After five days camping out in Torry, holding protests and ignoring no entry signs at the harbour, did the Aberdeen climate camp activists actually make a difference in the Oil Capital of Europe?
It’s a question I’ve been pondering since I first arrived at their campsite at St Fitticks Park, Torry on Thursday evening.
I’ll be honest, I felt a bit of trepidation about the sort of reception I’d get walking straight into the camp and introducing myself as a reporter from the Press and Journal, given this front page from July:
However, I received a very warm welcome and most of the camping activists I spoke with dismissed our front page with a laugh.
What were the campers actually like?
© Supplied by Wullie Marr / DC ThoI found them to be a chatty, positive group who were kind-hearted and focused.
Many had come from all corners of the UK and beyond to attend the camp.
From your classic happy-go-lucky hippies who would latch on to any eco-flavoured cause, to more hardcore activists clued up on the intricacies of the oil and gas industry’s impact on climate change, the campers were definitely a varied bunch.
But it was the protesters who had direct connections to the north-east I found the most interesting.
It’s one thing for central belters, of which there were a fair few at the camp, to call for the end of North Sea drilling when they don’t know anyone employed in the industry.
But it is something else entirely to hear from those whose livelihoods currently depend on Aberdeen’s oil and gas jobs, yet feel so strongly about how fossil fuel usage is driving the climate crisis that they’re actively campaigning for an end to North Sea extraction.
I felt like a lot of the activists I spoke with who travelled hundreds of miles to visit the north-east didn’t really have a proper understanding of what your average Aberdeen resident would think about banners calling for “No New Oil And Gas” in their city centre.
And I don’t blame them.
