Climate Camp in the City: Nature Doesnt do Bailouts

The Climate Camp arrived at the European Climate Exchange at 12:30 sharp on April 1st. This busy street in the middle of the financial district was buzzing with its normal activity when over 1,000 of us swooped into the city block, sat down on the road, and then quickly popped up our tents simultaneously. Shortly there after came out bunting, kitchens, compost toilets, instruments, and little sound systems – all delivered by bicycles. We did it what we said we would do (again) although people had told us it was impossible. The sun was shinning and we started a busy day of activity at Climate Camp in the City.

The camp was a means to demonstrate our extreme frustration with the failure of our government, and the rest of the G20 governments to address the real cause of climate change – our economic system. This system is dependent on infinite growth, on the production and consumption of more and more stuff, forever and ever. As seductive as this economic model might be for those in a position of privilege, this system is unsustainable in the long term. We cannot have infinite growth while reliant on a planet with finite resources. This economic model is unsustainable and being unsustainable means that it will eventually collapse; and while financial collapse is painful, ecological collapse is terminal.

And so the stakes could not be higher for activists setting up camp today at the European Climate Exchange, one of the global epicenters for ‘emissions trading’. Climate change is just one indicator of the multiple geo-physical limits that we are now hitting. These limits are creating multiple ecological crises. And so while there was poetry and music at the camp, there was also a full day’s worth of workshops on everything from ‘Trading our way into Trouble’ on carbon trading, to ‘Techno fixes’ on the problems associated with some new ‘green’ technologies, to the history of direct action and social change in the UK and beyond.

Around late afternoon word got around that the Royal Bank of Scotland’s windows had been smashed and there was trouble on nearby streets. Climate Camp had our own way of expressing our disgust with the inexcusable actions perpetrated by the Royal Bank of Scotland, with a credit card flier with chief executive of RBS Fred Goodwin’s name on it. When some of the so-called ‘black block’ spilled over to our camp, the police used a tactic of ‘kettling’ the camp to keep us all from leaving the block we occupied. No one could leave the camp at all for several hours until just after eleven. About 1am police moved in on the camp and removed the 400 or so campers who had been determined to spend the night. We may not have been able to stay the full 24 hours, and but we are pleased to say that we made space for debate on the most important threat to life on this planet - climate change and the fact that carbon trading is not an effective solution.