I'd like to meet:
You!DEMONSTRATION AT HEATHROW MAY 31ST 2008
Stop the third runway at Heathrow! Stop Heathrow expansion! Stop the runaway growth in aviation ! Tell the government to get real on climate change and prevent a climate catastrophe!Join a Spring Carnival of Resistance to Airport Expansion !See more details at the Carnival-Demo website - www.make-a-noise.orgStart time 12.00 noon. Assembly point Hatton Cross(Picadilly Line tube station). There will be a a carnival style march to a festival-style event at Sipson (the village which will be destroyed if the 3rd runway goes ahead). This will include the creation the world's biggest "NO" - spelt out in human bodies..SATURDAY 8th DECEMBER
NATIONAL CLIMATE MARCH
GLOBAL DAY OF ACTIONThe London demonstration was a huge success. Despite rain, wind and freezing weather, about 10,000 people turned up to show their support.There was good media coverage, with the march featuring on the front pages of the Sunday Times and the Independent on Sunday, and good reports from the BBC.At the same time protests were held in over 50 countries, with over 10,000 participants in Taiwan and Germany.
Thank you to the thousands of climate change protesters in London and around the world for being a part of this global event.To see the BBC coverage use this link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7134060.stmTo see photos of the national climate march in London use this link:http://gallery.globalclimatecampaign.org/d8londonTo see photos of global action use this link:http://gallery.globalclimatecampaign.org/d8globalCampai
gn against Climate Change:
Top Floor,
5 Caledonian Road,
London N1 9DX, Telephone:
02078339311,
07903316331.For further information and to donate please contact infocampaigncc.org.Campaign against Climate Change is part of the
Stop Climate Chaos coalition.FOR INFORMATION ON ACTION OUTSIDE THE UK PLEASE VISIT WWW.GLOBALCLIMATECAMPAIGN.ORG
Movies:
..
Books:
BOOKSGeorge Monbiot 'Heat'WEBSITESwww.climatecrisis.netwww.climatecare.orgwww.ri singtide.org.ukwww.coinet.org.ukwww.cred-uk.orgwww.foe.co.uk www.global-cool.com/enwww.greenpeace.org.uk/climatewww.iied. org/CC/index.htmlwww.stopclimatechaos.org/66.asp
Heroes:
LATEST NEWS"How can we win the race against climate catastrophe?"Thursday November 8th, saw the Friends Meeting House packed out for a tremendous Public meetingSpeakers were George Monbiot, author and journalist, John Sauven, Director of Greenpeace UK, Sophie from the Camp for Climate Action and Phil Thornhill, National Coordinator, Campaign against Climate Change.National Campaign Planning Meeting for December 8th demo and CCC AGM, October 6thThe meeting in the Old Library at St Marys Chuch, Oxford, saw a well-filled venue and featured addresses from Mark Lynas (at the beginning) and George Marshall (to wind up). There was some lively discussion and very positive brainstorming sessions when we split into groups to discuss outreach to various sectors and some 'projects' to build for the 8th December demo. The new, more formalised, Constitution was also accepted (see http://www.campaigncc.org/CCC_NationalConstitution_draft_18s
ept07.doc) and a new Steering Committee elected. Now its full steam ahead to the big day on the 8th !THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE IT :)On the first weekend of his premiership Gordon Brown was greeted with a demand to make Climate Change his priority and for a climate Bill that would be really effective. There were demonstrations in Manchester and in Parliament Square, London, demanding that the climate Bill have annual targets so that there could be no 'buck-passing' from one government to another and a target of at least 80% (rather than 60%) emissions reductions by 2050 - in line with the latest (rather than outdated) science.In Manchester Over 200 people braved torrential rain to attend Manchester's first Carnival against Climate Change. Speakers included Derek Wall (Male Principal Speaker of the Green Party,) Cllr Neil Swannick (Lead Councillor for the Environment, Manchester City Council,) Elaine Graham-Leigh (Environment Spokesperson for Respect) as well as Sage Smith and Kevin Maw from School Students against Climate Change. A large contingent of Congolese refugees joined the carnival in order to draw attention to the role of Western corporations in destroying the rainforest in the Congo - rainforest destruction being one of the major contributory factors towards climate change. See pictures here .In London Colin Challen MP addressed a gathering in Parliament square. This was after a mock "coronation" of Gordon Brown in which he inherited the Blair 'legacy' of a rise in UK CO2 emissions of 2%. Colin Challen was joined by Aubrey Meyer, of the Global Commons Institute, and both insisted that 'Contraction and Convergence' (a global framework for reducing emissions in an equitable way) should get a mention in the Bill. Also speaking were Phil Thornhill for the CCC emphasising the importance of annual, effectively reviewable and enforceable, targets and Lucy Wills, in mermaid costume, to remind us that the disastrous floods we were seeing now could just be the beginning......we'd all be joining the mermaids underwater soon unless we get our act together on climate change fast.In Sheffield 40 cyclists braved the rain, cycling round Sheffield city centre, some in wetsuits, some as clowns, and with banners and a wind turbine drawing attention to the urgency of addressing climate change. The cyclecade was organised by Sheffield Campaign Against Climate Change, launching a petition calling on Sheffield City Council to implement a Carbon Reduction Plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the whole city by at least 6% a year. Speakers, who included Green Councillor Bernard Little, Maxine Bowler from Respect, Liddy Goyder from Friends of the Earth and Richard Spooner from Christian Aid, all emphasised the urgency of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to stop the worst effects of climate change both for Sheffield and the world. They called for practical measures such as integrated and affordable public transport and home insulation. Many passers-by signed the petition which will be presented to Sheffield City Council in October.INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CONFERENCESaturday May 12th and Sunday May 13th at the London School of Economics, Houghton Streeet, London WC2. Organised in partnership by the Campaign against Climate Change,
the London School of Economics and LSE's Centre for
Environmental Policy and Governance.The Conference was a great success - providing an amazing range of high quality seminars and workshops for those attending. A broad range of views, and differing political perspectives was provided at the Saturday Plenary whilst the International Plenary on the Sunday ( a new departure since last year's Conference), with its line up of 12 fantastic speakers from all around the globe - was a real treat, a unique eye-opener of an experience not to be missed : you simply could not come away from it without having a different and much deeper perspective on what climate change really means for people all round the world.The Saturday Planary : Mark Lynas speaking, Norman Baker MP, Cllr Rania Khan, Jean lambert MEP, Isa Fremuaux, George Marshall, Agnes de Rooij, Phil Thornhill, l to r seated.The speakers included Colin Challen MP (Lab); Norman Baker MP (Lib Dem); Jean Lambert MEP (Green); Mark Lynas; George Marshall, Co-direcor COIN; Hans-Josef Fell, German Green MP ; Agnes de Rooij, Greenpeace International; Benedict Southworth, Director World Development Movement; Oras Tynkkynen, Finnish Green MP; Mayer Hillman, Policy Studies Institute; Matthias Seiche, FOE Germany; Sible Schone, Hier Kampagne Netherlands; Amit Srivistava, India Resource Centre; Jeff Ridley Hadley Centre; Joss Garman, Plane Stupid; David Wasdell, Meridian Project; Dr Stuart Parkinson, Director, Scientists for Global Responsibility; Mark Bossanyi, Climate Action Bulgaria Coalition; Tom Stokes, Climate Crisis Coalition USA; Ichin Cheng, Taiwan Climate Campaign; Sharon Looremeta, Practical Action Kenya; Dr David Fleming; Wael Hmaidan, Director, IndyAct (Lebanon); Mayte Blasco NOE2, Switzerland; Jason Torrance, Transport 2000; Mike Fairchild, Stop Stansted Expansion; Judith Kill, FERN; Dr Cath Long, Rainforest Foundation; Paige Mitchell, Slower Speeds; Paul Brannen, Christian Aid; Marion Birch, MEDAC; John Lanchbery, RSPB; Larry Lohman, Corner House; Kevin Smith, Carbon Trade Watch; Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch; Claire Fauset, Marc Hudson, Climate Camp; Phil Thornhill, Coordinator CCC; Dave Hampton, Carbon Coach; Neale Upstone, Global Commons Institute; Muzammal Hussain, London Islamic Network for the Environment; Christian Ecology Link; Dr Susan Roaf, Low Carbon Cities Initiative; Rising Tide; Chris Rose, campaignstrategy.org; Jonathan Neale; Guy Taylor, Globalise Resistance; Elaine Graham-Leigh, RESPECT environment spokesperson; Rhania Khan, RESPECT councillor; Derek Wall, Green party Principal Speaker; Solitaire Townsend, Futerra; Planet Positive; Simon Retallack, Institute of Public Policy Research; Gerry Wolff, TREC; Peter Lockley, Airport Watch; Nick Rau, FOE; Greenpeace UK, People and Planet and more....There were 2 Major plenaries: The Need for Action on Saturday & Climate Campaigning around the World on Sunday.There were seminars & workshops on: Climate Science How bad, how fast?; Climate Change and Developemnt; Climate Change, the biggest issue of Global Justice and human rights ?; Green Taxes vs Carbon Rationing; CC & Aviation; CC & Transport; Solutions; Raising Awareness in Eastern Europe; CC & workers rights; Personal action; Contraction & Convergence; CC & Health; CC & Faith; Can we avoid dangerous CC & maintain growth ?; Carbon Trading; CC & Biodiversity; Bio-fuels; Future of Coal; Climate Disinformation; Nuclear: another energy is possible; CC & Deforestation; CC & the GLA; CC& Islam; Peak Oil; Carbon Trading; How to get a strong Climate Bill; Prospects for the Bali Talks and the Kyoto process post 2012; The Climate Camp; Carbon offsets, the debate; China and India, the emissions time bomb; Climate Campaigning in the Arab World and more....***EXPOSE EXXON DAY***
"Die-in" at the gates of ExxonMobil UK headquarters, near Leatherhead Surrey, on Good Friday April 6th, the day of the release of the "Climate Impacts" section of the IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change) report, which outlined the devastating effects unchecked climate change will have on the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.We brought our anger at Exxon's cynical campaign of disinformation on climate change right up to the gates of their UK HQ for 24 hours, from 5.00pm Thursday 5th to 5.00 pm Good Friday April 6th. It started with a lonely 2 protestors putting together our 'globe-in-a greenhouse' under the scrutiny of the assembed forces of the law drawn up to defend the corporate miscreant in anticipation of our (moral) assault. Then there were tree climbing antics to string up our giant banner with the message "Climate Disinformation Kills", as more demonstrators arrived to leaflet the departing workers and blast out our message via megaphone. As the night drew in the curtain-sided truck for the stage arrived and a small band of overnighters from all around the country could gather within to stare out the defenders of the Exxon compex, with their floodlights, on the other side of the barrier. Later another gathering formed around a campfire in a lonely copse by moonlight, before collapsing into sleeping bags as the candles of the all-night vigil burned on.In the morning the Nathalie Koerfer breakfast-van swung into operation as protesters stirred into life or trickled into our 'protest camp' from Leatherhead railway station. Lining the barrier in front of the Exxon complex, by now, were cut-out heads of the numerous stooges that make up the 'hydra' of the Exxon climate disnformation network. Phil Thornhill then took a few of these to illustrate his talk on just a small selection from the Exxon catalogue of 'dirty tricks'. Numbers, slow to build at first, now began to increase as the 'Brixton Tea Party' arrived to keep them all refreshed. Duncan Law gave a seminar on 'reducing personal carbon foorprints' while Cornelius gave us a musical interlude. Soon it was time for speeches - from Derek Wall, Green Party Principal Speaker(1 of 2) and Elaine Graham-Leigh, environment spokesperson from the RESPECT party. These were interrupted by wild clapping to greet the arrival of the cyclist party from London - which had been marauding 'Esso' garages en route, and then, later, the hard-core band of cyclists all the way from Brighton. After the speeches came the 'mass moment' when everybody lay flat for a symbolic 'die-in' in front of the Exxon gates to illustrate the deadly imacts of climate change (as substantiated by the UN report) - and more specifically the deadly impact of Exxon's campaign to delay effective action to deal with climate change. Extra poignancy was given to this by Chris Bluemel's melancholy violin solo - sufficient to dispel for a few moments the busy clamour of the present reality and allow a frightening comtemplation of the depth of the climate crisis we face. Shane Collins, veteran environmental campaigner and Green Party stalwart, then delivered us back to the present and the politics of what we can do now to resolve the crisis. There was performance poetry, too, from Dennis just Menis and Grassy Knoll, as well as a lively number to jig to from Chris on the violin. Phil returned to wrap up the speeches by reminding everyone of the very real damage done by Exxon and the need for our campaign to continually confront those with most power and most responsibility for blocking progress or failing to take action to deal with the huge threat to humanity posed by the climate crisis.The protest on this beautiful bright Spring day then gradually wound down as musicians Sarah Behr and Rob arrived late, yet again, but rewarded those who had stayed the full course. The small bunch of lively dancers reluctantly terminated proceedings as the truck had to be driven away and the gear packed up. But a few ballons remained stuck in the trees with the message: "Exxon's Lies Kill".Public Meeting, London, Monday March 5th, 7.00 pm :"Is ExxonMobil the World's Worst Climate Criminal?"Hosted by SOAS Green GroupThis was a lively, well-attended meeting, held on the Vernon Square campus of the School of African and Oriental studies. First to speak was Mika Mina Paluello, from Platform , who filled us in with details about the curent status of ExxonMobil's oil business, and the massive investment they have made in finding new oil reserves - an investment they are determined to protect at all costs. Next was Claire Fauset, from Corporate Watch, who explained why she thought "genocide" might not be an inappropriate term to describe the impacts of Exxon's climate disinformation campaign over the last ten years or more. She went on to say that now that we were winning the argument about the seriousness of the climate threat we had to face the problem of the "decoy" - that is things that purported to be part of the solution - like carbon "offsetting" - but which were really nothing of the sort.Brief contributions followed from Derek Wall, principal speaker of the Green Party who reminded us that the people who were "murdering the planet had names and addresses" (as in the famous quote) and Martin Empson from Respect, who emphasised the need for a popular movement to force governments and companies to act. Jeremy Legget, Director of 'Solar Century' and author of "The Carbon War" and "Half gone", then returned the focus squarely onto Exxon and their misdeeds over the last ten years and his personal experience of their devious manouevres. He emphasised that campaigning against them had had results and that in certain areas they were already on the retreat.Phil Thornhill (CCC national coordinator) emphasised that even if they were no longer "denying' climate change Exxon (and the people they funded) were still dangerously undermining the arguments for action, in other ways - like suggesting we did not need mandatory emissions cuts because "new technologies" would solve the problem. He also drew everyone's attention to the demo at Exxon HQ on Good Friday and said that all creative contributions to this would be really welcome. Then the floor was open for discussion until Chris Huhne MP - the Lib Dem shadow environment secretary - arrived. He had been expected late because of a vote in parliament, but was now able to tell us about his personal experience of Exxon, who, in a personal phone call to him, had tried to discredit the author of a letter written on behalf of the Royal society, criticising Exxon's funding of climate disinformation. Chris Huhne went on to outline some of the Lib Dem plans for tackling climate change and, once the floor was open, a lively debate ensued with different political approaches exlored and various aspects of climate policy explored. Jeremy Legget argued the need for "positive feedback loops" between consumers and companies while Claire Fauset and Derek Wall were sceptical about whether companies would ever really be part of the solution. What was apparent, above all, however was that people from a very wide spectrum of differing views were united in their abhorrence of ExxonMobil's climate disinformation record. The vigorous debate was chaired - with his usual Solomonic wisdom - by Nick Hutton.All in all a lively and interesting evening before participants retired to the Golden Lion and/or to consider their imaginitive contibution to the great Day of Anti-Exxon Action on Good Friday.Wednesday 15th NovemberThe demo was on the evening before the Queen's Speech. There was a Climate Bill announced in the Queen's Speech. The Friends of the Earth "Big Ask" campaign has been pushing for annual emissions reductions targets of 3% (as proposed in the associated Early Day motion 178), but David Milliband and the government have so far been opposing the proposal for annual targets. Given the record of increasing emissions levels under this government so far we must have the discipline of ANUAL targets or they will simply put off making the tough decisions that need to be made. Blair himself has said we only have 10 years to act so if we have ten yearly targets we only need to miss them once and then………….We were pleased to have Luis Evelis Andreade speaking. Luis is the president of the National Indigenous People's Organisation of Columbia. He spoke of the urgent need to tackle this issue, especially so as not to further diminish the livelihoods of peoples in poorer countries. Speaking at the event was Nic Hutton from the campaign. Also speaking was Leo from Plane Stupid. Speeches were followed by chanting.The results have come in. The Queen did not demand for annual emissions cut as we had hoped. She however did propose:• placing the target to cut CO2 emissions by 60% from 1990 levels by 2050 on to the statute books• establishing an independent "Carbon Committee" to work with ministers to deliver reductions "over time and across the economy"• creating new powers to ensure the 2050 target is achieved• improving the way CO2 reductions are monitored and reported, including to Parliament**************************************************
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y 4th October 2006The Public Meeting on Global Climate Justice in the Conway Hall, on the evenng of Wednesday 4th October, was a great success.The star amongst the speakers was undoubtably George Monbiot who has just published his new book "Heat" in which he outlines how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2030.The speeches kicked off however with Benedict Southworth, Director of the World Development Movement who set the scene by outlining how climate change is rapidly becoming the major development issue. And its the rich industrialised countries to blame: did you know that Drax power station in Yorkshire emits - on its own - more than several African countries put together ? Next we had journalist Johann Hari's perspective on the issue - with some interesting information on climate change impacts in the Congo.Tony Kearns - standing in for Billy Hayes of the Communications Workers Union - gave a Union perspective on climate change - not something we hear that often.Claire Fauset organiser from the Drax Climate Camp and Protest - which attracted a lot of media attention this August - put the case for more Direct Action campaigning on climate change.Phil Thornhill , Coordinator of Campaign against Climate Change had a list of things that irritated him, but managed to say a few things about the likely devestaing impacts of climate change on the Global South at the same time.Finally George Monbiot - the man everyone had come to listen to - spoke with his usual eloquence and finished off by saying that though he had shown how it was possible to avoid runaway global warming it was up to us to produce the political pressure to make it happen !There followed a lively debate ably chaired by Romayne Phoenix with many good points from the floor. At the end most people felt it had been a great meeting and there was a feeling of exhiliration and empowerment to build November 4th into a really groundbreaking demo and to go on beyond that to build the really massive campaign we need in our struggle to prevent catastrophic climate change.Listen to George Monbiot's speech at climate.oneworldblogs.neta