Fossil Fools Day — 1 Month to Go!

Whether you’ve been plot­ting for months or have just been inspired, there’s plen­ty of time left to plan your action. Read on for loads of resources and sup­port…

FFD frontWhether you’ve been plot­ting for months or have just been inspired, there’s plen­ty of time left to plan your action. Read on for loads of resources and sup­port…

With one month to go until April 1st, actions are being plot­ted up and down the coun­try and around the world, rang­ing from street the­atre and town cen­tre demon­stra­tions to high pro­file direct actions tar­get­ing indus­try oper­a­tions and head­quar­ters. Net­works from Earth First! to Peo­ple and Plan­et have got on board in help­ing to spread the word. Nation­al press have been in touch and are plan­ning to cov­er the day. Peo­ple are email­ing from around the coun­try ask­ing for more info on plan­ning their prank, and look­ing for local actions to get involved in.

We are in the mid­dle of an unstop­pable rise of cre­ative, rad­i­cal, nec­es­sary direct action against cli­mate change… be part of it, on Fos­sil Fools Day and beyond.

Whether you’ve been plot­ting for months or have just been inspired, there’s plen­ty of time left to plan your action. Read on for loads of resources and sup­port… and what­ev­er you do, make sure to call or email us on the day so we can add your action to our end-of-day round up, and show the world what grass­roots action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try can achieve.

Hap­py Fos­sil Fools Day every­one!

CONTACTS
www.risingtide.org.uk/fossilfoolsday
info@risingtide.org.uk
0796 191 7535

RESOURCES AND SUPPORT

Resources avail­able at www.risingtide.org.uk/fossilfoolsday (get in touch if you’d like any­thing mailed to you in hard copy):
‑actions book­let with 15 ideas for action against the fos­sil fuel indus­try, includ­ing plan­ning tips, tar­get loca­tions, exam­ples of suc­cess­ful actions and more
‑posters, leaflets and graph­ics to make your own mate­ri­als
‑com­ing soon: a gener­ic leaflet you can adapt to hand out on the day and a Q&A sheet for answer­ing media ques­tions

Want to find an action to get involved in?
If you’re look­ing to get involved where you live, get in touch and we may be able to link you up with some­thing in your local area… or give you advice on get­ting your own action off the ground… or put you in touch with a local group for future actions!

Pub­lic­i­ty
If you’re plan­ning a pub­licly announced action, let us know ASAP and we can help spread the word.

Media
We’ll be send­ing out a nation­al press release and may be able to direct jour­nal­ists to you on the day if you wish, so any info you can let us know in advance will be real­ly help­ful – and/or a phone num­ber to con­tact you on the day if that’s pos­si­ble. And call or email us as soon as your action’s hap­pened so we can include it in the end-of-day actions round-up, which we’ll be press releas­ing as well. Get in touch if you’d like help writ­ing and/or send­ing your own press release — there’s a great guide here:
http://www.networkforclimateaction.org.uk/toolkit/press_and_media/guides_for_using_the_mainstream_media/short_guide_to_the_media.pdf

And if your action’s all sort­ed and you just can’t get enough of FFD… Help spread the word!
• Send an email or let­ter to every­one who might be inter­est­ed, or who sup­ports your group, let­ting them know about Fos­sil Fools Day and where to find out more.
• Post a Fos­sil Fools Day link or event descrip­tion on your web­site, or to any oth­er lists, blogs or web­sites you can think of.
• Dis­trib­ute Fos­sil Fools Day leaflets and put up posters wher­ev­er you can — mailed to your local groups, in your com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, office, pubs, book­shops, cafes, library, wher­ev­er you can think of. Just let us know how many you need and we’ll send them out to you!

And one last time… the call-out:

FOSSIL FOOLS DAY, April 1st 2008
Pull a prank that packs a punch.

Roll up, roll up! The cli­mate cir­cus is in town. Cli­mate change threat­ens our very sur­vival, but the fools at the head of the fos­sil fuel empire con­tin­ue to plun­der the earth, with gov­ern­ments the will­ing court jesters at their side.

They would have us believe that we can escape cli­mate change with tech­no-fix­es, mar­ket mech­a­nisms and off­set schemes – all tech­no­crat­ic acro­bat­ics that dis­tract us from the truth: the only real solu­tion to cli­mate change is to keep fos­sil fuels in the ground.

For over a cen­tu­ry the fos­sil fuel indus­try has been fool­ing with our lives. From extrac­tion to com­bus­tion they have poi­soned our air, pol­lut­ed our water and ruined our cli­mate. On April 1st, 2008, we’re going to turn the tables and show them who the real fools are.

Find a local fos­sil fool – the coal-min­ing clown, the off­set con­tor­tion­ist, the avi­a­tor trip­ping on the high wire, the super­mar­ket food mile freak show, the oily strong man, or any oth­er fool that deserves your atten­tion – and take direct action to end the fos­sil fuel empire.

On Fos­sil Fools Day, bring the spir­it of car­ni­val and mis­chief to the fight for cli­mate jus­tice.

PS. Don’t for­get, Fos­sil Fools Day kicks off a sea­son of action…
3 MONTHS, 3 DAYS OF ACTION
April 1st: Fos­sil Fuels
May 1st: False Cap­i­tal­ist Solu­tions
June 3rd: Food and Cli­mate Change
www.networkforclimateaction.org.uk
www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk

and…
August 4–11: Camp for Cli­mate Action 2008
www.climatecamp.org.uk

CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 77, MARCH 2008

CONTENTS:
———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — INTERNATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS – INT’L, 1.5.08

CONTENTS:
———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — INTERNATIONAL, 1.4.08
2) MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS – INT’L, 1.5.08
3) CLIMATE ACTION WITH A BITE! — INTERNATIONAL, 3.6.08
4) “PEOPLE ARE STILL THE SAME” — BRECON, 8.3.08
5) PADDY’S DAY OF ACTION AGAINST SHELL — IRELAND AND BEYOND, 17.3.08
6) BIKES NOT BOMBS TOUR — LONDON TO ALDERMASTON, 22–24.3.08
7) TERMINAL 5 FLASHMOB — HEATHROW, 27.3.08
8) CLIMATE BILL PUBLIC MEETING — LONDON, 22.4.08
9) COIN WORKSHOPS — NATIONAL, MARCH-APRIL 2008
10) NATIONAL CLIMATE FORUM — LONDON, 14–15.6.08
11) EARTH ACTIVIST TRAINING — GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 12–26.7.08
12) ENVIRONMENT CAMPAIGNER AWARD – 2008
13) LILI COURSES IN APRIL — BUCKS/LONDON/SHEFFIELD

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE EMERGENCY AT HEATHROW, THEN WESTMINSTER — 25.2.08 / 27.2.08
2) RATCLIFFE ACTION VERDICT — NOTTINGHAM, 25.2.08
3) BP AMERICA, EXXON MOBIL AND CO. IN THE DOCK — ALASKA, 27.2.08
4) HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL! ACTIONS — UK AND NETHERLANDS, 23.2.08
5) EARTH FIRST! BLOCKADES POWER PLANT CONSTRUCTION — FLORIDA, 18.2.08
6) RTNA/EARTHFIRST! PIPELINE ACTION — PORTLAND, U.S. 23.1.08
7) SABOTAGE AT GLENSANDA — YORKSHIRE, FEBRUARY 2008
8) PLANKTOS DUMPING SCHEME DEFEATED BY ANTI-WHALERS — MADEIRA, 14.2.08
9) COMMUNITY HALTS SHELL — IRELAND, 12.2.08
10) CRITICAL MASS HERO CLEARED — BRISTOL, 7.2.08
11) KLIMAX SURGE ON! — SWEDEN, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008
12) TARA CAMPAIGN UPDATE — FEBRUARY 2008
13) 15 ACTIONS TO TOPPLE THE FOSSIL FUEL EMPIRE — FEBRUARY 2008
14) RISING TIDE POP-ED RESOURCE PACK — FEBRUARY 2008
15) “RISING TO THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE” BOOKLET — FEBRUARY 2008
16) “BURNING CAPITAL” — FEBRUARY 2008
17) SPIRIT OF FREEDOM — FEBRUARY 2008
18) CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS CENTRE — FEBRUARY UPDATE 2008
19) “THE AGE OF STUPID” — FEBRUARY 2008
20) AIRPORT WATCH BULLETIN — FEBRUARY 2008
21) CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE — WEBSITE 2008

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) FOSSIL FOOLS DAY — INTERNATIONAL, 1.4.08
Roll up, roll up…the cir­cus is com­ing to town, and it’s going to be big!
For over a cen­tu­ry the fos­sil fuel indus­try has been fool­ing with our lives. From extrac­tion to com­bus­tion they have poi­soned our air, pol­lut­ed
our water and ruined our cli­mate. On April 1st, we’re going to turn the
tables and show them who the real fools are. Ris­ing Tide’s call has been
backed by Net­work for Cli­mate Action, Glob­al Exchange and Rain­for­est
Action Net­work. There are actions planned across the coun­try and around
the world — let us know what you get up to! (Or tell us in advance if you
can and we’ll help spread the word, get media atten­tion, etc.) Con­tact
local groups or just do it your­self. Show the fos­sil fool clowns what you
think of their freak­show — It’s time to Pull a Prank that Packs a Punch!
Resources and ideas are avail­able from;
http://risingtide.org.uk/fossilfoolsday/resources
http://www.networkforclimateaction.org.uk/
Also see; http://www.fossilfoolsday.org/
and; http://risingtide.org.uk/node/241
Con­tact no: 07961 917 535

2) MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS — INTERNATIONAL, 1.5.08
From bio­fu­els to nuclear pow­er, car­bon-trad­ing to hydro­gen fuel cells,
dump­ing urine in the ocean to car­bon cap­ture — every­where cor­po­ra­tions are
seek­ing the elu­sive elixir which allows them to con­tin­ue with busi­ness as
usu­al. All these tech­nolo­gies are a dis­trac­tion from the real solu­tions -
a mas­sive reduc­tion in our con­sump­tion and far-reach­ing social change. On
May 1st, Inter­na­tion­al Work­ers Day, we will chal­lenge these false
solu­tions to cli­mate chaos.
http://networkforclimateaction.org.uk

3) CLIMATE ACTION WITH A BITE! — INTERNATIONAL, 3.6.08
Cli­mate action starts on your din­ner plate, in the super­mar­ket, at the
food pro­cess­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­tres, on the farm, in your allot­ment
or your back yard. The foods we eat are respon­si­ble for about a third of
our green­house emis­sions. It’s time for us to switch to plant-based,
organ­ic, sea­son­al and local­ly pro­duced food. Whether you’re into local
food, per­ma­cul­ture, ani­mal rights, allot­ments, human­i­tar­i­an issues, food
pol­i­tics or trans­port cam­paign­ing, make the links and take action to
high­light the role of the food indus­try in cli­mate chaos.
http://networkforclimateaction.org.uk

4) “PEOPLE ARE STILL THE SAME” — BRECON, 8.3.08
A one-day event show­cas­ing art­works cre­at­ed in response to inter­views,
dia­logues and doc­u­men­ta­tion of the con­struc­tion of the South Wales gas
pipeline.
From 3pm till dusk: Cur­rent State Dystopia — a video pro­jec­tion in the
tun­nel under­neath the A40 road and: Books — a sound and slide instal­la­tion
in Din­gle Wood. 6pm: Going Home — pro­jec­tion and music in Pen­pont Church.
RSVP morag@cooptel.net or tele­phone 01874 636269 www.penpont.com

5) PADDY’S DAY OF ACTION AGAINST SHELL — IRELAND AND BEYOND, 17.3.08
This year´s St Paddy´s day, 17th March, has been called as an
Inter­na­tion­al day of action against shell, in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple
of Ross­port. Peo­ple from all over Ire­land are set to join forces and show
their unit­ed strength by going all the way to Lon­don to demon­strate on
Shell´s front door step.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20124
http://gluaiseacht.nologic.org/wordpress

6) BIKES NOT BOMBS TOUR — LONDON TO ALDERMASTON, 22–24.3.08
Bikes not bombs are plan­ning a bicy­col­o­gy bike tour from Lon­don to
Alder­mas­ton Atom­ic Weapons Estab­lish­ment to mark the 50th anniver­sary of
the Alder­mas­ton Peace March. The ride is expect­ed to take 3 days
(22nd-24th March). More than 5000 peo­ple are expect­ed to attend the
“Sur­round The Base” event at Alder­mas­ton on the 24th. If you are
inter­est­ed please email; info@bikesnotbombs.org.uk
Also see www.cnduk.org/aldermaston

7) TERMINAL 5 FLASHMOB — HEATHROW, 27.3.08
Be at T5 Inter­na­tion­al Arrivals at 11am to put on (or strip to reveal)
your bright­ly coloured “Stop Air­port Expan­sion” t‑shirt: a vis­i­ble
pres­ence of pub­lic oppo­si­tion to the mad­ness of air­port expan­sion. Wan­der
round for a bit, have a cof­fee, leave when you like. Wear­ing a t‑shirt is
not (yet) a crime!
Order your free T‑shirt today: stopairportexpansion@gmail.com or 0845 458
2564.
The Government/BAA see the open­ing day of Ter­mi­nal Five (the biggest
ter­mi­nal ever built in the UK, and the sub­ject of the longest Pub­lic
Inquiry in British his­to­ry) as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to put the case for fur­ther
air­port expan­sion. Join the flash mob to high­light the real prob­lems that
air­port expan­sion caus­es: cli­mate change, noise, air pol­lu­tion and
com­mu­ni­ty destruc­tion.
http://www.t5flashmob.com/

8) CLIMATE BILL PUBLIC MEETING — LONDON, 22.4.08
Friends Meet­ing House, Euston, Lon­don, 7.30pm. A chance to attend a pub­lic
meet­ing with Hilary Benn MP (Envi­ron­ment Sec­re­tary) and Peter Ainsworth
(Shad­ow Envi­ron­ment Sec­re­tary) and join the calls for a strong cli­mate
change law.
More info: howard.whitehead@foe.co.uk

9) COIN WORKSHOPS — NATIONAL, MARCH-APRIL 2008
(a) Cli­mate Change Con­densed will be hap­pen­ing in Chel­tenham on the 6th
March.
(b) Cli­mate Action Groups match­mak­er evening, Tue 11th March 4:30 -
7:30pm, The Envi­ron­ment Coun­cil, Lon­don. Any­one who has attend­ed any of
the COIN/TEC series of train­ings can attend this for free.
© Do you work for the NHS? COIN is offer­ing a tai­lored Cli­mate Change
Speak­er Train­ing in Lon­don on March 14th. See;
www.healthandsustainability.net
(d) Com­mu­ni­cat­ing Cli­mate Change, a one-day work­shop, in part­ner­ship with
Vale
Roy­al Bor­ough Coun­cil on Fri­day, April 11th.
Fur­ther train­ings com­ing soon in Birm­ing­ham, Man­ches­ter and Scot­land.
Would you like COIN to run train­ings in your local area? — give Mim a call
on 01865 727911 or email mim@coinet.org.uk
See the COIN web­site for details on all the above; www.coinet.org.uk

10) NATIONAL CLIMATE FORUM — LONDON, 14–15.6.08
This event offers a wide range of work­shops and sem­i­nars all deal­ing with
dif­fer­ent aspects of the cli­mate change cri­sis, prob­a­ble solu­tions and
future devel­op­ments in nation­al and inter­na­tion­al cli­mate poli­cies. Venue;
South Cam­den Com­mu­ni­ty School, Lon­don. Fol­low the link below to look at
the pro­gram and speak­ers from last year cli­mate con­fer­ence.
http://www.campaigncc.org/conference.shtml

11) EARTH ACTIVIST TRAINING — GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 12–26.7.08
A per­ma­cul­ture design course and more for activists! Learn the skills to
trans­form a piece of land, a com­mu­ni­ty, and our polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic
sys­tems.
COSTS: (Includ­ing tuition, two weeks accom­mo­da­tion and all meals) £150 -
£500 slid­ing scale accord­ing to income. If you are inter­est­ed in tak­ing
part in the course, down­load an appli­ca­tion form from:
http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/
Or write to: Earth Activist Train­ing, c/o 59 Chelsea Park, Bris­tol, BS5 6AH.

12) ENVIRONMENT CAMPAIGNER AWARD
The Envi­ron­ment Awards (organ­ised by the Sheila McK­ech­nie Foun­da­tion) are
an oppor­tu­ni­ty for grass­roots cam­paign­ers to receive a bespoke pro­gramme
of sup­port and skills devel­op­ment designed to help them take their
cam­paign to the next lev­el. See www.sheilamckechnie.org.uk for details of
how to apply.

13) LILI COURSES IN APRIL — BUCKS/LONDON/SHEFFIELD
Low-Impact Liv­ing Ini­tia­tive: (01296) 714184 www.lowimpact.org

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE EMERGENCY AT HEATHROW, AND THEN WESTMINSTER — 25.2.08 / 27.2.08
On the 27th, cam­paign­ers opposed to Heathrow expan­sion scaled the roof of
the Hous­es of Par­lia­ment and hung protest ban­ners from the build­ing. The
pro­test­ers also made paper aero­planes out of con­fi­den­tial White­hall
doc­u­ments and flew them into the MPs’ car park below! The doc­u­ments –
obtained under the Free­dom of Infor­ma­tion Act — prove that air­port
oper­a­tor BAA wrote parts of the con­sul­ta­tion doc­u­ment and that the
gov­ern­ment has already decid­ed to build a 3rd run­way and 6th ter­mi­nal at
the world’s biggest inter­na­tion­al air­port.
http://www.planestupid.com/?q=content/plane-stupid-scales-parliament
Two days ear­li­er Green­peace cam­paign­ers had climbed on to one of
Heathrow’s short-haul flights and cov­ered the tail­fin of the plane with a
huge protest ban­ner that read “CLIMATE EMERGENCY – NO 3rd RUNWAY”.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/climate-campaigners-bring-peaceful-protest-to-heathrow-20080225
Also on the 25th, the Heathrow end-of-con­sul­ta­tion ral­ly at West­min­ster
was a packed-out suc­cess, with thou­sands of res­i­dents, politi­cians and
envi­ron­men­tal cam­paign­ers pledg­ing to resist plans to extend Heathrow -
http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/
The dis­tri­b­u­tion of 50,000 leaflets and the actions of anar­chist art troop
Weird Load helped make the ral­ly such a suc­cess:
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20050

2) RATCLIFFE ACTION VERDICT — NOTTINGHAM, 25.2.08
Fol­low­ing their attempts to halt oper­a­tions and thus dimin­ish CO2
emis­sions at the Rat­cliffe-on-Soar pow­er sta­tion last April, 10 activists
were recent­ly back in court. Unfor­tu­nate­ly the defen­dants’ defence of
envi­ron­men­tal neces­si­ty was reject­ed and they were found guilty. The judge
had ear­li­er said that he wished to com­pli­ment all the defen­dants on the
pre­sen­ta­tion of their case.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/392323.html

3) BP AMERICA, EXXON MOBIL AND CO. IN THE DOCK — ALASKA, 27.2.08
Mean­while, in Alas­ka, lawyers for the native coastal vil­lage of Kivali­na
have filed a suit argu­ing that 5 oil com­pa­nies, 14 elec­tric util­i­ties and
the coun­try’s largest coal com­pa­ny were respon­si­ble for the relo­ca­tion of
vil­lagers because of flood­ing caused by the chang­ing Arc­tic cli­mate.
“There has been a long cam­paign by pow­er, coal and oil com­pa­nies to
mis­lead the pub­lic about the sci­ence of glob­al warm­ing,” the suit says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27alaska.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Flooded+Village+Files+Suit%2C+Citing+Corporate+Link+to+Climate+Change+&st=nyt&oref=slogin

4) HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL! ACTIONS — UK AND NETHERLANDS, 23.2.08
In sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Iraqi peo­ples’ strug­gle against the plun­der of
their oil reserves, there were actions in Birm­ing­ham, Lon­don, Liv­er­pool,
Wrex­ham, Coven­try and Ams­ter­dam.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/392315.html

5) EARTH FIRST! BLOCKADES POWER PLANT CONSTRUCTION — FLORIDA, 18.2.08
Dozens of con­cerned com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers from Palm Beach Coun­ty and across
the States put their bod­ies on the line to halt con­struc­tion of a mas­sive
gas-fired pow­er plant. A dozen activists locked them­selves togeth­er
through met­al pipes as 200 sup­port­ers ral­lied around them. The block­ade
stopped work on the con­struc­tion site for six hours before a total of 27
peo­ple were arrest­ed.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/02/19/blockade-shuts-down-south-florida-power-plant-construction-27-arrested/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20038

6) RTNA/EARTHFIRST! PIPELINE ACTION — PORTLAND, U.S. 23.1.08
The above block­ade fol­lowed anoth­er com­bined action where Cas­ca­dia Ris­ing
Tide joined forces with Stump­town Earth First! to hold an action and ral­ly
at the Port­land office of NW Nat­ur­al in protest at their involve­ment in
Liq­ue­fied Nat­ur­al Gas pipelines, which threat­en to clear-cut strips of
for­est through­out Ore­gon for new fos­sil fuel infra­struc­ture. Activists
piled trees around the office entrance and hung a large ban­ner which read
— “There’s noth­ing Green about Clear-cuts, No new pipelines”.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/01/23/cascadia-rt-organizes-anti-lng-action-at-nw-natural/

7) SABOTAGE AT GLENSANDA — YORKSHIRE, FEBRUARY 2008
An aggre­gates pro­cess­ing plant on the edge of the York­shire Dales Nation­al
Park has been sab­o­taged. 20% of the stone extract­ed will go to major road
net­work con­struc­tion across Europe. The plant in York­shire was entered and
vehi­cles, includ­ing all bull­doz­ers, had holes drilled in vital parts of
their engines and their tires. Both con­trol rooms were bro­ken into and all
com­put­ers and instru­ment pan­els were smashed. Keys to all build­ings and
machin­ery were removed from the site. The mes­sage “Stop Glen­san­da” was
left.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20043

8) PLANKTOS DUMPING SCHEME DEFEATED BY ANTI-WHALERS — MADEIRA, 14.2.08
Plank­tos, the Cal­i­for­nia com­pa­ny try­ing to turn a prof­it by fer­til­iz­ing
the ocean with iron dust, has pulled the plug on planned field tests. On
the com­pa­ny’s web-site, a sim­ple notice blamed the shut­down on a “high­ly
effec­tive dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paign waged by anti-off­set cru­saders.” In
Novem­ber 2007, the anti-whal­ing ship Sea Shep­herd con­front­ed the Plank­tos
ves­sel and forced it to move onto Madeira. And there it stayed until its
recall last month.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/19989

9) COMMUNITY HALTS SHELL — IRELAND, 12.2.08
The Erris com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to pro­tect the land — sur­vey work was
stopped and trucks were blocked. Local peo­ple pre­vent­ed Shell from ille­gal
work for 4 hours until Gar­dai forced through work­ers, injur­ing pro­test­ers.
http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1686
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/19977

10) CRITICAL MASS HERO CLEARED — BRISTOL, 7.2.08
In May last year, some­one stood in the road and tried to stop a car that
had hit a Crit­i­cal Mass cyclist, from dri­ving away. For that he was
arrest­ed for obstruct­ing the high­way, thrown to the floor by his neck
whilst hand­cuffed, and then — sur­prise sur­prise — also arrest­ed for
assault­ing a police offi­cer.
After 9 months of ner­vous wait­ing, he was final­ly cleared of all charges,
as Bris­tol Mag­is­trates Court accept­ed a sub­mis­sion that the police
evi­dence was at best ‘severe­ly flawed’ and at worst, fab­ri­cat­ed, and the
tri­al was stopped.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/19971

11) KLIMAX SURGE ON! — SWEDEN, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008
Groups of activists con­nect­ed to Kli­max, Sweden’s direct action move­ment
against the root caus­es of cli­mate change, struck repeat­ed­ly last month.
At Malmö Air­port, sev­en activists were appre­hend­ed when try­ing to break
into the run­way, some of them dressed as polar bears. Some 30 activists
put up a block­ade in the mid­dle of the high­way run­ning through Umeå, the
largest city in north­ern Swe­den.
A sim­i­lar num­ber staged a protest out­side the office of Swedish Meat, a
major meat cor­po­ra­tion, to high­light the severe effects the indus­try is
hav­ing on our cli­mate. Anoth­er 50 activists marched into the traf­fic on
one of the major streets in inner city Stock­holm, seiz­ing it for 15
min­utes. The action was direct­ed against a planned mega-high­way, to be
built in the west­ern parts of the cap­i­tal.
http://klimatet.org/2008/02/17/action-report/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20019
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20035

12) TARA CAMPAIGN UPDATE — FEBRUARY 2008
Lock-ons and dig­ger-div­ing, plus protest camp con­tact.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/19996
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20126

13) 15 ACTIONS TO TOPPLE THE FOSSIL FUEL EMPIRE — FEBRUARY 2008
Ris­ing Tide’s newest resource, on why and how to take direct action
against the fos­sil fuel indus­try… includ­ing plan­ning tips, tar­get
loca­tions, exam­ples of suc­cess­ful actions and more. Email us for a hard
copy or down­load it here:
http://risingtide.org.uk/resources/other

14) RISING TIDE POP-ED RESOURCE PACK — FEBRUARY 2008
A pop­u­lar edu­ca­tion resource packed with tools to help you run engag­ing,
inter­ac­tive work­shops on all aspects of cli­mate change for a wide range of
peo­ple. Down­load it here: http://risingtide.org.uk/resources/other

15) “RISING TO THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE” BOOKLET — FEBRUARY 2008
Cli­mate change myth-bust­ing book­let designed to help peo­ple cut through
the fog of con­fu­sion and mixed mes­sages about cli­mate change and to be a
use­ful resource for com­mu­ni­ty groups and indi­vid­u­als all over Scot­land.
Down­load from the web­site at www.sead.org.uk

16) “BURNING CAPITAL” — FEBRUARY 2008
This com­pelling series of short films explores the role of Britain’s
largest cor­po­ra­tion in the grow­ing cli­mate cri­sis. Burn­ing Cap­i­tal is a
video voy­age through the murky world of oil giant BP, who kind­ly deliv­ered
1.3 bil­lion tonnes of car­bon diox­ide to the atmos­phere last year.
Watch the films now at; http://www.platformlondon.org/burning

17) SPIRIT OF FREEDOM — FEBRUARY 2008
Earth Lib­er­a­tion Pris­on­ers Sup­port Net­work newslet­ter. They’re in there
for us out here — Please write!
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/19960

18) CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS CENTRE — FEBRUARY UPDATE 2008
A group of envi­ron­men­tal and com­mu­ni­ty-based organ­i­sa­tions in the South
West have made a bid to found an inde­pen­dent, inter-dis­ci­pli­nary ‘Cli­mate
Change Solu­tions Cen­tre’, on the site of an ex-agri­cul­tur­al col­lege
cur­rent­ly owned by Ply­mouth Uni­ver­si­ty. For more details, and infor­ma­tion
on how to sup­port the plans, please see; www.climatechangecentre.co.uk

19) “THE AGE OF STUPID” — FEBRUARY 2008
A cli­mate change doc­u­men­tary for the big screen from Fran­ny Arm­strong
(McLi­bel) and John Battsek (One Day In Sep­tem­ber). Mix­ing doc­u­men­tary
footage, dra­ma and cut­ting-edge ani­ma­tion, and star­ring Pete Postleth­waite
as an old man liv­ing in the dev­as­tat­ed world of 2055. As he watch­es
‘archive’ footage from 2007, he asks him­self: Why did­n’t we stop cli­mate
change when we had the chance? http://www.ageofstupid.net

20) AIRPORT WATCH BULLETIN — FEBRUARY 2008
For infor­ma­tion about the cam­paigns against sui­ci­dal expan­sion at
Heathrow, Bris­tol, Lon­don City, Lydd, Carlisle, Newquay and oth­er air­ports
see; www.airportwatch.org.uk

21) ‘CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE’ WEBSITE
Sub­ver­tis­ing ideas and resources.
http://www.causesclimatechange.blogspot.com/

———-

Please send any­thing you’d like includ­ed in this news sheet to:
newssheet@risingtide.org.uk

To view pre­vi­ous edi­tions of the Ris­ing Tide News Sheet, vis­it the News
Sheet Archive at http://risingtide.org.uk/newssheet

This News Sheet was brought to you by Ris­ing Tide, a grass­roots net­work
of groups and indi­vid­u­als com­mit­ted to tak­ing action and build­ing a
move­ment against cli­mate change.

For more infor­ma­tion…
email: info@risingtide.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)845 458 8923 / +44 (0)7708 794665
Address: 62 Fieldgate St, Lon­don, E1 1ES
Web site: http://risingtide.org.uk

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND AND INVITE THEM TO JOIN THE LIST

To sub­scribe or unsub­scribe vis­it:
http://risingtide.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/rt-news

Mass Action: Refuse to Pay on trains to London, 20 April

A mass cli­mate action is tak­ing place on Sun­day 20th April in Lon­don. Peo­ple will board trains into cen­tral Lon­don, refus­ing to pay the high prices. There will be a con­ver­gence in the cen­tral Lon­don ter­mi­nals at around 1pm. The action aims to high­light how the cur­rent pub­lic trans­port prices are unaf­ford­able and must be rad­i­cal­ly low­ered if we are to get peo­ple out of their car­bon inten­sive cars.

A mass cli­mate action is tak­ing place on Sun­day 20th April in Lon­don. Peo­ple will board trains into cen­tral Lon­don, refus­ing to pay the high prices. There will be a con­ver­gence in the cen­tral Lon­don ter­mi­nals at around 1pm. The action aims to high­light how the cur­rent pub­lic trans­port prices are unaf­ford­able and must be rad­i­cal­ly low­ered if we are to get peo­ple out of their car­bon inten­sive cars.

All are invit­ed to take part in a mass action against soar­ing pub­lic trans­port prices on Sun­day 20th April. We encour­age peo­ple from all walks of life to board trains into the cen­tral Lon­don ter­mi­nals, refus­ing to pay the fare. Peo­ple will con­verge togeth­er at the ter­mi­nals at around 1pm. The action is high­light­ing the fact that pub­lic trans­port must become dras­ti­cal­ly cheap­er and afford­able if it is to become a viable alter­na­tive to the dom­i­nant car­bon heavy motor­ing. It will be a chance to col­lec­tive­ly rise up and declare that we are not going to accept how much it costs to trav­el by sus­tain­able means, and a warn­ing to both the gov­ern­ment and pri­vate train com­pa­nies that these actions will con­tin­ue until pub­lic trans­port prices are brought down mas­sive­ly.

The action is being organ­ised by The Stu­dent Cli­mate Project, because choos­ing whether or not to own a car is a deci­sion many stu­dents are faced with. Many will opt to own a car sim­ply because an afford­able and acces­si­ble alter­na­tive is not avail­able. This action gives stu­dents an empow­er­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute to chang­ing the fun­da­men­tals of our car­bon inten­sive infra­struc­ture and econ­o­my, rather than mere­ly feel­ing guilty about their own per­son­al emis­sions. But, of course, you don’t need to be a stu­dent to take part in the action!

Since 1980 motor­ing has increased by an alarm­ing 87%, and con­tin­ues to grow despite the ongo­ing threat of cli­mate change. This might have some­thing to do with the fact that, in this time peri­od, pub­lic trans­port costs for the user have risen by 40% in real terms, where­as motor­ing costs have decreased by 14%. [1]

If any­one is in any doubt about the emis­sion reduc­tions pub­lic trans­port can bring, then you need look no fur­ther than the Depart­ment for Transport’s own cal­cu­la­tions. In a par­lia­men­tary answer in July 2004, the Depart­ment stat­ed that tak­ing the train from Lon­don to Man­ches­ter would mean just 14% the car­bon emis­sions of tak­ing the car for the indi­vid­ual pas­sen­ger. [2]

Cli­mate Change needs to be tack­led today. We need 90% cuts in UK emis­sions before 2030 if we are to avoid going beyond tip­ping point where the cli­mate sys­tem will spi­ral out of our con­trol com­plete­ly. As well as rapid­ly doing away with car­bon inten­sive means of trans­port, we must also ensure the sus­tain­able alter­na­tives become avail­able for all.

There­fore, let’s come togeth­er on this action and bring about pos­i­tive change: putting pub­lic trans­port first!

More infor­ma­tion will fol­low very short­ly at www.studentclimateproject.org.uk and you can also email process@studentclimateproject.org.uk for info and resources for the action.

Ref­er­ences

[1] http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/trends/current/section1rvc.pd
[2] http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/vo040708/text/40708w05.htm

networking@studentclimateproject.org.uk
http://www.studentclimateproject.org.uk

How to Fitwatch

Fit­watch meet­ing — Sat­ur­day 8th March at the LSE (Con­naught House, Ald­wych) at 2pm. Room H103.

Fit­watch has proved to be a high­ly effec­tive tac­tic against sur­veil­lance by pub­lic order police.

Although real­ly, it is bet­ter described as a range of tac­tics. Some are as sim­ple as tak­ing a pic­ture, or mak­ing a note of police num­bers. Oth­er tac­tics are more con­fronta­tion­al and active­ly pre­vent the police accu­mu­lat­ing the data they use for their ‘pre­ven­ta­tive’ pub­lic order polic­ing. There is a tac­tic for every­one, and all of them are very effec­tive.

Fit­watch meet­ing — Sat­ur­day 8th March at the LSE (Con­naught House, Ald­wych) at 2pm. Room H103.

Fit­watch has proved to be a high­ly effec­tive tac­tic against sur­veil­lance by pub­lic order police.

Although real­ly, it is bet­ter described as a range of tac­tics. Some are as sim­ple as tak­ing a pic­ture, or mak­ing a note of police num­bers. Oth­er tac­tics are more con­fronta­tion­al and active­ly pre­vent the police accu­mu­lat­ing the data they use for their ‘pre­ven­ta­tive’ pub­lic order polic­ing. There is a tac­tic for every­one, and all of them are very effec­tive.

To get involved, you need only bring a cam­era, plac­ard or ban­ner to your next demo or meet­ing, and get fit­watch­ing. But you would also be very wel­come at the Fit­watch meet­ing on Sat­ur­day so that we can share expe­ri­ences, devel­op tac­tics and cre­ate an effec­tive response to FIT and pub­lic order polic­ing.

Just as an aside, it seems that even secu­ri­ty firms have tak­en notice. The fol­low­ing tes­ti­mo­ni­als are tak­en from a Group 4 Securi­cor brief­ing, and from the web­site of the secu­ri­ty out­fit Inker­man, who make it their busi­ness to pro­tect com­pa­nies from the atten­tion of trou­ble mak­ing pro­tes­tors. Accord­ing to Inker­man, we are ‘counter-sur­veil­lance’. Sounds posh innit?

8 March 08 – Lon­don – The anar­chist group, Fit­watch, is arrang­ing a series of meet­ings that begin in Lon­don to dis­cuss the nature of polic­ing at protests and demon­stra­tions. Fit­watch are an active group that pre­vents Police For­ward Intel­li­gence Teams (FIT) from gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion dur­ing protests and demon­stra­tions. Fit­watch insist FIT are an oppres­sive reflec­tion of the state’s atti­tude towards protest groups. Fit­watch aim to use the meet­ings to dis­cuss ongo­ing tac­tics and to attract sup­port. The first meet­ing is to take place at the LSE (Group 4 Securi­cor)

Anoth­er protest group against the use of cam­eras and sur­veil­lance of activists has been estab­lished and holds grow­ing weight with­in activist move­ments. FITWATCH is a counter-sur­veil­lance group, who take pho­tos and try to obtain the per­son­al details and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­bers of the offi­cers in FIT. Pho­tographs of the offi­cers con­cerned have been post­ed on activist web­sites.”
(Inker­man. See http://www.inkerman.com/static/files/1197479765-theinkermanmonitorecoterror.pdf for their report on ‘eco-ter­ror­ism’.)

defycops@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.fitwatch.blogspot.com

Cops use military seige tactics at TAA fundraiser, Brighton.

3.03.2008
A fundrais­er for the forth­com­ing Tem­po­rary Autonomous Art project in Brighton was clamped down on heav­i­ly on Sat­ur­day. Police used vio­lent tac­tics to attack the build­ing show­ing there true face yet again. more.….…

3.03.2008
A fundrais­er for the forth­com­ing Tem­po­rary Autonomous Art project in Brighton was clamped down on heav­i­ly on Sat­ur­day. Police used vio­lent tac­tics to attack the build­ing show­ing there true face yet again. more.….…

A fundrais­er for the forth­com­ing Tem­po­rary Autonomous Art project in Brighton was clamped down on heav­i­ly on Saturday.The gig fea­tured local bands and a sound sys­tem in an old super­mar­ket in the city cen­tre.

The police arrived quite ear­ly and pro­ceed­ed to sur­round the whole build­ing, refus­ing entry to any­one wish­ing to enter. This just exac­er­bat­ed a pub­lic order sit­u­a­tion on the street which would not have hap­pened if they had left us alone.

Things esca­lat­ed when, after clos­ing down the entrance we were using, we sim­ply opened anoth­er one to allow peo­ple to enter the build­ing which we were legal­ly occu­py­ing.

Police attacked with pep­per spray and dogs after sur­round­ing the whole build­ing with a cor­don of vehi­cles, tape, dog and spe­cial ops units. There were sev­er­al arrests and one per­son was bad­ly mauled by a police dog and had to go to hos­pi­tal.

The police then tried to storm the entrance but were held off by hand to hand fight­ing until we man­aged to get the door closed and keep them out.

The police then served a sec­tion 63 and pro­ceed­ed to impound liv­ing vehi­cles and equip­ment. Our legal team think the sec­tion 63 was served improp­er­ly mak­ing the impound­ings ille­gal, so we will be attempt­ing to pros­e­cute.

http://www.subterraneanartbrighton.org/

Camp for Climate Action to target Kingsnorth power station

3.03.2008
Today it was announced that E.ON’s Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion in Kent will be the site of this summer’s Camp for Cli­mate Action, run­ning from 4 th to 11th of August 2008.

Com­ing on the back of last week’s actions against the pro­posed third run­way at Heathrow, with activists occu­py­ing the tail­fin of a jet and the roof of the hous­es of par­lia­ment, cli­mate activists promise that 2008 will be “the year of direct action on cli­mate change”.

3.03.2008
Today it was announced that E.ON’s Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion in Kent will be the site of this summer’s Camp for Cli­mate Action, run­ning from 4 th to 11th of August 2008.

Com­ing on the back of last week’s actions against the pro­posed third run­way at Heathrow, with activists occu­py­ing the tail­fin of a jet and the roof of the hous­es of par­lia­ment, cli­mate activists promise that 2008 will be “the year of direct action on cli­mate change”.

The protest will begin with a one-day event at Heathrow, the site of the pre­vi­ous year’s camp, before march­ing across Lon­don to Kingsnorth. This is one of eight cli­mate camps tar­get­ing coal across the world this sum­mer.

Cli­mate change activists will con­verge on Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion where own­ers E.ON plan to build the UK’s first coal fired pow­er sta­tion in 30 years. Sat­ur­day 9th August has been named a ‘day of mass protest and direct action’ against Kingsnorth to high­light its impact on cli­mate change.

Mov­ing from Heathrow to Kingsnorth high­lights gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate col­lu­sion to expand the fos­sil fuel econ­o­my when the sci­en­tif­ic con­sen­sus demands the oppo­site. The camp will bring togeth­er thou­sands of activists for sev­er­al days of work­shops and direct action. The camp will also chal­lenge busi­ness­es set to prof­it from false solu­tions to cli­mate change such as agro­fu­els. A day of action tar­get­ing the agro­fu­el indus­try will be an inte­gral part of the week long camp.

Natasha Edle­man said: “Build­ing a new coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in the mid­dle of a cli­mate cri­sis is mad­ness. The sci­ence shows that we only have a few years to avert cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change. If we let this hap­pen then there are sev­en more pow­er sta­tions com­ing. This must be stopped.”

Char­lie Owens said: “Bio­fu­els have been pro­posed as a solu­tion to cli­mate change. But new stud­ies con­firm that they are just as dan­ger­ous as fos­sil fuels. And they cre­ate the illu­sion we can car­ry on as usu­al. In the end we can only stop cli­mate change if we chal­lenge the growth econ­o­my and start putting peo­ple and plan­et first.”

For more infor­ma­tion see:

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/
http://www.StopKingsnorth.org/

* Like Heathrow, Kingsnorth is await­ing the approval of the gov­ern­ment. The deci­sion on whether to hold a pub­lic inquiry into the pow­er sta­tion will be tak­en by John Hut­ton, at BERR, in the next six weeks. As with Heathrow, there are accu­sa­tions of col­lu­sion between EON and the gov­ern­ment. For more infor­ma­tion see: www.greenpeace.org.uk

* Kingsnorth will pro­duce twice as many cli­mate-harm­ing emis­sions as a third run­way at Heathrow. Accord­ing to the World Devel­op­ment Move­ment, flights from a third run­way at Heathrow will pro­duce as much green­house gas as the whole of Kenya.

* If Kingsnorth is built it is like­ly to open the way to new build coal. Up to sev­en oth­er sim­i­lar projects are planned. Growth in coal-pow­er will under­mine invest­ment in renew­able ener­gy.

* Last year’s camp was on land which is intend­ed for the build­ing of a third run­way at Heathrow. The eight-day camp brought togeth­er 2000 peo­ple on land next to the vil­lage of Sip­son and shut down BAA’s head­quar­ters for 24 hours. The camp also organ­ised up to 20 small­er actions on oth­er avi­a­tion and cli­mate change relat­ed tar­gets. There were 70 arrests over the week.

* E.ON has tried to green­wash their plans to build a new plant at Kingsnorth by claim­ing that it might one day be upgrad­ed to use car­bon cap­ture tech­nol­o­gy. Even by the most opti­mistic stan­dards, such tech­nol­o­gy will not be ready until 2020.

* In the weeks before last year’s camp, BAA applied for an injunc­tion to stop the camp tak­ing place. The injunc­tion cov­ered two mil­lion mem­bers of envi­ron­men­tal groups from the RSPB to Green­peace. The injunc­tion was suc­cess­ful­ly defeat­ed in the courts.

* In addi­tion to the camp, days of action on cli­mate change are planned for the 1st April (Fos­sil Fools Day), 1st May (May­day), 3rd June (high­light­ing issues to do with food and cli­mate change)

* “Agro­fu­els” are liq­uid fuels pro­duced from agri­cul­tur­al crops. These are also referred to as “Bio­fu­els”.

Stop Heathrow Expansion: Terminal 5 flashmob

ON THE OPENING DAY OF HEATHROW TERMINAL 5

11am on the dot, Thurs­day 27 March
Inter­na­tion­al Arrivals (Ground Lev­el), Heathrow Ter­mi­nal 5

T5 flashmob flier front smallON THE OPENING DAY OF HEATHROW TERMINAL 5

11am on the dot, Thurs­day 27 March
Inter­na­tion­al Arrivals (Ground Lev­el), Heathrow Ter­mi­nal 5

www.stopairportexpansion.org

Be at T5 Inter­na­tion­al Arrivals at 11am to put on (or strip to reveal) your bright­ly coloured ‘STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION’ t‑shirt: a vis­i­ble pres­ence of pub­lic oppo­si­tion to the mad­ness of air­port expan­sion. Wan­der round for a bit, have a cof­fee, leave when you like.

ORDER YOUR FREE T‑SHIRT TODAY: stopairportexpansion@gmail.com or 0845 458 2564.

The Gov­ern­ment and BAA see the open­ing day of Ter­mi­nal Five – the biggest ter­mi­nal ever built in the UK, and the sub­ject of the longest Pub­lic Inquiry in British his­to­ry — as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to put the case for fur­ther air­port expan­sion. Join the flash mob* on 27 March to high­light the real prob­lems that air­port expan­sion caus­es: cli­mate change, noise, air pol­lu­tion and com­mu­ni­ty destruc­tion.

Down­load the fly­er

* Flash Mob: ‘A large group of peo­ple who assem­ble sud­den­ly in a pub­lic place, per­form an unusu­al action for a brief peri­od of time, then quick­ly dis­perse’ (Wikipedia).

www.t5flashmob.com

PLEASE NOTE: Almost every­thing is against the Heathrow byelaws, but wear­ing a t‑shirt is not a crime. So as long as you’re not demon­strat­ing, you’re not break­ing the law!

15 Actions to Topple the Fossil Fuel Empire

Ris­ing Tide has just fin­ished pro­duc­ing two new resource book­lets …

1 — 15 Actions to Top­ple the Fos­sil Fuel Empire — per­fect to help plan your action for up and com­ing Fos­sil Fools Day — more on that at http://risingtide.org.uk/node/241

Topple Fossil Fuel Empire coverRis­ing Tide has just fin­ished pro­duc­ing two new resource book­lets …

1 — 15 Actions to Top­ple the Fos­sil Fuel Empire — per­fect to help plan your action for up and com­ing Fos­sil Fools Day — more on that at http://risingtide.org.uk/node/241

2 — Cli­mate Action Pop­u­lar Edu­ca­tion Pack — packed with tools to help you run engag­ing, inter­ac­tive work­shops on all aspects of cli­mate change for a wide range of peo­ple.

Both resources can be down­loaded from http://risingtide.org.uk/resources/other

Paddy´s Day of Action Against Shell

This year´s St Paddy´s day, 17th March, has been called as an Inter­na­tion­al day of action against shell, in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Ross­port.

Peo­ple from all over Ire­land are set to join forces and show their unit­ed strength by going all the way to Lon­don to demon­strate on shell´s front door step.

This year´s St Paddy´s day, 17th March, has been called as an Inter­na­tion­al day of action against shell, in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Ross­port.

Peo­ple from all over Ire­land are set to join forces and show their unit­ed strength by going all the way to Lon­don to demon­strate on shell´s front door step.

Glu­aiseacht, the Irish envi­ron­men­tal net­work organ­is­ing the trip, are call­ing for peo­ple to join them at the shell head office in Lon­don, or there is also a call out to take sol­i­dar­i­ty actions at shell garages and offices, St Paddy´s day parades and Irish embassies all over the world to coin­cide with the vis­it from 15th-17th March.

The shell cen­tre is locat­ed on the South Bank in front of Jubilee Gar­dens (SE1)
right next to Water­loo train sta­tion and across from the Lon­don Eye.

What´s Wrong With shell? — The Cor­rib Pipeline Project

Since 2000 the small rur­al com­mu­ni­ty of Ross­port, Coun­ty Mayo, Ire­land have been engaged in an epic bat­tle try­ing to pre­vent Shell, Sta­toil, and Marathon from build­ing a poten­tial­ly dev­as­tat­ing tox­ic onshore gas refin­ery and high pres­sure pipeline in their remote and envi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive region.

Shell are the biggest stake­hold­er and ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the project, so have there­fore been the main tar­get of protest.

Com­mu­ni­ty Strength

From the sum­mer of 2005 mass pick­ets shut down the refin­ery con­struc­tion site after five Ross­port res­i­dents were impris­oned for refus­ing to allow Shell’s
sub-con­trac­tors access to their and their neigh­bours’ small farms which the pipeline is to go through. But in Octo­ber 2006 the Irish state came to the aid of shell by bring­ing in a mas­sive two hun­dred strong police unit to phys­i­cal­ly force a path for Shell to com­mence work. A large police pres­ence, con­sist­ing of Gar­dai (Irish police) from all over Ire­land, has stayed at the site to aid the work to con­tin­ue undis­rupt­ed.

The costs to the Envi­ron­ment, Com­mu­ni­ty & Health

Since shell start­ed build­ing the refin­ery, Car­row­more Lake, which is a Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion as well as the local water sup­ply to 10,000 peo­ple, has been pol­lut­ed with dan­ger­ous­ly high lev­els of alu­mini­um com­ing from the build­ing site.

The gas pipeline is to oper­ate at such high pres­sure that accord­ing to the
government’s safe­ty study if rup­tured could poten­tial­ly kill peo­ple and destroy build­ings for hun­dreds of metres around.

The waste from the refin­ery is to be dumped into Broad­haven bay, where 220 sight­ings of sev­en whale and dol­phin species, plus sight­ings of two seal species have been record­ed.

This is all not to men­tion the irrepara­ble dam­age fos­sil fuels, like gas, are hav­ing on desta­bil­is­ing the glob­al cli­mate.

Although the resis­tance to shell in Coun­ty Mayo is strong, the Irish state & shell´s tac­tics of bru­tal­i­ty, repres­sion and intim­i­da­tion has paid a price on the peo­ple fight­ing the pipeline project.

So mark St Paddy´s day by show­ing sol­i­dar­i­ty with their fight!

For more info:

http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo — Reports of news and actions about the pipeline
http://www.struggle.ws/rsc — Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp set­up to aid the cam­paign against shell
http://www.corribsos.com — Cam­paign group Shell to Sea

http://gluaiseacht.nologic.org/wordpress — Glu­aiseacht web­site

Greenpeace campaigners climb on top of Heathrow short-haul flight (& video clip)

As the ban­ner on top of this Lon­don — Man­ches­ter flight says, we’re in the mid­dle of a cli­mate emer­gency. The fastest grow­ing source of green­house gas emis­sions in the UK is just about to get anoth­er boost from Brown’s gov­ern­ment. On Wednes­day, the con­sul­ta­tion on whether to near­ly dou­ble the size of Heathrow by build­ing a new run­way will close, and the gov­ern­ment looks set to cave in to the avi­a­tion indus­try.

Greenpeace on top of planeAs the ban­ner on top of this Lon­don — Man­ches­ter flight says, we’re in the mid­dle of a cli­mate emer­gency. The fastest grow­ing source of green­house gas emis­sions in the UK is just about to get anoth­er boost from Brown’s gov­ern­ment. On Wednes­day, the con­sul­ta­tion on whether to near­ly dou­ble the size of Heathrow by build­ing a new run­way will close, and the gov­ern­ment looks set to cave in to the avi­a­tion indus­try.

This morn­ing, four of our vol­un­teers have climbed on top of a plane at Heathrow and are wrap­ping a ban­ner around the tail­fin. The plane — one of 32 flights every day between Lon­don and Man­ches­ter — had just arrived in Heathrow and the pas­sen­gers had dis­em­barked when four vol­un­teers walked through the dou­ble doors at Heathrow Ter­mi­nal One, cross­ing an area of tar­mac and climb­ing onto the fuse­lage of the British Air­ways flight.

100,000 flights a year go between Heathrow and des­ti­na­tions that are eas­i­ly reach­able by train (the most pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion is Paris — eas­i­ly reach­able by the Eurostar). And, look­ing at the price of train trav­el in Britain, it’s under­stand­able that some peo­ple are still choos­ing to fly. If the £9 bil­lion tax sub­si­dies the avi­a­tion indus­try receives to make fly­ing cheap­er and air­ports big­ger were spent on mak­ing trains cheap­er and bet­ter, we could reduce the envi­ron­men­tal impact of Heathrow instead of vast­ly increas­ing it.

Secu­ri­ty threat? Yes, we’ve exposed a secu­ri­ty hole at Heathrow, but we’ve done it to expose the gap­ing hole on Brown’s cli­mate change pol­i­cy. Brown’s car­ry­ing on as though cli­mate change has nev­er hap­pened. The plan­et’s lead­ing sci­en­tists are warn­ing us we only have a few years left to get cli­mate change emis­sions down, yet, if the avi­a­tion indus­try is allowed to expand as pre­dict­ed, avi­a­tion alone would destroy any hope of hit­ting his emis­sions reduc­tions tar­gets.

The move came as pro­test­ers were gath­er­ing in West­min­ster on Mon­day to oppose plans to expand the air­port.

A gov­ern­ment con­sul­ta­tion on the plan clos­es on Wednes­day.

We are here to draw a line in the sand and tell Gor­don Brown his new run­way must not and will not be built

Anna Jones, Green­peace activist

Green­peace said pro­test­ers put a ban­ner read­ing “Cli­mate Emer­gency — No Third Run­way” over the plane’s tail­fin at about 0945 GMT.

It said two women and two men crossed the tar­mac at the air­port after the pas­sen­gers had dis­em­barked.

One pro­test­er, Anna Jones, said: “Our plan­et and the peo­ple who live on it are in dan­ger.

“Cli­mate change can be beat­en but not by almost dou­bling the size of the air­port.

“We are here to draw a line in the sand and tell Gor­don Brown his new run­way must not and will not be built.”

The four were arrest­ed and tak­en to Heathrow police sta­tion at about 1100 GMT, a BAA spokes­woman said.

Video