World Leading On the Environment?

There are crimes and CRIMES? The targeting of eco-dissidents is elevating concerns. Globally, there's been a marked rise in suppression of dissenters, as climate, biodiversity and pollution crises all loom. Australia arrests a world-beating circa 20% of its climate and environmental protesters. The UK is in second place, arresting around 17% of its own 'eco-warriors'. This is in spite of popular support for solutions to environmental problems in both countries. The global average for arrests of climate and environmental protesters is said to be 6.7% (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/11/britain-leads-the-world-in-cracking-down-on-climate-activism-study-finds). The apparently much higher levels of arrests of eco-dissidents in Australia and the UK, appear linked to political and 'economic' issues. There's been a well-funded 'backlash' in both countries against environmental concerns, by fossil fuel and other industrial enterprises. Their publics are also being whipped up about the personal 'costs' of 'green' programmes. The actual percentages in this comparison may, however, be somewhat dubious. In many global regions, wars and day-to-day economic survival are more immediate problems for their populations. This leaves little scope for eco-dissidence. What gets labelled as 'climate and environmental protesting', also appears to vary from country to country. In some countries, environmental protesters are often murdered rather than being arrested. Having said all this, both the Australian and UK governments, need to be seen to be doing more to deal with the substantial environmental concerns of large sections of their publics. Draconian laws on protest 'rights' and locking away 'eco-warriors' for extended periods (along with murderers, rapists and thieves) probably aren't real answers.