Climate Chaos – Page 74

Transition Heathrow turns wasteland into community garden

1/3/2010
Community activists from the group Transition Heathrow have taken over an abandoned market garden threatened by the third runway. Around lunchtime, 20 people “swooped” on the land in Sipson, one of the villages due for demolition if the third runway at Heathrow goes ahead.

More photos on Transition Heathrow’s Flickr stream.

After securing the site, the group immediately informed their new neighbours and local residents of their intention to reopen the old market garden for the benefit of the local community. The ‘Grow Heathrow’ project aims to encourage and support locally grown produce in an area that once had some of the most fertile soils in Britain.

Transition Heathrow has launched the project to highlight the need for a community controlled food supply in order to remain resilient to the impacts of peak oil and climate change. It intends to use the old market garden not only for growing, but also for activities such as bike workshops, clothes making, solidarity support for local workers and direct action workshops for people trying to stop the third runway.

Transition Heathrow member and local resident Joe Rake, described the events of the day. “Around lunchtime, a group of us walked onto the site. Once we had secured the gate, we set about telling local residents why we were there and inviting them to join in. We also had to start tidying up as it appeared to have been used for scrapping cars. Since the last tenants were evicted, the site has attracted unsavoury characters, so we wanted to restart the market garden for the good of the local community.”

Many of those involved in the ‘swoop’ see today’s action as a positive way of resisting the third runway whilst building an alternative community solution in its place. Heathrow resident Amy Summer said “We’ve been fighting the threat of the third runway for years, and its blighted our community. This kind of action not only helps stop expansion but also helps regenerate the area, providing local skills, green jobs and organic produce instead.”

“This form of direct action is just as important as sitting on a runway, blockading the bulldozers or striking for more green jobs. There’s no point in growing your own veg if it’s going to be covered in tarmac by BAA. At the same time there’s no point in community resistance if there’s no community left to defend. We have to do both,” she added.

Climate Camp Invades Lewes Tesco

28.02.2010

28.02.2010
Climate change activists teamed up with local residents to invade the Tesco superstore in Lewes, East Sussex on Saturday in protest at plans to increase the size of the supermarket by 50%. More than 80 protesters took part, entering the store and embarking on a game of Tesco Whirl. The idea is to grab a trolley keep it empty and form up with others to create a giant conga chain.

The point of not actually shopping was to highlight that for every £3.00 spent on retail in Lewes, £2.00 is spent in Tesco.

By increasing the size of the store, money will be drained from the independent shops, harming the town’s local economy. But police had received a tip off about the action and were on hand to prevent some protesters entering the shop while ejecting those who attempted to form a chain. Still a chain of 10 trolleys at a time did form.

As activists were thrown out of the store a party formed at the entrance with music and dancing from activists in endangered animal masks.

Climate Camp activist and Lewes resident Marina Pepper said: “Tesco is more expensive than people realise, thanks to their misleading advertising campaigns. They also rip off farmers and destroy local communities by undercutting and bankrupting competition leading to high unemployment and boarded up town centres.

“Tesco has a strong foothold in Lewes. It’s only the robustness of the local economy that has saved it so far. But these expansion plans are madness and could spell the end, destroying so much that our town holds dear – namely our independent shops which provide us with choices as to how we shop and what we buy.

“This action today was only the launch of a campaign that will see Climate Camp working side by side with community groups to ensure one way or another Tesco’s growth plans are thwarted. We implore people to contact their local councilors, especially those on the planning committee and tell them a bigger Tesco is unwelcome here. Ever y little extra will hurt.”

The activities of massive supermarkets like Tesco involve scandalous waste, pollution and environmental degradation.

Supermarket food travels vast distances, products are over packaged and customers travel ever greater distances once local shops are driven out of business. This leads to an increase in road congestion, accidents, noise, air pollution and CO2 emissions which contribute to climate change.

Supermarket demands are also behind the continuing industrialisation of agriculture. Big farmers are getting bigger to survive while small farmers are going bust. This leads to increased disease among livestock and cruel factory farm practices.

Further information.

Tesco stores erode local choice as smaller, independent shops struggle to compete. Independent stores in the UK shut at the rate of 2,000 a year in recent years. Over 17,000 independent shops closed in England and Wales last year.

Large supermarkets like Tesco also:
• Siphon money away from local communities and towards distant corporations
• Increase traffic and congestion from lorry movements and customers
• Destroy local jobs and undermine local job markets
• Every large outlet causes the net loss of 276 local jobs on average
• Generate waste and over-package their products
• Exploit suppliers and damage the environment
• Cynically manipulate prices to fleece shoppers

Tesco is the largest retailer in the UK:
• Over £1 in every £7 (14.3%) of UK retail sales is spent at Tesco
• It has takings of more than £1 billion a week
• It made profits of over £3 billion last year
• It has £30 million turnover in Lewes compared to £17m for all other shops

southcoast@climatecamp.org.uk
http://climatecamp.org.uk/get-involved/local-groups/south-coast

Camp Bling back up and awaiting chainsaws – chopping on Sunday?

27.2.2010
Important Update

Cuckoo Corner tent 27.2.2010
Important Update

6pm – so far, so good at Camp Cuckoo; food donations coming in but still need more people; latest twitter updates on PPPS website below or SKIPP facebook page.

Various sources have now confirmed that the Council will be felling the trees on Priory Crescent during Sunday. The affected stretch of Priory Crescent is going to be closed to traffic between midnight and 8pm Sunday.

There will be people climbing the trees to prevent them being felled – if you feel up to it, please volunteer! We also need as many people as possible on the ground to lend support, witness the Council’s, private security and Police’s actions and so on.

Please come down to lend your support. People have been campaigning against this road widening since 1972 and it’s all coming to a head tonight.

Additional from SKIPP: Urgent notice – help needed NOW! Tree felling begins tonight in Priory Crescent, anyone who can please come down to site, your help is desperately needed, if possible please cancel what ever you are doing, it is now or never, passive or active, you can help save the trees if we act together NOW… SKIPP Committee Contact: 07799414887 – mark 07747755205 – patsy Please let us know if you can help.

—-

After years of patient occupation and apparent victory, Southend activists have had to reoccupy land to prevent the councils new road building scheme. Evictions are expected imminently and crew are urgently needed.

Southend Borough Council has reneged on the agreement made last April with Bling and Parklife which resulted in an agreement with the residents to vacate the site.

Local Group SKIPP has since been campaigning to prevent the revised plan from becoming a reality, last week SKIPP joined force with Parklife, and Blingers to occupy a site in Priory Crescent with a view to preventing tree felling which is due in the next few days.

This morning a source within the Council informed us, that tree felling and eviction is now imminent.

Support is urgently needed, the site is situated in Priory Crescent on land adjacent to the Cuckoo Corner Roundabout; by car head into Southend using the A127, following the town centre signs, by train the nearest station is Prittlewell on the Liverpool Street Line.

(for background please refer to: www.campbling.org / www.ppps.org.uk / on facebook search for Saxon King In Priory Park.

Limited accommodation is available on site in the form of tents, please bring warm clothing and harness/lock on gear if poss, same old things needed; people, climbing gear/lock on gear, herras fencing, scaff bar/clips, kit and donations.

On Friday a council meeting was halted for 20 minutes following protests over the new plans.

Fossil Fools Day 2010

Climate change is no laughing matter – but that doesn’t mean we can’t confront the Fossil Fuel Empire with subversive humour.

WHAT: Direct actions, practical jokes and throwing a spanner in the works to stop the fossil fools.
WHERE: Your street, town or city.
WHEN: April 1st, 2010.

Climate change is no laughing matter – but that doesn’t mean we can’t confront the Fossil Fuel Empire with subversive humour.

WHAT: Direct actions, practical jokes and throwing a spanner in the works to stop the fossil fools.
WHERE: Your street, town or city.
WHEN: April 1st, 2010.

Last December in Copenhagen, the politicians sold us out to the fossil fools, corporate lobbyists and big banks. Now we’re left with “green capitalism,” a deeply unjust carbon market and continued assaults on our communities and ecosystems. If we’re going to stop climate chaos, the only real solution is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

The stakes couldn’t be higher: destabilisation of the global climate, local communities destroyed by dirty energy extraction and combustion, devastating freak storms, droughts, floods, the list goes on …

This April 1st, join Rising Tide in some creative direct action … use the simply subversive to the downright disruptive: office occupations, banner drops, clownish parades, road blockades, spoof websites, subvertising, street theatre, leaflets, lock-ons or laugh-ins. Whatever works for you and your group.

Join us this Fossil Fools Day and hatch some harebrained schemes that will strike a blow to climate criminals everywhere!

WANT MORE? Fossil Fools Day also marks the launch of the BP Tar Sands Fortnight of Shame: a two-week campaign culminating in actions surrounding BP’s AGM on April 15th. The goal? To stop BP from going into the Canadian Tar Sands – the biggest, dirtiest fossil fuel project on earth. Find out more: Tar Sands in Focus.. And a word to BP: be afraid… be very afraid.

NEED A HAND? If you would like ideas for actions, graphics for leaflets or websites, advice on dealing with the press, etc., send us an email and we’ll do our best to help out: info@risingtide.org.uk

For more information see: Fossil Fools Day.

In the words of that master of pranks: “That’s All Folks”.

RBS attacked with rocks & fire over Tar Sands project

In the early hours of Tuesday 23rd February 2010, anarchists attacked the Royal Bank of Scotland HQ in the heart of developing Bristol, UK.

Despite road traffic and proximity of security, the mob succeeded in breaking windows, smashing paint-bombs against upper floors and setting fire to tyres in the middle of the road.

In the early hours of Tuesday 23rd February 2010, anarchists attacked the Royal Bank of Scotland HQ in the heart of developing Bristol, UK.

Despite road traffic and proximity of security, the mob succeeded in breaking windows, smashing paint-bombs against upper floors and setting fire to tyres in the middle of the road.

A litany of abuses by RBS or any other bank could continue for pages, but it is enough to state that every bank is part of the financial prison which incarcerates and impoverishes all of us.

These actions will escalate and multiply.

We dedicate this action to all indigenous fighters and their allies struggling against the Tar Sands project in Kanada which RBS is an investor in, and also all those who fight against the 2010 Winter-Olympics.

This action is also in solidarity with Alfredo M. Bonanno, Christos Stratigopoulos, Polykarpos Georgiades, Vaggelis Chrisohoides, Giannis Dimitrakis, Gabriel Pombo da Silva, the entire London G20 defendants/prisoners and all other prisoners in struggle.

For international struggle against capitalism and the state.

Shell retreats as solidarity with Pat O’Donnell continues

23rd Feb 2010
Round up of events in Dublin and a personal view of the progress of the campaign

The week before last Erris fisherman Pat O’Donnell was jailed for seven months for his part in the communities ongoing resistance to Shell’s attempt to impose an experimental gas pipeline on them. Across the country local Shell to Sea groups have been holding solidarity protests and other events for Pat. In Dublin this has included two protests and a public meeting in UCD. Meanwhile Shell have been forced to admit a temporary defeat in the face of local opposition and call off the construction they have planned for Glengad this year.

The first of the Dublin protests was Tuesday last week when campaigners gathered outside Shell HQ to highlight the role of Shell in Pat’s jailing. Because Pat has the fishing rights along the pipeline route he has been repeatedly targeted for detention whenever Shell has needed to carry out construction work. And back in June, just before the arrival of Shell’s pipeline ship the Solitaire, Pat’s boat was boarded at night by four armed and masked men and sunk, an event reminiscent of how oil corporations have dealt with local protests around the world.

On Wednesday a well attended public meeting was held in UCD, speakers include Andy Storey chairperson of Afri (http://www.afri.ie/), Caoimhe Kerins from Dublin Shell to Sea and Maura Harrington, who like Pat has been imprisoned for resisting Shell’s experimental gas pipeline. A report and pictures from that meeting can be found at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/95771 Below I’ve attached audio recordings of the meeting including the question and answer sessions after the speakers presentations.

On Saturday Dublin Shell to Sea campaigners joined friends of Pat’s who had traveled from Mayo for a protest at the GPO. Banners highlighted not only the injustice of Pat’s imprisonment but also the fact that the Irish state is giving billions of gas & oil to the energy corporations without them paying any royalties. This at a time when health, education and pay is being slashed to save a tiny percentage of the sums that are to be given away. Thousands of the ‘Someday Independent’, the leaflet that explains the issues around the campaign in detail were distributed to the public during the protest. This is a 30 second video of this protest at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE-irZ-0CFA

Before the protest another 1,000 copies had been distributed door to door in the Liberties. You can read the text of the leaflet at http://www.dublins2s.com/content/120000-all-facts-leafl…buted

Three years ago Shell thought it was all over. The millions spent on the media campaign along with the fact that most of the media is either state owned or owned by those who are also in oil & gas exploration meant that all critical voices in the press had been silenced. The Gardai use of violence against protests had been used to smash and demoralize the opposition in the area allowing refinery construction to proceed with only the occasional interruption. It appears at that point it was decided the gloves could come off to smash those who were still holding out and hundreds of private security guards were deployed who intimidated, abused and videoed local residents. Pat O’Donnell’s boat was sunk at sea and Willie Corduff was beaten in the Shell compound at Glengad. These tactics backfired in the Spring when it was discovered that not only were some of these security from east European fascist organisations but that several had been involved in an attempt to spark a civil war in Bolivia, see http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92865

Resistance is fertile

Despite the ongoing attempt to suppress and silence the campaign spirits are high. The pressure created by the campaign meant that An Bord Pleanala felt unable to rubber stamp Shell’s plan’s for running the experimental gas pipeline through the village of Rossport and instead pointed out the obvious safety issues that campaigners had been highlighting for years (e.g. people living in the blast zone) and gave Shell two months to address these. Of course when Shell proved unable to do so that deadline was extended for a further four months but this has forced Shell to call off construction at Glengad this summer.

This is a significant if temporary victory over Shell but Dublin Shell to Sea spokesperson Caoimhe Kerins warned that “Although this announcement is a significant victory for the local community, other major works will still be going ahead, while fisherman Pat O’Donnell is out of Shell’s way in prison. This means that 2010 is set to be another year of disruption for the community, continued harassment and intimidation by Gardai and Shell security, as well as the unlawful arrest and the targeted jailing of key campaigners. There are no options left for Shell, except to process the gas at sea, which is standard practice around the world. This is what local people have been demanding for almost a decade. It’s still not to late to do the right thing.”

The An Bord Pleanala decision has also started to break apart Shell’s well funded media campaign with some of the more courageous journalists daring to stand up to Shell and publish articles questioning the project. As might be expected these journalists are now being targeted in the media for doing so. Shell themselves seem scared of debating the issues with Shell to Sea, at least two TV debates have been canceled due to Shell or pro-Shell journalists pulling out at the last minute in recent weeks.

As the scale of the Great Oil & Gas giveaway has been revealed more and more people are taking a stand against Shell. In the last couple of months new Shell to Sea groups have sprung up around the country, the recently formed Kildare group has been leafletting in Kildare town. You can help in a wide range of ways from simple things like sending a solidarity letter to Pat in prison to let him know he is not alone to getting copies of the ‘Someday Independent’ off Dublin Shell to Sea (contact details on their web site) to joining or forming a local Shell to Sea group to do this and more.

Please write to Pat in prison. His address is: Pat O’Donnell, Castlerea Prison, Harristown, Castlerea,Co.Roscommon. Alternatively you can email mayoshelltosea@gmail.com and they will pass on your email to Pat. The Dublin Shell to Sea page can be found at http://www.dublins2s.com/

http://anarchism.pageabode.com/cat/rossport

Local Democracy Dumped! – Sizewell nuclear plant blockaded again

22.02.2010
As government ends flawed consultation on nuclear power, anti-nuclear power activists step up resistance and blockade Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk, England.

Since 6.40am this morning, anti-nuclear power activists from the ‘People Power not Nuclear Power Coalition’ [1] have been blockading Sizewell power station in protest against the flawed government consultation on nuclear new build, which ends today, and the dumping of local democracy.

Sizewell is one of ten sites nominated for nuclear new build; and, together with Hinkley in Somerset, one of the two most likely sites for one of the first new nuclear reactors to be built by EDF Energy.

In preparation for new nuclear reactors, the government introduced the 2008 Planning Act [2] to limit the local planning procedure to relatively unimportant matters, and centralise siting and nuclear design decision on the national level. Today, the seriously flawed consultations end on the National Policy Statements for energy, including nuclear power, [3] designed to give the go ahead for ten new nuclear power stations in the UK.

“In order to build new nuclear power stations, government dumped local democracy”, Mell Harrison, 38 from Geldeston and a campaigns worker for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) said.

“We are blockading Sizewell today, to show that the government will not achieve its aim to fast track nuclear power. If local democracy is dumped, then nonviolent direct action will be our answer. Any new build will be met with resistance, and this blockade today is just the beginning.”

She continued:

“The government and the nuclear industry present nuclear power as low carbon energy and a necessity to combat climate change; but nuclear power is dangerous, expensive and does not deliver any significant reductions in carbon emissions. It locks us into a centralised energy system, and is part of the problem of climate change, not part of the solution.”

“Chipper”, 44, a male activist from Stop Hinkley added:

“The government and the nuclear industry approach the problem of nuclear waste with wishful thinking, as the conclusion of the National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation shows.” [4]

Andreas Speck, 45, from London, originally from Germany, added:

“Just to wish away the problem of nuclear waste is highly irresponsible. Spent nuclear fuel is highly toxic and remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Here at Sizewell, a new dry storage facility is planned, to store spent fuel rods for more than 100 years in casks. However, how long these last is unknown, and problems with similar casks at Gorleben in Germany after only a few years show that this is no solution. There is no final safe storage [for high level radioactive waste] in existence anywhere in the world. The responsible thing to do is to shut down all nuclear power stations immediately and stop producing yet more nuclear waste.” [5]

Notes:

[1] The People Power not Nuclear Power Coalition is a non-hierarchical campaigning coalition of groups and individuals to promote and encourage visible and effective action against nuclear power in the UK and worldwide, to leave a nuclear-free, safe and healthy environment for future generations. More information at: http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com

[2] The Planning Act 2008 introduced a new stream-lined system for decisions on applications to build nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) in England and Wales. The new system for nationally significant infrastructure covers applications for major energy generation, railways, ports, major roads, airports and water and waste infrastructure. National policy will be set out by Ministers in a series of National Policy Statements (NPSs), thereby dumping local democracy. Fore more information, see Friends of the Earth:

Planning Act removes democratic decision making, http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/fair_future/news/planningbill_law_17248.html

[3] For more information, see Friends of the Earth press release from 22 January 2010: Legal warning to Government over energy policy statements, http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/nps_22012010.html

[4] See paragraph 3.8.20, page 25 of the Draft National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation (EN-6), November 2009, https://www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/nuclear/nps/

‘Having considered this issue, the Government is satisfied that effective arrangements will exist to manage and dispose of the waste that will be produced from new nuclear power stations. As a result the IPC (Infrastructure Planning Commission) need not consider this question.’

[5] The existing storage facility for spent fuel at Sizewell will be full in 2015. In addition, a dry storage facility is to be built to create new storage capacity. In there, spent fuel rods will be stored in storage casks in a simple 110m storage hall with natural air cooling. Similar storage casks in Germany showed problems with the monitoring of pressure after only a few years (see http://www.contratom.de/news/newsanzeige.php?newsid=19588 – in German)

Activists taking part in this morning’s action include:

– Mell Harrison. 38 from Geldeston. Mell works for CND and is a member of Shut Down Sizewell and the Sizewell Blockaders. She was recently acquitted for aggravated tresspass at Sizewell A and B for a blockade that took place in 2008.

– Andreas Speck, 45, from London. Andreas works for War Resisters’ International. He was involved in the anti-nuclear power movement in Germany from the 1980s, until his move to London.

– “Chipper”, 44, from Wiltshire. He is a member of Stop Hinkley and CND.

– “Ziggy”, 39, an artist and historian from Ipswich, Suffolk. He is a member of CND and Shut Down Sizewell.

– Helen Swanston, 35, a milliner from Cromer. Helen is a member of Trident Ploughshares.

– Justus, 23, a student from London. He is involved in the Camp for Climate Action.

– Irene Willis, 65, from Wales. Irene is a Sizewell Blockader and a member of Trident Ploughshares.

– Nicky, 39, an environment education worker from Bungay. She was also recently acquitted following the Sizewell Blockaders’ action at Sizewell in 2008.

Nuclear People Power
vd2012-npp [at] yahoo.co.uk
http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com

Updates:

10:44
One of the blockaders, Chipper, was getting the chills after lying in the rain for several hours and decided to self release. He was immediately arrested without warning on suspicion of aggravated trespass and taken to Lowestoft police station. The remaining blockaders are still in position as of 10.40am. At least one TV crew is on the scene.

Mainstream coverage: http://bit.ly/d9ALSd

12:10pm

Another man arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Two more blockaders still being cut out of lock-ons by police.

Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NukePeoplePower

1:20pm

The two remaining blockaders (a female in her sixties and a male in his twenties) are still being drilled out of a concrete block lock-on. The police cutting team say it will take them at least another hour.

The pair have now been in the road for nearly seven hours, in wet, cold conditions.

Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/NukePeoplePower

2:40pm

Last blockader just drilled out and arrested after 8 hours in the cold and wet. Four people arrested in total.

Latest update, plus more pics

Approx. 9.30pm on Monday evening: The four arrestees are released after being interviewed and held in police custody for up to 11 hours. They have been bailed to return to Lowestoft police station on 30th March, at 2pm.

More photos from yesterday’s blockade: http://tinyurl.com/Sizewell22Feb10

Support the Local Campaign Against Bradley Proposed Open-cast

This years EF! winter moot was held in Dipton Community Centre, which looks over the proposed site for an open-cast at Bradley. Members of the local campaign against the mine have asked if people who attended the moot, (as well as those who didn’t) would write in their objection to the development.

UK Coal’s application is expected to be heard by the planning officials in the near future. The local campaign would appreciate it if people would write in letters of objection to the following address, stating the APPLICATION No. CMA/1/37

Mrs C.L.Teasdale
Plannng Development Control Team
Regeneration and Economic Development
Durham County Council
Durham
DH1 5UQ

Apparently letters hold more weight if you say that you have visited the area.

The facts about this proposed mine:
UK Coal has applied to surface mine 556,000 tonnes of coal from a coal seem covering 22,000 acres.
The current version of the application is has not yet gone to the Planning Authority.
The application is being resisted by The Pont Valley Network www.pontvalley.net
If the application goes ahead the residents are particularly concerned about the loss of their heritage sites.
The final destination for the coal is either the steel industry or a power station generating electricity.
Burning this coal will release over 2 million tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.
UK coal say the mine will create 38 jobs. Mr Cory of UK Coal says that there will be no new jobs but people will be transferred to this site.
The mine will need 3 lorry trips per hour, each way.
UK coal and other surface mining companies have applications at the planning stages for a further 13 mines in the area and a further 5 have been granted in the area.
The nearest planned site also currently at the planning stages is Skons Park, which Hall construction are applying to extract half a million tonnes of coal fire clay. This application was last refused in 2007 but Halls have since reapplied this year.

The Bradley site is 10 miles south of Newcastle in a beautiful area. The proposed site can be seen from Newcastle and Cheviot on a clear day. A mine would scar the landscape; cause habitat destruction which would affect many species, including Great Crested Newts and Red Kites; contribute to global warming; increase traffic locally and destroy the remains of wagon-ways and bell pit and shaft mines in the area. Residents are also concerned that if the mine is given the go ahead then they will see further extensions applied for and granted.

For more information about the site and to add strength to letters of objection please see http://pontvalley.net under NOTT campaign on the left hand side.

Tar Sands protests (Brighton & London)

Climate Camp Invades BP Petrol Stations Over Tar Sands

Climate Camp Invades BP Petrol Stations Over Tar Sands
On Saturday 13th February activists from the South Coast neighbourhood of the Camp for Climate Action invaded the three BP petrol stations in Brighton, on the Lewes Rd, Ditchling Rd and London Rd, to protest at BP’s plans to invest in the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada. Moving by bicycle 8 activists carried a banner reading ‘Tar Sands Oil Is Blood Oil’. They handed out information on the Canadian tar sands and BP’s plans to invest in it to customers and urged them to boycott BP.

Many of BP’s customers where shocked to hear about BP’s proposed involvement in one of the dirtiest businesses on earth, especially in the light of its past attend to project a green image, and in some cases left immediately left to get their fuel somewhere else. This action is the start of a campaign, which is hoped will spread across the UK. A one of the Brighton activists said: “We hope that other concerned local people across the UK will follow our example and begin putting the pressure on BP in their areas. Tar sands are an appalling example of placing insane greed ahead of the whole planet and everyone on it.”

Tar sands are deposits of tar, sand and clay under the forests of Alberta in western Canada. Tar sands extraction is an ecological disaster, sometimes referred to as ‘The biggest environmental crime in history’. Oil produced from tar sands is the filthiest most carbon intensive oil (over 3 times as much CO2 to produce as conventional oil). The Athabasca tar sands operations are the largest single industrial emitter of CO2 on the planet. Enough natural gas is used every day extracting this oil to heat 3.2 million Canadian homes.

Tar sands extraction involves the wholesale destruction of vast tracts of ancient forest over an area the size of England and Wales and the use of huge amounts of water that is left so contaminated that it must be stored in giant ponds. The toxic tailings ponds are so vast they can be seen from space. Leaks for these ponds are poisoning local rivers and the indigenous peoples that live there. The rush to extract oil from tar sands is also trampling on the rights of the local indigenous peoples.

While the tar sands are in Canada, much of the financing is coming from UK companies. BP which once tried to rebrand itself as `Beyond Petroleum’ to give itself a green image is planning on investing $10billion in the Sunrise Project a tar sands extraction project in Alberta. This week a number BP’s shareholders have started a revolt and are pressuring BP to stop. Other UK companies that are involved in tar sands include Shell, RBS and Barcalys.

Photos:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4354992582_a300eeb4fb_b_d.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4354252823_1123bd6cd9_b_d.jpg

Tar sands info:
http://www.ienearth.org/tarsandsinfo.html

Press:
BP faces protest over oil sands development
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7018483.ece
Shareholder group calls on BP to rethink oil sands project
http://business.scotsman.com/business/Shareholder-group-calls-on-BP.6050650.jp

Contact:
E-mail: southcoast@climatecamp.org.uk
Web: http://climatecamp.org.uk/get-involved/local-groups/south-coast

—

Tar Sands banner London Oil-ympics Come To Trafalgar Square
On Saturday, 13 February at 12 noon, UK and Canadian environmental activists opened the ‘Oil-ympics’ at Canada House in Trafalgar Square. The event, timed to coincide with the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, highlighted the role of British companies in the single biggest industrial project on earth, the Canadian Tar Sands (1).

The Oil-ympics event saw activists divided into three teams: BP, Shell and RBS, all ready to ‘Race to the Tar Sands’. Traditional winter sports were subverted to illustrate the irony of Canada portraying the Vancouver Winter Olympics as an event which celebrates Canadian indigenous culture and environmental sustainability, while in the neighbouring province of Alberta, Canadian First Nations are finding that their lands, communities and health are being devastated by the Tar Sands (2).

BP received special attention after it recently unveiled plans to embark on its first Tar Sands extraction project. BP had previously sold its potential stake in Alberta in 1999, when BP’s chief executive at the time, Lord Browne, deemed Tar Sands extraction to be economically unviable and environmentally unpleasant. However, BP’s new chief executive, Tony Hayward, is now set to make BP a major player in the Tar Sands with a partnership with Canada’s Husky Energy – a venture that is facing sharp criticism from BP’s own shareholders (3, 4).

Alice Hargreaves, of the UK Tar Sands Network, said: “BP has been trying to prove that they are ‘Beyond Petroleum’ for years, but with their entry into the Tar Sands project, we can see the truth: Beyond Petroleum is nothing more than a Broken Promise.(5) BP shareholders are rebelling over this betrayal, and so are we. Over the next two months, we’ll be putting the pressure on to make sure BP get the message – stay out of the Tar Sands!”

Shell has been singled out as it is already a major operator in the Tar Sands, and RBS as it is the 7th biggest global investor in the Tar Sands. (6)

tarsandsinfocus@gmail.com

http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/

(1) Deposits of Tar Sands are spread out over 54,000 square miles of prime forest in northern Alberta, an area the size of England and Wales combined. Producing crude oil from the Tar Sands generates up to five times more carbon dioxide, the principal global warming gas, than conventional drilling: see

Environment Canada, 2007, National Inventory Report Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada 1990–2005, http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/inventory_report/2006_report/som-sum_eng.cfm

(2) This action is in solidarity with Canadian First Nations who have called for a moratorium on the Tar Sands. For more information see the Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/cits.html

(3) BP has entered a joint venture with Husky Energy to develop a Tar Sands facility which will be capable of producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020. In return for a half share of Husky’s Sunrise field in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the epicentre of the Tar Sands industry, BP has sold its partner a 50 per cent stake in its Toledo oil refinery in Ohio. The companies plan to invest $10 billion in the project, making BP a major player in Tar Sands extraction. The final investment decision will be made in the next few months.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7038865

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aGw2sL7JwHG8

(4) A coalition of shareholders has tabled a resolution for BP’s AGM on April 15 highlighting the environmental and social risks of Tar Sands extraction. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7018483.ece

(5) http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/bpbrokenpromises/

(6) For Shell Investments see http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/pdfs-members/economic-justice/shells-big-dirty-secret/view?searchterm=shell%27s%20big%20dirty%20secret

For RBS investments see http://understory.ran.org/2010/01/31/banks-ranked-and-spanked-on-tar-sands/

UK Tar Sands Network
tarsandsinfocus@googlemail.com
http://www.tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com

Climate Change Activists: Join the Vancouver Convergence

A coalition of environmental activists led by GatewaySucks.org is calling on climate change activists to join the convergence at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

When the 2010 Winter Olympics start a couple of weeks from now in Vancouver, BC the athletes and spectators will be joined by organizations with some of the worst records on climate change.

General Motors is a national partner for the games, and one of the leading corporate opponents of effective action on climate change. Only two years ago, a vice-chairman of GM called global warming a “total crock of shit.” GM is supplying a large fleet of vehicles for the games, almost all of which are gas-guzzling SUVs.

Petro-Canada, another National Olympic Partner, is the retail arm of the largest extractor of Oil Sands bitumen. The Oil Sands are Canada’s biggest ghg emissions point source.

RBC (the Royal Bank of Canada) in addition to being a prominent Olympic sponsor is the largest commercial bank funder of the Oil Sands,. TransCanada pipelines, whose pipelines connect to the Oil Sands, is also an official supplier.

The government of British Columbia is the main funder and promoter of the games. They kicked off a massive plan to add over 1,000 km of new highway lanes (an increase of over 2,000,000 annual tonnes of CO2e emissions ) with the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion for the Olympics. These plans include the controversial Gateway Program. It continues to heavily subsidize the oil and gas industry which resulted in it being the only Canadian province to see ghg emissions from industrial sources increase in 2008.

The Federal government of Canada which consistently earned “Fossil Awards” at the most recent international climate talks also is a major funder for the Olympics.

These corporations and governments want to fool the world with their claim that these are the “Greenest Games Ever” despite the links to climate change deniers, highway expansion and the Oil Sands.

If you would like to endorse this call-out or get involved directly please contact info@gatewaysucks.org.

MORE INFORMATION:

Convergence Info: http://olympicresistance.net/

Welcoming Committee: http://2010welcoming.wordpress.com/

Green Olympic Watch: http://2010greenwatch.org/

GatewaySucks.org: http://www.gatewaysucks.org/

2010 Climate Crime Scene: http://2010climatecrime.org