Social engineering is simple : if you don’t want something to happen, starve it of funding, create lots of dodgy Press, and create artificial divisions between factions.
Climate Camp has been a hoot, until an accidental bystander got pushed to his death caught in a “kettle” formed by Riot Police in London, England in April 2009 on Fossil Fools Day. Some of the protest actions have been daredevil, some truly revolutionary, most have been properly educational.
In fact my main interest and energy in the Climate Camp has been the Workshop Programme, trying to increase general awareness, circulating information, encouraging people to lead workshops, bringing research from their diverse fields.
There’s been an impressive array of people who have contributed to the programme from the scientific and technological research communities, both official and unofficial.
It’s been Low Tech and High Tech (or low brow and high brow if you prefer) all in the same field, in the same marquee tents, in the same pursuit : knowledge is real power : the future must be Low Carbon.
Even the Government ostensibly agrees. So why the crackdown ?
It has just emerged that the Big Green Gathering (BGG) festival has been cancelled, according to The Guardian newspaper. The BGG has been an excellent source of revenue to support the work of the Climate Camp, but that’s now been subjected to a tourniquet.
My dear readers, if you want the Climate Camp to go ahead, please consider funding it – if only for the educational element in the Workshops Programme.
Even the UK Government has admitted that a radical cut of 80% in Carbon Dioxide emissions is required in this country by 2050. What, then, is so unforgiveably radical about a bunch of anarcho-hippies camping out and having structured teach-in sessions on this very matter ?
Climate Camp has made huge inroads into popular culture and the Media. The thrills. The spills. You laughed, you cried : now think about putting your hands in your pockets, to support the life-changing learning of the future leaders of the Low Carbon British society :-
https://climatecamp.org.uk/node/34
https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/27/big-green-gathering-climate-camp
“…Up to 15,000 people had begun to gather for the Big Green Gathering in the Mendip hills, Somerset, which was officially due to start on Wednesday. But organisers were forced to cancel it on legal advice yesterday after the police took out an injunction to prevent the festival going ahead. Festival directors today accused the police of taking a politically motivated decision to shut down the festival on the grounds that it attracts environmental activists and would have raised money for a major climate change demonstration, Climate Camp, to be held next month…”