April 15, 2008
From today, all petrol forecourts will be required by law to sell only fuel which is blended with 2.5% agrofuel. The answer to climate chaos you ask? Hardly. Corporations like Tesco are already jumping on the new “green” bandwagon, speaking little of the greater emissions, displacement, poverty and hunger that will be left in its path.
People from Bristol Rising Tide and Espacio Bristol-Colombia were joined by others to inform the public about this issue at Tesco in Eastville this afternoon. There was some interest in the issue from a number of passersby who were surprised that such a big change had been virtually unspoken about, but there’s little that consumers can do to avoid buying the product. The only answer to the energy crisis is a big shift in the way in which we live, travel and eat.
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Biofuels protesters disable fuel pumps
Agro-fuels protesters disabled the fuel pumps of two BP filling stations early this morning in opposition to mandatory blending of biofuels into petrol and diesel. Protesters argue that biofuels will worsen climate change, and cause food shortages.
Protesters have taken this action in Edinburgh as part of a national day of action against biofuels – April Biofools day – coinciding with the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation’s (RTFO) coming into force, making it a legal requirement to mix 2.5% biofuels into all petrol and diesel.
BP was targeted since it is a major investor in biofuels.
Biofuels are more appropriately called agrofuels, as far from being connected to natural, sustainable life they are made from crops grown on unsustainable monoculture plantations.
Far from being a green solution to greenhouse gas emissions, agrofuels drive climate change. Increased use of agrofuels has been promoted by governments as a possible way of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. However, there is evidence that the process of producing agrofuels hugely increases greenhouse gas emissions when deforestation, peatland destruction and nitrogen fertiliser-use are taken into account.
The production of agrofuels is causing large-scale deforestation which is likely to lead to a tipping point of irreversible rapid destruction of forests, which could mean the release of as much as 120 billion tonnes of CO2. Similarly, the expansion of palm oil production for agrofuels is leading to an acceleration of peat draining, which is likely overall to mean the release of 40 million tonnes of CO2. In addition, increased large-scale agriculture means increased use of fertilzers which mean the release of large amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Agrofuels are also a major threat to food supplies and food sovereignty. Increased demand for agrofuel crops is putting pressure on food prices, pushing more and more people below the breadline.
Agrofuel crops are being grown on monoculture plantations. The land for these is often violently seized by governments and corporations from the people who live and work on it. People displaced are forced to either go to join the growing numbers of people living in poverty on urban peripheries or, as happened in the 1970s, settle in a previously uninhabited area of rainforest, causing further ecological devastation to add to that already caused by the plantations themselves.
Agrofuels are being pursued by Western governments because they offer a non-Middle Eastern fuel source. This is unrelated to the need to combat climate change, and is instead based on maintaining neo-imperialist power.
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Lothian and Borders Police Harass a Peaceful Protest
Five members of the Edinburgh Clown Army (1) were detained for questioning this afternoon at a peaceful and entertaining biofuels protest in Bruntsfield(2). They have since been arrested and charged with a breach of the peace, despite maintaining a friendly atmosphere.
Eye-witnesses state that the biofuels demonstration was peaceful, friendly and party-like atmosphere.
Witnesses also state that the Clowns were friendly and entertaining, creating a comical and amusing ambiance for the protest.
Witnesses say that the Clowns gave no grounds for the police to charge them with a breach of the peace.
Police moved in in large numbers, surrounding the Clowns, filmed them, and took them one by one into the back of a police van.
They were taken to St Leonards Police Station for questioning, at which point they were charged with a breach of the peace.
The protest was part of the biofuels day of action, and took place at the BP garage in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh.
People who attended the demonstration are shocked and angered by the treatment the Clowns have received from the police.
This latest move from the police is part of an ongoing campaign of harassing peaceful demonstrators over the last six months. Three environmental campaigners were detained for questioning at 7.30 in the morning last month, including one of the Clowns who were targeted by the police on Tuesday.
They are due in court tomorrow, and the friends and relatives of those arrested will be turning up to support them.
Friends and relatives of those Clowns who were arrested urge the media to provide the pictures and videos that will help prove that they have been wrongfully arrested.
Notes:
(1) A comical and entertaining activist group that use humour and ridicule to challenge the status quo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_Insurgent_Rebel_Clown_Army
(2) The protest was called by Biofuels Watch to raise awareness about the negative impacts this fuel source has: calling for a an EU moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures. Agroenergy monocultures are linked to accelerated climate change, deforestation, the impoverishment and dispossession of local communities, bio-diversity losses, human rights abuses, water and soil degradation, loss of food sovereignty and food security. www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
Press Contact: Alex Cabb
Telephone: 07858723742
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Biofuel bannerdrop in Glasgow
Protesters against biofuels dropped a banner at Charing Cross today, to draw attention to the use of food to make petrol.
Biofuels are responsible for contributing to CO2 emissions, clearing rainforest and displacing subsistence farmers, and lead to higher food prices, causing riots in Haiti and many other parts of the world.
Turning food into fuel for cars is burning food which the world needs to feed its population, yet today a new law came into force that petrol must contain 2.5% biofuel, with this percentage rising over years. Hungry people are being sacrificed on the altar of the holy automobile.
www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
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Brighton Biofools Day Protest
A group of biofuel activists made a colourful banner and flyer tour of Brighton city centre and Sussex University on Tuesday raising awareness around a new law which came into affect as of yesterday. The RTFO or “Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation” has mandated 2.5% biofuels at British fuel pumps from April 15th, and thereby hugely increased UK consumption of biofuels.
Demonstration against the RTFO, April 15th
Amongst such headlines over the last fortnight as “Food shortages threaten to become the biggest crisis of the 21st century” the U.K. government has nevertheless conceded to EU plans to mandate massive amounts of biofuels into petrol and diesel across Europe. Environmentalists have warned for years that these EU targets will wreak havoc on the climate and food supplies, and eco-systems and people in the global South. These concerns are now echoed by senior scientists and policy makers. EU targets are set to increase to 10% by 2020.
Alison Freeman chair of the Environmental Society at Sussex University stated, “Our primary concern is to break the illusion the government and corporate sector is propagating of these fuels as “renewable”, “green” and “bio” which deliberately obfuscates the issue for the general public. Our message is simple: biofuels kill. The current system’s unyielding hunger to burn nature and humanitarian recourses in the engine of the capitalist machine will pull us all over the edge! We must stop Western economies internalising these fuels before it is too late”.
The Brighton biofuel protest was part of national reaction, with groups protesting across the country including Aberdeen, Bristol, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwhich and hundreds outside Downing Street in London. On the 6th of August a mass national action against agrofuels will take place as part of this year Climate Camp- see http://climatecamp.org.uk/agrofuels.php to get up date information.
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Protests to UK Prime Minister – Scrap Biofuel Targets / Scrap RTFO
Hundreds of people in London and groups across the UK held protests against the introduction of mandatory biofuel blending on April Biofools Day. A protest was held later outside Downing Street, with speakers from Colombia, Campaign against Climate Change, Friends of the Earth, Global Forest Coalition, GM Freeze and Biofuelwatch condemning the government’s decision to go ahead with their biofuel policy against overwhelming evidence of catastrophic impacts on climate, communities, biodiversity and food security.
Phil Thornhill of Campaign against Climate Change and Andrew Boswell of Biofuelwatch, in a joint statement, said “The RTFO or “Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation” will mandate 2.5% biofuels at British fuel pumps from April 15th, and thereby hugely increase UK consumption of biofuels. The government is demonstrating a perverse obstinacy in ploughing ahead with this despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that far from helping in the struggle to control climate change, biofuels will accelerate climate change, and are a major cause of an emerging global food crisis that is creating starvation and food riots in several countries.”
Play the Biofuel song on Global Food Crisis at: http://www.biofuelsong.com/music
A lunchtime protest was held outside the Department for Transport, Tuesday April 15th, April Biofools Day. Other protests were held outside the constituency offices of Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport, and Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, and at BP and Tesco fuel stations. BP and Tesco are two of the companies with significant investment in biofuels from large-scale monocultures, and which have been strongly lobbying for mandatory biofuel blending.
“The UK has chosen to ignore a vast mountain of evidence that biofuels are contributing to hunger, climate change, deforestation and human rights abuses,” said Dr. Rachel Smolker, main author of “The Real Cost of Agrofuels.” She continued, “Perhaps they are counting on new technologies using cellulose from wood and grasses, but these won’t sidestep the problems either. Whatever feedstocks are used will result in further expansion of industrial monocultures, possibly including Genetically Engineered trees. The bottom line is that there is a limited amount of land available, a large population to feed and a desperate need to preserve remaining biodiverse ecosystems. Instead of focusing on improving efficiency and reducing consumption, the UK is mandating further destruction.”
Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch adds: “Protests against the agrofuel industry and this government’s biofuel policies will not end today. The government is talking about vague ‘sustainability standards’, whilst agrofuels are causing ever greater harm to the climate, to forests and other ecosystems, to communities in the global South, to biodiversity worldwide, and to food sovereignty and food security. We need a moratorium on all agrofuel incentives and targets to prevent those catastrophic impacts.”
On 8th April, 29 UK and international groups wrote to the UK government, calling for an agrofuel moratorium and demanding a suspension of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, and opposition to new EU biofuel targets – both the proposed 10% biofuel target in the Renewable Energy Directive, and the inclusion of biofuels in the draft new Fuel Quality Directive. Around 200 organisations from North and South have signed a call for an EU moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures, and there are separate calls for a US agrofuel moratorium and for an African agrofuel moratorium, as well as growing number of declarations from the Southern groups that are deeply concerned about the impacts which biofuel policies in Europe, including in the UK, are having on their communities, food sovereignty and environment.
Notes:
1. For a copy of the joint NGO letter to the UK government, see: http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/files/rtfo_letter.pdf
2. For copies of the moratorium calls and the other declarations, see
http://www.econexus.info/biofuels.html
http://www.grain.org/agrofuels/?moratoriumen
http://ga3.org/campaign/agrofuelsmoratorium
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/declarations.php
3. Some other protests
Bolton (video):
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1213934526/bctid1504464364
Edinburgh:
http://scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/5536/index.php
http://rinf.com/alt-news/activism/police-harass-a-peaceful-protest/2969/
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Protest-clowns-arrested-after-Capital.3985990.jp
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396710.html
Brighton:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396734.html
Bristol:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/396663.html
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Biofools day: Cargill factory blocked in Ghent (Belgium)
17.04.2008
This morning thirty activist of “agrocrisis” blocked the gates of the Cargill factory in Ghent (Belgium). Several activist are chained to the main gate blocking entrance to trucks.
According to An Maeyens, agrocrisis spokesperson, this actions means a one day block from transit. but above all a support to the struggle of thousands of small scale farmers, who are depraved of land and income and forced to migrate to slums near big cities, living in poverty, all because of the activities of big companies such as Cargill in their country,
UPDATE: cargill in the port of Ghent is completely blocked, police agreed not to intervene.
first pictures on
ovl.indymedia.org
More info & photos at http://www.aseed.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=552&Itemid=1
Video:
We’ve put the videoreport in FIVE languages on two sites. The choice is yours. This is a must see…
Politube:
Francais: http://www.politube.org/show/647
Nederlands: http://www.politube.org/show/645
English: http://www.politube.org/show/642
Espagnol: http://www.politube.org/show/648
Deutsch: http://www.politube.org/show/663
Youtube:
Francais: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vyMMfjFQOeY
Nederlands: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yFyA2H-8S5s
English: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XYq8J2N2JaA
Espagnol: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0bfDBb10IiI
Deutsch: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qt4eC3x0Q5o