What are the Climate Camp protesters hoping to achieve?
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in man-made climate change and I think governments across the world need to make some hard decisions very, very quickly if we are to stave off a disaster with worldwide implications. And I can understand why some people think Governments are working too slowly to prevent climate change related chaos because, in my opinion, they are.
But, what are the Climate Camp and other organisations like Plane Stupid protesters trying to achieve? Sure, throwing green custard on Peter Mandelson was a little bit funny, managing to scale the House of Commons to unfurl their banner was a reasonably impressive publicity stunt and their earlier protests against the third runway at Heathrow and the Drax coal-fired power station had some merit.
But the fact is stunts like these are only going to start to really doing some damage to their campaigns. Blocking streets, stopping people from working aren’t going to make people sympathetic for their cause. In fact, it is probably going to start to really piss people off (pardon my French).
And unfortunately, we all remember the scenes of the G20 protests in April that saw police use excessive force, but let’s face it, not all of the protesters were totally innocent.
I also get the impression that even some of the more reasonable protests always seem to deteriorate into a festival atmosphere. That isn’t going to impress average working people who are the ones that need to be convinced increasing their taxes and cost of fuel bills will be worth it in the end.
Even Greenpeace, which has in the past been known to pull some pretty impressive stunts themselves (one of my favourites is below after the Pasha Bulker tanker ran aground on the beach of Newcastle Australia), haven’t really been publicly involved with the latest Climate Camp protests.
I’d be really interested in your thoughts as to whether the Climate Camp protesters are helping raise awareness surrounding climate change, or if they are just kids who are doing more damage than good.
Cross posted with Shot across the bow
Tags: Climate Camp, climate change, Environment, Greenpeace, Heathrow, Mandelson, Pasha Bulker, Plane Stupid
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Comments (2)
August 28th, 2009 at 10:18 am Posted by Will H
I agree with 99% of what you are saying Nick. Where I disagree with you is when you say that some of the activities that these people do is worthwhile. None of them are!!
If they want to make a difference they should run for Parliament; engage with the political system or set up a viable organisation and canvass support.
The problem with these protesters is that they want to stand outside of society as misunderstood martyrs, fighting against everything. What is that gonna achieve? Unless they are willing to engage with the mainstream they will do no good. Climbing up Parliament and covering Peter Mandelson in custard is pathetic - funny - but pathetic. Who will take people like that seriously?
August 28th, 2009 at 10:24 am Posted by Tim Hoang
Agree with all of it. I’m not averse to the idea of becoming greener, I just don’t think crappy stunts organised by middle class poshos and/or the unemployed do anything but annoy the general working person.
They certainly don’t represent the general public and they probably stink.
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