Climate change & climate action

Could it really be done? Could over 700 people - many of whom had never met before - not only build and manage a massive camp site on the perimeter of Heathrow, whilst organising a day of mass direct action against the aviation industry, but do so using participatory, consensus decision-making?

This was the utopian vision outlined in the pre-publicity for the `Camp for Climate Action', and from what I saw as a participant during days three to five the answer was yes.

Arriving…

“War is still the issue”

Voices in the Wilderness UK and others behind last October's No More Fallujahs camp are organising an unauthorised peace camp in Parliament Square (23-28 June) to mark Tony Blair's departure from office.
The organisers say: “Unless we step up our resistance it will be business as usual with Tweedlebrown after Tweedleblair: more war, more terror, more nukes and more restrictions on civil liberties. Celebrate Blair's departure and demand the withdrawal of all…

The Bush Administration was dealt another blow over Iraq in April after three of its top generals turned down a new high-profile post tasked with overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The retired generals were approached by the White House but rejected the job, with one citing the chaotic way the war was being run as the reason for his decision.
Climate activists have once again been busy in the East Midlands area -- this time disrupting work at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-…

In equal measures: hope and despair

This March marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the start of the long-term military and economic occupation.

Tens of thousands of civilians and more than 3,000 coalition soldiers have been killed; thousands more have been horrifically wounded. Over the past four years people have lost their homes, their livelihoods, their families and their minds. Iraqi society is in ruins and the occupiers' political stability is on a…

Over fifty years ago, the peace movement burst into life in response to the very real threat posed by nuclear weapons. Mass collective action - from Aldermaston to Greenham Common - was successfully used to wake up the world to the madness of the cold war and the arms race.

Today, it is widely agreed that climate change is the greatest threat facing humanity. A new generation is mobilising to confront the root causes of this danger and to create a space for the radical social change…

I first met Plane Stupid in November 2005, at a protest outside a conference gala dinner for aviation executives on London's TowerBridge.

I was struck by the juxtaposition of coach-loads of radicalised grannies from local airport residents' opposition groups standing side by side with the young climate change activists who had broken up the conference earlier that day with an inspired combination of balls [ovaries?] and brains. This looked interesting...

At the Camp…

Congratulations to local campaigners working to stop the planned Stansted airport expansion. At a packed local planning meeting on 29 November, Uttlesford District Council voted unanimously against the plans of airport operator BAA, which would have seen an additional 80,000 flights per year. Speaking after the decision, Peter Sanders of the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign said, “BAA's plans would have had an appalling impact on this predominantly rural area, as well as generating the…

In Heat, George Monbiot attempts to construct what too few thinkers have attempted until now - a solution to climate change.

Refreshingly, he spends little time on the problem itself, declaring (correctly) that the debate on the science is over. Rather, the question is how we now deal with the greatest threat faced by humankind. Pointing out that current scientific estimates predict that the UK will need to cut its CO2 emissions by around 90% by 2030 - a far greater cut than…

Speaking in 1994 on the likely global conflict trends for the next 30 years, Professor Paul Rogers of the Bradford Peace Studies Department was astute to recognise the relationship between environmental resources, climate change and conflict. He wrote: “... It is probable that environmental conflict will escalate. This may be local or regional, on issues such as food, land, or water, and global on issues such as energy and mineral resources and transnational pollution. The Gulf War was an…

Established: The campaign was founded in 2001 by Phil Thornhill as a response to the growing urgency of climate change action.
Aims and Objectives: Its aim is, firstly, the ratification of the Kyoto protocol by all nations - including those who have refused to sign: the United States and Australia. This is, however, only the first step. The world's governments must be encouraged to adopt a sustainable energy policy that does not allow the rampant polluting of the biosphere with carbon…

Twenty-four activists from aviation campaign group Plane Stupid were arrested on 24 September after occupying an operational taxiway at Nottingham's East Midlands airport.

Calling airports “carbon factories”, a Baptist minister lead the airport shutdown protest against climate change. In a press release, the group made clear that safety was paramount during the action - hence a taxi-way rather than runway occupation - and said that the police had been immediately notified that this…

As PN went to press, activists from climate change group Reclaim Power had blocked the main entrance to the Hartlepool nuclear power plant in Teesside.

Using locks and other equipment, six activists successfully closed the main entrance and unfurled a large banner with the words “No More” on 29 August. The action was in response to government and nuclear industry plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations and coincided with the Climate Action Camp. The camp…

Are you feeling the shadow of climate chaos breathing a little closer this spring? Even the government's own chief scientist has agreed it is the biggest challenge we face. The current trajectory of our fossil-fuel burning society is preparing a disaster on a scale which is pretty indescribable. Not only is it an ecological disaster, but the growing fight for resources is the major reason behind most of the world's current wars...

Given all this, one might wonder why there has been…

On Saturday 3 December, around 10,000 people marched through London to demand urgent action on climate change. This was part of a global protest taking place in more than 30 countries, demanding urgent action from world leaders at the Montreal Climate Talks - and specifically for the US and Australia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Hundreds braved the rain to turn out for a march in Edinburgh, with participants reporting a very positive mood: one marcher commented, “I think we where all…

While most shareholders, hypnotised by the surfeit of friendly green BP logos, by the thought of ever-greater dividends, and by the prospect of a free lunch, brushed aside warnings (both personal and planetary) and marched into the meeting, at least two shareholders…