This column is not in the business of inciting public disorder. Edmund Burke’s critique of revolution – written during France’s Reign of Terror in the late 18th century – remains persuasive. Yet almost four months on from the fuel protests that ground Ireland to a halt and led to the greatest political humiliation of an Irish government since the Troika came to town, we must ask: where are the blockades against climate change?

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and scientists agree that carbon-generating human activity is to blame. There seems to be an assumption that the political system will eventually respond to the crisis and take necessary action. But perhaps this is mistaken. Maybe progress will occur only if citizens engage in direct action on the issue, causing painful disruption to business as usual.

Liberal thinkers traditionally shy away from militancy, believing civil disobedience should remain just that. But there are compelling arguments for “uncivil” disobedience. So says Bill Scheuerman, a political scientist at Indiana University in the US, and author of Property Disobedience as Protest: Rethinking Political Nonviolence.

“Some liberal ideas about civil disobedience have been overly restrictive,” he says. “They have unfairly excluded property damage that is politically constructive and cannot plausibly be characterised as violent.” Sometimes uncivil protest “invigorates public debate and potentially strengthens democracy”. For example, he says, “the so-called vandalism directed against colonialist and racist........

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