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Let's be friendsHeavy-handed policing will not stop young people taking action to prevent climate catastrophe
The arrest of 114 people in Nottingham on Monday morning reveals a worrying trend in police tactics, whilst the real problem of climate change continues to loom large.
Ian Leggett, P&P’s Director, protests at Kingsnorth
At Kingsnorth last summer, at Christian Aid’s march in Coventry in March and at the Climate Camp last month, increasingly aggressive forms of policing are being deployed to prevent citizens from demanding that the government takes action now to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Ours is a campaign dedicated to the preservation of life as we know it on Earth. There is an increasingly clear and compelling message coming from the world’s scientists. First that climate change is happening more quickly than was predicted and is likely to be more severe. Second, that scientists do not believe that politicians will take the policy action that is essential to prevent runaway climate change in time to save the lives and livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest people.
The existing coal power station at Kingsnorth
Image © Greenpeace
In the face of the disconnect between the science and political inaction, people of all ages and from all walks of life feel they have no alternative but to take personal action to tackle the root causes of climate change. Increasing numbers of young people feel passionate about the threat of runaway climate change. It is the younger generation that will have to live with, and pay for, the consequences of a decade or more of denial, delay and obstruction by an older generation of politicians and corporate leaders. Protests such as that suspected to have been planned at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station are part of a growing movement of environmental activism born of frustration at the inaction of governments and corporations in the face of a climate crisis.
Students tell Gordon Brown not to be a Fossil Fool
Image © Mike Langridge
That old generation have now increasingly resorting to methods of policing which seek to intimidate and bully those who are asserting their right to peaceful protest. Reflecting on what has happened in the last few weeks, Ian Leggett, Director of People & Planet said
In the last few weeks we have seen intensive police surveillance of marches and demonstrations which are perfectly legal and proper. Worse, we have seen them increasingly resorting to the use of excessive and unnecessary force against citizens who have done nothing more than exercising their legal right to protest. The government needs to halt such unacceptable practices now. The citizens who have taken part in climate change events at Kingsnorth, Coventry and London are simply shouting a warning to us all that our house is about to go up in flames. Instead of listening to their alarm, we are treating them as if they are criminals.
He went on to say that
young people’s efforts, through peaceful protest and the exercise of their rights as citizens to force action on climate change for the sake of theirs and future generations is not only understandable, but vital in the face of determined efforts by powerful corporations to turn their back on renewable energy and continue to invest in climate damaging, high carbon technologies, and the apparent reluctance of the government to move decisively towards preventing climate catastrophe.
