[Imc-uk-features] climate camp feature

Mon Aug 6 13:56:36 PDT 2007

Some suggested changes.  Will edit tomorrow once wietse and anyone else 
who wants to has checked the proposed edits.

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Cheers

Genny

CLIMATE CAMP FEATURE

SUGGESTED CHANGES [bits to be removed are in square brackets] with 
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ABSTRACT

<p>
[Not distracted by the injuction BAA have threatened with,]

Undeterred by the very <a href="/en/2007/08/377648.html">weak and 
limited injunction</a> BAA has obtained,

[the] preparations for the Camp For Climate Action are in full swing. 
Activists recently <a href="/en/2007/07/376601.html">met with locals</a> 
from around Heathrow to find a warm welcome in a community fed up with 
BAA's lies over an ever expanding airport. BAA have been putting forward 
their case for an injunction at the High Court in London. The injunction 
was served to individuals from certain anti-airport groups a couple of 
weeks ago and aimed at restricting protests happening in and around the 
airport. Read the reports from court: <a 
href="/en/2007/08/377485.html">(1)</a> <a 
href="/en/2007/08/377488.html">(2)</a> <a 
href="/en/2007/08/377556.html">(3)</a> <a 
href="https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/377648.html">(4)</a>

And as things currently look, it won't have any effect on the actual 
camp at all. A spokesperson for the Camp For Climate Action said: 'This 
injunction is totally irrelevant to us. We won't be intimidated or 
bullied. The camp is going ahead!'. Meanwhile, in this article, UK 
Indymedia looks back on an inspiring year packed with climate action 
goodness...

Links: <a href="http://climatecamp.org.uk">Camp For Climate 
Action</a> | <a href="http://climatecamp.org.uk/location.php">Location 
Of The Camp</a> | <a href="http://www.baa.com">British Airport 
Authority</a> | <a href="http://planestupid.com/">Plane Stupid</a> | <a 
href="http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/">Airportwatch</a> | <a 
href="/en/actions/2007/climatecamp/">Climate Camp 2007 topic page</a>

BODY

Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/s-low">Meso2</a>

<h3>And What A Year It's Been...</h3>

Last year's climate camp, which was held at Drax power station in Selby, 
North Yorkshire, seems to have inspired many and been the birthplace of 
a new movement. Here are some examples of what has been happening around 
the UK in the last 12 months...

At the end of last year's camp, a big clean-up resulted in the field 
being <a href="/en/2006/09/350243.html">restored to how it was 
found</a>. Quite an achievement, taking into account the amount of 
people and stuff that was its resident for nearly 2 weeks. Back home, 
all inspired by the week's events, the various local groups started 
plotting about what to do next. Local groups organised 'follow up 
meetings' around the country, including <a 
href="/en/2006/09/350407.html">York</a>, <a 
href="/en/2006/09/350356.html">London</a>, <a 
href="/en/2006/10/354436.html">Leeds</a> and in the <a 
href="/en/2006/11/356755.html">East Midlands</a> area. Benefit gigs were 
organised in various places <a href="/en/2006/09/350807.html">(1)</a> <a 
href="/en/2006/09/351011.html">(2)</a> and a 'follow up' gathering also 
took place in <a href="/en/2006/10/352543.html">Manchester</a>. During 
the gathering people decided that during the course of the year, besides 
getting the camp up and running again in summer, groups should take 
action locally.

One of the first actions after the camp happened early in the morning on 
the 24th of September. A group of protesters 'breached security' 
at the East Midlands Airport and <a 
href="/en/2006/09/351816.html">occupied one of the operational 
taxi-runways</a>. The 21 activists from the group Plane Stupid said they 
"wanted to see airport expansion plans scrapped, a tax on aviation fuel 
and plane tickets, and an end to short haul flights." The method of the 
occupation was chaining themselves to each other, having set up tents 
saying 'Climate Camp 2'. Baptist minister Malcolm Carroll, who led a 
memorial service for the victims of the effects of climate change, also 
took part in the action. Spokesman of the group, Joss Garman, said: "an 
estimated 150,000 people die of the effects of climate change each year. 
That's the equivalent of a 9-11 every week." At midday armed police, dog 
units, fire brigade and helicopter arrived and cleared the runway. 24 
people were arrested for 'suspected offences under the Aviation Security 
Act'. Contrary to what the BBC reported, some flights leaving the 
airport were delayed. Then armed police raided and turned over most of 
the protesters' houses while they were held in custody. Officers 
confiscated clothes, computers, diaries and other personal items, in 
some cases without giving out receipts for them. See the <a 
href="/en/2006/09/351521.html">feature article</a> for more info. The 
activists appeared

[in court early October]
  at Loughborough Magistrates Court in October,
but the case was adjourned until December.</p>

In October, people in Manchester <a 
href="/en/2006/10/353731.html">shut down a Hummer dealership</a> and a 
few days later, climate activists in Swansea <a 
href="/en/2006/10/354337.html">targeted a housing development</a> in 
their city: 'using graffiti they highlighted the fact that part of 
Swansea’s prestigious SA1 development on Trawler Road is being built on 
land that will flood unless Climate Change can be averted.' In another 
protest, on 31st October, banners were hung from bridges across the M1 
motorway. From Luton to Sheffield an alliance of groups opposing 
widening of the M1 motorway highlighted the disastrous consequences of 
widening it. The No Widening M1 Alliance, which includes representatives 
from communities along the whole route of the M1 due to be widened, are 
concerned about the environmental damage of widening the motorway, 
particularly climate change. The protest happened on the day the 
Government delivered its report on Climate Change.

Climate activist voice that the 'Stern Report' stresses seriousness of 
climate change but offers <a href="/en/2006/10/354748.html">false 
solutions</a>.

[**Wasn't quite sure what above sentence means: Maybe change to 'Climate 
activists argue that....']

Read <a href="/en/2006/10/354854.html">feature article</a> for more.

In November, Plane Stupid, the action group which specifically 
targets the aviation industry, and had previously blockaded the runway 
at EMA, organised a day of action against short haul flights. Travel 
agents were closed that day in London <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355376.html">(1)</a> <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355369.html">(2)</a>, <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355370.html">Bristol</a>, <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355371.html">Manchester</a>, <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355490.html">Cambridge</a> and <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355498.html">Reading</a>. The head office of airline 
<a href="/en/2006/11/355378.html">Easyjet was occupied</a> in London, as 
well as the <a href="/en/2006/11/355414.html">offices of the Civil 
Aviation Authority</a> by people from London Rising Tide. In Yorkshire 
activists <a href="/en/2006/11/355398.html">paid a visit</a> to 
Leeds/Bradford Airport, while in Manchester protesters <a 
href="/en/2006/11/355484.html">dropped banners</a> in the Altrincham 
area.

In December, 3 months after the runway occupation at East 
Midlands Airport, Loughborough Magistrates Court rejected calls from the 
Crown Prosecution Service to <a href="/en/2006/12/358491.html">slap 
ASBOs on the 24 Plane Stupid activists</a> who they described as “highly 
organised extremists” that were arrested in connection with the <a 
href="/en/2006/09/351521.html">shut down of Nottingham East Midlands 
airport</a> in September 2006. In an apparent move aimed to avoid having 
the case heard by a jury, the charge of public nuisance was dropped, as 
was the charge relating to an alleged breach of the aviation and 
security act. Plane Stupid lawyer, Mike Schwarz, described the action to 
the court at the time as a “classic piece of civil disobedience” and 
reminded the court that “Tony Blair himself has described climate change 
as the greatest threat facing mankind.” Campaigner for Plane Stupid, 
Ellen Rickford, said outside the courtroom; “The same day that we learn 
the government is pushing ahead with its airport expansion proposals, 
they try to use ASBOs to stamp out peaceful protest. Well, it seems 
their plans for that were as doomed as the aviation industry.” Read <a 
href="/en/2006/12/358491.html">feature article</a> for more info.

Two controversial climate conferences are held in Sheffield, late 
January. They sparked debate as it turned out that

[access]

admittance is by strict invite only and it's not a thing for campaign 
groups, environmentalists or even climate change scientists, but rather 
a conference for business leaders. Read <a 
href="/en/2007/01/360778.html">feature article</a> for more.

Over the weekend of 3rd - 4th February, actions up and down the 
country and beyond targeted dangerous 'greenwash' being desperately 
pushed by corporations and politicians. The actions came in the wake of 
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) <a 
href="http://www.ipcc.ch/press/prwg2feb07.htm">report</a> released that 
week, which warned of world temperature rises of over 6 degrees 
Centigrade by the end of the century. The report indicated that a 4 
degree rise would mean a 10% loss in global food production due to 
drought, flooding and water shortages. While the world

[slowly wakes] was slowly waking up to the magnitude of climate chaos, 
Shell and Exxon Mobil announced <a 
href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/oil-f03.shtml">record-breaking 
profits</a>

[the previous week]. With the figures laid out so clearly, the 
nauseating hypocrisy spouted by corporations and politicians has spurred 
action across the country.

In London, environmental activists defaced a Shell Oil sponsored photo 
exhibition at the Natural History Museum and called on the museum to 
drop its greenwashing deal with the oil giant <a 
href="/en/2007/02/361416.html">(1)</a> <a 
href="/en/2007/02/361451.html">(2)</a>. The action follows the 
publication of Shell's 2006 record-breaking financial figures and the 
release of the IPCC report. At the same time, a group of Manchester 
climate activists <a href="/en/2007/02/361740.html">decorated the 
pavements</a> outside flight centres, petrol stations, supermarkets and 
a humvee garage with carbon footprints. This action was also to coincide 
with the the publication of the report. That very same week, in 
Edinburgh, a group of people under the guise of fictional company 
'Greenwash & Co', <a href="/en/2007/02/361349.html">did a satirical 
performance</a> at a talk being given by the

[current] then

UK minister for the environment, David Miliband, at Edinburgh 
University. The minister was

[then] later

pied in the face by a lone pie-bearer in an unrelated incident.

On 9th February, 30 climate activists shut down an ESSO petrol station 
on Upper Brook Street in Manchester for two hours, using bits of fencing 
and traffic cones. The action aimed to highlight the link between the 
oil industry and global warming. As a symbol against car culture, three 
people locked themselves with D-locks to bicycles. Two others were 
locked to concrete based signs. Two large banners were displayed reading 
“no.1 supplier, no.1 denier, no.1 profiteer” and “closed for denying 
climate change”. Read <a href="/en/2007/02/362253.html">feature 
article</a> for more. On the evening of Wednesday [evening, the] 21st,

[a number of] some

concerned Leeds and Bradford residents decided to <a 
href="/en/2007/02/362981.html">draw attention to the activities of a 
number of climate criminals</a> in Bradford city centre. Advertisements 
for damaging air flights were modified to tell the truth; that flying is 
the fastest growing cause of climate change, the “single greatest threat 
to human-kind”

Then, [mid

<b>March</b>,] mid-March,

local residents concerned at plans to increase congestion and pollution 
on the M1, paid a visit to 'one of the Climate Criminal Organisations 
involved'. They <a href="/en/2007/03/366214.html">managed to stop the 
work</a> at the site near Mansfield for the morning. A few days later, 
in Bradford, <a href="/en/2007/03/366664.html">a polar bear visited a 
number of travel agents</a>, and the Thomas Cook call centre in 
Bradford, to ask if they would kindly stop destroying his habitat. Also 
see <a href="/en/2007/04/367345.html">feature article</a>.

April was probably one of the busiest months in terms of climate 
action. It started off with the Campaign Against Climate Change's 
'Expose Exxon Day' at the UK headquarters of the world's largest oil 
company. Around 100 people turned up on a gloriously sunny Good Friday 
at ExxonMobil (Esso)'s UK headquarters in Leatherhead, Surrey for an 
Easter action organised by Campaign Against Climate Change. The vigil 
and protest ran for 24 hours, starting from Thursday early evening. 
There was a chilled-out festival vibe on Friday, with colourful costumes 
and banners, live acoustic music, speakers, poetry, food stalls and 
face-painting. See <a href="/en/2007/04/367221.html">article</a> for 
photos and more.

The folks in Nottingham took things a bit further. A busy week of 
workshops, gigs and actions around the issue of climate change took 
place in the city. Under the banner of 'Spring into Action' it showcased 
practical solutions to climate change. From workshops on bike 
maintenance, local food production, community compost projects and 
strawbale building to concerts and performances, it was an action- 
packed week. It also acted as a showcase for existing projects in 
Nottingham including Country Parks, allotment projects and the 
Attenborough Nature Reserve. A lot of the events took place at the (for 
the occasion) occupied former lace factory, also known as the J.B. Spray 
factory. See <a href="/en/2007/04/367046.html">feature article</a> for 
more info and numerous photolinks. It didn't just

[stick to] stop at

workshops though...

On the last day of the week, climate activists from around the East 
Midlands managed to stop some operations at Radcliffe on Soar Power 
Station after climbing onto conveyor belts and dumper trucks inside the 
plant. The power station is located just outside Nottingham and is the 
3rd biggest emitter of CO2 emissions in the UK. The owner of the plant, 
E-On, said operations ran as normal and that their environmental record 
is good with aiming to be a clean coal-fired power station. However, a 
spokeswoman for the protesters said: "Putting pressure on individuals to 
reduce emissions when companies like E.ON are profiting from this 
polluting industry is obscene and irresponsible. We should not be 
burning coal in the 21st century." The blockade lasted for 3 hours and 
11 people were arrested, all of whom were later released. The action got 
quite a bit of media attention and re-highlighted the coal issue, which 
was the main issue during the climate camp back in August. Read the <a 
href="/en/2007/04/367623.html">feature article</a> about the action 
(with photos) and listen to the <a 
href="/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/04/368441.html">audio piece</a>. 
The whole Spring Into Action week was organised by <a 
href="http://www.eastsideclimateaction.org.uk/">Eastside Climate 
Action</a>, Nottingham's climate action network.

In May it was <a href="/en/2007/07/375044.html">announced</a> 
that the 2007 edition of the Climate Camp would take place at Heathrow 
Airport. 'There will be a day of mass direct action aiming to disrupt 
the activities of the airport and the aviation industry, but in the 
interests of public safety there will be no attempt to blockade runways. 
Although the location is different, the philosophy of the camp remains 
the same: to be a place for the burgeoning network of people taking 
radical action on climate change around the country to come together for 
a week of low-impact living, education, debate, networking, 
strategising, celebration, and direct action. The camp will feature over 
100 workshops covering topics such as climate change impacts, carbon 
offsetting, biofuels, peak oil, permaculture, practical renewables, 
campaign strategy, skills for direct action, and much more. Run without 
leaders by everyone who comes along, it will be a working ecological 
village using renewable energy, composting waste and sourcing food 
locally.'

On the 14th May, activists marked the 10th anniversary of Tony Blair 
coming to power by visiting his best friends in industry to highlight 
the revolving door between Labour and the aviation industry and his 
failure to tackle climate change. A team of protestors from climate 
action group Plane Stupid <a href="/en/2007/05/370623.html">blockaded 
the ‘revolving door’ to BAA’s Heathrow HQ</a> to oppose government and 
industry plans for airport expansion. The activists chained up the front 
doors to the offices and dumped copies of the science of climate change, 
reports from the UN and from the Tyndall Centre, into the reception 
area. The activists pledged not to allow the staff out until they’ve 
read the science.

On the 18th May, a local resident

became

so fed up with Leeds/Bradford Airport's irresponsible climate terrorism

[has] that she

glued herself to the front door - and took the opportunity to spread the 
word about just how damaging and selfish flying is. Read <a 
href="/en/2007/05/370975.html">full article</a>.

On the 10th June, as part of the International Day of Action 
Against Climate Change and the G8, action took place around the world. 
See <a href="/en/2007/06/373303.html">article</a> for more info and 
links.

On the afternoon of Saturday 16th June, climate campaigners glued 
themselves to the doors of the short-haul East Midlands airport to draw 
attention to the environmental impacts of flying as part of a European 
day of action on short-haul flights called by pressure group Airport 
Watch. Two men from climate action group, Plane Stupid,

[have]

caused disruption by superglueing themselves to the passenger entrances 
to the airport. Supporters

[are there handing] handed

out leaflets to airport customers encouraging them not to fly next time, 
and a banner carried by helium-filled balloons was also released in the 
departure lounge bearing the slogan ‘Let’s fry’. See <a 
href="/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/06/373890.html">feature 
article</a> for photos and more.

Around the same time, the government's chief scientist warned that for 
the UK, flash floods were likely to be the biggest immediate problem 
caused by global warming. David King told a committee of MPs that the 
country would have to prepare for extreme weather such as heatwaves and 
"torrential downpours". Two weeks later, widespread flooding occurred 
throughout the United Kingdom. Large areas are counting the cost of the 
worst flooding this country has seen for over 50 years. The floods of 
June and

[<b>July</b>] July

have resulted in the deaths of a number of people. The flooding affected 
thousands of businesses, tens of thousands of homes and further affected 
up to a million people. The rescue operation was set to be the largest 
domestic operation of the armed forces since the second world war. 
Experts agree that the severe storms and flooding will <a 
href="/en/2007/07/375000.html">become more frequent</a> as temperatures 
rise. See <a 
href="/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/07/374802.html">feature 
article</a> for photos and more.

Even despite Oxford being badly hit by recent floods, activists from the 
town <a href="/en/regions/oxford/2007/07/377181.html">unfurled a massive 
banner</a> from one of the oldest and most iconic buildings in Oxford. 
The action took place on 28th July and 'promoted the Camp for Climate 
Action' as well as 'satirising the Oxford City Council logo (an ox 
crossing a ford)'. The banner stayed put for over two hours.

Recently on the newswire: <a href="/en/2007/08/377488.html">BAA 
injunction judge is also a potential defendant</a> | <a 
href="/en/2007/08/377485.html">BAA Injunction: What Happened At Court 
Today</a> | <a href="/en/2007/07/377055.html">Are you a member of the 
National Trust?</a> | <a href="/en/2007/07/377037.html">Heathrow seek 
ridiculous injunction against potentially millions of people</a> | <a 
href="/en/2007/07/377036.html">BAA Heathrow Injunction Targets NGOs and 
Climate Camp! Huge Implications...</a> | <a 
href="/en/2007/07/377010.html">British Airports Authority running scared 
over Climate Camp</a>

Related feature articles: <a 
href="/en/2007/07/376910.html">Heathrow 3rd Runway: Flying in the face 
of public opinion</a> | <a href="/en/2007/06/373890.html">Climate 
activists glued to doors at East Midlands Airport</a> | <a 
href="/en/2007/05/371418.html">Climate Camp To Target Heathrow</a> | <a 
href="/en/2007/02/361610.html">Two Days of Action Target Climate 
Criminals</a> | <a href="/en/2006/12/358491.html">Court rejects ASBOS 
for airport activists</a> | <a href="/en/2006/11/355335.html">Plane 
Stupid's Day of Action</a> | <a 
href="/en/2006/09/351521.html">Protesters occupy runway at East Midlands 
Airport</a>

Help out: This overview is far from complete. If you spot 
anything that you think should be included, please send the article link 
to notts at indymedia dot org. Cheers.