Hundreds of activists gathered near Heathrow Airport last week for “Climate Camp” and direct action against climate change.
The airport was targeted because of the high rate of greenhouse gas emissions coming from airplanes, and because
|
Over a period of approximately 24 hours, on Aug. 19-20, at least a dozen direct actions occurred, resulting in 71 arrests. According the Climate Camp website, “none of the actions were intended to disrupt passengers, but instead, targeted the corporations who profit from climate chaos.”
Some highlights of the actions include:
A mass siege of the British Airports Authority national headquarters forced its closure for the day.
A Carbon offset company was occupied by protesters dressed as red herrings. Carbon offsetting allows corporations and individuals to pay in order to supposedly “neutralize” their carbon emissions. “Carbon offsets are ineffective, based on dubious science and lead people to believe they are helping when they are not—the concept and the practice are a con,” said protester Sophie Nathan.
Five hundred villagers and climate campers gathered near the proposed runway for a meeting and mass action. The protestors carried copies of the Tyndall Report, a new report by Friends of the Earth and the Co-operative Bank, which shows that the British government has only four years to cut carbon emissions if it is to do its part in fighting climate change. The protesters’ banner read, “We are armed … only with peer-reviewed science.”
On Aug., 18, 60 people occupied Carmel Agrexco’s Heathrow warehouse in Hayes. Carmel Agrexco is a 50 percent Israeli state-owned exporter/distributor of illegal settlement produce from the West Bank. The action highlighted the issues of food miles as well as the illegal occupation of Palestine. According to Indymedia UK: “The Israeli flag is no longer flying outside the depot and all the gates have people D-locked to them, blocking in a food lorry.”
Anti-capitalist approach
The Climate Camp and associated direct actions took an explicitly anti-capitalist stance to the issue of reversing climate change. Here is a quote from their website:
“Who is going to solve climate change? The usual answer is either governments and changes in regulations, or individuals affecting companies by changing the products and services we buy. This is not going to work for one simple reason: the world is geared towards the extraction of profit, and increasing economic growth, and not lives of dignity for all. Just ask any of the 800 million people who will go hungry today. Profits come first.”
