About 100 workshops have been happening at the climate camp. Some workshop intros were videoed: road campaigns workshop (video/mp4 831K), social ecology london workshop (video/mp4 3.7M), dealing with climate sceptics workshop (video/mp4 1.9M), how renewables are being co-opted by corporates (video/mp4 9.5M), Saving Iceland workshop (video/mp4 27K), biofuel critique workshop (video/mp4 6.4M), Mark Lynas on the 2 degrees tipping point theory (video/mp4 2.7M)
Climate Camp workshop: Wales LNG Pipeline
After two days of setting up the site and running around dealing with the police and mainstream media, the workshops at the Climate Camp began yesterday.
One of the most exciting of the workshops so far was an impassioned report and discussion on the Liquified Natural Gas pipeline development that is currently underway from Milford Haven to Tirley in Gloucestershire.
Linda Ware of Cilfrew Residents Association gave a full and frank account of the campaign over the last 18 months by residents and ecological activists against the destruction of the south Wales countryside, the increasing reliance on new forms of fossil fuels, the horrific health and safety concerns and the lack of consultation with the people who’s lives are being ruined by this development.
“people power is the most powerful thing there is”
There have been several protest camps at Trebanos, Milford Haven, & Brecon as well as mass direct action in Cilfrew and elsewhere.
For a background to the campaign check out:
http://www.fightthepipe.co.uk
http://risingtide.org.uk/bristol/pipeline
http://www.gaggedanarchist.tk
Linda highlighted the council corruption that is so endemic to Labour dominated welsh local government. Her explanation of why she has chosen to stand as a prospective Plaid Cymru councillor raised interesting questions about the appeal of the welsh nationalist movement to community struggles such as this.
“We are going nationalist, not because we believe in nationalism, but because we oppose Labour and there is no other alternative”
The lack of media coverage outside Wales has been interesting in it’s absence. There have been only a handful of articles mentioning the development in the UK press. This is in contrast to the Rossport pipeline which has got much more media attention despite being in a different country. It would appear that due to ‘safety concerns’ the press are being leaned on not to cover the story.
The pipeline is only the beginning of a south west wales power corridor that the DTI envisage stretching from milford haven to the east of Swansea, with a number of power stations and energy extraction sites clustered around the area. The new generation coal power station in Neath Port Talbot has already been announced and methane is already been extracted and stored in disused mines in the area.
This pipeline is set to be the first of many, as developments are on the table for pipelines to connect from Tirley to Leeds and Plymouth.
People’s responses to what they heard centred around three themes: corporations behind LNG, media response, and direct action.
The construction of the pipeline is being done by National Grid, who have been the main focus for direct action so far. However the consortium behind the development is headed by Exxon Mobil among others. The finance has been put up by oil and gas loan specialists the Royal Bank of Scotland.
What Next?
There was a feeling that we need to increase the knowledge amongst environmental activists of the full picture of the pipeline development and its wider implications.
getting a higher level of coverage in UK and international media.
Taking the struggle to the big players behind it. Especially as they have a presence on many high streets.
Undertaking a speaking tour of social centres, with a particular emphasis on the routes of the other proposed pipelines.
“We can do all the talking in the world but the only thing that will have an effect on corporations is direct action”
cardiff@risingtide.org.uk
http://www.risingtide.org.uk/bristol/pipeline
I think work has already started on 2 sections of the gas pipeline running west through Devon to Plymouth, work has been ongoing this summer on the section to the east of Plymouth just to the south of the A38 (near totnes) and I think work is going on on another section to the east of Exeter
“Two Degree Timebomb” by Mark Lynas
“Aviation: The Need to Stop Expansion” with someone from Airportwatch and local campaign group HACAN (nb he doesn’t really mean there were 1500 people in the workshop!)
Audio is mp3, mono, 96kbps
(sorry about the background noise during the aviation interview but it was done in a tent when it started to rain rain rain…)
This panel discussion happened during an evening at the Climate Camp. It’s an hour or varied thoughts about the present and future of climate science and what our response should be to it. The panelists are Oli and Sophie involved in the Climate camp set up, Richard from CAT and George Monbiot.
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Countering rubbish about the camp!
17.08.2007
In spite of the planes taking of every 45 seconds, climate camp activists are pretty pleased that the smart folk who sorted the location landed us in such a brilliant little bit of countryside.
Just to do our bit for the local environment, 20 inspired climate activists, inspired by the initiative of the Scottish Barrio, surreptitiously made their way out the camp main gate this morning, towing wheeling bins and loads of recycling bags, to gather together the junk lying at the side of the lane. 4 computer monitors, dozens of sacks and a pretty inventive plastic dildo were the hall of the day…
The camp recycling team dealt with the lot, and the locals seemed pretty impressed with our efforts..
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At around 8am this morning I saw a couple of police following a group of people pushing a large cylinder in a wheelbarrow south through the camp towards the airport. Could it be a lock-on device intended for a blockade I wondered? No, it was a domestic water heating cylinder and shortly after people walked by with a load of pipe and then three solar water heating panels.
I decided it would be good to document the renewable energy systems being used on site and went to fetch my camera before returning to take some pictures and find out about the system they were putting together.
Along with the 166 litre tank and the three 1m x 1.5m double glazed flat plate collectors, they also had a smaller header tank with a ball cock. I was told that the system would initially power two shower cubicles but they might double the number if it appeared to be powerful enough. They referred to the design as an indirect thermal store system and guessed that they’d have around 1.5kw of heat available.
Wandering back north through the site I was surprised and pleased to find another solar shower being being built in the West Side neighboorhood . I’d spent a couple of hours with them before I arrived on site while held and the police road block during vehicle searches last sunday night. They had purchased a wind turbine much like mine while at the big green gathering and erected it for the first time at the climate camp. It’s rate at 300 watts at quite low speeds for a bargain 300 pounds including the mast, guys, stakes, charge controllers, everything. Theirs is the 24 volts version and they using it to charge the bulk of their 500 amp/hrs battery bank – mostly used for lighting in their neighborhoods communal spaces. Additionally they have a couple of small solar panel’s which they use to charge one of their batteries at 12 volt which they’ve been using for their little sound system. But I digress – back to their solar shower, it’s pretty much all made from reclaimed materials – the flat plate collector was built from an old central heating radiator and has been placed in a glazed frame that had previously contained a menu displayed outside of a restaurant. The header tank was a home brewing barrel and the main tank another barrel inside a bin and insulated with fiber lagging. The whole thing was erected on a framework of reclaimed timber.
Next to West Side I found the Scotland neighborhood which had a single 40 watt panel charging a couple of deep cycle leisure batteries in rotation and being used for lighting. Likewise, East Side had just one panel being used in a similar way. The Yorkshire neighborhood (rumored to be serving the best food on site) had just two panels supplying a healthy 100 watts max while the South Coast neighborhood had three 63 watts unisolars panels. These seem quite popular on site despite their large physical size, and are apparently more environmentally friendly to the manufacturing technique which apparently involves spraying silicon onto the panel rather than using actual crystal wafers.
Passing the Manchester neighborhood I found them starting to set up a pretty massive array of six of the unisolar 63 watt panels. In total, this system would provide 380 watts in optimum conditions and I was told that the technology used was particularly suitable to the cloudy conditions would in the UK. Charing a 660 amp/Hr battery bank, their system would clearly be more than capable of providing all their neighborhoods needs so they were planning on providing their surplus power to their neighbors.
A similar situation was found at the West Midlands neighbourhood. Their little 400 watt wind turbine was loving the high winds found on site this week. This particular type of generator performs badly in more typical wind speeds but the last few days has seen it frequently knocking out it’s maximum output. Along with their wind power, they also had 120 watts worth of solar panels and as their own power needs were quite modest they were doing what they called ‘roving battery charging’ and charging up batteries for other people on site.
Taking a break, I stopped off for a piss and noticed that all to the toilets on site (and the central kitchen) where equipped with a small stand alone solar panel and battery to supply lighting. Meanwhile ‘V3’, who run courses on wind energy, have two 58 watt panels and a 500 watt home made Huge Pigot designed wind turbine. They’ve been charging other peoples batteries but a site wide shortage of spare batteries has left their wind gene sitting idle for much of the time.
The two big providers on site dwarf those found in the neighborhoods. Ray-Mundo is supplying the indymedia open access suite with another 1,150 watts of solar and a 2,250 amp/Hr battery bank. Meanwhile, the gigantic Generator X truck has 1.5kw of solar and a bank of batteries equivalent to an incredible 3,000 amp/hr. The original plan for the camp site layout placed the major power providers near the biggest uses of power on site but due to the police preventing vehicle access to the camp, both these trucks have been parked in the adjacent field (also being used as the police car park).
Back at the indymedia tent there is power rig that I bought along from the rampART social centre. This system consists of a 600 amp/hr battery bank plus a 300 watt inverter. Power is generated by 220 watts of solar and a 200 watt turbine. The Chinese made turbine is very similar to the one used at the West Side Neighborhood, but rated at 200 watts not 300. Both are designed to produce their rated power in fairly low winds so have been maxing out a lot of the time during the time at the camp. While the Ray-Mundo system has been providing the power for the open access internet suite, the rampART system has been powering the laptops used by those editing and uploading multimedia work. On the Wednesday night the system was pressed into service to power the PA and the lighting in the main marquee during the ceilidh.
I’ve probably missed a few of the systems on site. Even as I type, another big wind turbine is being prepared to be raised and the Col-Tech generator is expected to arrive some time this evening to take over supplying the main marquee.
Mark in the process of proving the camp with hot showers. They are being built using all salvaged materials, the solar panels coming from a house in Oxford undergoing a refit. No pump is neccessary as the water is moved using the natural laws of physics; warm water rises, cold water falls – the thermo syphon system. Mark – “I just hope it works! All we need is the sun to stay..”
How to set up a grey water recycling system using bath tubs and straw
compost toilets on the climate camp site – a diy guide (video/mp4 5.3M)
posh showers at the climate camp – video/mp4 1.9M
Video a compost toilet in progress – video/mp4 3.7M
Video a solar shower from recycled material – video/mp4 80K
Video solar panels with a low impact – video/mp4 5.4M
Video a rocket stove to save energy – video/mp4 5.9M
Video a wind turbine generating power – video/mp4 1.8M
On Thursday the climate camp was visited by pupils and parents from Heathrow Primary School, which along with two other local schools will be demolished by the proposed third runway. The school is an integral part of the community with former pupils becoming teachers, and the headmaster – Mr Hobbs – serving over 25 years. The school also received the boroughs top marks in the last Ofsted report.
Today, Friday 17th August, several local groups toured the climate camp, along with several local residents who moved onto the site to camp.
One group was a local scout group with some of them doing their environment badge. They came for a tour around the infrastructure including the solar showers, compost toilets, solar panels, wind generators and power providers, the indymedia computer tent and rinky dink the pedal powered bicycle sound system. Living locally their homes are under threat from the Heathrow airport expansion.
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Bicycology Climate Camp outreach day
A short report on Bicycology’s day out from the Climate Camp on Saturday visiting a local housing estate to fix bikes and spread the word about the Camp.
On Day 5 (Saturday 18/8/07) of the Climate Camp, Bicycology, the cycle activism and education collective, went out from the Camp to visit a housing estate in Feltham near Heathrow at the invitation of the residents.
The group rode out in the morning, “facilitated” by a police escort despite assurances from the cyclists that after several national cycle tours they knew how to cycle safely and assertively on UK roads.
The group set up in a small park in the middle of the estate, offering free Dr Bike checks, pedal-powered games, music from the Pedals II soundsystem, bike jewellery making. They also provided information about cycling, climate change and the Climate Camp. Around 80 locals came along, mainly kids, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
A van load of police kept watch to forstall any riots, and even made a sortie to play footie with the local kids for a while before apparently being ordered back in their van by higher command.
info@bicycology.org.uk
http://www.bicycology.org.uk
