CLIMATE-CHANGE ACTIVISTS

A MODERN TRIBE OF ENGLAND

  The people

This series about climate-change activism was made during the year of protests in 2019 in London. The English have a long history of standing up against injustice and voicing their beliefs. In many cases, their actions have resulted in serious, personal hardship, loss and even death. The Climate-Change Activists differ from many previous pressure groups who have taken to the streets to protest. Firstly, the cause is one that requires austerity and reduced consumption in order to limit human impact on the environment. Secondly, for the majority of activists, it is based on faith. They rely upon media evidence of melting ice caps, plastic pollution in oceans, earthquakes caused by fracking, rising temperatures caused by felling forests, toxic diesel fumes in the air and data modelling by scientists. It is this faith that brings Climate-Change Activists together and fuels their passion. It gives them their identity and forms the ‘glue’ within the group. 

The Climate-Change ‘tribe’ is very similar to other modern English ‘tribes’ because its members are drawn from all walks of life. It is also a group that seeks to contribute to society something it believes to be a good. However, Climate-Change Activists differ in that through their actions they hope to change behaviour, policy and ultimately, economics. They attempt to do so through non-violent protest and civil disobedience. Climate-Change Activists are also different from other ‘tribes’ because they are connected globally to ‘tribes’ in other countries who are pursuing the same agenda for change. They communicate using social media, which enables rapid dissemination of information and provides support for orchestrated action. 

The significant demographic of this ‘tribe’ is one of gender. It appears that the majority of Climate-Change Activists out on the streets are white, ‘middle class’ women and teenage girls aged between 14 and 35 years old. What is significant is the almost complete absence of black and Asian representation in this group.

Many climate-change activists believe that children and teenagers should understand the issue and be involved. After all, it is their future at risk if the climate alters and the planet becomes less habitable. Children have been at other protests in our past. The argument is that this issue directly affects them more so than older people. A tribe acts together on shared purposes concerning all aspects but particularly survival. That is why I included them in my project. And tribes express their identity, which is in evidence with their distinctive costumes such as the bee ones in this case and their badges, e.g. the Extinction Rebellion logo. So for me, this is as much about the group as the cause.

Climate-change activists are extremely committed to their beliefs to the point of putting themselves in harms way. The sole point was to be arrested to highlight the greater damage that Governments were doing to the environment. It is no minor thing to be arrested for this kind of protest and many of the protestors went on to be charged and some were even tried and found guilty. So even if you did not agree with either their cause or methods you could not help but admire their courage. Defending a tribe's beliefs has always been something that binds its members together in a shared enterprise. For this tribe, action speaks louder than words.

Police presence is a feature of all protests and demonstrations. The degree of policing and its nature has changed considerably in England over the past hundred years. My own experience of policing goes back as far as the late 1970s. The London Race Riots, the Miners' Strike and the News International debacle saw huge police presence as they fought to hold back opposing factions. But for me it was probably the Poll Tax riots that really brought home how difficult policing was in such situations. Violence on the streets became the norm and it was not always between the two sides. The police methods started to come under question at the time.

Today, in the Climate-Change demonstrations it was as if a new relationship had developed between demonstrators and police. There was a generous friendliness. The protestors even went as far as thanking the police for their patience and fairness. Even so, over twelve hundred were arrested during the Easter protests of 2019 in London and a similar number in the Autumn Rebellion. So what was going on? At the time, public opinion was divided. Many seemed to agree with the issue that there should be climate-change but equally, many did not agree with the methods. Disrupting transport was not popular.