Climate protesters storm Tesla gigafactory in Europe

https://www.wired.com/story/climate-protestors-storm-teslas-europe-gigafactory/

by anigbrowl • 2 years ago

17 40 2 years ago

pinewurst• 2 years ago

taylodl• 2 years ago

Had to lookup up why climate protestors would be protesting the Tesla gigafactory. It's about protecting drinking water. https://www.thelocal.de/20240229/why-are-activists-building-...

artninja1988• 2 years ago

Seems fair enough. Why was the factory allowed to be built there if it threatens the drinking water?

blablabla123• 2 years ago

They really stretched regulations and started building - with the possibility for approval being denied thus the whole thing having to be teared down. Basically creating facts, I think that has created immense pressure on local politics/regulators. Also considering the region has lots of structural problems. It's quite incomprehensible to me why it wouldn't have been possible to build it a few kilometers further where there's no water protection area. Not to mention they had a number of water contamination incidents since then

shafyy• 2 years ago

Local politicians who wanted to promote themselves and probably also got lobbied hardcore.

alephnerd5• 2 years ago

I'm not a Musk fanboy, but one of Germany's (edit: Europe's) largest oil refineries (a very dirty industry) is barely 60 miles away [0], and a couple large coal plants in neighboring Poland barely 100 miles away.

It's just NIMBYism and bad faith.

If you can storm an EV plant, why not a refinery.

[0] https://www.pck.de/en/

raverbashing2• 2 years ago

I don't believe anything from any of those groups

"Climate activists" is the reason why we have so little nuclear power plants

Laaas• 2 years ago

Technically they are the reason why we don’t have small nuclear reactors.

viraptor• 2 years ago

"climate activists" is not a uniform group. They've got a common goal and many conflicting opinions on the way to get there.

wolverine8763• 2 years ago

That's what reactionaries have used in their continuing war to deligitimize everyone and everything left of center. But nobody has demonstrated a reliably cost-effective way to run nuclear power plants, and renewables are the future.

undersuit• 2 years ago

Had to lookup up why climate protestors would be protesting the Tesla gigafactory.

We're not going to stop climate change by moving everyone from a personal use internal combustion vehicle to a personal use electric vehicle. The protestors primary focus is the local water, but their camp carries many slogans like “Clean cars are a dirty lie”.

firebat452• 2 years ago

You're right to an extent, but personal use electric vehicles are still a step in the right direction. Even if all the power generated for them comes from coal, which is another argument people make against them. I would wager that EV buyers are more willing to look at smaller electric vehicles like ebikes and scooters as compared to the average person.

If all our vehicles were electric, it would be much simpler to transition to greener methods of electricity production. ICE vehicles don't have this kind of flexibility.

blackeyeblitzar2• 2 years ago

Trying to invade private property is not protesting, but illegal rioting and trespassing. These articles use different words based on their biases instead of facts, seemingly.

iaaan• 2 years ago

That seems like a bizarre distinction to make. Any action can be done in protest of something.

walkabilitee• 2 years ago

Peaceful protesting is generally legally protected in developed Western countries. Rioting, burglary, and assault are not, and police are legally and morally justified in using force to arrest the perpetrators.

osigurdson2• 2 years ago

So, annihilating the entire universe could be considered "protesting" in your view? Language meaning is based on norms, not absolutes. Each term or phrase has a range of applicability.

killjoywashere• 2 years ago

Who incited and funded this? Where's that story?

Sakos• 2 years ago

I've had the thought that this is possibly being funded by the car and/or fossil fuel industry. Otherwise it makes zero sense to me why "climate protestors" are so up in arms about this factory over any of the massive factories we have in Germany churning out gas guzzling, planet destroying ICE cars. Or the coal mining or coal power plants.

It's more of a conspiracy theory of mine though rather than anything based on anything substantial. I just don't see who else benefits from this.

alephnerd5• 2 years ago

German utilities are increasingly viewing this as a potential national security threat [0] and I wouldn't be surprised if there's some indirect support from Russia, especially given the warnings coming from European intelligence agencies recently about sabotage attempts by Russian intelligence services [1]

[0] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/c88509f9-c9bd-46f4-8a5c-9b2bdd3c3...

jbm• 2 years ago

Tesla is run like shit but I don't trust "climate protestors" who storm an ev battery plant before oil / coal manufacturing.

It's like a vegan fighting with a vegetarian while someone next door is hunting elephants for pleasure.

rurp• 2 years ago

The title here matches the article headline but is pretty misleading since all sides agree that no protesters actually set foot in the factory.

wolverine8763• 2 years ago

“Why are they not jailed for breaking and entering?” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on X.

On non-engineering issues, at least, Musk isn't an original thinker. He just follows the instructions of the people constructing reactionary campaigns. Deligtimizing protest (just like deligitimizing the free press, academia, and other institutions of democracy) is the latest campaign, and Musk picks up on it and of course on the rhetorical tactics (as if he's unaware that people haven't been protesting all his life and for centuries before). What original idea has he had on non-engineering issues?

Also difficult is his sudden law-and-order belief, while he violates laws and other rules openly.

librasteve• 2 years ago

we would welcome a Tesla factory in the UK (oh darn, forgot Brexit)

Climate protesters storm Tesla gigafactory in Europe

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