Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumProtestors Marching 50 Miles Over The Swiss Alps Have A Message For Davos CEOs: Resign
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Micah White, who co-created Occupy Wall Street, has moved from protesting outside Davos to working within it. Writing for the WEF, White said he is more aware than ever that this kind of interaction is always a risk. Not only a reputational risk but also a risk that collaboration will lead to neutralisation. But he argues that the forum has a long history of social engagement and concludes that the landscape of power has shifted substantially in recent years, with both activists and elites now needing each other to address the existential problems humanity faces.
Not everyone agrees with this approach. A coalition of grassroots climate activists began a 50-mile, three-day march-cum-hike over the Swiss Alps to Davos on Sunday morning. They plan to tell CEOs and others attending the meeting, who they consider responsible for the climate catastrophe, that its time to resign. Hannes Blaser, who joined the hike as part of direct action group Extinction Rebellion, says there has been a history of violent anti-WEF protest but this year campaigners will stay calm.
Its important to go there, to show them that no matter what we will be there. They say on their home page, We look after our stakeholders. So OK, the stakeholders will come up to Davos and will say they are not happy. Mr Blaser expects thousands of people to join the demonstration march, which will not go inside the conference venue and doesnt have official permission to go the last leg into Davos. But we will do it anyway. We are in an emergency with the climate crisis and the 100 corporations that are responsible for 71 per cent of the CO2 emissions are there.
Others plan to keep a distance too. For the fourth year running, a group of Arctic scientists are camping in a research tent in sub-zero temperatures just the down the road from the swanky Davos Congress Centre. They will be joined at Arctic Basecamp by young climate campaigners from Brazil, China, Greenland, the Marshall Islands, Uganda and the US. We want to speak science to power and show the evidence base for making urgent decisions on climate change, says professor Gail Whiteman, director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, who set up the camp in 2017. The reason why its cool for us to camp is thats how many of the field researchers do the science.
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/davos-climate-change-crisis-activism-carbon-neutral-world-economic-forum-a9292426.html