Lessons from Climate Camp

Camping in a field, in the rain, in the shadow of a coal-fired power station in southern England, is probably not most people’s idea of a fun holiday excursion. This description, however, belies the excitement of becoming part of the United Kingdom’s newest and most rapidly growing social movement. At first sight, the Camp for Climate Action, which took place earlier this month in Kent, seemed like a festival of activism, with over 3,000 participants and dozens of workshops, political demonstrations, music, films and a level of discussion that one British MP on hand described as “more sophisticated and informed than the Houses of Parliament.” Yet what the Climate Camp really represented was a glimpse at the kind of egalitarian social relations, small-scale technologies and fundamental change of attitudes toward energy use that may well be our only way to avert dangerous climate change and to cope with the recent peak in oil production. Read Article

By Uri Gordon and Lucy Michaels