Category: Climate Chaos

That’s the way to do it! Climate action camps across the Channel

CLIMATE ACTION CAMP 2012, BELGIUM, 3-8 AUG

If the climate was a bank...


... Then it would have been saved already (Hugo Chavez)

... Then I wouldn’t be getting a bonus (Jean-Luc Dehaene)

... Then the ratings agencies would have gone bust (Mario Draghi)

... Then it would need to look for a new name (Belfius!!!)



CLIMATE ACTION CAMP 2012, BELGIUM, 3-8 AUG


If the climate was a bank...



... Then it would have been saved already (Hugo Chavez)
... Then I wouldn’t be getting a bonus (Jean-Luc Dehaene)
... Then the ratings agencies would have gone bust (Mario Draghi)
... Then it would need to look for a new name (Belfius!!!)
... Then you’d read even more rubbish about it than you do today!
..  Then it would be popular with businesses
... Then it wouldn’t change so quickly
... Then I would campaign just as much about it!!!



We’ve been organising climate action camps for three years. During a
climate action camp activists come together to share experiences, live
together peacefully and sustainably, and self-organise to make plans and
carry out actions. They set up the most beautiful campsite in the Northern
hemisphere and spend a  week letting the air out of the tyres of the
capitalist landrover... Climate action camp is  a week full of action,
exciting workshops, relaxation and vegan food. Every year lots of children
come too. They have a great time in the kids barrio with activities to
suit all ages.



The next climate camp will take place from 3rd to 8th August somewhere in
Leuven



If you want to steal money, then steal a lot all at once. Then they will
call you a dynamic entrepreneur or who knows, a banker... Banks can gamble
with people’s savings, we know that already. But they also gamble with the
climate, the planet and farmers in the south: Banks like BNP-Paribas, KBC
or ING invest heavily in tar sands, the most environmentally destructive
way to extract oil from the ground.  A recent report revealed that these
same banks are involved land-grabbing, the large scale acquisition of more
and more agricultural land in the South by financial institutions. The
World Bank invests climate funds in the biggest fossil fuel energy
projects in the world. Lastly, banks speculate on carbon emission
allowances. Banks aren’t only gambling our money away but are also playing
with the planet.  It’s time to take action. Now!



The exact location of the camp will be announced on the websites on the
2nd of August...



Join our Facebookevent: http://www.facebook.com/events/337275796321385/



Information & Contact:



http://www.climaxi.be
http://www.climate-justice-action.be



Camp-phone? +32(0)478.07.98.58



info[at] climate-justice-action.be
info[at] climaxi.be



**********************************************



TWO CLIMATE ACTION CAMPS IN GERMANY - August



Just a shout out to see if you might be interesting in coming over to
Germany for some climate action this summer?



There are 2 camps going on, one in the West from the 3-12th August:
http://www.ausgeco2hlt.de/klimacamp/en/



and the other in the East from the 11-19th August
http://www.lausitzcamp.info/international-information/english/



There's also in the West camp an ongoing Forest Occupation:
http://hambachforest.blogsport.de/



Both camps are dealing with open cast mining and plans for new coal power
plants. I'm more familiar with the East camp so a bit about that: The main
days of action are on the 17th and 18th--coal plant blockade. We could
def. use more people here! We're also still open for more workshops,
especially practical ones and skill sharings, but also anything you're
dealing with over there... It would be great to connect... see below for
contact details.



Action: aktion@lausitzcamp.info
Finances: finanzen@lausitzcamp.info
Logistics: logistik@lausitzcamp.info
Mobilsation: mobi@lausitzcamp.info
Programme: programm@lausitzcamp.info

Anti-fracking Blockade in Moshannon State Forest

9th July 2012

9th July 2012

Near­ly 100 Earth First! activists, friends and allies forced a 70-foot-tall EQT hydrofrack­ing drill rig to sus­pend oper­a­tions for 12 hours yes­ter­day in Pennsylvania’s Moshan­non State For­est. This is the first time that pro­test­ers have shut down a hydrofrack drilling oper­a­tion in the US. A tree sit­ter hung above the access road, with their anchor ropes block­ing it. A sec­ond per­son was also in a tree to sup­port the sit­ter while dozens of sup­port­ers guard­ed ten large debris piles that were across the road. Anoth­er group of 50 activists block­ad­ed the entrance to the access road. The State Police, with the Depart­ment of Con­ser­va­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources, dis­persed the block­ade around nine p.m. And removed the tree sit­ters with a lad­der truck. Three arrests were made for dis­or­der­ly con­duct, but pro­test­ers were cit­ed and released on-site.

There are a lim­it­ed num­ber of actu­al drill rigs in oper­a­tion in the state which are fer­ried around from site to site on a tight sched­ule. By halt­ing oper­a­tions for a day on this site, the block­ade has like­ly cre­at­ed a cost­ly dis­rup­tion for a hand­ful of wells in the area which EQT appar­ent­ly planned to drill in suc­ces­sion.

The activists report­ed that the police were reck­less with the sit­ters’ safe­ty, such as being quick to cut their anchor ropes.  The sup­port­ing sitter’s safe­ty and descent ropes were cut by the police as he climbed high­er in the tree.  The police in the lad­der truck had no radios and com­mu­ni­ca­tion to the ground was dif­fi­cult over the noise of the diesel engine; at one point the lad­der hit one of the sitter’s sup­port lines. Police were seen taunt­ing the sit­ter by wav­ing around one of their anchor lines and mak­ing jokes at them while shak­ing the ham­mock.

The site is part of a high con­cen­tra­tion of wells in Moshan­non State For­est, one of the most heav­i­ly drilled state forests in Penn­syl­va­nia. Over half of the forest’s 190,000 acres have been leased for Mar­cel­lus drilling using hydraulic frac­tur­ing. Despite wide­spread pub­lic oppo­si­tion, the for­mer PA sec­re­tary of Con­ser­va­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources pre­dicts 12,000 Mar­cel­lus wells will be drilled in state forests in the com­ing decade1. A recent poll showed that the major­i­ty of Penn­syl­va­ni­ans are opposed to frack­ing on pub­lic lands2.

Local farmer Jen­ny Lisak, whose own prop­er­ty has been impact­ed by frack­ing, describes the dev­as­ta­tion she has seen in the Moshan­non, “Hav­ing grown up enjoy­ing Moshan­non State For­est in so many ways, I am absolute­ly appalled at the ongo­ing destruc­tion. The once nar­row and invit­ing oak-shad­ed lanes are now being replaced by dust and traf­fic choked roads for chem­i­cal laden trucks – there are no words to describe the injus­tice of tak­ing pub­lic land, meant to pro­vide a source of beau­ty and wilder­ness for all and turn­ing it into an indus­tri­al zone.”

Drilling in the area has a trou­bled his­to­ry. In June 2010, a major blowout at anoth­er well in Clearfield Coun­ty spewed 35,000 gal­lons of tox­ic drilling waste into the Lit­tle Lau­rel Run water­shed and caused the evac­u­a­tion of Moshan­non State For­est3. Since 2008, only 24 of EQT’s 198 Mar­cel­lus wells in the state have been inspect­ed and vio­la­tions were found at every sin­gle inspec­tion. When they have been cit­ed, they’ve refused to change their prac­tices. On May 9, 2012, in Dun­can Town­ship, Tio­ga Coun­ty, EQT was cit­ed for faulty con­struc­tion on a flow­back water impound­ment; three weeks lat­er the pit failed, con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing a near­by spring4.

“This is part of an esca­lat­ing direct action cam­paign against frack­ing in the Mar­cel­lus Shale region,” said Danielle Diet­t­er­ick, an activist affil­i­at­ed with Mar­cel­lus Earth First! from Ben­ton, Pa. “Peo­ple from all around the coun­try have joined with Penn­syl­va­nia res­i­dents to put their bod­ies on the line to stop frack­ing.”

The action comes on the heels of a 12-day block­ade to stop the dis­place­ment of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park, in Lycoming Coun­ty, and the shut­down of a frack­ing waste­water injec­tion well near Athens, Ohio. Groups across the coun­try are plan­ning more anti-extrac­tion inter­ven­tions like RAMPS in West Vir­ginia and the Tar Sands Block­ade in Texas, lat­er this month. All these inde­pen­dent, grass­roots-led actions show per­haps a coa­lesc­ing nation­al upris­ing against exploita­tive extrac­tion.

Susan Riley, anoth­er sup­port­er, cheered on the bold action, “The state gov­ern­ment has sold off our pub­lic lands and, with Act 13, stripped us of our rights to local self-gov­er­nance. The frack­ing indus­try has free reign in this state and no one’s gonna stop them unless we do.”

8th July 2012

Activists from Mar­cel­lus Earth First! have erect­ed a slash pile block­ade and two tree sits block­ing an access road to an EQT hydro-frack­ing site in Moshan­non State For­est in Clearfield Coun­ty, PA., halt­ing drilling oper­a­tions set to begin this week. The block­aders were joined by 40 sup­port­ers and con­cerned cit­i­zens, who turned around a Hal­libur­ton truck. The block­ade is try­ing to stop the fur­ther destruc­tion of Pennsylvania’s state forests—more than half of which have already been leased for drilling—and call atten­tion to the dev­as­tat­ing effects of hydrofrack­ing on the state’s com­mu­ni­ties. The sit­ters’ anchor lines are block­ing the road by cross­ing each oth­er and the road, and if an anchor line is cut a sit­ter will fall. This action has been coor­di­nat­ed as the post-Ren­dezvous action. Each Sum­mer Earth First!ers and allies come togeth­er to skill share, take part in dis­cus­sion work­shops, and keep it wild in our last remain­ing wilder­ness places in the US. Fol­low­ing a week in the woods, we take part in an action in sup­port of the local orga­niz­ers host­ing the camp out, also know as the Round Riv­er Ren­dezvous, or Rondy.

Today’s block­ade is the lat­est in a series of esca­lat­ing actions of resis­tance to the destruc­tive impacts of hydrofrack­ing in the Mar­cel­lus Shale. Last May, res­i­dents of But­ler Coun­ty occu­pied the office of State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bri­an Ellis, demand­ing account­abil­i­ty for wide­spread con­t­a­m­i­na­tion caused by hor­i­zon­tal drilling. In June, sev­en fam­i­lies, along with dozens of sup­port­ers, blocked the entrance to the Riverdale Mobile Home Com­mu­ni­ty to pre­vent their immi­nent evic­tion at the hands of Aqua Amer­i­ca PVR. Aqua sought to destroy their homes and con­struct a water with­draw­al facil­i­ty per­mit­ted to extract up to three mil­lion gal­lons of water from the Susque­han­na Riv­er dai­ly for use in frack­ing. Res­i­dents were able to main­tain the block­ade for 12 days. On June 17, 1,000 Ohioans stormed the state­house in Colum­bus and passed a “people’s res­o­lu­tion” ban­ning hydrofrack­ing. Most recent­ly, a 31-year-old landown­er from Athens Coun­ty, Ohio chained her­self to con­crete bar­rels and shut down oper­a­tions at one of Ohio’s 170 injec­tion wells, which con­tain about 95% of the tox­ic and radioac­tive frack­ing waste gen­er­at­ed from Penn­syl­va­nia drilling.

Momen­tum in the anti-frack­ing bat­tle will con­tin­ue to build across the Mar­cel­lus and Uti­ca shale regions through­out July. Next week­end, res­i­dents from Ohio and beyond will gath­er at an anti-frack­ing action camp in Youngstown and pre­pare to enforce the “people’s res­o­lu­tion” against frack­ing. The upcom­ing months show the begin­nings of a nation­al rebel­lion against extrac­tive indus­try across the board. On July 28, anti-frack­ers from across the nation will gath­er in Wash­ing­ton D.C. for “Stop the Frack Attack,” the largest mobi­liza­tion against frack­ing ever. In West Vir­ginia, Appalachi­ans and allies will stand togeth­er at the “Moun­tain Mobi­liza­tion” and shut down an active strip mine the last week of July. In Montana,the “Coal Export Action”, a ten-day cam­paign of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence at the begin­ning of August will tar­get coal ship­ments from strip mines in the Pow­der Riv­er Basin, over­seas. And lat­er in the month, Texas res­i­dents have called for the “Tar Sands Block­ade” to block the recent­ly approved south­ern leg of the Key­stone XL pipeline.

Where the gov­ern­ment has failed to act to pro­tect com­mu­ni­ties and the earth from the rav­ages of an out-of-con­trol ener­gy indus­try, the peo­ple are ris­ing up to resist. No mat­ter where you live, you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to join the fight for our future. Find your place, stand your ground, and in the words of Moth­er Jones, “Boo­gie Chilluns.”

UPDATE, 11:53 am:
Police mak­ing vague threats at block­ade about assault rifles going off and wan­der­ing through block­ade with assault rifles.  How­ev­er, at the ral­ly they said there’s a sick bear up the road that needs to be put down, and not to freak out if a gun shot is heard.

Police ini­ti­at­ed anoth­er round of nego­ti­a­tion with the ral­ly insist­ing folks move the debris that’s in the road because it’s a safe­ty risk, mak­ing veiled threats about things esca­lat­ing if that doesn’t hap­pen.  Police have informed peo­ple it’s ille­gal to block the road, but have not giv­en any order to dis­perse, they said “if it doesn’t hap­pen [dis­per­sal] they don’t want things to esca­late.”  Oth­er­wise, sit­u­a­tion unchanged.

UPDATE  10:14 am:
State police on scene at sup­port­ing ral­ly.

UPDATE  10:10 am:
Two tree-sit­ters block­ing the well pad access road–their anchor lines are cross­ing the road and each oth­er, and if an anchor line is cut­ter a sit­ter will fall.  There’s also a slash pile in the road.  No police on seen and appar­ent­ly no secu­ri­ty either.

UPDATE  9:30 am:
Mar­cel­lus Earth First! and sup­port­ers have set up a block­ade at an EQT well pad in the Moshan­non Penn­syl­va­nia State For­est.  An addi­tion­al group of 40 sup­port­ers are hold­ing a ral­ly down the road, and have blocked a Hal­libur­ton truck.  The activists plan to stay as long as they can.  Stay tuned for more updates as infor­ma­tion becomes avail­able.

BP F***ing the Future subverts

6.7.12

6.7.12

With the Olympics now only three weeks away, protests against Olympic spon­sor BP are esca­lat­ing. Today dozens of BP logos across Lon­don were sab­o­taged, includ­ing the UK’s most pres­ti­gious bill­board site at Cromwell Road. Around the cap­i­tal, pro­test­ers hit petrol sta­tions, BP-spon­sored cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions and adver­tis­ing hoard­ings, protest­ing against one of the world’s most envi­ron­men­tal­ly destruc­tive com­pa­nies being a major spon­sor of the Lon­don Olympics. Signs were splat­tered with oil and BP’s tagline ‘Fuelling the Future’ was sub­ver­tised with the URL ‘f‑ingthefuture.org.uk’.

BP has con­tin­u­ous­ly been slammed for its sys­tem­at­ic dis­re­gard for the envi­ron­ment, human rights and work­er safe­ty, includ­ing its fail­ure to clean up after the Gulf of Mex­i­co dis­as­ter of 2010, its deci­sion to enter the dev­as­tat­ing Cana­di­an tar sands, and its plans to drill for Arc­tic oil. This crit­i­cism has increased dra­mat­i­cal­ly since BP was announced ‘Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Part­ner’ of the Lon­don 2012 games, and today’s protests fol­low a series of recent actions tar­get­ing BP’s Olympic spon­sor­ship:
* On the eve of BP’s AGM in April, protest group CAMSOL posed online as LOCOG and announced BP had been dropped as Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Part­ner.
* In April, the UK Tar Sands Net­work nom­i­nat­ed BP in the Green­wash Gold cam­paign as ‘worst Olympic spon­sor’.
* Since April, the Reclaim Shake­speare Com­pa­ny has been invad­ing Shake­speare­an per­for­mances across the coun­try to protest against BP’s spon­sor­ship of the Cul­tur­al Olympiad.
* Last week, acclaimed actor Mark Rylance spoke out against BP’s spon­sor­ship of the Games, reveal­ing he had ques­tioned his own involve­ment in the Open­ing Cer­e­mo­ny.

One of those tak­ing part in the action, Bren­dan Pierce, said, “BP is pay­ing tens of mil­lions of pounds to clean up its tar­nished image, in what could well be the most expen­sive use of pro­pa­gan­da in his­to­ry. But with even its own busi­ness pro­jec­tions prepar­ing for a six degree tem­per­a­ture rise, BP knows it is damn­ing us to a future of run­away cli­mate change.”

Anoth­er activist, Deb­o­rah Dud­ley, said “Reports sug­gest that BP’s spon­sor­ship of the Olympics has been high­ly effec­tive at laun­der­ing its filthy image, so we’re reveal­ing the dirt behind the glossy brand­ing. I’m proud to be tak­ing direct action as part of a world­wide move­ment for cli­mate jus­tice. I encour­age oth­ers to get involved.”

A web­site, f‑ingthefuture.org.uk, shows pic­tures of the action and out­lines the prob­lems with BP’s spon­sor­ship of the Olympics.

For more infor­ma­tion, inter­views and high-res­o­lu­tion pho­tos, email: f.ingthefuture@gmail.com

 

 

What the web­site says:

——————————————-

Why shouldn’t BP spon­sor the Olympics?

BP’s green logo is plas­tered all over the Olympics. The com­pa­ny is ‘Offi­cial Fuel and Gas Provider’ and also spon­sor of the Cul­tur­al Olympiad and Lon­don 2012 Fes­ti­val.

Worst of all BP is ‘Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Part­ner’. That’s right, the organ­is­ers of the Olympics have decid­ed to allow BP, one of the dirt­i­est com­pa­nies on earth, the oppor­tu­ni­ty to rebrand itself as social­ly respon­si­ble and take an active role in propos­ing how soci­ety should approach cli­mate change.

Do you remem­ber images of oil gush­ing into the Gulf of Mex­i­co from BP’s deep-sea Macon­do well back in 2010, coat­ing the ocean and its inhab­i­tants? Have you heard of BP’s plans in the tar sands, the world’s sec­ond largest oil deposits after Sau­di Ara­bia, that can only be extract­ed by using four times as much green­house gas and have been labelled the most destruc­tive project on earth? Have you heard about BP’s deals to extract oil from the depths of the pris­tine Arc­tic, despite the poten­tial risk of a cat­a­stroph­ic spill even hard­er to clean up than the Gulf?

Do you think BP has earned the right to be ‘Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Part­ner’ to the Lon­don 2012 Olympics?

Does BP have the right to have any asso­ci­a­tion what­so­ev­er with the Games, whose found­ing state­ment speaks of ‘uni­ver­sal fun­da­men­tal eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples’, whose 2011 Char­ter declares that the Games should be ‘pro­mot­ing a peace­ful soci­ety con­cerned with the preser­va­tion of human dig­ni­ty’, and require ‘mutu­al under­stand­ing with a spir­it of friend­ship, sol­i­dar­i­ty and fair play’?

Do you think oil and sport shouldn’t mix?

Do you some­times have the feel­ing that wher­ev­er you turn these days, adver­tis­ing has intrud­ed a lit­tle fur­ther, unin­vit­ed, into your per­son­al space?

BP is a cor­po­ra­tion that feeds off injus­tice and the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world that we and count­less oth­er species rely on. That destruc­tion comes most threat­en­ing­ly from the cur­rent bru­tal desta­bil­i­sa­tion of the world’s cli­mate.

BP is deeply embed­ded in British soci­ety – our ener­gy, our pen­sions, our invest­ments, our cul­ture… It pumps seri­ous mon­ey and effort into keep­ing things this way. Mar­ket­ing works. Shiny adver­tise­ments around the cap­i­tal do change the way peo­ple per­ceive a com­pa­ny. By spon­sor­ing activ­i­ties like the Cul­tur­al Olympiad, the Lon­don 2012 Fes­ti­val, the World Shake­speare Fes­ti­val and the Games them­selves, BP is able to con­tin­ue its cat­a­stroph­ic, though increas­ing­ly prof­itable, oper­a­tions. That’s why we had to act.

Remem­ber, if you see any ‘improved’ BP adver­tise­ments, please take a pho­to and email them to f.ingthefuture@gmail.com – and don’t wor­ry, we won’t assume that you have any respon­si­bil­i­ty for them!

 

Here are a few more things you can do:

  • Take action for cli­mate jus­tice! See Ris­ing Tide UK and Cli­mate Jus­tice Col­lec­tive for ways to get involved.
  • Learn more about BP’s enor­mous envi­ron­men­tal and human rights atroc­i­ties. Start with tar sands.
  • Move your mon­ey away from banks and oth­er insti­tu­tions who will lend it to fos­sil fuel-based projects
  • Har­ness your cre­ativ­i­ty to a more car­ing, con­scious future, pos­si­bly by con­tribut­ing to Art Not Oil‘s ‘Cutur­al or Vul­tur­al 2012?’ gallery.
  • Be part of a move­ment for real, deep, pos­i­tive and last­ing social and eco­log­i­cal change: http://www.occupyuk.info, http://occupylsx.org
  • Cut your car­bon! Cut out short-haul flights, min­i­mize car use, min­i­mize your meat con­sump­tion, insu­late your house. There are plen­ty of things you can do…but what­ev­er you do, try to chal­lenge the over­ar­ch­ing mind­set and sys­tem that’s allowng this insan­i­ty to hap­pen!

(NB. These links are not con­nect­ed to us, we just like ‘em!)

 

Pho­tos

Videos

Earth First! Summer Gathering Update — programme, directions, website and more

It’s only weeks until the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing begins.
Five days of work­shops, info shar­ing and learn­ing new skills, 1–5 August.

It’s only weeks until the Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing begins.
Five days of work­shops, info shar­ing and learn­ing new skills, 1–5 August.

The Earth First Sum­mer Gath­er­ing takes place each year to pro­vide a space in which the rad­i­cal ecol­o­gy move­ment can share skills and plan for future cam­paigns and actions.

Dis­cus­sions around the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty build­ing in inner cities, the state of the anar­chist move­ment and patri­archy in activism.

Skill shares includ­ing wom­en’s self-defence, research­ing cor­po­ra­tions and nav­i­ga­tion.

Cam­paign round ups from Frack Off! Smash Edo and Lud­dites 2000 amongst oth­ers.

If you have work­shops you like to run or dis­cus­sions you’d like to facil­i­tate then email us at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

Full pro­gramme.

Camp­ing is on a slid­ing scale of £30 to £15, pay what is gen­uine­ly appro­pri­ate.

Food will be from Anar­chist Teapot and meal tick­ets will be £5 a day.

Kids can have sep­a­rate meals if they want for £3 a day.

There will be a cou­ple of kids spaces, and spe­cial work­shops being ran for kids. If you’d like to run any kids work­shops get in touch at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net.

If you want you dog to come along then you’re going to have to email us at earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

And of course there will be enter­tain­ment and a bar open in the evenings.

The camp is ½ mile from the Berring­ton vil­lage, and 1 mile from the larg­er vil­lage of Cross Hous­es.

We encour­age non-cycling campers to use pub­lic trans­port if pos­si­ble as Cross Hous­es is on a bus route.

BY TRAIN
The near­est train sta­tion is Shrews­bury. You can then get the bus to Cross Hous­es (see below). If com­ing from a long dis­tance it can some­times be cheap­er to get a tick­et to a large sta­tion such as Birm­ing­ham, Wolver­hamp­ton, Man­ches­ter or Crewe and then a sep­a­rate tick­et on to Shrews­bury. Check nation­al rail for train times and prices. If com­ing from the Lon­don direc­tion, it’s gen­er­al­ly cheap­er to buy a Super Off­peak Return, spec­i­fy­ing “Lon­don Mid­land & Arri­va only”.

BY BIKE
See here for direc­tions and a map to the camp from Shrews­bury for cyclists and dri­vers.

BY BUS
When you arrive at Shrews­bury train sta­tion, ask some­one to point you to the bus sta­tion. It’s only a few min­utes walk from the train sta­tion. The bus ser­vice that runs from town to with­in a mile of Crabap­ple is the 436 towards Bridg­north. It runs every hour from 7.40am to 5.40pm with a “late” one at 7.40pm. The jour­ney to Cross Hous­es is approx 15 mins. You will need to press the stop but­ton when you see the sign for Cross Hous­es. Some of the ser­vices on this route are low-floor acces­si­ble bus­es. Please note that the last bus leaves Shrews­bury at 7.40pm, Mon­day to Sat­ur­day and there are no Sun­day bus ser­vices. For the bus timetable see here http://shropshire.gov.uk/bustimes/timetable.jsc?timetable=436mfi0412.
The camp itself is about 1 mile from the bus stop. From the bus stop at Cross Hous­es, walk back towards Shrews­bury past the petrol sta­tion (on your right) and take the first left turn signed “Berring­ton”. After about ½ mile, the road forks at the edge of the vil­lage. Take the right turn sign­post­ed “Bet­ton Abbots” and we’re about ¼ mile up the road on the right.
If you intend to come by bus but need help get­ting to and from the bus stop, you can arrange a pick up with us: details will be avail­able near­er the time.

BY TAXI
There is also a taxi rank just out­side Shrews­bury train sta­tion. Acces­si­ble taxis can be got from here.- but it is MUCH cheap­er to book a cab from a local com­pa­ny – Comet Cabs 01743 344444, or Vin­cent Cabs 01743 367777. Vin­cents also have a book­ing office just across the road from the sta­tion, which is handy if you don’t have a phone to book a cab in advance.

USEFUL LINKS
See here direc­tions and a map to the camp from Shrews­bury for cyclists and dri­vers.
See a map of where the site is here
See the bus timetable
Direc­tions from places oth­er than Shrews­bury

Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing Col­lec­tive
earthfirstsummergathering@riseup.net

http://earthfirstgathering.weebly.com

Climate Siren activists scale Palace gates Rio+20

Four mem­bers of the group Cli­mate Siren, which includ­ed Occu­py Lon­don sup­port­ers, chained them­selves to Buck­ing­ham Palace gates on Sat­ur­day 23 June to high­light the biggest threat to our plan­et, cli­mate change. The activists were there for over 4 hours and the stunt attract­ed nation­al and inter­na­tion­al media atten­tion.

Four mem­bers of the group Cli­mate Siren, which includ­ed Occu­py Lon­don sup­port­ers, chained them­selves to Buck­ing­ham Palace gates on Sat­ur­day 23 June to high­light the biggest threat to our plan­et, cli­mate change. The activists were there for over 4 hours and the stunt attract­ed nation­al and inter­na­tion­al media atten­tion. Their ban­ners includ­ed a quote from Prince Charles that the ‘dooms­day clock of cli­mate change was tick­ing ever faster towards mid­night,’ and called for 10% annu­al emis­sions reduc­tions.

The action was timed to coin­cide with the end of the Rio+20 Earth Sum­mit on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, which as pre­dict­ed failed to deliv­er any bind­ing agree­ment to put human­i­ty on a path of true sus­tain­abil­i­ty and peace. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we can­not rely on our elect­ed offi­cials to save the plan­et and the Rio +20 agen­da was dom­i­nat­ed by cor­po­rate inter­ests bent on pre­vent­ing any devi­a­tion from busi­ness as usu­al which will threat­en their prof­its. Peo­ple pow­er is our only hope for sav­ing the plan­et and all its inhab­i­tants.

http://climate-siren.com/

 

Frack Off: Activists Blockade Fracking Drill

Update: it has now end­ed — a suc­cess­ful 7 hour occu­pa­tion on the gates and no arrests

18.6.2012

Update: it has now end­ed — a suc­cess­ful 7 hour occu­pa­tion on the gates and no arrests

18.6.2012

Anti-frack­ing group, Frack Off, is blockad­ing the site of Cuadrilla Resource’s drilling rig. Twen­ty peo­ple descend­ed on the site at 5am and are blockad­ing the entrance. The site is owned by PR Mar­riot who is Cuadrilla’s lead drilling con­trac­tors.

The action is stop­ping work on the drill which is being worked on in prepa­ra­tion for more frack­ing explo­ration in Lan­cashire. Frack Off is high­light­ing the threat posed by the tidal wave of extreme ener­gy extrac­tion meth­ods that are being pushed by the gov­ern­ment and a num­ber of most­ly US and Aus­tralian com­pa­nies. The action is the begin­ning of a con­cert­ed cam­paign by peo­ple across the coun­try to stop the intro­duc­tion of these dan­ger­ous prac­tices before it is too late.

Despite the mount­ing evi­dence from the Unit­ed States that the exploita­tion of uncon­ven­tion­al fos­sil fuels such as shale gas and coal bed methane (CBM) threat­ens to poi­son the envi­ron­ment, fur­ther desta­bilise the cli­mate and is impli­cat­ed in ris­ing toll on human health includ­ing increas­ing can­cer rates, cor­po­ra­tions and gov­ern­ments are doing all they can to push through the intro­duc­tion of these new ener­gy extrac­tion meth­ods in the face of grow­ing pub­lic oppo­si­tion.

Last month the Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change Min­is­ter Gre­go­ry Bark­er announced in par­lia­ment that the “Gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to seek full eco­nom­ic recov­ery of UK hydro­car­bon resources, both con­ven­tion­al and uncon­ven­tion­al”, a posi­tion which amounts to a dec­la­ra­tion of war on the peo­ple and envi­ron­ment of the British Isles. Full eco­nom­ic recov­ery will involve coat­ing the coun­try­side with drilling sites and pipelines while poi­son­ing the air and water and the emis­sion of vast quan­ti­ties or car­bon diox­ide into the atmos­phere.

The main jus­ti­fi­ca­tion used for the need for this destruc­tive course of action is that we face an ener­gy cri­sis and need this gas to “keep the lights on”. In real­i­ty uncon­ven­tion­al fos­sil fuels are very expen­sive to extract and the amount that could be extract­ed is a small frac­tion of the gas from the North Sea that we have squan­dered over the last 40 years. The choice we face is between con­tin­u­ing to feed our addic­tion to increas­ing expen­sive and dan­ger­ous fos­sil fuels or putting a stop to the vicious eco­nom­ic sys­tem that requires them.

There is a gap­ing dis­con­nect between the green rhetoric that is thrown around by gov­ern­ments and cor­po­ra­tions alike and the dirty, dan­ger­ous and impov­er­ished future that they are actu­al­ly advo­cat­ing in their quest for a quick buck. This pri­ori­tis­ing of cor­po­rate greed over the inter­ests of peo­ple and ecosys­tems while pre­tend­ing to care about them, has no bet­ter poster child than the Rio+20 Earth Sum­mit that starts on Wednes­day.

Twen­ty years after world lead­ers met in Rio de Janeiro and promised to address the envi­ron­men­tal and social prob­lems afflict­ing the plan­et they will meet again, to promise, again, to do some­thing about the now even worse prob­lems we face. As with twen­ty years ago they have no inten­tion of actu­al­ly doing any­thing that would put a check on the sys­tem of cor­po­rate exploita­tion that is destroy­ing the ecosys­tems we rely on. This is why ordi­nary peo­ple must take a stand to stop the destruc­tion if any­thing is every going to change.

For more info have a look at:

Twit­ter: www.twitter.com/frack_off
Face­book: www.facebook.com/frackoffuk
Web­site: www.frack-off.org
Pic­tures:  http://s.coop/pzid

Occupy Oil the Sequel and #RIPShell

“These peo­ple have more rights than us” was the response of the police to an irate dri­ver.  He was attempt­ing to refu­el at the Shell Garage in Old Street, Lon­don.  Pro­test­ers had man­aged to block­ade the sta­tion in the last action of a very suc­cess­ful day against Shell Oil.

Activists from Occu­py Oil in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Anony­mous UK closed the sta­tion for almost an hour. The pro­test­ers were car­ry­ing Anti Shell ban­ners, plac­ards and a cof­fin to rep­re­sent the destruc­tive nature of this 1% com­pa­ny.

On the 22nd of May activists from Occu­py Oil held demon­stra­tions in Lon­don and Las Vegas (See Video of action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td8NNinikyc) against Dutch Shell Oil, who were hold­ing their Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing at The Hague and Lon­don via video link.

The morn­ing began with six activists leav­ing St Paul’s Cathe­dral with a cof­fin and ban­ner to make a sym­bol­ic funer­al pro­ces­sion through the streets of the City of Lon­don.

We were greet­ed with a small police pres­ence; this scaled back polic­ing response was pos­si­bly as a result of their behav­ior on the 12th of May, When peace­ful demon­stra­tors from Occu­py May were assault­ed and ket­tled out­side of the Bank of Eng­land.
In a very dig­ni­fied cer­e­mo­ny, the 6 activists and cof­fin took around 40 min­utes to get to the loca­tion of the AGM, which was being held at the Bar­bi­can Cen­tre

Lit­tle did we know at the time that we were being fol­lowed and pho­tographed not by the police but by a pri­vate secu­ri­ty firm. This lat­est intim­i­da­tion fits in well with their behav­iour else­where as point­ed out by Marc Vallee at the recent #netpol2012 con­fer­ence.

‏@marc_vallee At #netpol2012 today I men­tioned that a pri­vate intel­li­gence com­pa­ny had con­tact­ed me for infor­ma­tion on direct action protest groups.
@marc_vallee The groups are: @climatecamp @RisingTide_UK @NoTarSands &@UKuncut « I will be pro­vid­ing the groups with the rel­e­vant evi­dence. #netpol2012

Despite the intim­i­da­tion the whole day was very suc­cess­ful with garages closed and Shel­l’s Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing dis­rupt­ed with zero arrests,
Our mes­sage is clear, “TO HELL WITH SHELL“
www.occupyoil.co.uk
@OccupyOil

Spectre of Shell Reapers hangs over AGM

22nd May 2012

 

22nd May 2012

 

At today’s Shell AGM link at the Bar­bi­can the suits on the Shell board were giv­en a 3 hour grilling, with ques­tion­ers focus­ing atten­tion on its envi­ron­men­tal and human rights crimes around the world. Spread through­out the audi­to­ri­um hood­ed Lon­don Ris­ing Tide & friends’ grim Shell reapers, stood silent­ly await­ing direc­tion from the board toward their next appoint­ment with Shell induced death and envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion.  They stood motion­less for almost an hour while Messrs Ollila and Voss­er, Chair­man & CEO, attempt­ed to defend Shel­l’s rav­en­ous pur­suit of prof­it above all else at the expense of : the pris­tine Arc­tic- where drilling and prob­a­bly spilling will begin in the sum­mer; the Cana­di­an bore­al for­est-where Tar Sands “extrac­tion” has increased by 100k bar­rels per day;  the once beau­ti­ful fish spawn­ing grounds of the Niger Delta- now clogged with a “Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon’s” worth of oil every year; and lis­tened intent­ly to Voss­er spout­ing that so-called “eth­i­cal com­pa­ny sta­tus” was “very close to my heart and we are dri­ving sus­tain­abil­i­ty”. 

We all know where its being dri­ven.  Remem­ber cli­mate change?

Cli­mate change may not be a fash­ion­able sub­ject these days, but it’s already claim­ing 300,000 lives a year. Glac­i­ers are dis­ap­pear­ing, sea lev­els are ris­ing and extreme weath­er is becom­ing more extreme. As tem­per­a­tures rise, we’ll see more flood­ing, drought, dis­ease, famine and war, cre­at­ing hun­dreds of mil­lions of refugees  and destroy­ing entire ecosys­tems and species.  We can’t  afford to for­get about cli­mate change – or the fact that com­pa­nies like Shell are at the heart of the prob­lem and a shift to Fos­sil Fuel Gas and land grab­bing bio­fu­els isn’t help­ing!

Mean­while out­side, many more Shell Grim Reapers man­aged to gain entry into the lob­by before being eject­ed by what one share­hold­er inside referred to as “over the top secu­ri­ty”. There they met with Occu­py Shell Oil cof­fin bear­ers who had processed the cor­po­rate body of Shell from St.Pauls Cathe­dral to be laid to rest at the feet of a 6 degree Cel­sius glob­al tem­per­a­ture rise this cen­tu­ry. There among the share­hold­ers, City cops and many pri­vate secu­ri­ty and cor­po­rate spies, the Shell Reapers hand­ed out leaflets to inform of impend­ing Shell dev­as­ta­tion.

A del­e­ga­tion from Indige­nous peo­ples attend­ed Shell’s main Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing in The Hague, Nether­lands, they detailed the mas­sive human and eco­log­i­cal rights vio­la­tions and eco­nom­ic dev­as­ta­tion that Shel­l’s oper­a­tions have brought to local com­mu­ni­ties. The tar sands devel­op­ment in  Alber­ta, Cana­da cov­ers an area the size of Eng­land, with tox­ic lakes so huge they are vis­i­ble from space, leak­ing poi­sons into the local water sup­ply.  The effects that tar sands  are hav­ing on local First  Nations com­mu­ni­ties  are dev­as­tat­ing. Not  only are indige­nous  liveli­hoods and  futures being  destroyed, but  com­mu­ni­ties on land  where tar sands extrac­tion has been imposed  are expe­ri­enc­ing dis­turbing­ly  high rates of rare forms of can­cer and auto-immune dis­eases.

Eriel Deranger, com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber and spokesper­son for the Athabas­ca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Alber­ta – an Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ty resid­ing down­stream from tar sands oper­a­tions and who are cur­rent­ly suing Shell for vio­lat­ing past agree­ments, stat­ed:

“Tar sands extrac­tion projects on our tra­di­tion­al lands are being approved at a pace that is both irre­spon­si­ble and irrepara­bly destruc­tive. Peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty of Fort Chipewyan
are gen­uine­ly afraid. Our food and water sources are con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed, result­ing in a fear of eat­ing tra­di­tion­al foods and erod­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion of our cul­tur­al and sub­sis­tence lifestyles. Yet Shell plans to aggres­sive­ly expand its activ­i­ties, dou­bling pro­duc­tion. The Athabas­ca Chipewyan First Nation is call­ing on Shell to meet its past agree­ments and halt expan­sion until our broad­er con­cerns about the cumu­la­tive impacts of tar sands oper­a­tions are addressed.”

Ron Plain, from Aamji­w­naang First Nation, Ontario – which has been called ‘the most pol­lut­ed place in North Amer­i­ca’ by the Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Soci­ety, and the ‘the most con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed air­shed in Cana­da’ by the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion due to its prox­im­i­ty to ‘Chem­i­cal Val­ley’ where Shell’s and oth­er tar sands oper­a­tors’ refiner­ies are caus­ing seri­ous health and repro­duc­tive impacts – said:

“Aamji­w­naang is the first com­mu­ni­ty in the world to expe­ri­ence birth ratios of 2 girls to 1 boy due to endocrine dis­rup­tion from the pol­lu­tion. This is the first step towards extinc­tion. Shell have admit­ted that their cur­rent facil­i­ty, which is locat­ed at the fence­line of Aamji­w­naang, ‘could not meet today’s envi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tions or stan­dards.’ But Shell’s pro­pos­al for a new facil­i­ty with­in Aamji­w­naang ter­ri­to­ry was recent­ly denied by Cana­da for a whole host of envi­ron­men­tal, social and oth­er rea­sons. The cor­po­rate response to that set-back was to build onto the anti­quat­ed facil­i­ty the equip­ment need­ed to process more tar sands bitu­men.”

Robert Thomp­son, Chair­man of REDOIL and an Inu­pi­at from Kak­tovik, a vil­lage on the edge of the Arc­tic Ocean in Alas­ka, where Shell plans to drill off­shore in Arc­tic waters this sum­mer, said:

“Shell plans to drill in the Arc­tic this sum­mer with­out the proven tech­nol­o­gy or infra­struc­ture to deal with inevitable spills. They have not demon­strat­ed the abil­i­ty to clean up spills with­in or from under the ice or dur­ing storms. Our cul­ture depends on a clean ocean, and we have sub­sist­ed in this region for 12,000 years. We oppose Shell’s plans that have the poten­tial to destroy the cul­ture of our peo­ple and will fur­ther push the plan­et into irre­versible cli­mate change.”

Ben Pow­less, a Mohawk from Six Nations in Ontario, rep­re­sent­ing the Indige­nous Envi­ron­men­tal Net­work, said:

“Not only have Shell rev­eled in being a cli­mate crim­i­nal, they have also been exposed as fight­ing the Euro­pean Union’s pro­posed Fuel Qual­i­ty Direc­tive, in col­lu­sion with the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment. Their con­tin­ued envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion and vio­la­tion of Indige­nous rights across Cana­da, Alas­ka and Nige­ria show that Shell needs to change their oper­a­tions or face increas­ing protest and oppo­si­tion across the world. Our orga­ni­za­tion is sup­port­ing an Indige­nous-led cam­paign against Shell’s extreme ener­gy projects to bring togeth­er front­line impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties.”

To find out more about the Cana­di­an Indige­nous Tar Sands Cam­paign, see:http://ienearth.org/tarsands.html

 So, what else can we do about Shell in Lon­don?

Apart from street cor­ner Petrol Garage block­ades we can wage war on cor­po­rate brand­ing. Join us to help kick Shell-out Spon­sor­ship = buy­ing us off .

 Shel­l’s spon­sor­ship acts as a green­washed blind­fold to pre­vent us see­ing the  rav­ages of fron­tier oil extrac­tion bound­aries being pushed. When we chal­lenge this, we strike a blow at Shell’s brand, chip away at its pow­er and move towards the day when Big Oil – like Big Tobac­co – is no longer seen as social­ly accept­able. As we once kicked the tobac­co com­pa­nies out of our cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions we must now do the same to the oil indus­try.

Lon­don Ris­ing Tide, c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, Lon­don E1 1ES;

tel: 07708 794665

 

Wicked Work Weekend in Mayo

Stop­ping Shell, mov­ing camp & drag­ging pal­lets!

Fri­day 4th May Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty suc­cess­ful­ly stopped all Shell haulage for the day. Once folks were sat­is­fied that Shell was­n’t going to try and do any haulage, they went to the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp to start tak­ing down struc­tures and move the camp.

Stop­ping Shell, mov­ing camp & drag­ging pal­lets!

Fri­day 4th May Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty suc­cess­ful­ly stopped all Shell haulage for the day. Once folks were sat­is­fied that Shell was­n’t going to try and do any haulage, they went to the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp to start tak­ing down struc­tures and move the camp.

Over the week­end all but the kitchen struc­ture was tak­en down, hun­dreds of pal­lets were moved to the new field, and the kitchen mar­quee was put up in the new field. The sum­mer camp is locat­ed two fields away from the win­ter field, next to the Augh­oose church. There is one large com­mu­nal sleep­ing space, but most peo­ple will be sleep­ing in tents for the sum­mer. If you are vis­it­ing the camp bring a tent if you have one, but don’t let it stop you com­ing if you don’t!

There were about 20 peo­ple on camp for the week­end, and aside from a bit of wind on fri­day we lucked out with the weath­er. The tunes were pumpin’, and peo­ple real­ly stepped up to get the work done! On Sat­ur­day we had a vis­it from a group of stu­dents who, with the help of a local farmer and his trac­tor, moved hun­dreds of pal­lets to the new field. Night­time was relax­ing with camp­fires and music, and every­one seemed in high spir­its. Many hands, light work! The bank hol­i­day Mon­day some pix­ies went down to Shel­l’s forestry com­pound and undid a bit of Shel­l’s work.

Now the camp is build­ing up for the annu­al June gath­er­ing, 1–4th of June. See more details here: http://shelltosea.com/content/rossport-solidarity-camp-gathering‑1–4‑june

The week fol­low­ing the gath­er­ing will be a Week of Action against Shell, so come up for work­shops and dis­cus­sions at the week­end and if you can stick around to help with the actions after­wards. There are lots of roles involved in mak­ing an action as safe and effec­tive as pos­si­ble, for exam­ple tak­ing pho­tos, legal observ­er, sup­port, as well as being in an arrestable role. You can read more here: http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org/?page_id=282

Hinkley Investor Centrica: Action Alert

Cen­tri­ca are hav­ing their AGM this week on Fri 11th May we want to tell Cen­tri­ca loud & clear No to new nuclear. To this end we have a bit of arm­chair activism that every­one can join in with no mat­ter what your time/energy/money com­mit­ments are.

Here’s how to stop the Cen­tri­ca swin­dle:

Cen­tri­ca are hav­ing their AGM this week on Fri 11th May we want to tell Cen­tri­ca loud & clear No to new nuclear. To this end we have a bit of arm­chair activism that every­one can join in with no mat­ter what your time/energy/money com­mit­ments are.

Here’s how to stop the Cen­tri­ca swin­dle:

Step one: Boy­cott Centrica/British Gas…

If you get any prod­ucts from cen­tri­ca or buy your ener­gy from British Gas then switch sup­pli­ers now – make sure and either phone them on 0800 107 0184 or drop them a line at  customercomplaints@britishgas.co.uk or Man­age­ment Team, British Gas, PO Box 4804, Wor­thing, BN11 9QU to let them know why you’re drop­ping them.

If you need guid­ance or advise on how to switch or who to switch to then vis­it our already exisit­ing boy­cott edf web­site for details on how/what to do.  http://boycottedf.org.uk/maketheswitch

Step Two: Spam Cen­tri­ca…

Drop them an e‑mail to pres­sure them to with­draw from nuclear new build we have com­piled an exten­sive data­base of e‑mail address­es which we have pub­lished below The e‑mails are pub­lished in 10 blocks of 25, this means that in just 10 e‑mails you can tell the whole of Cen­tri­ca from the 1% down what you think of them with­out your mails bounc­ing back or your account being sus­pend­ed!

Their office num­bers are includ­ed too why not give them a call and tell them what you think of their dab­bling in dirty nukes?

 brian.gamlin@centrica.com,  darren.miles@centrica.com,  mark.turner@centrica.com,  olga.wilson@centrica.com,  simon.henderson@centrica.com,  alejandro.urizar@centrica.com,  jonathan.press@centrica.com,  peter.pratt@centrica.com,  david.bickerton@centrica.com,  rod.carr@centrica.com,  kirk.downey@centrica.com,  bill.laughlin@centrica.com,  simon.gray@centrica.com,  usmanigbal@centrica.com„  alan.mclaughlin@centrica.com,  sophie.cole@centrica.com,  jessica.parker@centrica.com,  alistair.montgomery@centrica.com,  jan.sangedal@centrica.com,  careers@centrica.com,  cancelinstallation@centrica.com,  thornton@centrica.com,  jon.york@Centrica.com, cardiffc& mfinance@centrica.com,  ir@centrica.com,

 don.lane@centrica.com,  amie.harding1@centrica.com,  natalie.potts@centrica.com,  fred.hardinges@centrica.com,  nina.ringoen@centrica.com,  coordinator@centrica.com,  renewables@centrica.com,  kit.hawkins@centrica.com,  centrica@equiniti.com,  stavanger@centrica.com,  media@centrica.com,  matthew.berry@centrica.com,  views@centrica.com,  responsibility@centrica.com,  centrica.graduates@aonhewitt.com,  diversity.team@centrica.com,  audrey.luksicek@centrica.com,  p2p@centrica.com,  dario.ghazi@Centrica.com,  rodgers@centrica.com,  paul.smart@centrica.com,  kevin.ferrol@centrica.com,  steven.petrie@centrica.com,  martin.bruce@centrica.com,  jim.jamieson@centrica.com,

 carina.travis@centrica.com,  michael.breyaen@centrica.com,  trevor.boyce@centrica.com,  fiona.navesey@centrica.com,  ricky.hill@centrica.com,  iain.bartholomew@centrica.com,  david.byrne@centrica.com,  danny.willder@centrica.com,  ali.hussain@centrica.com,  linda.somerville1@centrica.com,  andy.kingscott@centrica.com,  aberdeen@centrica.com,  customerrelations@centrica.com,  david.holland@centrica.com,  eri@centrica.com,  brianawhitlock@centrica.com,  philip.davies@centrica.com,  alan.mclaughlin@centrica.com,  energy360@centrica.com,  gavin.ward@centrica.com,  gill.rodgers@centrica.com,  proudfoot@centrica.com,  colin.addy2@centrica.com,  hywel.james@centrica.com,  alan.neild-crabb@centrica.com

 chris.ronketti@centrica.com,  john.kimber@centrica.com,  sue.cropper@centrica.com,  richard.hemus2@centrica.com,  anna.wantling@centrica.com,  steve.gapik@centrica.com,  discount.scheme@centrica.com,  angela.needle@centrica.com,  alaister.mortlock@centrica.com,  ivan.olszak@centrica.com,  jill.shedden@centrica.com,  nick.luff@centrica.com,  christopher.bird@centrica.com,  ray.sheldon@centrica.com,  sns0056york@centrica.com,  finbarr.coghlan@centrica.com,  peter.fairhurst@centrica.com,  jon.cooper@centrica.com,  matt.thornton@centrica.com,  rebecca.mcclymont@centrica.com,  richard.cargen@centrica.com,  david.jardine@centrica.com,  cathy.aldwinckle@centrica.com,  ian.mondrow@na.centrica.com,  pjeff@na.centrica.com,

 robert.frank@na.centrica.com,  smith.day@na.centrica.com,  jessica.mahaffey@na.centrica.com,  chuck.moore@na.centrica.com,  rita.morales@na.centrica.com,  ben.lenton@na.centrica.com,  joseph.byars@na.centrica.com,  ray.debock@na.centrica.com,  michael.heselton@na.centrica.com,  anahita.minooee@na.centrica.com,  gary.newcombe@na.centrica.com,  alyce.hibben@na.centrica.com,  priscilla.tinsley@na.centrica.com,  jodi.marshall@na.centrica.com,  kristine.innes@na.centrica.com,  niall.armstrong@na.centrica.com,  michel.do@na.centrica.com,  jeff.parsons@na.centrica.com,  pjeff@na.centrica.com,  glenn.macintyre@na.centrica.com,  cynthia.cordova@na.centrica.com,  adrian.pye@na.centrica.com,  jay.hellums@na.centrica.com,  james.steffes@na.centrica.com,  patty.walton@na.centrica.com,

 juan.pardon@na.centrica.com,  dennis.benevides@na.centrica.com,  brenda.christie@na.centrica.com,  april.woodward@na.centrica.com,  david.zager@na.centrica.com,  felita.gammage@na.centrica.com,  Victor.Ward@na.centrica.com,  lyie.oiiver@na.centrica.com,  dave.purnell@na.centrica.com,  runsi.sen@na.centrica.com,  caroline.kerr@na.centrica.com,  aaron.dobson@na.centrica.com,  steve.entwistle@na.centrica.com,  jillian.conroy@na.centrica.com,  heather.brown@na.centrica.com,  dave.vandenbosch@na.centrica.com,  recruitingnorth@na.centrica.com, eric.stephens@,na.centrica.com,  brenda.pinke@na.centrica.com,  brandon.vanunen@na.centrica.com,  canada.business@na.centrica.com,  mike.visser@na.centrica.com,  vincent.law@na.centrica.com,  yannis.tzamouranis@na.centrica.com,  centricadataprotection@centrica.com,

 david.booty@na.centrica.com,  erin.cuddihey@na.centrica.com,  ben.lenton@na.centrica.com,  liam.johnston@na.centrica.com,  helen.taylor@centrica.co.uk,  contract.renewals@centrica.co.uk,  eservice@centrica.co.uk,  simon.clark@centrica.co.uk,  htam.correspondence@centrica.co.uk,  sam.laidlaw@centrica.co.uk,  media@centrica.co.uk,  barry.neville@centrica.co.uk,  david.johnson@centrica.co.uk,  jane.poxon@centrica.co.uk,  david.rizzo@centrica.co.uk,  russell.coates@centrica.co.uk,  davidm.harman@centrica.co.uk,  veronica.hinchliffe@centrica.co.uk,  emily.harman@centrica.co.uk,  rob.cullender@centrica.co.uk,  gavin.ferguson@centrica.co.uk,  catherine.mcnally@centrica.co.uk,  david.flower@centrica.co.uk,  tony.thornton@centrica.co.uk,  la.ha@centrica.co.uk,

 energy.efficiency2@centrica.co.uk,  ir@centrica.co.uk,  theenergyefficiencyteam@centrica.co.uk,  craig.lawson@centrica.co.uk,  simon.goldring@centrica.co.uk,  jeremy.lockett@centrica.co.uk,  victoria.andenaes@centrica.co.uk,  iain.taylor@centrica.co.uk,  barrie.x.caird@centrica.co.uk,  community@centrica.co.uk,  tim.boycott-brown@centrica.co.uk,  anthony.chmarny@centrica.co.uk,  ghazala.zia@centrica.co.uk,  wayne.brotherwood@centrica.co.uk,  alan.mclaughlin@centrica.co.uk,  kevin.wollard@centrica.co.uk,  tony.johnson@centrica.co.uk,  harry.metcalfe@centrica.co.uk,  mark.agnew@centrica.co.uk,  andy.chern@centrica.co.uk,  fiona.navesey@centrica.co.uk,  mark.clare@centrica.co.uk,  britishgas.prepaymentcustomerrelations@centrica.co.uk,  andrew.latham@centrica.co.uk,  simon.harrison@centrica.co.uk,

 david.viney@centrica.co.uk,  laura.jeffs@centrica.co.uk,  j.johnson@centrica.co.uk,  hqcustomerrelations@centrica.co.uk,  david.crowther@centrica.co.uk,  aan@centrica.co.uk,  linda.sullivan@centrica.co.uk,  meterreadentry@centrica.co.uk,  francis.rottenburg@centrica.co.uk,  matt.graveston@centrica.co.uk,  stephen.dickson@centrica.co.uk,  andy.malicki@centrica.co.uk,  deborah.lamb@centrica.co.uk,  ann.dale@centrica.co.uk,  pressoffice.britishgas@centrica.co.uk,  chris.foster@centrica.co.uk,  steven.briggs@centrica.co.uk,  david.thomas@centrica.co.uk,  rhvs.iones@centrica.co.uk,  eldon.pethybridge@centrica.co.uk,  clive.woodland@centrica.co.uk,  win.wearmouth@centrica.co.uk,  shann.plascott@centrica.co.uk,  jon.kimber@centrica.co.uk,  jean.doran@centrica.co.uk,

 gary.swift@centrica.co.uk,  mark.manley@centrica.co.uk,  danielle.lane@centrica.co.uk,  graham.jack@centrica.co.uk,  samantha.winship@centrica.co.uk,  roddy.mackinnon@centrica-sl.co.uk,  jacopo.vignola@centrica-sl.co.uk,  simon.wills@centrica-sl.co.uk, steve.o’ connor@centrica-sl.co.uk,  glenn.sibbick@centrica-sl.co.uk,  backup.notifications@centrica-sl.co.uk,  darren.oliver@centrica-sl.co.uk,  rebecca.sunshine@centrica-sl.co.uk, sonia.youcentrica-sl.co.uk,  terry.jackson@centrica-sl.co.uk,  bruce.walker@centrica-sl.co.uk,  david.hall@centrica-sl.co.uk, nick.parkescentrica-sl.co.uk,  roland.knight@centrica.com.au,  info@centrica.com.au,  crossmedia@centrica.com.au,

OFFICES

Cen­tri­ca plc
Mill­stream
Maid­en­head Road
Wind­sor
Berk­shire
SL4 5GD

Main switch­board
Tel: +44 (0)1753 494000
Fax: +44 (0)1753 494001

Cen­tri­ca Stor­age Lim­it­ed
Ven­ture House
42–54 Lon­don Road
Staines
Mid­dle­sex TW18 4HF

Cen­tri­ca Stor­age Lim­it­ed – reg­is­tered office and cor­po­rate head­quar­ters
Tel: +44 (0) 1784 415 300
Fax: +44 (0) 1784 415 318

Cen­tri­ca Stor­age Sales and Mar­ket­ing
Tele­phone: +44 (0) 1784 415 304

Cen­tri­ca Stor­age Com­mer­cial Oper­a­tions Desk (24 hours)
Tele­phone: +44 (0) 1784 415 304

Cen­tri­ca Media Rela­tions (on behalf of Cen­tri­ca Stor­age Lim­it­ed)
Tele­phone: +44 (0) 845 072 4649

Alan McLaugh­lin, Cen­tri­ca Media Rela­tions
Tele­phone: +44 (0) 1753 494 086 or 07789 570598

Cen­tri­ca Investor Rela­tions (on behalf of Cen­tri­ca Stor­age Lim­it­ed)
Tele­phone: +44 (0) 1753 494 900

Step Three: Protest!!!

Attend Centrica’s AGM this com­ing Fri­day May 11th. Their AGM starts at 2pm but envi­ron­men­tal and social jus­tice cam­paign­ers will be there from 12:30 onwards. The address is Queen Eliz­a­beth II Con­fer­ence Cen­tre, Lon­don SW1.

Why say no to Cen­tri­ca?

After being advised last year to pull out of nuclear Cen­tri­ca are now demand­ing more mon­ey from the cash-strapped British pub­lic via cor­po­rate owned UK plc. The advice came from cit­i­group and util­i­ties ana­lyst Lakis Athana­siou who said that Cen­tri­ca ‘shouldn’t touch nuclear with a barge pole’.

Near­ly one year on and against the back­drop of the nuclear cat­a­stro­phe in Japan spi­ral­ing fur­ther out of con­trol, Cen­tri­ca is now threat­en­ing to ‘pull out’ if their demands aren’t met. They claim to have doubts over the gov­ern­ments ener­gy pol­i­cy, Cen­tri­ca said “the company’s posi­tion on nuclear new build has not changed and it was still work­ing towards tak­ing a final invest­ment deci­sion on Hink­ley Point by the end of the year. It added “There are a num­ber of areas where we still need absolute clar­i­ty, such as cost, mar­ket frame­work and plan­ning approval and per­mits”

Sub­si­dies already promised by gov­ern­ment to the nuclear indus­try already include -

elec­tric­i­ty reform act, fixed price on car­bon per tonne and fixed price on elec­tric­i­ty pro­duced from nuclear tax­pay­er fund­ed lia­bil­i­ty in the event of an acci­dent (yes folks these guys can nuke you fukushi­ma style then make you pay for the clean up) fixed price of con­tri­bu­tion of the utlilty for the cost of future attempts to manage/clear up the waste (yeah right like that’s gonna hap­pen!)

Part of the elec­tric­i­ty reform acts pack­age of pro­pos­als are the con­tracts for dif­fer­ence that will be announced in the Queens speech this month.

Con­tracts for dif­fer­ence or CFD’s as they are known are noth­ing more than a way of ensur­ing that cen­tri­ca makes pri­vate prof­it whilst social­is­ing the loss­es, or should we say enrich­es the 1% at a cost to the 99%

In this con­text these pro­pos­als are like the banks ask­ing for a bailout in advance of them doing the dodgy deals that made them fail. CFDs are ‘trad­ing on the mar­gins’ or to put it anoth­er way turn­ing shit into sug­ar and are there­fore high­ly risky.

One of the ways CFD’s will like­ly ben­e­fit Cen­tri­ca is by allow­ing them to put up a tiny ‘deposit’ on the con­struc­tion of new nuclear plants whilst we the tax­pay­er loan them the rest, of course they get to keep their prof­its which ever way you slice the pie, they can even make mon­ey out of the project fail­ing with CFDs. It is clear to see that being able to prof­it out of falling mar­kets in this way is a clev­er­ly dis­guised way of social­is­ing the costs of bad invest­ment choic­es giv­ing investors a win-win sit­u­a­tion at an extreme cost to civ­il soci­ety & the envi­ron­ment.

We believe that centrica’s pres­sure on the UK gov­ern­ment to take more tax­pay­ers mon­ey to pay for a project that they them­selves believe will fail in order that their share­hold­ers can prof­it out of us twice (once when they build the plant then again when they bill us for ener­gy) is immoral and uneth­i­cal.

The elec­tric­i­ty mar­ket reform act already promised to these greedy util­i­ties is a pub­lic sub­sidy by the back door. Nuclear pow­er plants nev­er have been and nev­er will be prof­itable endeav­ours which is why in 2006 when the gov­ern­ment tried to cre­ate the nuclear renais­sance they knew it wouldn’t go down well with the pub­lic. Now after a six year cam­paign of lob­by­ing and expen­sive PR cam­paigns to get the pub­lic to swal­low nuclear as a ‘nec­es­sary evil’ they want to dump respon­si­bil­i­ty for financ­ing back on the already skint pub­lic.

South West Against Nulear (SWAN)