Red, Green, and Blue

Following the G20 media-fest last week, several protestors commented on British national radio on the nature of media attention. They pointed out that the violent protests against the G20 had obtained massive international coverage, but that peaceful protests on the same subject got only local attention or no awareness at all.

It made me think about the nature of protest, especially environmental protest, which has its own imperatives and complexities.

Environmental protest is as large a part of the debate on the environment as is environmental legislation – in media terms it’s probably a bigger part than environmental data, which is often complex and unwieldy to transmit to a sound-bite audience as well as being hedged with scientific caveats and delivered in almost impenetrable jargon.

They protest here, they protest there …

So what is environmental protest – how is it being done and what use is made of it by the media, politicians, activists and the public?

For the next couple of months I’m going to try and post a snapshot of global environmental protest every week, just to see where it happens and how it is reported. And then I hope to go back and find out what happened when the protest was over, what effect it had, and what engagement there was between environmental protestors and environmental politics.

• In the UK the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is launching an inquiry after a man died during clashes between anti-G20 protesters and officers in London. The man in question was not involved in the demonstration, he’d been selling newspapers and was travelling home when he was caught in a melee outside the Bank of England in the heart of London’s Square Mile. He collapsed and was treated by police near the corralled protestors. A immediate post mortem revealed that he died from a heart attack but there are conflicting views of the moments before the man collapsed – some witnesses have said there was no contact between the riot officers and the man before he fell to the ground, while others say that he was speaking to police officers near the Royal Exchange. Now the IPCC wishes to establish whether any contact could have contributed to his collapse.
• In the local press in the UK – On 11 April, hundreds of campaigners are expected to protest in Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, London. They will take part in a mass protest picnic organised by Friends of Brockwell Park to stop 1,000sqm of public park being lost to a traffic improvement scheme. Lambeth Council and Transport for London have proposed that the front of the park become a slip road to reduce traffic congestion. The Friends Chair says, ‘Park land is our children’s heritage and to lose it unnecessarily is criminal’. They hope to find a compromise agreement.
• On 4 April, the local press in Plainfield, Connecticut reported that tests revealed that a substance believed to have been spilled by protestors opposed to a proposed wood-burning energy plant in the area is a ‘chemical of concern’. The chemical hasn’t been named because there is a continuing police investigation into who put the chemical on the site. The petroleum like substance, ‘does not present any immediate threat to public health, the environment, groundwater, drinking water or other natural resources’ and is being cleaned up by excavating the affected soil and taking it to an appropriate site for disposal. A letter, apparently sent by the environmental group Earth First said they were responsible for the chemical spill, but subsequently this organization denied involvement. The letter said that mercury and solvents had been buried on the site of the proposed energy plant near the scenic Quinebaug River which is dammed at Plainfield.

G20 riot police courtesy of TheImpressionist10 at Flickr under a creative commons licence

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