Drilled How Climate Protest Backlash Led to Present-Day Repression
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Feb 3, 2026 Oscar Berglund, a researcher at the University of Bristol who studies climate activism and protest repression, joins to trace how backlash to climate action spread globally. He discusses laws, policing tactics, media vilification, anti‑terror and foreign influence tools, and why repression looks similar across countries. The conversation also covers how international attention and corporate influence shape responses.
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Repression Operates On Multiple Legal Fronts
- Repression of climate protest is multi-layered, including new laws, repurposed legal tools, and police tactics.
- Oscar Berglund shows these combine to criminalize activism beyond courtroom statutes and vary by country and industry.
When Repression Escalates To Killings
- Killings and disappearances exceed criminalization and are part of a broader repression spectrum.
- Berglund links these extreme outcomes to surveillance, harassment, and state actors in some countries.
Extreme Laws Used Against Nonviolent Groups
- States increasingly misuse severe laws (anti-terror, organized crime) against nonviolent activists.
- Berglund compares European uses of such laws to 'red-tagging' tactics in places like the Philippines.