What it’s like at Climate Camp

Posted by saunvedan - 8 August 2008 at 6:01pm - Comments

Climate camp - tents

It was a beautiful morning, if a little muggy, as I passed through the Kent countryside to Strood yesterday on my way to Climate Camp. I had to find out for myself what it was really like at the farm opposite Kingsnorth coal fired power station, where E.On wants to build the first new coal plant in the UK for over 30 years.

Joined by fellow climate campaigners, we received friendly smiles from local people who pointed us in the direction of Kingsnorth, egging us on our journey. (After all, not everyone wants to live next to a coal fired power station.)

Approaching the climate camp, we were greeted by a police garrison complete with horses, dogs and vans. Herded like cattle, we were stopped and searched extensively - after which we cheerfully resumed our journey to join the hundreds of climate campaigners peacefully enjoying the bright sunshine in a picturesque rural meadow. Or dangerous criminals plotting to cause grievous bodily harm, depending on who you listen to.

I haven't been out of London in ages, and I virtually skipped among the hundreds of colourful tents as I was given a tour of the camp and its various workshops, kitchens and eco-washing facilities. I was literally tripping over solar panels; the entire power supply to the camp comes from small windmills and solar cells. Even the cinema was bicycle powered and ground water purified for use with ingenious eco-filtration techniques.

I attended a few workshops that were running in a couple of the tents, like the Plane Stupid discussion on next steps to oppose building of the third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow. What I found was that although there were speakers for these workshops, there wasn't any official leader. The philosophy behind the workshops is to open them up for discussion without having a chain of command dominating them, which I found liberating.

By mid-afternoon I found myself playing Frisbee with some of the campers and singing along to songs someone was playing on her guitar. Children played freely and were blissfully unaware of the police helicopter that landed nearby. I also visited the stand-off point on the farm where police raided the camp at dawn on Monday.

It was evening, and time for me to go (after being frisked again) as I had to be in to write this blog today. On my way back to London, I pondered on what's made the government go backwards on energy technology, when the future so clearly lies in renewables. I guess when E.On says jump, the government jumps.

Article tagged as: climate camp, climate change, co2 emissions, coal, eon, fossil fuels, kingsnorth
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Have you ever wondered how much this little publicity stunt you are holding is costing us with the amount of police?
I was going through Hoo today and saw aload of you people walking around and thought have any of you ever worked in your lifes? you people have to much time on your hands to do this!
You are saying theres to many police here but all you people do drugs!!!!! and then the police found a bag with knives in!

You are tresspassing on private propety the farmer is trying to make a living and your stopping this!

By Richie999 - 8 August 2008 at 11:30pm

COME ON THE GREEN PEACE!!!!!!

By randomasfcuk - 9 August 2008 at 7:06pm

Have you thought about looking at the bigger picture rather than the details? The details: cost of police employed to give peaceful protesters uneccessary hassle. The Bigger Picture: You or I or anyone else won't be employed in a full time job or have the services of a police force to hand, with the rapidly escalating climatic change. Why don't you wake up and smell the coffee? It is virtually too late to stop the mass destruction that a sudden temperature rise will cause; if the use of coal fired power and all non renewable energies are not drastically reduced if not prevented altogether, we might still buy some time, hopefully for the next generation. Please think harder about this and why this is happening; denial won't do anyone any good at this point.

By carol sharp - 13 August 2008 at 6:42pm

Ritchie, I doubt if one in ten of the people attending Climate Camp was unemployed (though why that should actually matter, I don't quite understand). There was a genuine mix of people (quite a few locals from the Hoo peninsular, and others with post-graduate qualifications in relevant scientific disciplines) motivated by one principal concern - that government and industry are ignoring mainstream science in pursuit of short-term profit, and doing nothing to position our country to cope with the potential consequences of global warming.

They are not anarchist hippies, just people who've become more and more convinced that this government has never intended to do anything except pay lip-service to climate change issues while pursuing an economic 'business as usual' agenda in search of short term profit. In fact the true radicals are these government and industry lobbists who are gambling with all our futures - hoping that climate change is not going to have as big an impact as predicted.

As for your comments that "all you people do drugs" and "then the police found a bag with knives in!" - your naivety is remarkable.

Would you try and take drugs through a cordon of armed police offices if you had advance warning that they were expressly there to stop and search you? As for the knives - how can 1,000 people go camping for a week and not bring along a few knives to cook and build with?

The whole point of the massive police presence was to subvert the message of the camp from one about the threats posed by climate change to one of security, as in "Look - these people are a threat to national security - be very afraid!".

And sadly many people fell for it. Sounds as though you were one of them. There's still time to change your mind, though...

Finally, the cost of the policing operation you're so concerned about is a fraction of the cost we're are going to incur once the temperature rises above 2ºC!

Cheers,

Joss

By jossc - 14 August 2008 at 4:12pm

Have you ever wondered how much this little publicity stunt you are holding is costing us with the amount of police? I was going through Hoo today and saw aload of you people walking around and thought have any of you ever worked in your lifes? you people have to much time on your hands to do this! You are saying theres to many police here but all you people do drugs!!!!! and then the police found a bag with knives in! You are tresspassing on private propety the farmer is trying to make a living and your stopping this!

By Richie999 - 8 August 2008 at 11:30pm

COME ON THE GREEN PEACE!!!!!!

By randomasfcuk - 9 August 2008 at 7:06pm

Have you thought about looking at the bigger picture rather than the details? The details: cost of police employed to give peaceful protesters uneccessary hassle. The Bigger Picture: You or I or anyone else won't be employed in a full time job or have the services of a police force to hand, with the rapidly escalating climatic change. Why don't you wake up and smell the coffee? It is virtually too late to stop the mass destruction that a sudden temperature rise will cause; if the use of coal fired power and all non renewable energies are not drastically reduced if not prevented altogether, we might still buy some time, hopefully for the next generation. Please think harder about this and why this is happening; denial won't do anyone any good at this point.

By carol sharp - 13 August 2008 at 6:42pm

Ritchie, I doubt if one in ten of the people attending Climate Camp was unemployed (though why that should actually matter, I don't quite understand). There was a genuine mix of people (quite a few locals from the Hoo peninsular, and others with post-graduate qualifications in relevant scientific disciplines) motivated by one principal concern - that government and industry are ignoring mainstream science in pursuit of short-term profit, and doing nothing to position our country to cope with the potential consequences of global warming. They are not anarchist hippies, just people who've become more and more convinced that this government has never intended to do anything except pay lip-service to climate change issues while pursuing an economic 'business as usual' agenda in search of short term profit. In fact the true radicals are these government and industry lobbists who are gambling with all our futures - hoping that climate change is not going to have as big an impact as predicted. As for your comments that "all you people do drugs" and "then the police found a bag with knives in!" - your naivety is remarkable. Would you try and take drugs through a cordon of armed police offices if you had advance warning that they were expressly there to stop and search you? As for the knives - how can 1,000 people go camping for a week and not bring along a few knives to cook and build with? The whole point of the massive police presence was to subvert the message of the camp from one about the threats posed by climate change to one of security, as in "Look - these people are a threat to national security - be very afraid!". And sadly many people fell for it. Sounds as though you were one of them. There's still time to change your mind, though... Finally, the cost of the policing operation you're so concerned about is a fraction of the cost we're are going to incur once the temperature rises above 2ºC! Cheers, Joss

By jossc - 14 August 2008 at 4:12pm

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