Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 5:57AM Frustration over climate is beginning to boil
Yesterday six youths were arrested in the House of Commons after loudly protesting the slow progress of the passage of a bill that would legally force the Canadian government to set strong reduction targets for global warming pollution. Though I wasn't at the event itself, some of the protestors had spent the weekend at a conference where I gave two workshops on the role of the carbon market in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And though the conference organizers didn't organize the spontaneous protest, I could sense from the conference participants that something of the sort might happen.
Throughout the weekend I could detect a wave of discontent from some of the participants. Despite a truly enormous global publicevent on October 24 where thousands perhaps over a million of people called for action across Canada and the world, Canadian news outlets barely registered the historic nature of this call to action. Reader's of the Toronto Star pointedly berated the newspaper for not putting such a globally significant phenomenon on Page One of the country's most-read newspaper. Add to the scant attention paid by the delay of Canada's only climate change legislation last week, a pent-up agitation amongst the youth became increasingly palpable as the conference winded down. By the end of the afternoon on Sunday I overheard several conversations about the pros and cons of peaceful arrest in getting public attention; some finding it distasteful, others seeing no other option in getting attention on this issue that will literally affect their entire adult lives.
I truly, 100% believe that the conference organizers did not plan or orchestrate the disruption. However I can definitely believe that individuals within the larger group let their emotions boil to surface into loud shouting.
I can understand their frustration. Many scientific studies believe that the serious impacts on our global climate that we're already experiencing may reach catastrophic levels by the time many of these youngsters reach the the point in their lives when they begin raising families. It doesn't surprise me that despair may lead some of them to loudly denouncing the leaders of this country.
Sadly, I predict that the longer it takes for politicians to come out with a strong international deal on climate change, the more people - particularly the youth who have the most at stake - will feel as if they have no other option but to take to the streets. More arrests and injuries are likely to follow.
As one of yesterday's protestors put it, ""It might not be the most peaceful way to do it, but it sure got your attention."
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[...] Naomi Klein, expect this to be the sequel to the 1999 Seattle protests. I’ve previously blogged about the frustration being felt by youth groups. Additionally there are indigenous groups [...]