As many of us stagger into Christmas, dazed by the surreal existences we now lead where we simultaneously get on with the day job while facing the extential threat of climate change, peaceful protesters are being imprisoned.

When I began my career in transport over 30 years ago I could not have imagined the digitalised existence I now lead. But more remarkably, I certainly could not have imagined engaging on social media about the fragility of modern society. At the start of my professional journey I thought a career in transport was about the role of engineering and technology in getting people from A to B more safetly and efficiently.

Oh how things have changed, how narrow-minded I was. I came to realise that the simple problem of optimising throughput of traffic through a junction had been replaced by mulitple wicked problems I could not and cannot solve but can only help manage – problems with social, technological, economic, environmental, and political dimensions.

I am living in a country where laws have been changed to turn law abiding citizens who genuinely care about the future into law breakers who can be imprisoned. These are people peacefully sounding the alarm that we must act in response to what is nothing short of a frightening polycrisis, potentially greater than anything human civilisation has ever faced before.

How did it come to this? Where will it all end up? My heart goes out to Stephen Gingell, 57, a business owner and father of three from Manchester, was arrested on 13th November 2023 in London for peacefully slow marching.

Original LinkedIn post from Zoe Cohen – https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7141399922183983104/

Original news article from Just Stop Oil – https://juststopoil.org/2023/12/15/just-stop-oil-supporter-given-shock-six-month-prison-sentence-for-slow-marching/