Could art help to change the world at the copehagen summit?

Protest has always required a creative streak, from the varied tactics of the suffragettes to the fancy dress antics of fathers for justice, but in recent times the nature of it has changed significantly, bring much of it closer to art. For me this new creativity has brought new life to many movements and given me hope that they can affect real change.

But with the possibly world saving (or destroying), Copenhagen summit looming, i wonder wether this fresh breeze will be enough to push for the creation of meaningful treaty. The newspapers give us a constant stream of reporting that trys to prepare us for the worst, but i can't help feel a rush of optimism when i hear whispers of plans from groups like Climate justice action and Climate camp.

In light of these inspiring movements, projects and people i will be traveling to copenhagen in december with my own little project brewing. I've been amazed by the increasing amount of passion there is around the issue of climate change, over the last few years i have seen more and more people (as well as myself), wake up to the realities of what is going on. What is even more amazing to me is the passion with which it is talked about and the obvious urge to do something about it.

I have realised however, that the very place where this passion is needed (in Copenhagen), is a logistical impossibility to many people, due to the amount of time, money and organisation needed to get there. This has really pushed me to try to give these views a platform and to try to stop people becoming alienated from what is going on at the conference.

To do this i will travel to Copenhagen over the weekend of the 11th, armed with an iphone connected to a recently started blog (positiveflight.wordpress.com), full of your messages to the world leaders, i will then get your messages seen, heard or even felt by a method of your choosing (i've had a good few ideas as well).

So.... go along to www.positiveflight.wordpress.com to give me your messages and ideas, or to find out more about the project.

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Imagining the wonder of a communicative police force

At the start of this, month I, like many of you I suspect, was out on the street protesting to try to get my small voice heard by the g20 leaders meeting in London.

I spent the day mainly at the climate camp near Liverpool Street and was pleasantly surprised by the nature of the policing. Protesters and police chatted happily and the only thing exchanged other than kind words was a flower given to a smiley policeman. What a joyous scene!

But as night fell the attitude of these previously so amiable coppers changed and they donned their riot gear. This sudden change of character was a little surprising, but what really surprised me was the lack of any type of communication to the protesters about their plans. Being mostly peaceful hippy types, the protesters were relaxed about the situation, wanting to protest, but not to the point of getting their heads beaten in. However there was no indication from the police if or when this time might come. It seems to me foolish to think that action without warning will not cause at least a little confusion and thus bad feeling.

There was no sense of attempting to work with the protesters to work out a solution for both sides, but more to beat or break them in some way to show some type of supremecy. It is this strange mentality of competition and confrontation that made the situation more difficult for both sides. The protesters, because of the unpredictable and intimidating tactics of the police, and the police, because of the resolution that they had brought out in the protesters to fight for what they believe in, even if it meant sitting down and waiting to be physically picked up and moved.

It is however not the individual policemen that I am criticising, but their tactics of intimidation and unwarned violent action, that can clearly only breed bitterness. This leaves you considering, in a street of only protesters and police, who are these people protecting? Are we not the people that they are supposed to "protect and serve"? Read more...