Sometimes it’s impossible to extract the thread of environmental protest from the complex strands of civil disaffection, or to analyse the motives or protestors and give them a single label. The G20 protests in London were a case in point, combining liberals, anarchists, nationalists, environmentalists and many others in a seething blend of international concern.
Today’s environmental protest round-up explores one of the most classic forms of protest: mass participation, visits an unusual twist in the tale of land-rights and land-use in the USA and finishes with very subtle protest behaviour being used not by citizens, but one of the world’s politest governments which is using environmental concerns as leverage in international diplomacy – a strange mix indeed.
Australians protest on the beach
On 18 May in Melbourne, Australia, around 5000 people gathered on St Kilda beach to literally spell out their frustration with the national climate change policy. They formed themselves into the words ‘Climate change—our future is in your hands’ a slogan devised by an eleven-year-old student who entered a competition to choose the best battle cry. Sophie Dickinson, the slogan’s creator, then had the pleasure of watching the ‘y’ dissolve so the slogan read ‘Climate change—our future is in our hands’. The words, spelled out in human bodies, made a 350 metre sign that was clearly visible from the news helicopters circling overhead. Organisers said that the ‘pathetic’ Australian 2020 greenhouse target of 5% reduction in greenhouse emissions below 2000 levels was the cause of their unhappiness.
Native Americans want to lock it up
Tucson Arizona is famous for many things, and the latest may be a dispute between Native Americans landowners and their neighbours. The Tohono O’odham Nation is a relatively poor tribal group which has decided to create the San Xavier Regional Detention Center on 48 acres of desert near the Santa Cruz River to provide income and jobs for its people. Developers say 750 inmates will be kept behind its 12 foot fence, but local people from the Sahuarita commuter town around 18 miles away, have objections. They are planning write to Congress, sign petitions and—most tellingly—boycott the tribe’s casino.
The 2.7 million-acre Indian reservation, which has more than 24,000 members living on it, will be home to the prison, but no tribal members live near the site. Those who do live nearby are worried about escapees, noise, pollution and damage to the fragile desert environment, not least the use of its already scarce water. Because the Bureau of Indian Affairs must decide on any tribal lease deal, and plans must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act protestors are hoping environmental concerns will kill the project. Although tribal leaders have been negotiating the deal since 2005, town leaders did not learn of it until October 2008.
Japan does something impolite … and not to a whale!
Japan refused to host Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama at a Pacific leaders’ aid conference this week. The Japanese government wished to register a protest over his latest refusal to engage in constitutional government. Instead, they invited Fiji’s Tokyo ambassador to represent his government at development aid summit. Fiji, along with many other small island states, is part of the Pacific Island Forum which backs up Japan at many international forums, such as the UN. In return Tokyo gives aid to this smaller nation states. The recent summit outlined Japan’s new $680million three-year plan for environmental support, education and health improvement in the region. Bainimarama’s invitation to the summit was rescinded when the Pacific Islands Forum expelled Fiji earlier in May for failing to restore democratic government after the suspension of the Fiji constitution and sacking of the Court of Appeal when judges ruled Bainimarama’s government was illegal. He seized power in 2006 and has ruled out national elections for Fiji for five years.
Tucson desert courtesy of ten safe frogs at Flickr under a creative commons licence
Water usage seems to be the biggest problem. Who is going to work in the prison, if no one lives nesr there? Will there be tribal transportation from their town to the prison?