Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 4:08:21 GMT -5
As wildfires and extreme temperatures rage across the planet, sea temperature records fall and polar glaciers disappear, the magnitude and speed of the climate crisis are impossible to ignore. Indeed, scientific experts are unanimous in saying that urgent action is needed to reduce fossil fuel production, significantly increase renewable energy and support communities to move rapidly towards a low-carbon, fairer, healthier and more sustainable future. sustainable. However, many governments seem to have different priorities. According to climate change experts, senior UN officials and grassroots advocates contacted by The Guardian , some political leaders and law enforcement agencies around the world are seeking to criminalize environmentalists as a new avenue to silence voices against climate change . Repression against climate activists "These defenders are basically trying to save the planet and, in doing so, save humanity," said Mary Lawlor, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders. «These are people we should protect, but they are perceived by governments and corporations as a threat to neutralize. In the end, it's about power and economics." Climate and environmental justice groups report a significant increase in cases of criminalizing environmentalists, draconian and often arbitrary charges for peaceful protesters as part of what they claim is a set of tactics to defame, discredit, intimidate and silence the activists.
The Guardian has also found striking similarities in the way the governments of Canada and the United States, Guatemala and Chile, India and Tanzania, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia are cracking down on activists trying to protect the planet. Legal contexts vary, but charges such as subversion, conspiracy, terrorism and tax evasion are often vague and take a long time to disprove, while a growing number of countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have sought to criminalize environmentalists by passing controversial laws against protests, intended in principle to protect national security or so-called critical infrastructure, such as fossil fuel pipelines. Criminalize climate allies Criminalizing environmentalists is not new. Natural resources on indigenous lands have long been exploited, generating great benefits for some but also fostering violence and inequality. Experts on the issue say the Marlin mine in Guatemala was one of the first documented cases of a transnational corporation and its state allies using the legal system to criminalize environmentalists. Since then, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly condemned what it describes as the alarming increase in misuse of criminal justice systems against defenders of the Chile Mobile Number List environment, land and other human rights in Latin America. According to Lawlor, criminalizing environmentalists has since become a global phenomenon and is now the most common tactic used to silence and discredit advocates. «At its core, it is about keeping power structures in place. "This is true regardless of whether it is a dictatorship, a democracy or a corrupt drug trafficking state, and regardless of the state's stated commitment to human rights, environmental protection and the fight against climate change," he said. "Targeting advocates as criminals or anti-development distracts from the cause and changes the narrative... What is clear is that states learn from each other.
Mary Lawlor United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders. Climate activism on the rise Paolo Gerbaudo, an academic at King's College London who studies social movements, said that before the 2008 financial crisis, the climate emergency felt like "the challenge of our time." But it "largely slipped off the social and political agenda" as activists, such as Occupy, a social movement that opposed growing economic inequality, focused their attention on opposing austerity policies and pushing for reforms. global economics. As scientific warnings became increasingly grim during the 2010s, there was a growing sense that traditional environmental campaigns were failing and that politicians were failing to deliver, with potentially catastrophic consequences. It was in this context that more radical direct action groups and environmental protests emerged. Over the past five years, the UK has not only been at the forefront of these new forms of non-violent activism, but also new means of silencing it. In 2021, as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted, Insulate Britain pioneered the tactic of disruptive road blockades with small groups, polarizing the public but forcing the political agenda of housing isolation, as is improvement in energy efficiency. Just Stop Oil expanded those tactics last year, targeting the UK's oil infrastructure and broadening its targets to a series of high-profile protests at sporting and cultural events. Activists urge climate action Since then, new groups have emerged in Canada, Australia, the United States, Italy and Germany, such as Sunrise Movement, Climate Defiance, Fridays for Future, Last Generation and The Tire Extinguishers, imitating the non-violent but disruptive tactics of Insulate Britain, choosing a single demand and protesting until it is met or until the activists are imprisoned.
The Guardian has also found striking similarities in the way the governments of Canada and the United States, Guatemala and Chile, India and Tanzania, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia are cracking down on activists trying to protect the planet. Legal contexts vary, but charges such as subversion, conspiracy, terrorism and tax evasion are often vague and take a long time to disprove, while a growing number of countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have sought to criminalize environmentalists by passing controversial laws against protests, intended in principle to protect national security or so-called critical infrastructure, such as fossil fuel pipelines. Criminalize climate allies Criminalizing environmentalists is not new. Natural resources on indigenous lands have long been exploited, generating great benefits for some but also fostering violence and inequality. Experts on the issue say the Marlin mine in Guatemala was one of the first documented cases of a transnational corporation and its state allies using the legal system to criminalize environmentalists. Since then, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly condemned what it describes as the alarming increase in misuse of criminal justice systems against defenders of the Chile Mobile Number List environment, land and other human rights in Latin America. According to Lawlor, criminalizing environmentalists has since become a global phenomenon and is now the most common tactic used to silence and discredit advocates. «At its core, it is about keeping power structures in place. "This is true regardless of whether it is a dictatorship, a democracy or a corrupt drug trafficking state, and regardless of the state's stated commitment to human rights, environmental protection and the fight against climate change," he said. "Targeting advocates as criminals or anti-development distracts from the cause and changes the narrative... What is clear is that states learn from each other.
Mary Lawlor United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders. Climate activism on the rise Paolo Gerbaudo, an academic at King's College London who studies social movements, said that before the 2008 financial crisis, the climate emergency felt like "the challenge of our time." But it "largely slipped off the social and political agenda" as activists, such as Occupy, a social movement that opposed growing economic inequality, focused their attention on opposing austerity policies and pushing for reforms. global economics. As scientific warnings became increasingly grim during the 2010s, there was a growing sense that traditional environmental campaigns were failing and that politicians were failing to deliver, with potentially catastrophic consequences. It was in this context that more radical direct action groups and environmental protests emerged. Over the past five years, the UK has not only been at the forefront of these new forms of non-violent activism, but also new means of silencing it. In 2021, as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted, Insulate Britain pioneered the tactic of disruptive road blockades with small groups, polarizing the public but forcing the political agenda of housing isolation, as is improvement in energy efficiency. Just Stop Oil expanded those tactics last year, targeting the UK's oil infrastructure and broadening its targets to a series of high-profile protests at sporting and cultural events. Activists urge climate action Since then, new groups have emerged in Canada, Australia, the United States, Italy and Germany, such as Sunrise Movement, Climate Defiance, Fridays for Future, Last Generation and The Tire Extinguishers, imitating the non-violent but disruptive tactics of Insulate Britain, choosing a single demand and protesting until it is met or until the activists are imprisoned.