earthfirst – Page 156

Letter from Climate Prisoners

This is a letter written by friends who are still imprisoned in Denmark. Also check out the prisoner support website – Cop-enhagen.net

Something is rotten (but not just) in Denmark. As a matter of fact, thousands of people have been considered, without any evidence, a threath to the society. Hundreds have been arrested and some are still under detention, waiting for judgement or under investigation. Among them, us, the undersigned. We want to tell the story from the peculiar viewpoint of those that still see the sky from behind the bars.

A UN meeting of crucial importance has failed because of several contradictions and tensions that have shown up during the COP15. The primary concern of the powerfuls was the governance of the energy supply for neverending growth. This was the case whether they were from the overdeveloped world, like the EU countries or the US, or from the so-called developing countries, like China or Brazil.

At odds, hundreds of delegates and thousands of people in the streets have raised the issue that the rationale of life must be (and actually is) opposed to that of profit. we have strongly affirmed our will to stop anthropic pressure on the biosphere.

A crisis of the energy paradigm is coming soon. The mechanism of the global governance have proven to be overwhelmingly precarious. The powerfuls failed not only in reaching an agreement on their internal equilibrruim but also in keeping the formal control of the discussion.

Climate change is an extreme and ultimate expression of the violence of the capitalistic growth paradigm. People globally are increasingly showing the willingness of taking the power to rebel against that violence. we have seen that in Copenhagen, as well as we have seen that same violence. Hundreds of people have been arrested without any reason or clear evidence, or for participating in peaceful and legitimate demonstrations. Even mild examples of civil disobedience have been considered as a serious threath to the social order.

In response we ask – What order do we threaten and who ordered it? Is it that order in which we do not anymore own our bodies? The order well beyond the terms of any reasonable “social contract” that we would ever sign, where our bodies can be taken, managed, constrained and imprisoned without any serious evidence of crime. Is it that order in which the decision are more and more shielded from any social conflicts? Where the governance less and less belongs to people, not even through the parliament? As a matter of fact, non-democratic organisms like the WTO, the NB, the G-whatever rule beyond any control.

We are forced to notice that the theater of democracy is a broken one as soon as, one approaches the core of the power. That is why we reclaim the power to the people. We reclaim the power over our own lives. Above all, we reclaim the power to counterpose the rationale of life and of the commons to the rationale of profit. It may have been declared illegal, but still we consider it fully legitimate.

Since no real space is left in the broken theater, we reclaimed our collective power – Actually we expected it – to speak about the climate and energy issues. Issues that, for us, involve critical nodes of global justice, survival of man and energy independence. We did marching with our bodies.

We prefer to enter the space where the power is locked dancing and singing. We would have liked to do this at the Bella center, to disrupt the session in accord with hundreds of delegates. But we were, as always, violently hampered by the police. They arrested our bodies in an attempt to arrest our ideas. we risked our bodies, trying to protect them just by staying close to each other. We value our bodies: We need them to make love, to stay together and to enjoy life. They hold our brains, with beautiful bright ideas and views. They hold our hearts filled with passion and joy. Nevertheless, we risked them. we risked our bodies getting locked in prisons. In fact, what would be the worth of thinking and feeling if the bodies did not move? Doing nothing, letting-it-happen, would be the worst form of complicity with the business that wanted to hack the UN meeting. At the COP15 we moved, and we will keep moving.

Exactly like love, civil disobedience can not just be told. We must make it, with our bodies. Otherwise, we would not really think about what we love, and we would not really love what we think about. It’s as simple as that. It’s a matter of love, justice and dignity.

How the COP15 has ended proves that we were right. Many of us are paying what is mandatory for an obsessive, pervasive and total repression: To find a guilty at the cost of inventing it (along with the crime perhaps).

We are detained with evidently absurd accusations about either violences that actually did not take place or conspiracies and organizing of law-breaking actions.

We do not feel guilty for having shown, together with thousands, the reclamation of the independence of our lives from profit’s rule. If the laws oppose this, it was legitimate to peacefully – but still conflictually – break them.

We are just temporarily docked, ready to sail again with a wind stronger than ever. It’s a matter of love, justice and dignity.

Luca Tornatore – from the Italian social centres network “see you in Copenhagen”.
Natasha Verco – Climate Justice Action
Stine Gry Jonassen – Climate Justice Action
Tannie Nyboe – Climate Justice Action
Johannes Paul Schul Meyer
Arvip Peschel
Christian Becker
Kharlanchuck Dzmitry
Cristoph Lang
Anthony Arrabal

Lappersfort Eviction Notice Confirmed By Judge

On December 31st 09, the Brugge court gave a verdict concerning the 3 previous occupiers who signed a contract with the owner, GDF Suez, and also concerning the eviction notice for the present occupiers of the Lappersfort.

According to the judge, Suez can not hold the 3 previous occupiers responsible for the new occupation, and therefore their claim against them has been dismissed.

According to the judge, Suez can not hold the 3 previous occupiers responsible for the new occupation, and therefore their claim against them has been dismissed.
However, the judge has declared that the eviction notice issued in 2002, during the first occupation of the Lappersfort, is still valid and may be used to evict the current occupiers. This, despite the fact that the first eviction notice was issued to 13 people identified by the court, and who were threatened after the first eviction with a €50,000 fine if they re-entered the forest or were involved in any other actions against Fabricom / Suez. None of these 13 people have anything to do with the current occupation and therefore an eviction notice based on a verdict passed against them should not be able to be used against us, the present occupiers. Suez had, before this trial, apparently already approached a bailiff with the eviction notice from 2002, but the bailiff refused to enforce it, as it was doubtful whether they could still legally use it. The judge’s verdict on the 31st has given them blatant right to enforce this notice, claiming that the right to private property is one of the pillars of our society and therefore must be upheld by the law enforcers blablabla.
As it stands, Suez now have a notice allowing them to evict the Lappersfort, which they will have to present to a bailiff who will then have to activate the remote-control pig circus. We are on eviction alert every day, and are well prepared, after 16 months of occupation. We’re not sure how long the process will take from here, and we now need more humans inside the forest, aswell as others supporting from the outside. If Suez wants to destroy the Lappersfort, now is the time to come together to make their job as difficult as possible.

Love respect and solidarity to our friends in Titnore Woods (england), Desdelsboscs (spain), Mainshill (scotland), Tasmania (australia), also under eviction threat; to the people of the Brazilian Amazon fighting against the GDF Suez Jirau dam project, and to all other humans defending wilderness and nature across the planet….

lappersfort
– e-mail: lappersfort@riseup.net

Climate Protestors in Court Following Defacing of Canadian Flag

Three climate activists are this morning due in Westminster Magistrate’s Court charged with criminal damage against the Canadian High Commission in London following an action to stop the Tar Sands..

On December 15th, while the International Climate Summit was taking place in Copenhagen, the protesters scaled the entrance to the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square. They cut loose the Canadian flag, before defacing it with crude oil while unfurling a banner reading “Shut Down the Tar Sands”.

The action was a response to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s obstruction of the summit in Copenhagen in order to protect Canada’s Tar Sands Industry [1]. Tar Sands are the dirtiest fuel known to man, both in terms of its impact on the climate and the devastation inflicted on the
local communities [2].

There is an enormous open cast mine in the Alberta Tar Sands region of Canada, where an area the total size of England will be exploited. This is the largest industrial development in the world and is devastating for the indigenous communities that live there, not only destroying the land
itself but increasing levels of cancer, poisoning much of their traditional food sources and leaving the water unsafe to drink [3]. This violates the indigenous treaty rights legally bound to this region.

Jake Colman, 20, Bradley Day, 22, and Daniel Whitely, 19, are all participants in the Camp for Climate Action [4], an action group that occupied Trafalgar Square for the two-week duration of the Climate Summit.

Bradley Day, a waiter from Oxford, speaking after the action:

“This is just the beginning of a UK-based direct action campaign to stop Canadian Tar Sands. These murderous ventures are being funded from within the UK, with the Royal Bank of Scotland, now 84%-owned by the public investing billions, and British Petroleum currently preparing to move in
to Tar Sands. [5] We won’t stand by and let these greed driven corporations cause catastrophic environmental and human destruction.”

Clayton Thomas-Muller, an Indigenous activist with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), spoke during the Copenhagen summit:
“The Canadian government continues to ignore its own laws, which state they must consult with Indigenous Peoples who have been trying to convey concerns about Tar Sands development. Tar Sands are killing our communities and trampling over our rights. Furthermore, the environmental destruction wreaked by the Tar Sands is directly threatening thousands of lives now and is driving our climate into chaos. The world has woken up to the fact that Canada is now Public Climate Enemy Number One. It’s time Canada did its global duty and shut down the Tar Sands,”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] At the failed Copenhagen Climate Summit, Canada proposed an inadequate target for reducing greenhouse emissions by only 3% by 2020 ignoring world scientists’ recommendations to commit to over 40% reductions below 1990 levels in order to avoid dangerous runaway climate change. Canada already failed to meet its commitments to the Kyoto Treaty and refuses to sign the UN’s Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples whilst continuing development of Tar Sands oil extraction.

[2] Tar Sands fuel is a way of extracting oil who’s energy intensive process has not only completely destroyed areas of the Boreal forests the size of England, burns enough natural gas to power 6 hundred thousand homes a year, produces lakes of toxic waste 66km wide -which filters into
all local life and drinking water- but would itself be enough to push our climate into chaos.

http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/about/

[3] http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/about/

[4] http://climatecamp.org.uk

[5] This is the start of a fast growing UK campaign against Tar Sands. Although we do not receive oil directly from Canadian Tar Sands, Corporations such as RBS which is now 84% owned by the British Tax Payer invests billions and British Petroleum have plans to move in to the ‘Sun Rise’ site in the coming months. Action on these issues and these corporations are soon to become a focus of UK activism as we begin to stand up to International injustices such as Tar Sands in Canada.

Stop the Tar Sands

Environmental Activists killed by Mining Companies in Latin America

On 26th December, Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto became the third victim of a wave of violence against environmental campaigners in the Cabañas Region of El Salvador, where community members are protesting against the re-opening of a Gold Mine by Canadian Company Pacific Rim.

Dora Alicia was a member of the Cabañas Environmental Committee, and had been active in opposing the mine. She was eight months pregnant when she was shot dead, and her two year old son was also wounded in the attack.

Her murder comes six days after the fatal shooting of Ramiro Rivera Gomez, Vice President of the Cabañas Environmental Committee, who had survived being shot eight times in August this year. In June, another environmental campaigner, Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno, had been tortured and killed. Many other members of the community have received death threats, including youth workers and journalists for the local community radio station Radio Victoria, and the local priest Father Luis Quintanilla narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping.

In Mexico, Mariano Abarca Roblero campaigned against the environmentally destructive open-pit Barium mine Blackfire, a World Bank project. He was shot to death on the evening of November 27, 2009, in front of his house in Chicomuselo, Chiapas. More details.

Whalers and Whale Defenders Clash for the First Time This Season

The first clash between whalers and whale defenders took place on December 14th when the Steve Irwin and the Shonan Maru #2 exchanged shots with their water cannons.

The Shonan Maru #2 has been following the Steve Irwin from Fremantle since December 9th. At 1400 Hours (Melbourne time) the Steve Irwin went around an iceberg, did a figure eight out of view of the Shonan Maru #2 and re-emerged within a quarter of a mile of the Japanese whaler’s portside quarter catching the whalers completely by surprise.

A pursuit began and the Shonan Maru #2 turned on two water cannons. The crew of the Steve Irwin immediately responded by placing their water cannon in readiness. The Shonan Maru #2 and the Steve Irwin were engaged in a high speed pursuit for two hours before Captain Watson decided to break off the pursuit to resume course to the coast of Antarctica.

The Japanese whalers are spending a great deal of money, first locating the Steve Irwin by air and then directing the Shonan Maru #2 to the coordinates of the Sea Shepherd vessel. By staying on the tail of the Steve Irwin, the harpoon vessel is able to keep the rest of the fleet aware of the Sea Shepherd position. Captain Paul Watson needs to lose the tail of the Shonan Maru #2 in order to locate the whaling fleet. He is counting on heavier ice conditions to assist in this effort.

“We will use the icebergs and the ice floes to our advantage.” Said Captain Paul Watson. “I’ve observed today that I am a more experienced ice navigator than the Japanese captain chasing us. We need to get him to follow us into the ice fields and let the ice work for us.”

The Steve Irwin crew were left wet, but in good spirits after the confrontation.

—-

Sea Shepherd Evades Pursuit by Japanese Whaling Fleet Security Vessel

The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin has successfully left the Australian Economic Zone (EEZ) without any sign of the Japanese whaling fleet security ship Shonan Maru No. 2.

The Steve Irwin departed from Hobart at 1800 Hours on December 31st and took advantage of gale force winds and heavy swells to slip past the waiting Japanese vessel.

“It’s a big ocean down here they have no idea where we are,” said Captain Paul Watson. “I’m now confident that we can proceed with our search for the Japanese whaling fleet without further interference from the Shonan Maru No. 2.”

The Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil is patrolling the Southern Ocean in advance of the Steve Irwin in search of the fleet.

The Shonan Maru No. 2 was waiting for the Steve Irwin when it left Fremantle on December 7th. The Japanese had chartered an aircraft out of Albany to locate the conservation vessel. They then relayed the Steve Irwin’s position to the Shonan Maru No. 2 to enable the Japanese security vessel to intercept the Steve Irwin.

The Steve Irwin was unable to lose the pursuit of the Shonan Maru No. 2 for more than two weeks. Only by returning to Tasmania was the tail lost because Japanese whaling ships are prohibited from entering Australian territorial waters.

“Thanks to the stormy weather, there was no possibility of a chartered flight locating the Steve Irwin and we were able to pass back into international waters without any sign of the Shonan Maru No. 2,” said Captain Watson. “They will be hard pressed to locate us now and without them on our tail, I am confident that we will be able to track down the whale poachers in the Australian Antarctic Territory.”
“It was awesome seeing them run like cowards when we turned on them,” said Third Mate Vincent Hayes from Williamstown in Victoria.

Sabotage at Broken Cross Open Cast Coal Mine (Mainshill Solidarity Action)

In the early hours of the 25th December, a group of autonomous activists delivered their Christmas present to Scottish Coal. Four machines were sabotaged at the Broken Cross open cast site, the largest of its type in Europe, just 5 miles from Mainshill Solidarity Camp.
This is a message to Scottish Coal that regardless of the time of year, we will resist. Not just at Mainshill, but at all of their sites across South Lanarkshire, which is one of the most heavily mined areas in Europe.
As the “festive” season comes to an end, the destructive work will commence again at Mainshill. Eviction is looming as their work progresses. Numbers are needed as ever on site to help out and fill defences.

UK Coal ‘ greenwash’ Durham planner’s! OPENCAST looks likely (near where Winter Moot will be in February)

Money grabbing UK coal have overcome one of the largest barriers in their plans to opencast the PONT VALLEY,

OPPONENTS of a large opencast mine in a picturesque valley fear the worst now that planning permission has been granted to move a colony of Great Crested Newts – a protected species.

Money grabbing UK coal have overcome one of the largest barriers in their plans to opencast the PONT VALLEY,

OPPONENTS of a large opencast mine in a picturesque valley fear the worst now that planning permission has been granted to move a colony of Great Crested Newts – a protected species.

Durham County Council planners agreed to an application by UK Coal to create four habitat ponds for wildlife near Leadgate, Consett, County Durham.

The company, which plans to extract 556,000 tonnes from the Bradley site, an area of 73,000 square meters in the Derwent Valley between the villages of Leadgate and Dipton, was hindered by the presence of the tiny animals on a pond in the middle of the area where it wants to mine. Now that councillors have approved the plans to create new ponds UK Coal will proceed with its application to mine.

A spokesman for the company said: “The proposals are to create a site of nature conservation involving additional planting and landscaping and new ponds on part of the site to form an extended wildlife habitat from the adjacent Billingside Wood Site of Nature Conservation Importance.

“The application for habitat ponds in construction terms is relatively minor in nature and has the potential for significant conservation and habitat enhancement opportunities for the local area.”

Eight letters of objection including responses from the Dipton Community Partnership and the Pont Valley Network were received.

Objectors argued that the application is part of the intention to opencast the site, known as the Bradley site and should not be treated separately.

But senior planning officer Mike Hempsall said the two applications had to be treated individually.

He said: “The proposal provides an opportunity for additional habitats that would be of ecological and landscape benefit to the area and can be carried out in an environmentally acceptable manner.

“The stated grounds of objection concerning determination of the application separate to the surface coal mine application, archaeological, landscape character, effects on public rights of way and wildlife impact are not considered sufficient to lead to reasons to refuse the application.”

UK Coal says the opencast proposal would create 38 jobs, produce 556,000 tonnes of coal needed for the British steel or electricity industry, and provide a new conservation area after mining is completed within three years. It intends to formally submit a planning application in the new year.

But Durham County councillor Watts Stelling said: “This area has been ravaged by industry in the past and should now be allowed to recover.

“Everybody knows the two applications are linked. UK Coal is not building new ponds due to any fondness for Great Crested Newts. It wants to dig a great big hole in attractive countryside.”

It should be noted that Durham wildlife trust didn’t even respond when asked for an opinion by Durham County Council maybe this is because lots of funding for wildlife trusts comes from the aggregate industry or maybe their just lazy!

GOOD NEWS!!!
FAMILIES in a rural hamlet are calling on a development company to abandon its bid for an opencast mine in the Northumberland countryside after planners firmly rejected the controversial scheme.

Campaigners in tiny Halton Lea Gate near Haltwhistle say they are “overjoyed” after county councillors voted unanimously to refuse permission to dig 140,000 tonnes of coal from a 75-acre site, within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

They urged applicant HM Project Developments to “get the message”, admit defeat and not launch an appeal against the decision.

HM Project Developments’ agent, Newcastle-based firm Blackett, Hart and Pratt, did not comment.

Cowley Club Bookshop Talks 2010

The Cowley Bookshop Collective are proud to present a series of author talks for 2010:

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All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are FREE
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Friday 8 January
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Clive Bloom (Violent London) talks about his research into Edwardian anarchism.

The Cowley Bookshop Collective are proud to present a series of author talks for 2010:

_______________________________________
All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are FREE
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Friday 8 January
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Clive Bloom (Violent London) talks about his research into Edwardian anarchism.

Clive Bloom is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Middlesex University. He has written many books on popular culture, cultural history and literary criticism, regularly appears on radio and television and contributes to a number of national newspapers. His next book, entitled Gothic Histories will be published in April 2010.
http://www.clivebloom.com/

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Wednesday 13 January
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Stevphen Shukaitis (Constituent Imagination) and Jack Z. Bratich (Conspiracy Panics) have a discussion entitled An Affective Weather Report

Event flyer (3.4 MB pdf) – http://mujinga.net/AffectiveWeatherReport.pdf

Stevphen Shukaitis is an editor at Autonomedia and lecturer at the University of Essex. He is the author of Imaginal Machines: Autonomy & Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life (Autonomedia, 2009) and editor with Erika Biddle and David Graeber of Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations, Collective Theorization (AK Press, 2007). His research focuses on the emergence of collective imagination in social movements and the changing compositions of cultural and artistic labor.
http://stevphen.mahost.org/

Jack Z. Bratich is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. He is also a zine librarian at ABC No Rio in New York City. Jack uses critical cultural studies to analyze the politics of popular culture. He studies media culture as an intersection of power, knowledge, and subjectivity. He is co-editor, along with Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy, of Foucault, Cultural Studies and Governmentality (SUNY 2003).
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/directory/jbratich/index.html

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Sunday 17 January – SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION (Check Cowley club website)
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John Zerzan (Elements of Refusal) talks on The roots of the crisis and the need for a new paradigm.

American philosopher John Zerzan’s thesis is simple: civilization is pathological, and needs to be dismantled. Zerzan’s radical critique of civilization, laid out in books such as Elements Of Refusal (1988), Future Primitive (1994), and Running On Emptiness (2002) draws on anthropological research to argue that domestication of nature and domestication of humans go hand in hand. And this is accomplished primarily through technology.
This is the first appearance by John Z in the UK since 2003. A one-off event.
http://www.johnzerzan.net/

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Thursday 4 February
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John Barker (Bending the Bars) talks about his experiences of the Angry Brigade.

Between 1970 and 1972 the Angry Brigade, strongly influenced by anarchism and the Situationists, launched a bombing campaign which targeted banks, embassies and the homes of Tory MPs. In total, 25 bombings were attributed to them by the police. The damage done by the bombings was mostly limited to property damage although one person was slightly injured. A group of anarchists from North East London, the ‘Stoke Newington Eight’, were prosecuted for carrying out bombings as the Angry Brigade in one of the longest criminal trials of English history (it lasted from 30 May to 6 December 1972).
John Barker was one of those imprisoned. John went to prison in 1971, and stayed there for seven long years. Bending The Bars is a collection of stories written then, and published together for the first time in 2007. This evening John will be discussing his experience of imprisonment, and answering questions on the Brigade’s outlook and actions.

Book review by Stewart Home – http://www.metamute.org/en/node/6241

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All events run from 16.00 to 18.30 and are FREE
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More to come!

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INFO
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Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2344061033&ref=ts&gid=59207379965

Cowley Books
12 London Road
Brighton
BN1 4JA

cowleybooks@gmail.com
http://www.cowleyclub.org.uk/

Tree felled despite protesters underneath & protection agreement

23 December 2009
A MAJESTIC 350-year-old oak tree in Steep was chopped down just hours after a deal was struck to save it.

Shocked villagers looked on in horror as contractors reneged on an agreement to save the landmark oak, which has stood in Ashford Chace since the time of Oliver Cromwell, by clambering up into the highest branches and hacking it down last Tuesday afternoon.

23 December 2009
A MAJESTIC 350-year-old oak tree in Steep was chopped down just hours after a deal was struck to save it.

Protestors standing underneath the canopy were forced to take cover when it became clear tree surgeons had no regard for their safety, as parts of the tree came crashing to the ground.

Police were called amid confrontational scenes between villagers and contractors, before the residents were forced to watch helplessly as the oak was systematically dismantled.

Ashford Hangers Preservation Society tree warden Drake Hocking said: “They started off carefully and slowly and then sometime in the middle of the day they changed tack and started butchering it.
“They did not stop.
“It was tragic and the village is now in shock.”

The oak tree is situated on the Hangers Way and forms part of the right of way for a new four-bedroom house, built by Rolls Royce’s head of human resources Avery Duff and wife Elfrida of Empshott Green.

They intend to turn the site where the oak tree stood into a straight tarmac drive for their property.

The tree was considered rotten by East Hampshire District Council’s arbocultural team, so was not protected by a tree preservation order.

Mr Hocking explained an agreement had been thrashed out on Monday evening with the Duff’s contractors Pegasus Builders, which stated it would only remove about a third of the tree.

However, the promise was broken within 24 hours.

“It appears the Duff’s architect went over the head of the contractor and insisted the tree should be cut,” he said.

Kate Burke, of Ashford Chace, said: “It is shocking, absolutely shocking.
“I am so upset about it and the way the situation has been handled.
“I cannot understand how some people can have such disregard for the countryside.
“If it had been a different owner or a different arbicultural officer at the council then I think the outcome would have been very different.”

She added when she went to inspect the tree after it was felled, the rot inside was only the size of her cupped hands.

“As a proportion of the whole circumference of the tree, it was nothing,” Mrs Burke said.
“It is so, so sad.”

Another angered resident, Jessica Pocock, said: “I think I can speak for all those present when I say that we have all been truly shaken and appalled by the crass and disdainful attitude displayed to to the people of Steep, many of whom tried to negotiate with the Duffs for over two years, and to the magnificent oak tree, which has been felled for no good reason.

“We did consider taking up a stance again to try and prevent the work being done, but in truth, we have no chance of stopping such ruthless behaviour, and the strain of the last few days has been considerable.”

On Monday a sign was placed beside the tree which quoted the famous war poet Edward Thomas, who lived in Steep 100 years ago.

It read: “In the sun and in the snow, there are no more sins to be sinned on the dead oak tree bough.”

Avery Duff was unavailable for comment when The Post went to press.

New Zealand climate camp report-back

15 December 2009

15 December 2009
Preparations for New Zealand’s first Climate Camp are going well with people moving onto the site yesterday. Campers spent the day setting up some of the infrastructure required for the camp including the kitchen and storage tents. As the day progressed water lines could be seen snaking across the field, solar panels popped up next to tents and by the end of the day hot food was being prepared in the kitchen. The site is perfect, large trees dot the field, a river with swimming holes runs beside the camp and there is easy vehicular access.

Climate camp officially kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday) and will be going until the 21st. The camp will be a working demonstration of sustainable living with composting toilets and electricity generated on site. It will also host workshops on dozens of subjects as well as providing space for people to organise to take action against the root causes of climate change. The 21st will see campers taking to the streets in protests which will be organised at camp. As details of these protests are organised they will be distributed widely.

Feel free to bring anything you think might be useful – tools, bikes, koha to help pay for food and tents etc. The camp is being organised and run by participants so feel free to make it your own. If you want to run a workshop or spend a few hours in the kitchen that would be great! Weather has been a mixed bag over the past day so a good tent and heaps of warm clothes in case you get wet would be a really good idea. Food will be provided throughout the camp.

So if you have any spare time over the next week be it an afternoon or the entire camp pop on down to Moonshine park in Upper Hut from today.

For more information and regular updates on how the camp is going please visit climatecamp.org.nz

For the days photos please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45638777@N08/

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Activists disrupt presentation by head of the New Zealand Carbon Exchange.
18 December 2009

This action coincides with New Zealand’s first climate camp in Upper Hut Wellington and pecedes mondays day of direct action against false solutions planned for Wellington on monday.

Yesterday members of Carbon Progress Response (CPR) disrupted a presentation by Stuart Frazer member of the New Zealand Carbon Exchange. The protesters disrupted the meeting at three points holding banners saying “Our Climate Not Your Business”, “Food Markets Not Carbon Markets” as well as talking about why carbon trading would not result in real action being taken to prevent climate change. During the presentation Stuart Frazer talked of how we need to stabilise atmospheric CO2 levels at 450ppm and global temperatures at a 2 degrees Celsius rise. The protesters pointed out that at these levels hundreds of millions of the worlds poor will be affected by drought and famine.

The action was taken in solidarity with the 100,000 protesters in Copenhagen as well as the 300 civil society delegates which walked out of the conference.

The CPR activists involved in the disruption explained their actions in this way “Carbon trading, also known as Cap and Trade, allows wealthy, industrialized countries and companies to keep polluting at the same rates by trading carbon credits amongst themselves. This allows business to continue as usual and encourages the disadvantaged and poor to sell their livelihoods for the gain of the rich.”

After the first two groups of protesters were removed around a dozen protesters held banners outside as well as using a siren to emphasis that we are facing a climate emergency. After the presentation had finished an activist slipped back into the meeting and disrupted it for a third time.

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21 December 2009
About 150 people took to the streets early this morning in Wellington as two banners were hung overnight in prominent locations. First stop was the Stock Exchange, to disrupt business as usual and tell the profiteers of climate change that our climate is not their business. While people entered the building a samba band, radical cheerleaders and a kids block were outside all main entrances. There was also a vocal bunch from a group claiming to be counter-protesting for the right to profit from exploiting the environment. Nine people were arrested in a sit-in blockade but later released with no charge.

After 9 arrests the protest took over Lampton Quay to go and support two climbers occupying the outside of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade with a giant banner denouncing Foterra for its part in New Zealand’s high emissions from agriculture. The action was taken to draw attention to the fact that 51% of New Zealand’s climate changing emissions come from agriculture. The protesters who were initially at the stock exchange, marched down Lambton Quay to support the two activists hanging off MFAT. The two climbers came down later and were not arrested. A Reclaim the Streets style protest continued for over half and hour.

The nine from earlier are coming out of the police station now, some or all without charge…

OUR CLIMATE IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS!!

http://climatecamp.org.nz/