Climate activist advocates for sabotage, political violence, even if it kills people

Environmental activist Andreas Malm revealed that he's not opposed to sabotage or political violence if it helps get the message across about climate change. Speaking to The New York Times, the author of "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" said that he wants climate sabotage to continue and to get more extreme even if that means there are accidents and deaths.

"I want sabotage to happen on a much larger scale than it does now," the Swedish activist told the Times. "I can’t guarantee that it won’t come with accidents. But what do I know? I haven’t personally blown up a pipeline, and I can’t foretell the future."

Malm has called for sabotage in the past, and was platformed by The New Yorker in 2021 where he made that argument. At the time, he said there was a distinction between hurting people and hurting machines, but his views appear to have escalated in the intervening years.

In questioning Malm, the Times gave him every opportunity to disavow political violence in service the the cause of climate alarmism, but he would not. First, the Times noted that "outside of climate activism," they couldn't imagine "engaging with someone like" Malm, a man "who advocates for political violence." And they ask Malm "Why are people open to this conversation?"

For Malm, it's all about "the desperation that people feel." He claims that for those who feel desperate about climate change, the feeling that the world is going to come to an end due to weather changes allegedly caused by mankind, there is "an openness to the idea that what we've done so far isn't enough."

Malm chastises the activism against climate change so far, saying "All attempts to rein in this problem have failed miserably. Which means that, virtually by definition, we have to try something more than we’ve tried."

After accepting the need for political violence, the Times asks how "confident" Malm is that when he "open[s] the door to political violence, it [will] stay at the level of property and not people?"

Malm, it turns out, is not at all confident in that. In fact, he told the Times that "there are no risk-free options left." For Malm, the potential for human lives lost as a result of climate alarmism awareness-fueled sabotage is an unfortunate but an acceptable outcome. When asked about the potential for death as a result of sabotage, Malm said "sure, if you have a thousand pipeline explosions per year, if it takes on that extreme scale." He emphasized that he wants "sabotage to happen on a much larger scale than it does now," and that he "can't guarantee that it won't come with accidents."



In defense of his demand for more sabotage in service to his ideological cause, he said that "existing pipelines, new pipelines, new infrastructure for extracting fossil fuels" are "killing people as we speak." He cites weather concerns and recent flooding to back up his claims, with no recognition of the fact that flooding has literally been happening since the beginning of time. 

Malm claimed that those killed in recent flooding in Libya, and others, are "victims of the violence of the climate crisis." By framing it in this way, he is able to justify violence in service to raising awareness about climate alarmism as a means of self defense against the deaths of those who perish in bad weather conditions.

"We need to start seeing these people as victims of the violence of the climate crisis," Malm said. "In the light of this, the idea of attacking infrastructure and closing down new pipelines is a disarmament. It’s about taking down a machine that actually kills people."

Instead of pressing him on his purported need for violence in order to get action on climate change, the Times asks how he speaks to his children about this. Apparently, Malm tells his children it's alright to deflate the car tires of SUVs.