Skip to content or view screen version

Climate Camp in Trafalgar Sq. Guided Tour of Climate Criminals 2pm

Peter Pannier | 06.12.2009 13:37 | COP15 Climate Summit 2009 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | South Coast | World

Last night - 5th Dec - after the Wave, Climate Camp swooped on Traflager SQ. Two tripods, a kitchen space, pedal-powered cinema and partying, and today, banner-making, workshops on the route causes of climate change, direct action planning and climate carol singing. Street dancing workshops, and a Guided Tour of surrounding Climate Criminals is to follow. Get on Down - bring a tent, your mates, and your workshops and direct action ideas! Copenhagen Cop15 - cop out! Camp out! Hoping to stay till the end of the conference...

Two tripods - with Nature Doesn't Do Bail Outs banner below Nelson's column.

Kitchen space - free/donation vegan food - breakfast 60p, lunch and dinner £2 each. All organic, and tasty too. Volunteer specialist chefs serving up fine food and good brew...

Yurt with Tipping Points Climate Art Exhibition...

Pedal-powered sounsystem and (last night only) cinema from Bicycology.

Loads of climate campers, mingling with tourists - spreading the word...

Great partying in the nightime with local alcohollically-challenged people

Media attention from ITV, Reuters, Evening Standard, GMTV Live tomorrow, and others.

Why are we here:

Because Copenhagen COP15 is not going to solve Climate Chaos.

"We didn't ask to be here - we're a direct action group demanding and creating solutions to greed-induced climate change" said a spokesperson.

"We use direct action to raise awareness & to bring about change - such as forcing e.on to reconsider Kingsnorth Coal-fired power station and BAA to run away from their plans for a 3rd runway at Heathrow"

Climate camp began with a camp at Drax coal-fired power station in 2006, with camps at Heathrow and Kingsnorth in 2007 and 2008.

Earlier his year, climate camp staked out ground on Blackheath common in London (site of the peasants revolt in 1381), and organised actions against targets in the city - focussing on the connections between capitalism and climate.

In October, climate campers 'swooped' on Ratcliffe coal power station, and now they've set up camp in Trafalgar Sq. This time the focus in on False Solutions to Climate Change - particularly market solutions such as carbon trading.

"We're here to highlight the chaos that will come from unchecked capitalism & greed. In particular the false promise of change being tabled at Copenhagen. Carbon Trading is not a solution to the greatest problem of our generation," said a spokesperson.

Come to Trafalgar Sq. anytime - people here hope to stay for the duration of the climate summit in copenhagen. If you can't get to Denmark, get to trafalgar...now! Bring your mates, and your ideas and workshops on climate change and what we need to do about it.

See www.climatecamp.org.uk and www.climate-justic-action.org

(more soon)

Peter Pannier
- Homepage: http://twitter.com/PeterPannier

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Can someone explain?

07.12.2009 10:36

Please could somebody explain the point/aim of this camp? Is it just supposed to be bringing more attention to the Cop15 through the media or something else? Did CCA go on the Wave march and hand out literature with a more radical analysis of climate crisis, cop15 etc?

Someone


yes and yes... to provide space for radical ideas and actions on cop15

08.12.2009 11:09

in brief, the idea as i understood it was to do something more interesting after the wave, to get a few people along involved in something more close to action rather than a to b marching, then to provide a (yes, media-friendly, but this is not the main purpose) space in the centre of london that is publicly stating as loudly as possible a radical critique of copenhagen from people who could not make it there. also a space from which to plan actions, and implicitly an action in itself (taking space into collective organisation, being very close to climate criminals such as canada house re tar sands etc). there was a lot of leaflets being handed out explaining critique of cop15 (basically, they won't sort it out, they never do or will, government and corporations and capitalism are the problems not the solutions, get involved in real collective and practical action), as well as the banners all around the square with the messages you would expect from climate camp (ie, Capitalism IS Crisis, Stop Coal, E.on = climate change, etc...)

They're still there as far as I know, and now I and others involved are in Copenhagen, hopefully direct communication and solidarity actions etc can be organised...

but really, if you want to know what it's about, and help make it the best it can be, then get down there and get involved...

"get off the internet, i'll see you in the streets..."

PP