I woke up at 6 o'clock this morning to save the climate - the kind of climate that you and I are so accustomed to - the kind of climate that sustains the diversity of life on this planet - the climate that is on the brink of total destablisation. And even though it was pouring with rain when I stepped outside - I didn't wish for sunshine or anything more than the meager 4 degrees Celsius in the surrounding atmosphere. This is Belgium after all and I was fully prepared with waterproofs and a brolly.
With a bright yellow Greenpeace emblazoned jacket stuffed into the bag on my back - I trudged along the streets of Brussels towards the EU Council Building with several other activists. We were going to lock the gates outside the building by placing solid metal D-locks around the gate and our necks. Meanwhile over three hundred other activists were going to block the front entrance of the building and all the other exits so that EU finance ministers couldn't leave until they had agreed to bail out the planet - and save the climate.
Since rich countries like the US and the EU are so responsible for the climate crisis - it's only fair that they cough up a significant amount of the cash that is needed to tackle it. Perhaps if the world was a bank - there would already be a dramatic rescue plan in place. Last year the EU managed to find 1.7 trillion euros to bail out the banks. This year, the most important decisions ever need to be made about the future of our planet at December's UN negotiations in Copenhagen. Without a proper financing mechanism in place to fight global warming we're literally screwed! The EU needs to contribute 35 billion euros a year by 2020 - that's only 1.3 euros a week per EU citizen. Can you imagine anyone saying that they wouldn't give up such a tiny amount to save the climate?
So, I joined other activists today as a British citizen and taxpayer in the Netherlands, who will feel totally ashamed and insulted if these ministers don't come up with a good enough plan.
We hesitated for a few minutes as we reached the EU building. There were people in regular clothes walking around with VHF radios and police vehicles in sight. But with nothing apart from our passports to lose we headed across the street to the main entrance just after 11am. Immediately we were stopped by police who asked us for our IDs. Reluctantly I handed mine over and began to wonder if everyone else had already been arrested because we were all supposed to be there at the same time. Where were they?
As several policemen were distracted with our small group of 'would-be neck lockers" I glanced to my left and saw hundreds of Greenpeace activists with bright yellow jackets crossing the street and piling over the fence towards the front of the building.
The police suddenly realised there was a bigger problem than us and ran over towards the front entrance leaving us standing there still with neck locks hidden in our clothing. So I sat down at one of the gates and started locking my neck to the opening. Nearly got it shut when I had the lock yanked from my hands by another policeman. We were pulled away from the gate and pushed aside.
Police and security became frantic. They aggressively grabbed some activists near me and threw one girl to the ground. She lay there clasping her wrist in agony and was quickly surrounded by caring folks and was later taken to hospital. Her wrist may be broken. Four other activists are also in hospital with injuries.
I took the opportunity at this point to walk away from the distracted police and into the huddle of media people. I hid my Greenpeace jacket and stayed out of sight for a while and then politely went back to the police van where the other neck lockers had been arrested and asked for my passport back. I wasn't really expecting them to give it to me but as luck would have it - they did!
So I stayed on the sidewalk twittering away on my mobile phone about the action and thanks to all my trusty followers and those following Greenpeace International - we managed to get it "re-tweeted"around twitter like crazy - before anything about it came out in the news. Nothing like delivering the news of our #climateaction online in seconds!
The police were rather brutal and dragged all of the activists into police vans with cable ties around their wrists - some face down along the pavement. We're still waiting to hear what the EU finance ministers have decided. Over 300 of our activists are in jail and five are in hospital.
I will let you know more as soon as I know it.