World Climate Chaos Feature Archive

Last week (see SchNEWS 753) we covered the protests against the sell-off of the Forest of Dean. But the implications of the Public Bodies Bill for the Forestry Commission  go a lot further than that.  Essentially the Tory’s are planning (in time-honoured fashion) to flog off the family silver and privatise forests up and down the country. The sale is intended to raise £2bn - less than half of one years tax avoidance by Vodafone.

Links: www.saveourforests.co.uk | www.facebook.com/Save-Britians-Forests | www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests | www.saveourforests.co.uk/map-of-forests-up-for-sale | www.handsoffourforest.org

Local campaigns we know about: Staffordshire | Exeter | Nottinghamshire | East Anglia | Gloucestershire

In SchNEWS:SchNEWS 753

Over 3,000 anti-nuclear protesters took part in the blockading of a shipment of nuclear waste into north-western Germany this week. After activists and local communities spent four days blocking them at every turn, the toxic containers finally arrived at their Gorleben destination on Tuesday (2nd).

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

In SchNEWS: 2008 | 2001 | 1998 | 1996 |

In response to America's largest ever environmental disaster, Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, said, “I'd like my life back.” He seemed to have forgotten about the 11 workers who died on BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, on 20th April 2010.

Links: ragingpelican.wordpress.com

This Saturday (15th) people will be protesting at various places around central London to give the new 'stable, national interest' coalition a warm welcome.

SchNEWS gives a round-up of all the events taking place over the weekend to get your action-hungry teeth stuck into.

This time last year, few people in the UK had even heard of the Alberta Tar Sands. Now they are moving rapidly up the public agenda, thanks largely to a growing grassroots campaign of resistance and international solidarity. The latest example of this has been the national “Fortnight of Shame” (April 1st- 15th 2010) to oppose BP's planned involvement in the tar sands, which came to a head on Saturday 10th with protests in London, Oxford, Brighton and Cambridge, including a Party at the Pumps in Sheperds Bush, and which culminated on Thursday 15th April with the BP + Tar Sands = Climate Crime protest outside the BP Shareholders AGM at the ExCel Conference Centre.

IMC UK Newswire articles: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ]

For further information: [ UK Tar Sands Network | UKTSN Blog | Rising Tide UK | Camp for Climate Action | Indigenous Environmental Network ]

IMC UK: Tar Sands Topic

As the politicians and protesters disperse from Copenhagen , the COP15 climate talks were judged to have ended in a failure to produce any binding commitment to tackle climate change. On Saturday 12th, an estimated 100 000 joined a demo, to be met with repressive policing and mass arrests. The same style of policing continued for the duration of the summit, with hundreds of protestors detained for hours in degrading and inhumane conditions. Whilst the police demonstrated the limits of freedom and democracy on the streets, inside the convention centre western powers and corporations dominated the proceedings, imposing unfair conditions and watering down the already inadequate proposals that were on the table.

In London, the Climate Camp which was set up after the 'wave' demo on December 5th, remained in situ in Trafalgar Square throughout the summit, mounting a number of actions, including an action against Tar Sands at Canada House on Monday 14th, and a protest against the Danish police on Thursday 17th.

Links:
Time Line | Climate IMC | IMC Denmark | iCOP15 aggregated site.

Climate Rush activists gathered outside RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), Thursday 5th March to protest the incredible multi million pound pay out to Fred (the shred) Goodwin, former RBS Chief Executive, and more importantly, the banks continuing role in funding the climate changing industries of coal, gas and oil. Posting the largest losses in British corporate history, RBS lost £24.1 billion in 2008 and has since had billions of pounds of taxpayers' money pumped into it. Already the largest bailout to date, the government has agreed to inject a further £13 billion on top of the £20 billion already given, and to make a further £6 billion available. While the tax payer now owns at least 70% of its shares, the bank continues to operate as a private company,

On the same day as the Climate Rush demo outside RBS, the Bank of England reduced the base interest rate to 0.5% and announced the printing of £100 billion pounds of new cash to inject into the stalled economy. Next month, the G20 leaders (G22 to be more precise) will arrive in London to discuss further ways to get the poor to bail out the rich. Various groups are mobilizing to protest against the summit which the police are co-promoting as part of a 'summer of rage'.

The G20 Meltdown group say they're going to reclaim the City, 'thrusting into the very belly of the beast', with a four pronged assault on the Bank of England at noon on 1st April. That afternoon, as part of a series of actions leading up to the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen, the Camp for Climate Action aim to expose how the discredited market mechanisms are being sold as a solution to climate change and are planning a climate camp in the city close the the Carbon Trading Exchange.

Links : Climate Rush target RBS Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | LCAP occupies RBS | Quantitive Easing | Corporate Undead | Image From The Future | Bristol Dissent g20 Call Out | Climate Camp hits the city | Press Complaint over G20 article | RBS boss pension | Arrogance of Capitalism | Environmental silver lining? | Climate chaos meets economic chaos | Bash a Billionaire | Doubt of global financial crisis? | Origins of the Credit Crunch | Summer of rage? | Demand for energy falling | Climate Crimes Delayed | Dissident Island Economic Special | "Pro-Capitalist" Mobilisation Video

Mass harrassment, terror tactics, theft, lies and propaganda, excessive force: the relentless campaign of intimidation by police at this years Climate Camp that started with raiding the camp and confiscating essential equipment, has also now included the premeditated political use of blanket stop and search, night-time terrorising of the climate camp site, confiscating pushbikes, blockading food supplies, and harrassment of media and legal observers.

Late Tuesday night/very early Wednesday morning police attempted to terrorise the camp with a low-flying helicopter and by storming the gates with sirens blaring and riot cops shouting. The same night police cut locks and took away bikes after telling people to leave their bikes in the car park. From the beginning the police used excessive force against climate campers (photos) including women, children and legal observers. See newswire post on police bullying.

Links: Climate Camp website | Full Climate Camp 2008 Coverage | the very latest: Climate Camp timeline

Over the weekend of 3-4 Feb 2007, 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) report released on Friday, which warned of world temperature rises of over 6C 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 draught, flooding, water shortages. While the world slowly wakes up to the magnitude of climate chaos, Shell and Exxon Mobil last week announced record breaking profits. With the figures laid out so clearly, the nauseating hypocrisy spouted by corporations and politicians has spurred action from Paris to Aberdeen.

Links Press release for oil spill action | action report, photos & video | another video | Shell sponsorship background
Other actions Glasgow | Edinburgh | Plane Stupid | Greenpeace
Coming up Protest against ESSO, 9th Feb | Spring into Action
Climate Camp 2006 indymedia page | website | 2007 Camp 14-21st August | next organising meeting 17-18th Feb