OUR RIGHT TO PROTEST vs. "FREEDOM GAS"

Photo by Nessim Stevenson

In an arena where greater emphasis is being placed on alleviating our environmental crisis, why is government focus consistently shifting away from climate change? Three of the top 20 countries emitting the most carbon dioxide; the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, have recently been imposing laws and wild bail conditions on environmental protesters, seemingly as a distraction from issues that truly matter.

In the UK, Extinction Rebellion's recent two-week uprising came to an end as London's Metropolitan Police imposed a city-wide ban on protesters and arrested thousands. In response, London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, stated that while he believes in upholding the right to lawful and peaceful protest, "illegal action by some protesters over the past eight days has put undue pressure on already overstretched police officers, and demonstrators should bear this in mind when considering any further actions."

However, this ban didn’t deter protesters continuing to demonstrate with the support of MPs and human rights groups, who heavily criticised the removal of Trafalgar Square protesters by police. Diane Abbott, shadow home secretary, tweeted that she believed the police ban was “completely contrary to Britain’s long-held traditions of policing by consent, freedom of speech, and the right to protest.” Demonstrators labelled banning the protesting and, similarly, implementing city-wide bans as grossly disproportionate acts of anti-democracy.

Meanwhile, in Australia, arrested climate protesters received bail conditions which included bans on making contact with Extinction Rebellion members, as well as prohibitions on being within 2km of the Sydney CBD.

US lawmakers are also attempting to introduce legislation that will restrict protesters’ rights; so far, close to 100 have been introduced across the country. These bills include ‘critical infrastructure bills’ which essentially criminalise environmental activism through increasing criminal penalties and deem organisations supporting protesters as being criminal conspirators. These organisations can be liable for fines of up to ten times the amount imposed on individuals. 

Legal experts and civil liberties organisations around the world have branded the various country bans unlawful, as well as an unnecessary restriction on the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. These acts are reminiscent of a 1984-esque dystopian society; by banning or criminalising basic rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, instead of focusing on protecting our ailing planet, governments are engaging in official deception. Due to the excessive amounts of money being tunnelled into the fossil fuel industry, focusing on our environment and listening to the science is clearly too overwhelming for governments… it’s much easier to just spend the time, energy, and resources on targeting environmental protesters instead.

Let’s check out some numbers on this; an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study shows that, in 2017, USD$5.2 trillion was spent on fossil fuel subsidies. This works out to be around 6.5% of 2017’s global GDP. Shockingly, worldwide air-pollution related deaths each year are estimated to be around 7 million. Even more alarming is that the same IMF study estimated a reduction in fossil fuel subsidies would have lowered carbon emissions by 28% and reduced air-pollution related deaths by 46%, as well as increased government revenue by up to 3.8% of the GDP. So, is the exorbitant expenditure on the fossil fuel industry really worth it?

Obviously, it must be; earlier this year the Trump administration referred to fossil fuels as “molecules of U.S. freedom,” and natural gas as “freedom gas,” that they hoped to spread to the world. But is ‘freedom’ an acceptable enough defence to excuse killing the planet? For the millions of environmental activists worldwide, the answer would simply be ‘over our dead bodies’.

This is where environmental activism is vital – it is our right to campaign for a better planet and to hold governments accountable for their actions. The science has proven that we simply don’t have the time for leaders to deny our climate crisis; some estimates are as little as 10-12 years left to save our planet. People in positions of power must be honest about how global teamwork is fundamental to alleviate the workload of tough climate change solutions; rather than habitually denying the existence of an environmental emergency and penalising those bringing attention to it. The reality? It is the official deception of governments that stands in the way of any action on climate change.