activism

With reflections on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace’s past, present, and future, here's Rex Weyler - author, photographer, ecologist, Greenpeace International co-founder and long-time trouble-maker. Read it, share it and, if you enjoy it as much as I do, sign up to get the column by email every month. Over to Rex Weyler:

When the first Greenpeace boat sailed across the Gulf of Alaska in 1971 toward the U.S. nuclear test site in the Aleutian Islands, the crew and their supporters in Canada had no idea that the campaign would launch a global organization. Irving Stowe, Quaker leader of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee that launched the campaign, belonged to a dozen such groups and believed that after a campaign the group should disband. His idea of keeping things simple and grassroots has merit, but as we know, that’s not how things turned out.

The guys at Biofuelwatch have been cooking up a week of protests around (what else?) biofuels. Like us, they're concerned about the rising demand for biodiesel etc and the implications that has for the climate, as well as deforestation, food prices and a host of other related issues.

Money isn't everything © Gavin Austin

The climate camp's 24 hours of action has drawn to a close and it's been a rare old time with protests springing up all over the country, not just around Heathrow. When I left the camp last night, a large group of people were camped outside BAA's offices near the airport and thanks to Indymedia's rather excellent Twittering, my mobile has continued to deliver updates about what was going on.

Anyone for a workshop on Sustainable Activism?

It's a shame the New York Times only allows subscribers to see their stories online (don't get any ideas, UK press moguls) because there was an absolute corker in yesterday's edition that's been sent round on email. Al Gore, when talking to columnist Nicholas Kristof, advocated a programme of direct action to tackle climate change:

"We are now treating the Earth's atmosphere as an open sewer," [Mr Gore] said, and (perhaps because my teenage son was beside me) he encouraged young people to engage in peaceful protests to block major new carbon sources. "I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers," Mr. Gore said, "and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants."

Is this the first sign of a change for the man who used to be the Next President of the United States? Will he shake off the mild-mannered lecturer schtick, going underground to lead troops of young activists into confrontation with police, power companies and politicians? Will there be a resurgence of grass-roots politics where our elected officials through off the trappings of state to take their lead from the people?

Nah, maybe not. Besides, I don't think a beret and beard would suit Al. Still, Kristof ended his column with a rather salient point:

Critics [of climate change] scoff that the scientific debate is continuing, that the consequences are uncertain - and they're right. There is natural variability and lots of uncertainty, especially about the magnitude and timing of climate change.

In the same way, terror experts aren't sure about the magnitude and timing of Al Qaeda's next strike. But it would be myopic to shrug that because there's uncertainty about the risks, we shouldn't act vigorously to confront them — yet that's our national policy toward climate change, and it's a disgrace.