Climate action - does it work?

OneWorld

By Daniel Nelson

There’s a heart-stopping moment in Just Do It when filmmaker Emily James asks one of the environmental activists who are the subject of her documentary, “Does all of this [environmental action] do any good?”

The camera stays on Marina for what seems like a very, very long time. Her mouth moves but she makes no sound.

It’s a moment of truth.

Finally, Marina replies. “I think you can’t do nothing. That wouldn’t have done any good.

“One of the problems,” she continues, “is if people realise there’s a problem and they think they can’t do anything, that’s so depressing, that’s suicidal depressing, that is roll over and die depressing.

“But if you think you can make a difference, by putting your body in the way, then that’s empowering. So you are actually taking back control of your life, even though all of those decisions are taken by politicians over there.

“So, yes, it has done good.”

That’s a relief because the film shows activists supergluing themselves to ladders, climbing fences, being clobbered by police truncheons and shields, risking arrest, mostly in an attempt to dramatise the dangers of climate change and pinpoint some of the culprits.

They have one thing in common: they have decided to do something. This makes them “domestic extremists”. What’s a domestic extremist? “You’ll have to ask Special Branch.”

The film watches their planning sessions, records their actions and listen to them talk about their motives. They and their actions come across – freed from the usual mainstream media spin of mindless disruption, threat and aggression – as sensible, sincere, committed people. The sort of people you’d like to share a cup of tea with: “What the British do whenever they are in a difficult circumstance,” says activist Marina at the beginning of the documentary.

The flashes of violence come not from the Climate Camp, Plane Stupid and Climate Rush protesters but from clips of police lashing out with fists, truncheons and shields – and, yes, the clips include Ian Tomlinson being pushed over, an incident the film identifies as a turning point in police conduct: “Policing like this,” says the commentary over pictures of aggression against demonstrators, “would normally go unpunished, but a death is harder to push under the carpet.”

Despite such moments, this is a restrained piece of filmmaking that spotlights a group of earnest, often frightened, sweet people trying to negotiate the gaping gap between the need to slow and prevent climate change and society’s current unwillingness to act.