Category: Aviation and Roads

Latest info on Camp for Climate Action (& action reports during the camp) — useful links including ‘what’s it like’ video

All the lat­est info you need to have a reward­ing Camp for Cli­mate Action is below — read more.

Also please note that dur­ing the camp, the best place to get relat­ed action reports will be https://indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2008/climatecamp/, with oth­ers on the gen­er­al IMC newswire. Dai­ly video reports trail­er.

We’ll do a round-up of actions & pho­tos after­wards, as last year.

Climate camp penknifeAll the lat­est info you need to have a reward­ing Camp for Cli­mate Action is below — read more.

Also please note that dur­ing the camp, the best place to get relat­ed action reports will be https://indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2008/climatecamp/, with oth­ers on the gen­er­al IMC newswire. Dai­ly video reports trail­er.

We’ll do a round-up of actions & pho­tos after­wards, as last year.

Get­ting there | What to bring | Neigh­bour­hoods | Phones & secu­ri­ty | Direct action | 9th August mass action | Oth­er use­ful info about the camp | Work­shop pro­gramme - you’ll find 2 work­shops clear­ly labelled as EF! but there’ll be EF!ers, such as you dear read­er, sprin­kled here and there through­out the camp in all sorts of roles, or off site tak­ing action; also check out all the excit­ing UK coal resis­tance work­shops, main­ly in the Welsh neigh­bour­hood & not in the main work­shop pro­gramme.

Video — Attend­ing the camp. The prac­ti­cal­i­ties, fun, and fears. Views, reas­sur­ance, clar­i­fi­ca­tion, and enthu­si­asm from peo­ple who attend­ed in 2007, and a lit­tle bit of the mag­ic in their words and eyes.

Activists take site for the Camp for Climate Action and reveal location

30 July 2008

Activists take site for the Camp for Cli­mate Action and reveal loca­tion

Climate camp 08 banner & tripods30 July 2008

Activists take site for the Camp for Cli­mate Action and reveal loca­tion

100 peo­ple entered and secured an uncul­ti­vat­ed field at Deans­gate Ridge at 3.00pm today, only 1 km from Kingsnorth Pow­er Sta­tion. They erect­ed and climbed tripods to pre­vent police from mov­ing them and have erect­ed a mar­quee along­side a ban­ner which reads ‘No New Coal’.

Although the cli­mate camp activists have been upfront and open about most aspects of their plans, the loca­tion of the camp had not been revealed until today in order to pre­vent E.ON and the police from attempt­ing to stop it from hap­pen­ing. The uncul­ti­vat­ed field is on a road that runs between Hoo St Wer­burgh and High Hal­stow. The Camp for Cli­mate Action intends to return the field in two weeks in as good, if not bet­ter, con­di­tion than it was found.

Around 20 sheep were in the field when it was occu­pied. They have been round­ed up and are being tak­en care of with food and water.

The camp, which is due to offi­cial­ly start on Sun­day, 3 August, is expect­ed to attract thou­sands of peo­ple com­ing from all over the UK. The week long camp hosts hun­dreds of work­shops on sus­tain­able liv­ing and the pol­i­tics of cli­mate change. The camp will cul­mi­nate on Sat­ur­day 9 August in a mass direct action to shut down Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion on protest over E.ON’s plans to build the first new coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in the UK for 33 years.

“We want to warm­ly invite peo­ple from the local com­mu­ni­ty to come down and see for them­selves what the camp is all about,” said Ter­ry Graves, who has already pitched his tent up in the field.

“E.ON and the gov­ern­ment believe that you can have end­less fos­sil-fuelled eco­nom­ic growth in a world of finite resources,” said Christi­na Greens­ford, who helped to secure the camp. “Peo­ple from all over the UK are here to cre­ate a demo­c­ra­t­ic, low-car­bon soci­ety in which our long term future on this plan­et is pri­ori­tised over the short term prof­it mar­gins of the fos­sil fuel indus­try.”

“We have a future to pro­tect, and today, in set­ting up the cli­mate camp, we’ve drawn a line in the sand at Kingsnorth.” said Han­nah Abbots. “We will not allow com­pa­nies like E.ON drag us over the edge of cli­mate cat­a­stro­phe.”

Press can con­tact Conor O’Brian at 07530 306267 who is on site and arrange inter­views, either over the phone or on the perime­ter of the site.

Press can also con­tact the media team, who are not cur­rent­ly on site, at 07772 861 099

A press advi­so­ry will be short­ly issued giv­ing infor­ma­tion as to when the first media tours of the camp will take place.

camp media team
press@climatecamp.org.uk
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

—

The OS grid ref­er­ence for the camp is TQ 773 742. The site is between Dean­gate round about on the A228 and the vil­lage of High Hal­stow. The site is on the west side of the road (left com­ing north from the A228) as you go up hill after the Dean­gate sports field and before Dux Court farm.

—

For direc­tions and oth­er use­ful info, see http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21137

EarthFirst! gathering workshop call & travel info

LAST CALL FOR RUNNING WORKSHOPS

at the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing
Eco­log­i­cal Direct Action with­out Com­pro­mise
27 Aug — 1 Sept 2008, Nor­folk

Get in touch if you or your campaign/group/network would like to run a work­shop or ses­sion at the gath­er­ing, espe­cial­ly if you can offer work­shops on action train­ing, direct action cam­paigns, ecol­o­gy, eco­log­i­cal restora­tion and sus­tain­able liv­ing.

Email us on sum­mer­gath­er­ing _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk or ring 01524 383012

Dead­line 12 August!

We’ve already got lots of work­shops con­firmed. Join us for:


LAST CALL FOR RUNNING WORKSHOPS

at the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing
Eco­log­i­cal Direct Action with­out Com­pro­mise
27 Aug — 1 Sept 2008, Nor­folk

Get in touch if you or your campaign/group/network would like to run a work­shop or ses­sion at the gath­er­ing, espe­cial­ly if you can offer work­shops on action train­ing, direct action cam­paigns, ecol­o­gy, eco­log­i­cal restora­tion and sus­tain­able liv­ing.

Email us on sum­mer­gath­er­ing _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk or ring 01524 383012

Dead­line 12 August!

We’ve already got lots of work­shops con­firmed. Join us for:

DIRECT ACTION TRAINING
includ­ing: Blockad­ing, rec­cies for actions, secu­ri­ty for actions, how to plan actions, legal and arrest info, map read­ing for begin­ners, squat­ting, how to run legal sup­port and police liai­son

GET INVOLVED IN AND PLAN DIRECT ACTION CAMPAIGNS
Leave it in the ground — resis­tance to coal
Stop­ping GM test fields
Sav­ing Ice­land: resis­tance to heavy indus­try
Food and Cli­mate Change info and action
Oppos­ing the nuclear indus­try
Bio­fu­els
Smash Edo – what’s hap­pen­ing and inter­st­ing lessons for oth­er cam­paigns
Ris­ing Tide

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Learn about ecol­o­gy, eco-cen­tric ethics, sus­tain­able liv­ing and eco­log­i­cal restora­tion includ­ing field trips and hands-on work.

There’ll also be inter­na­tion­al and nation­al action round-ups, region­al get-togeth­ers, ses­sions on strat­e­gy, where next and how we com­mu­ni­cate.

———

More info about the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing

Want to do some­thing to stop our plan­et from get­ting trashed?

EF! is about direct action to halt the destruc­tion of the Earth. It’s about doing it your­self rather than rely­ing on lead­ers, gov­ern­ments or indus­try.
Direct action is at the heart of it, whether you’re stand­ing in front of a bull­doz­er, shut­ting down an open-cast mine or rip­ping up a field of GM crops.

We’re a loose net­work of peo­ple, groups and cam­paigns com­ing togeth­er for eco­log­i­cal direct action.

Join us for 5 days of work­shops, net­work­ing and plan­ning actions, run with­out lead­ers by every­one who comes along. The gath­er­ing is also a
prac­ti­cal exam­ple of low-impact eco-liv­ing and non-hier­ar­chi­cal organ­is­ing.

WHERE IS IT?
The gath­er­ing is hap­pen­ing on love­ly fields less than 3 miles from Diss in Nor­folk, with reg­u­lar trains to Diss and bus­es from Diss to the site.
We rec­om­mend that you arrive Tue evening, as work­shops will start on Wednes­day morn­ing and run until Sun­day after­noon.

FOOD AND WHAT TO BRING
Deli­cious veg­an food will be pro­vid­ed by the Anar­chist Teapot for £4 per day, or you can cater for your­self
Bring camp­ing gear — if you want details of B&Bs in the area con­tact us.
We are ask­ing for a con­tri­bu­tion of £15-£25 accord­ing to what you can afford.
Dogs: the gath­er­ing is held at a dog free site, unfor­tu­nate­ly we will have to turn away any dogs that arrive.
Please leave your car at home, it’s real­ly easy to get to by pub­lic trans­port or come by bike. You can also check out our lift shar­ing board:
http://www.easf.org.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

WHAT YOU’LL FIND ON SITE
Wel­come tent at the gate
Work­shop spaces
Anar­chist Teapot Kitchen
Veg­gies Cafe
Kids space with toys
Library with books on rad­i­cal thought and some relax­ing fic­tion
Book stall by Nat­ter­jack Press
A space for leaflets and dis­plays
Cin­e­ma show­ing political/campaigns films
Bar
Wash­ing facil­i­ties and com­post toi­lets
Sauna and hot tubs
Renew­able pow­er

(Please not that the gath­er­ing is not a fes­ti­val)

Find out more and join in!

The near­est train sta­tion is up on the web­site (for book­ing advance train or coach tick­ets), and there’s a lift-shar­ing forum too.

Email us if you can offer a work­shop, want to help out with the gath­er­ing or if you would like posters and leaflets to dis­trib­ute.

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk, sum­mer­gath­er­ing _ AT _ earthfirst.org.uk

Plane Stupid Activist Glued To PM Inside Downing Street

22nd July 2008
A cam­paign­er from the cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid, is cur­rent­ly super-glued to Prime Min­is­ter Gor­don Brown in the State Din­ing Room of 10 Down­ing Street.

Plane Stupid glues to PM22nd July 2008
A cam­paign­er from the cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid, is cur­rent­ly super-glued to Prime Min­is­ter Gor­don Brown in the State Din­ing Room of 10 Down­ing Street.

Dan Glass, a 24 year old MSc stu­dent based in Scot­land, gained access to the PM’s offi­cial res­i­dence at 5pm this evening. He greet­ed Mr Brown and asked the Prime Min­is­ter why he and his min­is­ters have refused to meet West Lon­don res­i­dents opposed to the con­struc­tion of a third run­way at Heathrow. He simul­ta­ne­ous­ly put his super-glue cov­ered hand onto Brown’s poly­ester suit. When Brown went to turn away he found he had been super-glued by his cloth­ing to Plane Stu­pid, and had no option but to lis­ten to Dan.

Dan read mes­sages to the PM from peo­ple whose vil­lages will be bull­dozed if Brown agrees to BAA’s expan­sion plans. He also read out tes­ti­mo­ny from com­mu­ni­ties across the world threat­ened by cli­mate change while Down­ing Street aides attempt to extract the Labour leader from the green cam­paign­er. Dan hoped to stay glued to the PM long enough to begin quot­ing from con­fi­den­tial doc­u­ments secured through the Free­dom of Infor­ma­tion Act, which reveal the government’s pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion on Heathrow expan­sion was fixed. The papers reveal Min­is­ters have engaged in an extra­or­di­nary lev­el of col­lu­sion with air­port oper­a­tor, BAA, fid­dling pol­lu­tion fig­ures and devel­op­ing a joint strat­e­gy to beat oppo­si­tion groups.

The gov­ern­ment con­sul­ta­tion received 80,000 respons­es from the pub­lic, almost all of which opposed the government’s plans, despite the fact that peo­ple were not even asked whether they want­ed a third run­way and no con­sid­er­a­tion of the cli­mate impacts appeared in the con­sul­ta­tion doc­u­ments.

Dan took today’s extra­or­di­nary step because Brown and his Trans­port Sec­re­tary, Ruth Kel­ly, have refused to meet res­i­dents from Sip­son – the west Lon­don vil­lage, which would be wiped off the map if new Labour gives into BAA’s demands for a third run­way. Some of the mes­sages Dan is read­ing out to the Prime Min­is­ter are quotes from news­pa­per inter­views with Sip­son res­i­dents.

Plane Stu­pid activist, Gra­ham Thomp­son who is cur­rent­ly fac­ing pros­e­cu­tion for scal­ing Par­lia­ment in Feb­ru­ary and brand­ing the Palace of West­min­ster “BAA HQ,” today said:

“Gor­don Brown’s only got two pos­si­ble lega­cies, the first Prime Min­is­ter to real­ly get cli­mate change or the last one not to. Brown needs to realise we can beat cli­mate change, but not by dou­bling the size of the world’s biggest inter­na­tion­al air­port. That’s why we took our peace­ful cam­paign from the roof of Par­lia­ment to 10 Down­ing Street.”

When BAA first sought per­mis­sion to build Ter­mi­nal 5, the com­pa­ny wrote to near­by res­i­dents promis­ing nev­er to seek fur­ther Heathrow expan­sion. Now they have col­lud­ed with the gov­ern­ment to get a third run­way and a sixth ter­mi­nal by manip­u­lat­ing the con­sul­ta­tion process which has been wide­ly con­demned as unfair, unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic and fun­da­men­tal­ly dis­hon­est.

Gra­ham Thomp­son con­tin­ued:

“Brown’s con­sul­ta­tion was a fix, pure and sim­ple. It was the sin­gle most anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic thing this wretched gov­ern­ment has done since the Iraq war, and that’s say­ing some­thing. Dan thought that if super-glu­ing him­self to the Prime Min­is­ter was the only way to cut through the pow­er of giant cor­po­ra­tions like BAA and ensure he hears what peo­ple from West Lon­don real­ly think, then so be it.”

- ENDS -

MORE INFORMATION AND AUDIO OF THE ACTION:

www.planestupid.com
press@planestupid.com

NOTES:

Dan Glass biog:

Dan Glass is a 24 year old stu­dent from Bar­net, north Lon­don. He is cur­rent­ly study­ing an MSc in human ecol­o­gy and cli­mate change at Strath­clyde Uni­ver­si­ty in Scot­land where he is research­ing the impacts of air­port expan­sion on com­mu­ni­ty cohe­sion. Dan joined Plane Stu­pid about 18 months ago after he was inspired by read­ing George Monbiot’s books. Dan is a grad­u­ate of Sus­sex Uni­ver­si­ty where he stud­ied Geog­ra­phy and Devel­op­ment Stud­ies and where he was elect­ed to be pres­i­dent of the uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent union. His father is a lawyer and his moth­er works for a Jew­ish Music Insti­tute. Dan says he draws his moti­va­tion to stand up for what he believes in from his grand­par­ents who are holo­caust sur­vivors.

Details of the FoI doc­u­ments detail­ing the fixed con­sul­ta­tion:

Sun­day Times rev­e­la­tions: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3512042.ece

FoI doc­u­ments: www.greenpeace.org.uk/baa

Audio link avail­able here

info@planestupid.com
http://www.planestupid.com

Melting Point: the new frontline in eco-activism

The Ecol­o­gist Film Unit (EFU), a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the eth­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tions agency Ecos­torm and the Ecol­o­gist mag­a­zine, has recent­ly pro­duced a short film called ‘Melt­ing Point: the new front­line in eco-activism’.

CO2The Ecol­o­gist Film Unit (EFU), a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the eth­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tions agency Ecos­torm and the Ecol­o­gist mag­a­zine, has recent­ly pro­duced a short film called ‘Melt­ing Point: the new front­line in eco-activism’. Ahead of next mon­th’s ‘Cli­mate Camp’ at Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion, Kent, the film expos­es gov­ern­ment tac­tics in reac­tion to envi­ro­men­tal protests.

Espi­onage, news manip­u­la­tion, legal threats and even vio­lence have become the knee-jerk response of Gov­ern­ment and big busi­ness to the increas­ing and vocal con­cerns of envi­ron­men­tal activists in the UK. This exclu­sive and pow­er­ful film expos­es the extra­or­di­nary tac­tics being used to reframe con­cerned cit­i­zens engag­ing in their right to protest, as dan­ger­ous ter­ror­ists.

The film can be viewed on var­i­ous web­sites includ­ing Green TV (www.green.tv) or the Ecol­o­gist web­site (www.theecologist.org/etv/).

The youtube URL is http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I08J2BCPBDY.

Alter­na­tive­ly the video can be down­loaded at www.ecologistfilmunit.com.

Watch it, show it at events, spread the mes­sage!

con­tact: anna@eco-storm.com

Stuck for something to do!? Uninspired & lacklustre..? The all new singing dancing EF!AU is here to lift your spirits

As if putting the boot into the genet­ics indus­try, fill­ing emp­ty spaces with joy & cre­ativ­i­ty, and fool­ing the fos­sil-heads was­n’t enough, peo­ple have been busy wash­ing lumps of coal and cov­er­ing them­selves with paint…we kid you not…all in aid of halt­ing the trash­ing of the plan­et!

Par­lia­ments have been climbed, air­port ter­mi­nals flash(mobb)ed, fields & var­i­ous oth­er sites occu­pied, build­ing stormed & block­ad­ed, pipelines block­ad­ed & destroyed…

EF! crossed tools 1As if putting the boot into the genet­ics indus­try, fill­ing emp­ty spaces with joy & cre­ativ­i­ty, and fool­ing the fos­sil-heads was­n’t enough, peo­ple have been busy wash­ing lumps of coal and cov­er­ing them­selves with paint…we kid you not…all in aid of halt­ing the trash­ing of the plan­et!

Par­lia­ments have been climbed, air­port ter­mi­nals flash(mobb)ed, fields & var­i­ous oth­er sites occu­pied, build­ing stormed & block­ad­ed, pipelines block­ad­ed & destroyed…

Throw into the mix ye oldie Reclaim the Streets, the tried and test­ed eeeeevil Mr/Ms Sab­o­tage, the launch of a new cam­paign ‘Leave it in the Ground’, plus a sum­mer-full of dates, new con­tacts list, it’s a won­der we’ve fit­ted in a brand new sexy EF! sum­mer gath­er­ing poster (front & back). Down­load the lat­est EF!AU to share with oth­ers, sub­scribe or check out some past issues. The next issue will come out at the begin­ning of August.

And of course, this year’s EF! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing (or fol­low the link to the left) is from Wednes­day 27th August to Mon­day 1st Sep­tem­ber 2008, if you want to plot & plan, and laugh & chat with old friends & new.

Phew, what a scorcher!

CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 79, MAY 2008

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LONDON, 10–11.5.08
2) SAVING ICELAND IN WALES AND SCOTLAND — 7th & 9th MAY ‘08
3) TURNING UP THE HEAT — LONDON, CARDIFF, MANCHESTER & ONLINE, 8/10/13.5.08
4) BIG BLETHER 6 — GLASGOW, 9–11.5.08

CONTENTS:

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LONDON, 10–11.5.08
2) SAVING ICELAND IN WALES AND SCOTLAND — 7th & 9th MAY ‘08
3) TURNING UP THE HEAT — LONDON, CARDIFF, MANCHESTER & ONLINE, 8/10/13.5.08
4) BIG BLETHER 6 — GLASGOW, 9–11.5.08
5) CLIMATE CAMP SPEAKERS’ TRAINING — MANCHESTER, 17.5.08
6) MAKE A NOISE! — LONDON, 31.5.08
7) CLIMATE ACTION WITH A BITE! — NATIONAL, 3.6.08

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) ‘MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS’ — INTERNATIONAL, 1.5.08
2) M1 PUBLIC NUISANCE CASE DISMISSED — SHEFFIELD, 1.5.08
3) BANK OF AMERICA, DIRTY COAL PROTEST – CHARLOTTE (USA), 23.4.08
4) GREENWASH GUERILLAS PIE FRIEDMAN — NEW YORK, 21.4.08
5) ECO-RELATED ARSON IN GREECE — 21.4.08
6) KOORAGANG COMMUNITY WALK-IN — AUSTRALIA, 19.4.08
7) BELGIAN AGRO-GIANT BLOCKADE — 17.4.08
8) TARA UPDATES — IRELAND, APRIL 08
9) BIOFOOLS DAY — NATIONWIDE, 15.4.08
10) PLANE STUPID TAKE TO THE ROOF — EDINBURGH, 14.4.08
11) BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL! — TASMANIA, 14.4.08
12) COLLEGE GROVE UPDATES — AUSTRALIA, APRIL ‘08
13) CHEVRON TOXICO GOLDMAN AWARD — SAN FRANCISCO, 13.4.08
14) SUBVERTISING — NEW GROUP, APRIL ‘08
15) CARBON DETOX — NEW BOOK, APRIL ‘08
16) BRING CLIMATE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
17) PROTEST WATCH — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
18) AIRPORTWATCH BULLETIN — APRIL ‘08
19) THE BATH BOMB — APRIL ‘08
20) LONDON CRITICAL MASS, 14TH ANNIVERSARY — APRIL 08

———————————————-
UPCOMING ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
———————————————-
1) CLIMATE CAMP NATIONAL GATHERING — LONDON, 10–11.5.08
Green­peace HQ, Canon­bury Vil­las, Lon­don, N1 2PN. 10am-6pm.
This sum­mer the Camp for Cli­mate Action will pitch its tents out­side Kingsnorth coal-fired pow­er sta­tion in Kent for a week of edu­ca­tion, sus­tain­able liv­ing and direct action. Every­one is invit­ed to the camp, which is now part of an inter­na­tion­al move­ment, with eight cli­mate camps on four con­ti­nents planned for this sum­mer. Togeth­er, we will show that the blind pur­suit of eco­nom­ic growth at any cost is sim­ply insane, and is
to blame for the CO2 emis­sions and ecosys­tem destruc­tion that are caus­ing cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change. Come to the gath­er­ing and get involved!
www.climatecamp.org.uk

2) SAVING ICELAND IN WALES AND SCOTLAND — 7th & 9th MAY 08
Alu­mini­um smelt­ing, even when pow­ered by geot­her­mal ener­gy, emits so much green­house gas emis­sions that Ice­land now pro­duces 18 tons of CO2 equiv­a­lent per capi­ta, com­pared to the Euro­pean aver­age of 11. May 7th at 8pm — Sav­ing Ice­land will give a pre­sen­ta­tion of these issues at The Tree­house, Bak­er St. Aberys­t­wyth, and will describe the inter­na­tion­al direct action cam­paign and plans for this sum­mer’s camp in July. (There will be a num­ber of vehi­cles going from the UK to the camp.) Come and see some of the most stun­ning places of beau­ty on earth, and help pro­tect them with direct action!
May 9th — Veg­an ban­quet with live music, bar and raf­fle! The Ban­quet starts at 7pm at Old St Pauls Hall, Edin­burgh. £5 (unwaged / low income) and £7 (waged). All prof­it will go to fund­ing the Scot­tish Sav­ing Ice­land Col­lec­tive.
Email; savingicelandscotland@riseup.net to reserve your tick­ets!
More info; http://www.savingiceland.org.

3) TURNING UP THE HEAT — LONDON, CARDIFF, MANCHESTER and ONLINE, 8/10/13.5.08
Can big busi­ness save the plan­et? A series of inter­ac­tive debates on cli­mate change and cor­po­rate pow­er. Attend the live events or watch online!
Thurs­day 8 May — Can the free mar­ket stop cli­mate change? 7:30–9:30pm at Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Action Cen­tre 17–25 New Inn Yard Lon­don EC2A 3EA.
10.5.08 – ‘Will bio­fu­els help com­bat cli­mate change?’ 2:30–4:30pm Cardiff Uni­ver­si­ty, Main Build­ing, Shan­don The­atre, Park Place CF10 3AT.
13.5.08 – ‘Does cli­mate change mean we should restrict avi­a­tion & tourism?’ 7:30–9:30pm, Man­ches­ter Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, Cock­croft The­atre, Sackville Street M1 3BB.
To book your free place and to reg­is­ter to watch online please go to http://www.wdm.org.uk/heat or call 020 7820 4900 for more infor­ma­tion.

4) BIG BLETHER 6 — GLASGOW, 9–11.5.08
Talamh Life Cen­tre, Near Glas­gow.
BB is a meet­ing place for activists to bring and share ideas, infor­ma­tion and enthu­si­asm and to cre­ate action out of inspi­ra­tion. Every­one is wel­come to par­tic­i­pate and con­tribute — big or small. There will be work­shops on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, includ­ing every­thing from cli­mate change issues, cre­ative cam­paign­ing and tran­si­tion towns to nuclear resis­tance, yoga and wood­land crafts. BB is a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion and entrance will be by dona­tion. www.bigblether.org.uk

5) CLIMATE CAMP SPEAKERS’ TRAINING — MANCHESTER, 17.5.08
If you would like to talk to peo­ple about the Cli­mate Camp and help inspire hun­dreds of peo­ple to come this year, then this train­ing is for you. The net­work­ing team in con­junc­tion with COIN (http://coinet.org.uk/) and TRAPESE (http://trapese.clearerchannel.org/) have designed a short presentation/ work­shop that any­one can give to groups inter­est­ed in com­ing to the camp.
10:30 till 5:30pm.
Con­tact; speakers@climatecamp.org.uk to book your place.

6) MAKE A NOISE! — LONDON, 31.5.08
An agen­da for colos­sal air­port expan­sion and colos­sal cli­mate change demands a colos­sal response. You’re invit­ed to a car­ni­val on Sat­ur­day 31st May, which will make its way from Hat­ton Cross Tube Sta­tion (Pic­cadil­ly Line, 12pm) to Sip­son, the vil­lage that will be wiped out if Heathrow expan­sion goes ahead. At the end, you’ll have the chance to help form a great big NO! spelt out by human bod­ies. Organ­is­ers hope to set a new world record for the biggest and loud­est NO! in the world.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/make-a-noise-20080408

7) CLIMATE ACTION WITH A BITE! — NATIONAL, 3.6.08
The food we eat con­tributes up to a third of the emis­sions poi­son­ing the plan­et. It’s time for a detox! Cli­mate action starts on your din­ner plate, at the super­mar­ket, on your allot­ment and in your back yard, at the food dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­tres, down on the farm, in your high street, at the air­port and the lor­ry park. What­ev­er your tastes, there’s some­thing for every­one on this action menu! Local food mar­kets, free food stalls, work­shops and film show­ings, street the­atre, info stalls, protests and direct action, cook­ing demon­stra­tions, allot­ment shows. Get cre­ative and get involved!
This Day of Action on Cli­mate Change has been called by the Net­work for Cli­mate Action in co-oper­a­tion with the Ris­ing Tide Net­work and the Camp for Cli­mate Action. It has been planned to coin­cide with The UN Con­fer­ence on World Food Secu­ri­ty and Cli­mate Change, which runs from 3rd to 5th June.
Please email; foodNO@SPAMdaysofclimateaction.org.uk for fur­ther info.

———————————————-
RECENT HAPPENINGS:
———————————————-
1) ‘MAYDAY! MAYDAY! INVASION OF THE CLIMATE SNATCHERS’ — INTERNATIONAL,
1.5.08
This day of action tar­get­ed false cap­i­tal­ist solu­tions to cli­mate chaos.
There were actions in Europe and Cana­da:
Leam­ing­ton Ris­ing Tide vis­it­ed the E.on head­quar­ters in Coven­try to expose the truth behind its green­wash and show that car­bon cap­ture is a false solu­tion to the prob­lem of cli­mate change. Peo­ple arrived at 8am to hand fliers to the work­ers, while one pro­test­er occu­pied the roof of the build­ing. The day was a great suc­cess with a fes­tive vibe and no arrests. Nor­wich Ris­ing Tide got togeth­er with Earth First for a Crit­i­cal Mass to Sizewell nuclear pow­er sta­tion to high­light that nuclear is not a solu­tion to cli­mate change. In Lon­don, The Coal Clean­ing Com­pa­ny launched their enter­prise with E.on; accord­ing to the chat­ty clean­ers, “There’s no mess too big! We make coal Fos­sil Fuel Fresh!” In York peo­ple from groups across the city and both Uni­ver­si­ties took part in a ban­ner protest out­side Roy­al Bank of Scot­land’s cen­tral branch in the city. Leaflets were hand­ed out sum­maris­ing RBS’s cli­mate crimes. Mean­while, mem­bers of the Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front and Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front joined forces to car­ry out an action against unnec­es­sary urban devel­op­ment in the south-west. A JCB and oth­er vehi­cles were dam­aged on a road con­struc­tion site.
Green­wash fly­ers were hand­ed out at the Green Liv­ing Show in Toron­to Cana­da, while in Paris “Biofuel=Danger” was chalked on the side of the French Agri­cul­tur­al Research insti­tute.
http://www.daysofclimateaction.org.uk/
http://risingtide.org.uk/node/276

2) M1 PUBLIC NUISANCE CASE DISMISSED — SHEFFIELD, 1.5.08
Sev­en cli­mate camp activists opposed to the widen­ing of the M1 had the case against them dis­missed from Sheffield Crown Court. The Judge resound­ing­ly reject­ed the pros­e­cu­tion’s argu­ment that the hang­ing of ban­ners over the motor­way could con­sti­tute a pub­lic nui­sance.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20611

3) BANK OF AMERICA, DIRTY COAL PROTEST – CHARLOTTE (USA), 23.4.08
Activists with Asheville Ris­ing Tide, Rain­for­est Action Net­work, and Croatan Earth First! hit the streets of Char­lotte to protest at Bank of America’s annu­al share­hold­ers meet­ing. Bank of Amer­i­ca has seen an esca­lat­ing lev­el of protest in the past year for its fund­ing of the coal indus­try.
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/04/23/asheville-rising-tide-confronts-bank-of-america-shareholders/

4) GREENWASH GUERILLAS PIE FRIEDMAN — NEW YORK, 21.4.08
Thomas Fried­man, the author and NY Times colum­nist, was invit­ed to Brown Uni­ver­si­ty to give a keynote speech on Earth Day, before a packed audi­to­ri­um. His talk about how cor­po­rate envi­ron­men­tal­ism can restore Amer­i­ca to its “nat­ur­al place in the glob­al order” was inter­rupt­ed with a sur­prise vis­it from the Green­wash Guer­ril­las. After splat­ter­ing him with two green cream pies they threw leaflets to the crowd explain­ing their action.
http://greenwashguerrillas.wordpress.com/
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2008/04/22/greenwash-guerrillas-pie-thomas-friedman-on-earth-day/

5) ECO-RELATED ARSON IN GREECE — 21.4.08
Eco-relat­ed arson against the min­istry of devel­op­ment offices in Athens was car­ried out in protest against the plans to build new pow­er plants using coal. “When cap­i­tal­ism is self-declared envi­ron­ment friend­ly, it is only to mea­sure and man­age the symp­toms of the cri­sis it pro­duced itself.”
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/

6) KOORAGANG COMMUNITY WALK-IN — AUSTRALIA, 19.4.08
A crowd of around 50 pro­test­ers walked onto the con­struc­tion site for a new coal ter­mi­nal on Koor­a­gang Island in New­cas­tle. They stopped work at the site in protest against the expan­sion of the coal indus­try and its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change. Georgina Woods, spokesper­son for Ris­ing Tide New­cas­tle said, “His­tor­i­cal­ly, ordi­nary peo­ple have achieved extra­or­di­nary things by tak­ing direct action to pre­vent immoral or
unsup­port­able actions…Many of us here today have nev­er done any­thing like this before, but we are doing it now, because we may not get anoth­er chance.” 16 of the pro­test­ers were arrest­ed and charged with tres­pass. More com­mu­ni­ty direct action against coal exports will take place in July this year.
http://www.risingtide.org.au/communitywalkin

7) BELGIAN AGRO-GIANT BLOCKADE — 17.4.08
In Bel­guim thir­ty activists blocked the gates of the Cargill fac­to­ry in Ghent.
This action was tak­en to high­light the agro-giant’s involve­ment in every­thing from bio­fu­els to soy mono­cul­ture, GMO to pesticides…The action began at around 6h30 in the morn­ing and last­ed until after 5 p.m. Dur­ing all that time, not one truck with soy could enter or leave the firm.
http://www.aseed.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=552&Itemid=211

8) TARA UPDATES — IRELAND, APRIL 08
On Thurs­day 17th April there was a peace­ful evic­tion of the Rath Lugh Camp. Four Pro­tec­tors who were on site were told by Gar­dai that they had to gath­er up their belong­ings and leave. This was not done in an aggres­sive man­ner and was com­plied with by the Pro­tec­tors.
http://www.tarapixie.net/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20557
Tara trip report — A group from Brighton went over to Ire­land recent­ly to sup­port the Irish pro­test­ers attempts to halt the work on the M3 Motor­way.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20502

9) BIOFOOLS DAY — NATIONWIDE, 15.4.08
From April 15th, all petrol fore­courts will be required by law to sell only fuel which is blend­ed with 2.5% agro­fu­el. Cor­po­ra­tions like Tesco are already jump­ing on the new “green” band­wag­on, speak­ing lit­tle of the greater emis­sions, dis­place­ment, pover­ty and hunger that will be left in its path. The only answer to the ener­gy cri­sis is a big shift in the way in which we live, trav­el and eat.
Nation­wide protest includ­ed; Aberdeen, Bolton, Chel­tenham, Leeds, Man­ches­ter, Not­ting­ham, Nor­wich and hun­dreds out­side Down­ing Street in Lon­don.
Bris­tol Ris­ing Tide and Espa­cio Bris­tol-Colom­bia were joined by oth­ers to inform the pub­lic about this issue at Tesco in East­ville, Bris­tol. A group of bio­fu­el activists made a colour­ful ban­ner and fly­er tour of Brighton city cen­tre and Sus­sex Uni­ver­si­ty. Agro-fuels pro­test­ers dis­abled the fuel pumps of two BP fill­ing sta­tions in Edin­burgh. Also in Scot­land, five mem­bers of the Edin­burgh Clown Army were detained for ques­tion­ing at a peace­ful and enter­tain­ing bio­fu­els protest in Brunts­field, and in Glas­gow a bio­fool ban­ner was hung.
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20546

10) PLANE STUPID TAKES TO THE ROOF — EDINBURGH, 14.4.08
Two envi­ron­men­tal activists from the cli­mate action group, Plane Stu­pid Scot­land, climbed onto the roof of the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment in Edin­burgh to protest against plans for expan­sion of Scot­tish air­ports. They unfurled a large ban­ner which car­ried a par­o­dy of the Trainspot­ting design, “Choose Life.” The ban­ner read, “Plane Stop­ping: Choose the future. Say no to air­port expan­sion.”
http://www.planestupid.com/?q=content/plane-stupid-scotland-occupy-roof-scottish-parliament

11) BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL! — TASMANIA, 14.4.08
Activists from Still Wild Still Threat­ened have wel­comed a 6 metre tall Peter Gar­rett (MP and singer from Mid­night Oil) to the Upper Flo­ren­tine Val­ley. Activists took the ‘giant Gar­rett’ on a tour of coupe FO42F which is due to be burnt in the imme­di­ate future to high­light their con­cerns about the con­tin­ued log­ging and burn­ing of some of Tasmania’s most car­bon dense forests.
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20536

12) COLLEGE GROVE UPDATES — AUSTRALIA, APRIL 08
29 April 2008 — Activists have set up a new camp in the Col­lege Grove for­est area that is due to be destroyed in the next stage of devel­op­ment.
http://www.globalwarmingfg.com/
14 April 2008 — Col­lege Grove pro­test­ers stop machines for the day:
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20535
10 April — Police Vio­lence at treesit action in Col­lege Grove, Bun­bury, Aus­tralia. Two activists were arrest­ed with one tak­en to hos­pi­tal after a force­ful and vio­lent push by WA Police. A spokes for the Com­mu­ni­ty Inde­pen­dent Activists (CIA) group says it was the “most vio­lent dis­play by police in 15 years of for­est activism.”
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20531

13) CHEVRON TOXICO GOLDMAN AWARD — SAN FRANCISCO, 13.4.08
Two cam­paign­ers who have spear­head­ed a land­mark class-action law­suit against Chevron in Ecuador have been award­ed the Gold­man Prize, the world’s most pres­ti­gious envi­ron­men­tal hon­or, for their efforts to make the com­pa­ny clean up what experts believe is the world’s worst oil-relat­ed dis­as­ter. The Gold­man Prize Comes two weeks after these dam­ages were esti­mat­ed at up to $16 Bil­lion. Chevron Tox­i­co is the inter­na­tion­al cam­paign to hold Chevron­Tex­a­co account­able for its tox­ic con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the Ecuado­ri­an Ama­zon.
http://www.amazonwatch.org/

14) SUBVERTISING — NEW GROUP, APRIL ‘08
A new group want to set up a cli­mate-focused nation­al sub­ver­tis­ing net­work where every­one has a role and where peo­ple are well sup­port­ed. If you would like to get involved, see http://www.myspace.com/subvertising

15) CARBON DETOX — NEW BOOK, APRIL ‘08
A new book by George Mar­shall of COIN. Mark Lynas,author of Six Degrees, says:
“Buy this book and thrust it into the hands of some­one who still does­n’t believe in the cli­mate cri­sis. No oth­er book goes fur­ther in address­ing peo­ple’s denial and their resis­tance to change.”
http://www.carbondetox.org/

16) BRING CLIMATE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
A cam­paign to estab­lish a legal process in the UK and abroad to facil­i­tate the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters and key busi­ness lead­ers whose poli­cies and activ­i­ties con­tribute to the mass loss of life which cli­mate change is cer­tain to now cause.
www.climatecriminals.co.uk

17) PROTEST WATCH — WEBSITE, APRIL ‘08
A new site which aims to become a com­pre­hen­sive resource for any­body inter­est­ed in active­ly protest­ing in the UK.
http://www.protestwatch.org.uk/

18) AIRPORTWATCH BULLETIN — APRIL ‘08
Air­port­Watch updates for April. See;
http://www.aef.org.uk/downloads//AirportWatch_bulletin_April2008.pdf

19) ‘THE BATH BOMB’ — APRIL 08
Anti-copy­right: copy and dis­trib­ute! Issue #9 free/donation. See;
http://www.myspace.com/bathbomb

20) LONDON CRITICAL MASS, 14TH ANNIVERSARY — APRIL ‘08
For ride reports/info. see;
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20584
http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/main.html

———-

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

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Com­piled and sent out by Ris­ing Tide UK: info at risingtide.org.uk
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Big Blether 6

BIG BLETHER 6
Fri­day 9th- Sun­day 11th May 2008
Talamh Life Cen­tre, Near Glas­gow
www.bigblether.org.uk

Syn­the­sis and Cel­e­bra­tion
Sup­port and cel­e­bra­tion with­in our mul­ti­fac­eted move­ment.

BB is a meet­ing place for activists to bring and share ideas, infor­ma­tion and enthu­si­asm and to cre­ate action out of inspi­ra­tion.

Every­one is wel­come to par­tic­i­pate and con­tribute — big or small

BIG BLETHER 6
Fri­day 9th- Sun­day 11th May 2008
Talamh Life Cen­tre, Near Glas­gow
www.bigblether.org.uk

Syn­the­sis and Cel­e­bra­tion
Sup­port and cel­e­bra­tion with­in our mul­ti­fac­eted move­ment.

BB is a meet­ing place for activists to bring and share ideas, infor­ma­tion and enthu­si­asm and to cre­ate action out of inspi­ra­tion.

Every­one is wel­come to par­tic­i­pate and con­tribute — big or small
There will be work­shops on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. Top­ics we hope to include: cli­mate change issues, med­i­ta­tion, cre­ative cam­paign­ing, tran­si­tion towns, nuclear resis­tance, activist films, per­ma­cul­ture, yoga, wood­land crafts, prac­ti­cal activism and local food net­works.

In recog­ni­tion of the many approach­es involved in cre­at­ing sus­tain­able prac­tice, we hope to host some events whose pur­pos­es are to strength­en, explore and cel­e­brate our col­lec­tive basis of action and the diver­si­ty of roles with­in it.

Are you inter­est­ed in putting on a work­shop?

Big Blether is the cre­ation of every­one who comes, if you have an idea then please get in touch by email to ellie@bigblether.org.uk with a brief descrip­tion.

BB is a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion and entrance will be by dona­tion on the gate.

Are you inter­est­ed in putting on a work­shop?

BB is the cre­ation of every­one who comes, if you have an idea please get in touch by email to ellie@bigblether.org.uk with a brief descrip­tion.

BB is a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion and entrance will be by dona­tion on the gate.

Plane Stupid Scotland Scale Parliament To Challenge

PRESS RELEASE
14/04/08

FOR INTERVIEWS: Dan Glass 07717 811 747
GENERAL PRESS CONTACT: Richard Shore 07929 340 333

*Plane Stu­pid Scot­land Scale Par­lia­ment To Chal­lenge Back­door Air­port Expan­sion.* Activists vol­un­tar­i­ly walked off and arrest­ed at 2pm*

planestoppingPRESS RELEASE
14/04/08

FOR INTERVIEWS: Dan Glass 07717 811 747
GENERAL PRESS CONTACT: Richard Shore 07929 340 333

*Plane Stu­pid Scot­land Scale Par­lia­ment To Chal­lenge Back­door Air­port Expan­sion.* Activists vol­un­tar­i­ly walked off and arrest­ed at 2pm*

Plane Stu­pid Scot­land scaled the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment build­ing today, in an ear­ly morn­ing protest at Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment plans to impose mas­sive air­port expan­sion by the back door. At 2pm the pro­tes­tors vol­un­tary walked off the build­ing, were arrest­ed and tak­en to St.Leonards police sta­tion.

The sur­prise occu­pa­tion expos­es out­ra­geous Gov­ern­ment pro­pos­als to ban the pub­lic and MSPs from con­sul­ta­tions that sanc­tion major devel­op­ments, includ­ing air­port expan­sion. The action comes the day before con­sul­ta­tion on these Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work pro­pos­als clos­es (1). Two mem­bers of Plane Stu­pid Scot­land occu­pied the rooftops of the Par­lia­ment, unfurl­ing a mas­sive ban­ner say­ing, “Planestop­ping! Choose a future: No air­port expan­sion..”

Under Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work pro­pos­als, Min­is­ters will des­ig­nate a whole gen­er­a­tion of dirty devel­op­ment as ‘Nation­al Devel­op­ments’, which bypass pub­lic or par­lia­men­tary approval. Sub­se­quent plan­ning enquiries will be lim­it­ed to design issues (2). The mea­ger con­sul­ta­tion exer­cise on the pro­pos­als ends tomor­row (April 15) with leg­is­la­tion expect­ed in the autumn.

The NPF is being tar­get­ted for its sig­ni­cant – but stealthy — con­tri­bu­tion to UK-wide air­port expan­sion pro­grammes, and the mas­sive increase in car­bon emis­sions that air­port expan­sion will pro­duce.

Plane Stu­pid Scot­land spokesper­son Tilly Gif­ford said:

“The envi­ron­men­tal and demo­c­ra­t­ic cred­i­bil­i­ty of this Frame­work is zero. We are fac­ing a run­away cli­mate threat, but the Scot­tish Gov­ern­men­t’s reac­tion is to triple air traf­fic (3) and use the NPF to gag affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties. With­out reduc­ing avi­a­tion and emis­sions there will be no future to plan for..”

The pro­pos­als list Edin­burgh and Glas­gow air­port expan­sions as Nation­al Devel­op­ments, rein­forc­ing exist­ing plans to expand all Scot­tish air­ports by 2030.(4) As a blank cheque for mas­sive air­port expan­sion with no scruti­ny or account­abil­i­ty, the NPF is recipe for dis­as­ters like Heathrow in every major Scot­tish city.

The planned expan­sion, from 14 mil­lion to 50 mil­lion pas­sen­ger move­ments by 2030, would cause a mas­sive rise in cli­mate change emis­sions, con­firm­ing avi­a­tion’s posi­tion as the fastest grow­ing source of green­house-gas emis­sions in the UK (5). The pro­gram makes a mock­ery of the NPF’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty remit, and of Scot­land ‘s tar­get of reduc­ing emis­sions by 80% by 2050 (6)..

Spokesper­son Richard Shore added:

“Avi­a­tion is destroy­ing our future and retreat­ing into smoke-filled rooms is no solu­tion. You don’t get good plan­ning by gag­ging the peo­ple you’re plan­ning for. We need democ­ra­cy, and we need to face the fact that air traf­fic must shrink.”

Plane Stu­pid Scot­land is fed up with Gov­ern­ment inac­tion and white ele­phants in the face of an unprece­dent­ed cli­mate threat. Today’s action by Plane Stu­pid Scot­land is the start of con­cert­ed action against the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work, as part of the grow­ing move­ment of ordi­nary peo­ple (7) who have decid­ed we must act our­selves to tack­le cli­mate change.

ENDS

FOR INTERVIEWS ON THE GROUND: Dan Glass 07717 811 747
ON PARLIAMENT ROOF: 07824 658 092
GENERAL PRESS CONTACT: Richard Shore 07929 340 333

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

Plane Stu­pid Scot­land are call­ing for:

1) The Gov­ern­ment to end all sub­si­dies giv­en to the Scot­tish avi­a­tion indus­try
2) An urgent, tar­get­ed and pub­lic invest­ment strat­e­gy in the alter­na­tives to short-haul avi­a­tion
3) No more run­ways- and a strat­e­gy to dis­man­tle exist­ing ones.
4) Mobil­i­sa­tion of affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties to deter­mine their own lives against avi­a­tion expan­sion and run­away cli­mate change.
5) Research and invest­ment into gen­uine­ly sus­tain­able alter­na­tive employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for those employed in the avi­a­tion indus­try.

(1) & (2) Under the 2006 Plan­ning (etc.) Scot­land Act, Min­is­ters gained the pow­er to des­ig­nate ‘Nation­al Devel­op­ments’. This des­ig­na­tion reserves deci­sions on where, when and what to build for Min­is­ters alone, with no arrange­ments for scruti­ny or account­abil­i­ty. Once a ‘nation­al devel­op­ment’ is des­ig­nat­ed any sub­se­quent inquiry will not be allowed to con­sid­er the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion or need for the pro­pos­al.” (Scot­tish Envi­ron­ment LINK) The pro­posed Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work is a spa­tial plan which sets out a strat­e­gy for plan­ning in Scot­land , and iden­ti­fies the first set of Nation­al Devel­op­ments.
( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/07093039/0 — NPF pro­pos­als)

To quote the excel­lent report by Scot­tish Envi­ron­ment LINK: “At no stage in the process will indi­vid­u­als or organ­i­sa­tions be able to lodge for­mal rep­re­sen­ta­tions or objec­tions… Any local lev­el con­sul­ta­tion, inquiry or deci­sion will be required to con­fine itself to design mat­ters such as the colour of chim­neys and the height of secu­ri­ty fences.”
( http://www.scotlink.org/pdf/NPFmap.pdf)

The first set of Nation­al Devel­op­ments out­lined in the pro­pos­als are as fol­lows:
# facil­i­ties and infra­struc­ture to sup­port the 2014 Glas­gow Com­mon­wealth Games
# grid rein­force­ments to sup­port renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment
# a replace­ment Forth cross­ing
# enhance­ments to Edin­burgh Air­port
# enhance­ments to Glas­gow Air­port
# enhanced access to the Grange­mouth Freight Hub
# the Rosyth Inter­na­tion­al Con­tain­er Ter­mi­nal
# the Scapa Flow Con­tain­er Tran­ship­ment Facil­i­ty
# the Glas­gow Strate­gic Drainage Scheme
( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/01/08095631)

(3) & (4) The UK and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ments plan a mas­sive tripling of air traf­fic. All Scot­tish air­ports face expan­sion by 2050. Pas­sen­ger move­ments are planned to grow from 14 mil­lion to 50 mil­lion pas­sen­gers by 2030..
(http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/whitepapers/air/chapter5scotland)

(5) Gov­ern­ment plans to expand avi­a­tion whilst reduc­ing oth­er emis­sions will result in air traf­fic tak­ing up one quar­ter of UK emis­sions by 2050. Cur­rent­ly avi­a­tion accounts for 13% of the UK ‘s cli­mate change impact.
( http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/environment/reports-05/rar05-05-vol01-03.htm#1)
(Tyn­dall Cen­tre for Cli­mate Change Research. Ander­son , Bows (2006) ‘Pol­i­cy Clash’, Trans­port Pol­i­cy. http://www.tyndall.ac.uk)

(6) Con­sul­ta­tion on the pro­pos­als for the Cli­mate Change Bill, with its tar­get of an 80% cut by 2050, end April 23. The pro­pos­als have already come in for wide­spread crit­i­cism for omit­ting avi­a­tion and ship­ping emis­sions, and for rely­ing sole­ly upon inef­fi­cient car­bon trad­ing mar­kets to cut emis­sions.
http://www.stopclimatechaosscotland.org

(7) The Decem­ber 2007 report by the cam­paign group HACAN revealed that only 18% of respon­dents sup­port expan­sion of UK air­ports. The report, by Wood­new­ton Asso­ciates for enough­se­nough, found there is no pub­lic appetite for air­port expan­sion. Only 18% sup­port it. Indeed, 57% of peo­ple sup­port “a pol­i­cy aimed at slow­ing down the growth in air trav­el”.
www.hacan.org.uk

More infor­ma­tion on the impact of avi­a­tion on cli­mate change can be found at:

www.planestupid.com

NOTES END

FOR INTERVIEWS ON THE GROUND: Dan Glass 07717 811 747

ON PARLIAMENT ROOF: 07824 658 092

GENERAL PRESS CONTACT: Richard Shore 07929 340 333

T5 a complete shambles, but Flashmob a success.

Heathrow’s Ter­mi­nal 5 opened today with a great fan­fair. By mid after­noon the much vaunt­ed, com­put­erised, lug­gage sys­tem was shut down and dozens of flights can­celled.

T5 flashmob 2
T5 flashmob 1Heathrow’s Ter­mi­nal 5 opened today with a great fan­fair. By mid after­noon the much vaunt­ed, com­put­erised, lug­gage sys­tem was shut down and dozens of flights can­celled.

How­ev­er the 11am Flash­mob went ahead with­out a hitch.

10.59, and the Inter­na­tion­al Arrivals area was a pre­dictable dull grey.

11.00, and it turned red, as hun­dreds of activists stripped off their out­er lay­ers to reveal their ‘Stop Air­port Expan­sion’ T‑shirts.

We’d all tak­en cam­eras, expect­ing to crack of a cou­ple of shots and run to the bogs to hide the mem­o­ry cards but — no need!. The bal­cony above was packed shoul­der to shoul­der with pho­tog­ra­phers and film crews, all ignor­ing the meed­ja ops pro­vid­ed by BAA in favour of cov­er­ing the Flash­mob.

Lat­er cov­er­age was dis­ap­point­ing (dun­no about tomor­rows papers) but because even bet­ter news was emerg­ing that the T5 open­ing had turned out to be a com­plete fuck up. After promis­ing to the fly­ing world that Heathrow’s prob­lems were licked, the place ground to a mis­er­able halt with­in hours.

Amongst oth­ers, www.news.bbc.co.uk writes:

“The sus­pen­sion of lug­gage check-in was just the lat­est prob­lem to hit pas­sen­gers hop­ing to leave T5 on its open­ing day.

BA ear­li­er announced “ini­tial teething prob­lems” with car park­ing pro­vi­sion, delays in staff secu­ri­ty screen­ing and staff famil­iari­sa­tion had result­ed in a back­log of bag­gage. ”

Very good news indeed for every­one except BA and BAA. Now all we have to wait for is for BAA and its par­ent com­pa­ny Fer­rovial to go bust, wide­ly expect­ed to hap­pen less than a year from now, see:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ca6b20a-fad7-11dc-aa46-000077b07658.html

Watch some footage of the flash­mob here