The Economist
November 22, 2008
U.S. Edition

Revolutions coloured green: The environment and people power

athens and new york

The use of cyberspace to oppose ecological abuse

New ways of sharing data and rallying support are a boon for
eco-warriors

THINK of spectacular popular protests, of the kind that make clever
use of technology to mobilise support, flummox the authorities and
disseminate facts and images. In many countries, that sort of approach
has been well used by political opposition movements, bent on
overturning regimes or reversing electoral fraud.

But more recently, both lone dissidents and bigger campaigns have been
employing the latest "people power" techniques in a different way:
challenging bad environmental decisions, especially the sort that
result from corrupt or non-existent governance. Eco-protest may lead,
in time, to political change, but the focus is narrower.

At a recent conference in Athens on corruption, campaigners from many
countries brought stories of their efforts to challenge environmental
abuse in innovative ways. In Armenia, for example, the local branch of
Transparency International’a global anti-corruption movement’has to
contend with a government that seems humourless and harsh. So
campaigners against a proposed mine in northern Armenia, which risks
destroying a pristine forest, devised colourful responses which the
authorities couldn’t repress without looking foolish. In a recent
street protest, they dressed up as animals; in another they staged a
"funeral" for a slice of nature that was at risk.

Some eco-protests are masterminded by global NGOs, drawing on a vast
pool of experience with manipulating images. Others are dreamed up by
local people with few assets other than their own desperation. In the
most successful actions, both elements are present. In recent weeks,
Greenpeace and its local supporters managed to embarrass the
government of Papua New Guinea by climbing a crane to stop a shipment
of timber.

But even in places to which global NGOs have little access, the ease
with which images and sounds can be disseminated has tilted the
balance of power in favour of environmentalists.

Take the fallout from a deal between the Russian aluminium concern
Rusal and the government of Guinea to mine bauxite. Green protests
were the last thing Rusal expected. But Kamara Secu, a leader of the
Guinean community in Russia, was undaunted. He rang Rusal’s press
officers and taped their response; they were dismissive and mocked his
accent. Mr Secu then posted a recording of the exchange on YouTube,
the video-sharing site; it was picked up by green bloggers, and helped
to rally support for a demonstration against Rusal.

Or consider the recent history of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, a forest park
straddling Belarus and Poland. The Belarus side is managed by a
well-connected agency whose new boss has been urging his staff to cook
up arguments in favour of commercial logging. Heorhi Kazulka, a
forestry official who lost his job because he refused to play ball, is
waging an online battle to publicise the park’s destruction. What
began as a lone effort has attracted many supporters who offer tips
and photographs.

Jon Corbett, of the Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice,
an affiliate of the University of British Columbia, was first involved
in Indonesia’s anti-logging movement in the 1990s, in the pre-internet
age. Today, he says, things are far easier: local campaigns against
big commercial and political interests at least have a chance,
especially if they win global attention.

Blogs play a crucial role in attracting people to marches and sharing
information. In Iran, bloggers mounted a campaign to publicise the
threat to wetlands from roads and dams. Bulgaria’s bloggers campaigned
on behalf of the Strandzha Park, the country’s largest protected area,
targeted by commercial developers; they used a panoply of photo,
video, and petition sites. Bloggers in Poland placed special "green
ribbons" on their sites to show their solidarity with a campaign to
save the beautiful Rospuda valley from new roads.

Open-source video-editing tools and publicly available sounds have
made the creation of educational materials virtually cost-free’but
that doesn’t mean that eco-blogging is safe. Earlier this year an
Egyptian blogger, Tamer Mabrouk, posted material indicating that a
local firm had been dumping chemicals into Manzallah Lake and the Suez
Canal. The photos were noticed by a government newspaper which
denounced the firm’and Mr Mabrouk was duly arrested for defamation.

Electronically co-ordinated protest over green issues isn’t confined
to failed or authoritarian states; it has a role in well-organised
democracies, too. In Greece, for example, ten NGOs and a network of
local activists dotted across the Aegean are resisting a controversial
planning change that would make it easier to build holiday houses on
the islands.

George Papandreou, the opposition leader, has denounced the plan as an
example of the state’s capture by special interests, implying that the
only hope of fighting back lies in the mobilisation of ordinary
people, determined to save whatever remains of the country’s pristine
beauty. Athenian newspapers, including pro-opposition ones, have kept
an odd silence on the issue, a silence some Greeks ascribe to the
power of the construction lobby. Cyberspace, at least, crackles with
the controversy.