National Climate March

The background to this year's National Climate March was one of two simultaneous trends. One is the increasingly ominous nature of the threat as evidenced by a steady stream of reports from around the world of the mounting effects of climate change over the past year. These reports are no more worrying than than the news that this year's minimum arctic sea ice extent set a new record low in what looks suspiciously like an acceleration of the previous linear trend. The possibility exists we may have already reach our first "tipping point" and the arctic ice cap may largely disappear within the next decade.

The other (equally ominous) trend is that of the government (and in fact most governments around the world) to make a lot of noise about climate change while using it as an excuse to implement policies that as best they know will not work (e.g. carbon trading) and at worst are going to make the problem a whole lot worse (e.g. biofuels). This has been put into stark relief by the news that venture capital funding for private security companies has surged ahead of green energy in the last year. The market clearly feels that there is more money to be made from protecting the rich from the problem than in actually trying to fix it.

Given this backdrop, the importance of this year's march could not have been higher. As with last years march the Brighton Climate Change group organised buses to take people from Brighton up to London. Two Big Lemon buses (a 75 seat double decker and a 40 seat single decker) arrived at St Peter's Church at about 8:30am. After loading everyone on the buses continued to Falmer to pick up more people before heading to London with a compliment of slightly less than 115, due to late sleepers. Apart from a short stop at Pease Pottage services the trip was uneventful.

By the time the buses arrived at Millbank, around noon, it was already raining quite heavily. We stopped next to the Thames and unloaded for a quick photo shoot (see above) before walking the short distance to start point. There were already a large number of people lined up and ready go, along with the predictable police presence. Police Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) were out in force trying to video tape people's faces and a lot careful positioning of umbrellas etc. was necessary to try and avoid being filmed. This did not go down particularly well with the police and there were some generalised threats against people trying not to be filmed.

After a relatively short wait the march got underway and headed up towards Parliament Square. The marchers were many are varied and many other people from Brighton who went up on the train were encountered along the way. It kept raining fairly constantly through most of the march but spirits were high even amongst those with less than fully waterproof shoes (and hence somewhat distracted by trying to avoid the growing puddles). The were several bands of various descriptions interspersed along the procession. Other than an amusingly large police presence outside a Porsche dealership on the route, once the march got underway they did not seem to cause a lot of problems.

The march ended at Grovenor Square near the US embassy with a rally. The police had cordoned off most of the square so the rally took place in the far corner furthest from the embassy. The more energetic marchers kept up a small but noisy demonstration at the point closest to the embassy while the rest hung out listening to a number of speakers, mostly politicians, with George Monbiot as the star turn. A free food stall, apparently run by the Hare Krishna's, provided much needed sustenance to those who noticed it. Those marchers not well prepared with waterproofs and decent footwear were starting to feel a little chilly by now.

Given the extremely uninviting weather it was perhaps inevitable that the turnout would be down on last year, with estimates ranging from 6,000 up to 10,000. After it was all over those returning to Brighton headed for the buses near Marble Arch while others headed off to the after-party at the Synergy Centre in Camberwell which went on all through the night. Looking back it seems clear that the march can best be described as a place holder that had to happen if any sort of movement for change is going to be built but will not achieve very much in itself.

Given the seriousness of the problem and the intransigent attitude of governments and corporations, to continue on our present course toward catastrophe with only minor cosmetic tweaks to the system, it seems that the movement needs to urgently reassess its tactics and attempt to significantly increase the pressure for meaningful change before it is too late. While this year's march was a necessary part of keeping the the movement ticking over and the problem (and particularly the woeful nature of the responses to it) in the public consciousness a much greater level of commitment will be necessary if we want any chance of diverting the humanity from its self-destructive course.