardian reports that
"UK must insulate homes or face a worse energy crisis in 2023, say experts
Cutting heat loss from houses will be more effective in the long term than subsidising bills, according to analysis"
Looks like Insulate Britain was offering a bargain.
Addendum: Other groups like Home Energy Efficiency Team [HEET] have done (and do) weatherization parties (https://heet.org/energy-efficiency/work-parties/) while back in the 1970s I was part of a group which did solar barnraisings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu2RgqKQFgQ).
Incidentally, HEET has gone on to pioneer geothermal energy microgrids as a replacement for natural gas (https://heet.org/geogrid/).
There is such a thing as positive protest too.
posted by gmoke @ 10:27 PM
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