30/08/2013 00:00
TW
0

by MONITOR
HACKNEY Marshes was rumoured to be the likely location but yesterday the organisers of the Climate Camp opted instead for Blackheath in south east London. Some hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of environmental activists will assemble where Wat Tyler led the Peasant's revolt in 1381 and spend the Bank Holiday weekend debating the progress, or lack of it, among governments in reaching agreement on curbing climate change. Only 100 days remain to the key UN Conference on this subject at Copenhagen at which measures to replace the Kyoto protocols have to be decided on.

The Climate Camp is simply a gathering of like-minded people who want to spend time together to discuss the science of climate change and also the techniques of civil protest against those indifferent to it. It is likely that the Camp will end with marches or demonstrations at the location of organisations thought to contribute excessively to global warming and climate change. It is at this later stage that Climate Camp may come into difficulties with the police, as they did at earlier demonstrations at Drax and Kingsnorth power stations and during the G20 meeting in London earlier this year. The Metropolitan Police say they have “learnt” from the G20 experience and will, if necessary, use tactics that avoid the problems that caused so much ill-will and even one death at that event.