the other day, @Awoo@hexbear.net pointed out that Just Stop Oil are likely doing this to attract investment for various companies they run

https://hexbear.net/comment/5030428

Just Stop Oil is an advertisement for investors.

Their process is attention grabbing high exposure protest that is then used as a form of advertising and "this is our impact" to philanthropy investors. It's essentially a business. Some notes I took in a chat when doing research with a friend:

Trevor Neilson, alongside Rory Kennedy and Aileen Getty are founders of the CEF (Climate Emergency Fund)

Trevor Neilson is a director of Wastefuels limited with Aileen Getty and Nick Hurd mp

Trevor Neilson is a co-founder of I (x) Net zero, Nick Hurd is a chairman of the board

It's basically a net zero hedge fund.

Trevor Neilson has also worked for the Bill & Melinda gates foundation and Princes Charitable trust, so he's got real experience in the Philanthrocapitalism industry

Wastefuels ltd is a Berkshire Hathaway startup that's partnered with Maersk shipping to develop waste to fuel energy

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In short. They fund the protest action as a form of investment that generates interest in their zero carbon companies. Advertisement. They then get investment in their zero carbon companies and have a financial incentive to generate the most buzzy hypey protest stuff possible, not because it's effective but because it has the highest advertising impact for them - providing something that attracts and sells to investors about how effective they are at generating attention.

tl;dr - they're profiting off of climate activism

Who knows, maybe something useful will come from their startups, but they are not spraying cornstarch on Stonehenge because they think it will persuade anyone