Observer and NETCU smear environmental activists as terrorists

This morning the Observer carried a National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit press release, in which they claimed to have alerted a number of major carbon polluters to watch out for eco-terrorists, with advice on how they can withstand being targeted. The article goes on to say that "green extremists" - Earth First! and the Camp for Climate Action - may be about to launch a campaign of intimidation and fear aimed at disrupting businesses. Is this an attempt by the police to prime public opinion and pave the way for a crackdown on climate activists?

My words can only represent my own feelings but I know that many activists share the following views. We are in the grip of a global emergency: climate scientists are telling us that we have reached a 'tipping point' and if we do not take measures to drastically reduce our carbon footprint then our children will inherit a dying planet. Our abuses of the earth have already committed us to climate changes that will result in the deaths of many, many thousands of people and most of these will be from poorer nations that have played no part in creating this situation. My actions seek to highlight this and to attempt to slow it down. I want to preserve life, both of my friends and families but also of my fellow humans and creatures from around the globe.

Earlier this year I attended a conference at which Dr. Stephan Harrison spoke about the current state of the climate. He suggested that we may have already passed the threshold to irreversible climate change. While this news seemed to run off the backs of most delegates like water from a duck, it hit me like a tonne of bricks. I left the conference in tears and cycled home to hold my children.

My actions are informed not by dodgy internet blogs but by speaking with peer-reviewed scientists and by reading their reports. These actions aren't confined to non-violent direct action: I have helped establish a Climate Friendly Parish of which I am treasurer, I am project manager for a sustainable Parish Hall scheme, I am in regular communication with both my local MP and local government, I am a contributor to both the Community Climate Forum and Transition Town Network and my families' carbon footprint is currently about 10% of the national average.

I may well research an airline to "see how many of its aircraft are not environmentally friendly" and I may well take action to try to stop this airline contributing to a global catastrophe, but I am not a terrorist nor an extremist. I am a rational, informed father... and NETCU scaremongering will not stop me.

Ed: For more information about NETCU (basically a shadowy autonomous section of the police who target activists with smear campaigns based on a bunch of nonsense) visit NETCU watch. Or you can email them on mailbox@netcu.pnn.police.uk or netcu@cambs.pnn.police.uk to ask them why they're equating environmental activists with terrorists.