Category: Oil

April 1st 2009 — Fossil Fools’ Day goes global

Today saw not only mass protests in Lon­don ahead of the G20 sum­mit, but local demon­stra­tions in cities around the UK and across the globe. Under the ban­ner of Fos­sil Fools Day, activists held protests at banks, ener­gy com­pa­nies and pow­er sta­tions across the UK, the USA, Cana­da and South Africa to high­light the twin eco­nom­ic and cli­mate crises.

'It's Going to Get Worse' placardToday saw not only mass protests in Lon­don ahead of the G20 sum­mit, but local demon­stra­tions in cities around the UK and across the globe. Under the ban­ner of Fos­sil Fools Day, activists held protests at banks, ener­gy com­pa­nies and pow­er sta­tions across the UK, the USA, Cana­da and South Africa to high­light the twin eco­nom­ic and cli­mate crises.

For more pho­tos vis­it here and if your action isn’t in the list below email us and we’ll add it to the site.

In the UK …

On the eve of the G20, activists descend­ed on Lon­don to high­light the links between the finan­cial and the cli­mate cri­sis. While the ‘Finan­cial Fools Day’ Street Par­ty got under­way out­side the Bank of Eng­land, the Camp for Cli­mate Action set up camp out­side the Euro­pean Cli­mate Exchange. Their mes­sage: “Stop­ping car­bon mar­kets — because nature doesn’t do bailouts”. It was­n’t until the evening that the police cleared the space — full sto­ry here. Mean­while over at the Excel Cen­tre, the Cam­paign Against Cli­mate Change is hold­ing an Ice-berg “Cli­mate Emer­gency” demo.

Ear­li­er in the week, the Oil Goliath BP was felled by Fos­sil Fools Day’s David as BP post­poned its cen­te­nary par­ty at the British Muse­um to be held on April 1st, due to a demon­stra­tion orga­nized by Art Not Oil and Ris­ing Tide.

Plymouth RBS glued for FFDIn Ply­mouth, Ris­ing Tide pen­guins super-glued them­selves to the entrance of RBS to high­light RBS’s fund­ing of fos­sil fuels projects. RBS are one of the biggest investors in the fos­sil fuel indus­try and pro­vid­ed $16 bil­lion to coal-relat­ed com­pa­nies in 2007 alone. Ann Smith of Ris­ing Tide Ply­mouth today said: “RBS is now 57% owned by the UK tax­pay­er. Cli­mate change requires a move to renew­able ener­gy, not con­tin­ued sup­port for the expan­sion of the fos­sil fuel indus­try”. For more pho­tos vis­it This is Ply­mouth

In Oxford­shire, the ear­ly hours of April 1st saw local activists hang­ing ban­ners from bridges over the A34 between Oxford and Did­cot. Ban­ners read “Cau­tion: Cli­mate Change Ahead”, “Give Way to Wind” and “Fos­sil Fool: 3rd exit” com­plete with pic­tures of Did­cot Pow­er Sta­tion. With Did­cot (run by RWE NPow­er) due for de-com­mis­sion­ing in a few years, it is time to pur­sue renew­able options local­ly. One of the activists said: “We want not only Did­cot, but also the gov­ern­ment and the G20 to see the fol­ly of their actions in pur­su­ing unsus­tain­able tech­nol­o­gy. We have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­sue safe, cheap alter­na­tives and ensure a clean­er future. The wise choice would be to grasp this oppor­tu­ni­ty”.

In Portsmouth, mem­bers of Portsmouth Cli­mate Action Net­work and the University’s Peo­ple & Plan­et group took up posi­tion out­side the Nat West Bank in Com­mer­cial Road to encour­ag­ing shop­pers to tell Roy­al Bank of Scot­land — NatWest to stop fund­ing cli­mate chaos. Activists said: “It is our mon­ey that RBS-NatWest is using to extract tar sands, burn coal and fuel cli­mate chaos. We believe that the only way to pre­vent dan­ger­ous cli­mate change is by invest­ment in renew­ables, not in dirty coal. We are call­ing on the pub­lic to con­tact RBS-NatWest and the UK gov­ern­ment and tell them what they think about them bankrolling cli­mate chaos.”

In Bournemouth, mem­bers of direct action group Plane Stu­pid turned up at Bournemouth Air­port to give them a Fos­sil Fool Award for ‘Out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to local, nation­al and glob­al pol­lu­tion’. Tara Bosworth said, “Bournemouth Air­port may well be the biggest sin­gle source of green­house gas emis­sions in Dorset and they are expand­ing their oper­a­tions, more than dou­bling the num­ber of flights, now that’s plane stu­pid and why they are get­ting our Fos­sil Fool award.” A mem­ber of the air­port staff accept­ed the award but declined hav­ing his pic­ture tak­en.

Fos­sil fool themed street the­atre took place in both Frome in Som­er­set and Totnes in Devon. In Totnes, the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Crim­i­nal known as ‘Old King Coal’ was put on tri­al. The pris­on­er, who is not in good health, was led from The Plains up to the Civic Square where he was tried before a jury of local cit­i­zens and school­child­ren. Unfor­tu­nate­ly oth­er mem­bers of the Fos­sil Fools Gang, includ­ing Oil and Gas, remain at large and are a con­tin­ued dan­ger to the plan­et.

In South Africa …

FFD in South Africa - SasolIn Johan­nes­burg, Earth­life Africa award­ed Sasol (the South African Coal, Oil and Gas Cor­po­ra­tion) the pres­ti­gious 2009 Fos­sil Fool of the Year Award for pro­duc­ing 72 mil­lion tonnes of CO2 per year (over 15% of South Africa’s total emis­sions) and for try­ing to build a new coal-to-liq­uid pow­er plant. Although Sasol ini­tial­ly resist­ed accept­ing the award (one can only imag­ine why), the efforts of a deter­mined group of pro­test­ers final­ly forced the taint­ed tro­phy to be accept­ed.
For more infor­ma­tion vis­it: here or here.

In the USA …

Boston Mannequins on FFD 09In Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts, the “Man­nequins For Cli­mate Jus­tice” shut down the Ken­more Square branch of Bank of Amer­i­ca. A man­nequin was chained to the doors of the bank short­ly before open­ing this morn­ing. The lone man­nequin pro­test­er, Guy Fox, said, “Even a dum­my like me can see that Bank of America’s mas­sive loans to coal com­pa­nies and sup­port for the epi­dem­ic of fore­clo­sures and evic­tions has to stop now.” Fox fur­ther said, “Bank of Amer­i­ca seems deter­mined to be so evil it’s almost com­i­cal, but peo­ple resist­ing the bank’s prac­tices will have the last laugh. Hap­py April Fools to all the cap­i­tal­ist fos­sil fools!”

In Berke­ley, Cal­i­for­nia, a bike ride/march high­light­ed BP’s $500 mil­lion deal with Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia. Under this deal, the oil giant BP is invest­ing $500 mil­lion for the uni­ver­si­ty to research bio­fu­els, rais­ing issues of green­wash­ing, false solu­tions, and the inter­ac­tion between a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty and a pri­vate cor­po­ra­tion.

Asheville FFD 09In Asheville, North Car­oli­na, pro­test­ers declared Gov­er­nor Pur­due to be in bed with Duke Ener­gy, and demand­ed the can­cel­la­tion of the Cliff­side coal plant. In response to the North Car­oli­na Divi­sion of Air Qual­i­ty (DAQ) rul­ing that Duke Energy’s Cliff­side coal plant is a “minor source of emis­sions”, pro­test­ers gath­ered at noon out­side Gov­er­nor Purdue’s West­ern North Car­oli­na office in down­town Asheville to demand that she revoke the plant’s per­mit. In a demon­stra­tion orga­nized by Asheville Ris­ing Tide, pro­test­ers set up a bed in front of Gov­er­nor Purdue’s office with peo­ple in busi­ness suits rep­re­sent­ing Duke CEO Jim Rogers, DAQ head Kei­th Over­cash, and Gov­er­nor Pur­due under sheets and cov­ered in mon­ey. A ban­ner read­ing, “Gov­er­nor Pur­due in bed with Duke Ener­gy” pro­vid­ed a back­drop to the under-the-sheets liai­son.

In Den­ver, Col­orado, a Fos­sil Fools Day ral­ly of con­cerned cit­i­zens, health experts, and envi­ron­men­tal and neigh­bor­hood lead­ers demand­ed a tran­si­tion to clean ener­gy. The ral­ly, led by WildEarth Guardians, and joined by Sier­ra Club, Green­peace, Clean Ener­gy Action, Safe­Minds, stu­dents, church mem­bers, and affect­ed near­by com­mu­ni­ties, was held in the shad­ow of the Chero­kee coal burn­ing pow­er plant at Denver’s Heron Pond Nat­ur­al Area, and called upon Gov­er­nor Rit­ter to help Col­orado seize clean ener­gy solu­tions and keep Col­oradoans safe from coal. Car­ry­ing hand­made signs and hold­ing pin­wheels to sym­bol­ize a tran­si­tion to clean ener­gy, dozens of cit­i­zens demon­strat­ed their frus­tra­tions with the sta­tus quo and their hope for pro­tect­ing their future.

In New Orleans, con­ser­va­tion groups, stu­dents, and con­cerned cit­i­zens joined forces at Entergy’s head­quar­ters to protest about the company’s plans to expand their use of coal pow­er in Louisiana. “Louisiana’s coast is ground zero for cli­mate change impacts,” said ral­ly orga­niz­er Jonathan Hen­der­son. “Enter­gy should be a respon­si­ble neigh­bor and work to lim­it coast-destroy­ing pol­lu­tion and pro­tect rate-pay­ers from future car­bon price increas­es”.

In the spir­it of the “Coal Cir­cus,” stu­dents from Bowl­ing Green, Ken­tucky organ­ised a ‘Mon­ster Mash’ and a crit­i­cal mass bike ride.

Stu­dents in Tempe, Ari­zona, also hopped on their bikes and declared them­selves “too cool for fos­sil fools.”

In Cana­da …

Five actions in one day in down­town Toron­to? No foolin!
Today Rain­for­est Action Net­work activists kicked Fos­sil Fools Day off with a bang, drop­ping ban­ners off of a high­way, greet­ing over 4,000 cars (we count­ed) stuck in dead­lock traf­fic over a peri­od of two hours. From bridges, we broad­cast mes­sages about Roy­al Bank of Cana­da (RBC)’s financ­ing of the Cana­di­an Tar Sands from our makeshift Pirate Radio sta­tion. Our ban­ners read “Pirate Radio 89.9 FM Tune in now” and “Roy­al Bank cre­ates cli­mate chaos. Renew­ables not tar sands.” The pour­ing rain didn’t block our view of car after car reach­ing for the radio dial as they drove under us.

We began by dress­ing up and imper­son­at­ed bank employ­ees. About 16 of us rode ele­va­tors for up to two more hours, chat­ting up oth­er RBC per­son­nel — “Hey, on my way to work today I heard about how RBC is financ­ing the destruc­tion of Native ter­ri­to­ries in Alber­ta, caus­ing peo­ple can­cer and pol­lut­ing the water! Tar Sands are the world’s dirt­i­est oil. Did you know that? I had no idea! I’m telling my man­ag­er right away!”

Mean­while, out­side the HQ, sev­er­al more of us leaflet­ed and held ban­ners read­ing “RBC Cre­ates poi­soned water in our com­mu­ni­ty,” “Renew­ables not tar sands” and “RBC: financ­ing can­cer and tox­ic sludge.”

Back inside, a lone Torontan walked inside the main office with a beau­ti­ful bou­quet of bal­loons. I don’t know where he got the idea to release them in the atri­um, or how a ban­ner read­ing “ROYAL BANK CREATES CLIMATE CHAOS” got attached….I also don’t know how they’re gonna get it down. Watch him do it.

Lat­er that evening, dozens of activists recon­vened out­side RBC head­quar­ters along­side “Tar­bie,” an oil-soaked ver­sion of RBC’s prized mas­cot “Arbie” who explained to passers­by that he and RBC are help­ing finance one of the fastest grow­ing sources of water pol­lu­tion and green­house gas emis­sions on the plan­et, and how they con­flict with the finan­cial giant’s PR promis­es to pro­mote clean water.

To read more on RBC and the Cana­di­an Tar Sands, vis­it It’s Get­ting Hot in Here.

www.fossilfoolsday.org

Callout for organising! Scottish Camp for Climate Action

Build­ing a more sus­tain­able future in four easy steps:
1. Get out your diary and find a pen
2. Open it at the pages for the 4–16 June and 3–10 August
3. Write in very large, bold let­ter­ing: CLIMATE CAMP SCOTLAND across these dates

Camp for Climate Action Scotland bannerBuild­ing a more sus­tain­able future in four easy steps:
1. Get out your diary and find a pen
2. Open it at the pages for the 4–16 June and 3–10 August
3. Write in very large, bold let­ter­ing: CLIMATE CAMP SCOTLAND across these dates
4. Get involved in this excit­ing move­ment for social change and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice!

What’s the Scot­tish Camp for Cli­mate Action?

Some time between 3–10 August, activists, cam­paign­ers and com­mu­ni­ties from all over Scot­land will set up camp! We will be liv­ing sus­tain­ably and equal­ly, and tak­ing awe-inspir­ing col­lec­tive direct action to hold greedy cli­mate crim­i­nals to account.

In a time of epoch-mak­ing eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal change, we’re going to be mak­ing direct changes for the bet­ter. We’ll be tak­ing con­trol of our lives, of our soci­ety, and stand­ing up for what we believe in. We’ll refuse to believe the greedy pol­luters and financiers, when they say it’s just not the right time to clean up their act. We’ll clean it up for them!

The Camp (whether urban or rur­al) will be a liv­ing exam­ple of col­lec­tive, imag­i­na­tive low-impact liv­ing, full of prac­ti­cal solu­tions. Its not just about plas­tic bags and light bulbs any more, these things iso­late us and dis­tract us from the real prob­lems. Instead, we will work togeth­er to build strong, sus­tain­able and pow­er­ful com­mu­ni­ties.

Whilst we haven’t decid­ed where the camp will be yet, there’s no short­age of options. Whole swathes of air­ports, coal pow­er sta­tions, open cast mines and agro­fu­el instal­la­tions and motor­ways are planned for Scot­land. We also have the lux­u­ry of host­ing the head­quar­ters of inter­na­tion­al banks like RBS and HBOS, whose greed got us into this eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal mess.

What’s hap­pen­ing in the run-up to the camp?

Some time between June 4–16 there will be a Cli­mate Camp Con­ver­gence, with infor­ma­tive and prac­ti­cal work­shops and dis­cus­sions, oppor­tu­ni­ties for build­ing links between cam­paigns, and the chance for us to col­lec­tive­ly plan the future of cli­mate activism across Scot­land. By the time the August Camp rolls around we’ll be a force to be reck­oned with.

How do I get involved now?

Mak­ing this hap­pen needs loads of ideas, ener­gy and input. In short, it needs you. And all your mates!

Come to an organ­is­ing meet­ing!

We organ­ise hor­i­zon­tal­ly, with­out lead­ers, and every­one has input into deci­sions. At the moment, most of the organ­is­ing is being done in Edin­burgh. We want this to change! We plan for local organ­is­ing meet­ings to feed into reg­u­lar Scot­land-wide Gath­er­ings.

Next meet­ing: Edin­burgh, Tues­day 24th March, 7pm
at the Autonomous Cen­tre of Edin­burgh (ACE) www.autonomous.org.uk

The fol­low­ing meet­ing will be on April 7th , 7pm, ACE in Edin­burgh.

On the agen­da, Tues­day 24th:

1.What focus each of the sum­mer con­ver­gences will have: direct action, edu­ca­tion, move­ment build­ing etc, And what some of the spe­cif­ic con­tent will be.
2. What the exact dates of each con­ver­gence will be.

Start organ­is­ing in your area!

- Get organ­is­ing with peo­ple in your area and see how much time, ener­gy and resources you can bring to a Cli­mate Camp in Scot­land. To be effec­tive, Cli­mate Camp Scot­land needs to have strong, decen­tralised groups doing the plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion.

- Please get in touch if you want to help organ­ise Cli­mate Camp Scot­land! so we can work togeth­er to find meet­ing times and loca­tions that as many peo­ple can get to from around the coun­try.

- Host the Cli­mate Camp Scot­land Info Tour in your area, to find out what’s hap­pen­ing this sum­mer, what has to be decid­ed and pre­pared, and how you can get involved.

- Email: climatecampscotland@riseup.net to request the Info Tour and with any ques­tions how­ev­er big or small!

Shell due to restart work in Ireland soon

Shell will attempt to lay the off­shore pipe this Spring and prepa­ra­tion work both on land and at sea is due to start in the next few weeks. We are deter­mined to stop this prepa­ra­tion work and so peo­ple are need­ed from mid-March — May.
We expect Shell to begin putting up secu­ri­ty fences and build­ing the com­pound very soon, pos­si­bly in the next few weeks…

Don't let Shell destroy this!Rossport Solidarity Camp logoShell will attempt to lay the off­shore pipe this Spring and prepa­ra­tion work both on land and at sea is due to start in the next few weeks. We are deter­mined to stop this prepa­ra­tion work and so peo­ple are need­ed from mid-March — May.
We expect Shell to begin putting up secu­ri­ty fences and build­ing the com­pound very soon, pos­si­bly in the next few weeks…
get on our call out list: rossportsolidaritycamp-subscribe@lists.riseup.net and check www.indymedia.ie/mayo for updates

The Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp always wel­comes com­mit­ted & moti­vat­ed peo­ple to get more involved in the cam­paign, what­ev­er your expe­ri­ence or skills.
Come over & help out with actions, sup­port, house­keep­ing, equip­ment main­te­nance, PR, office work, media work, gar­den­ing etc

Please con­sid­er doing one of the fol­low­ing:
•Come vis­it Mayo:
You would be more than wel­come to stay at the camp. Find direc­tions here: http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com/directions.html
There are jobs for every­one to do from mak­ing ban­ners, doing actions or start­ing this year’s gar­den. There real­ly was a good vibe at the camp last autumn and we’re hop­ing for more of the same this time round. Con­tact the camp if you’re com­ing or if you have any ques­tions.

•Take action at Home
There’s a load than can be done from wher­ev­er you are. See http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com/support.html for some sug­ges­tions.
sol­i­dar­i­ty actions, info stalls, show­ing the cam­paign films, donate to the cam­paign, think of ideas for actions, put on a fundrais­er…
If you are inter­est­ed in help­ing to do research work about the new onshore pipeline appli­ca­tion please email us.

Win­ter update
Dur­ing the win­ter many court cas­es have been pro­ceed­ing against those who object local­ly, for a vari­ety of charges, from traf­fic offences, pub­lic order breach­es to Gar­da assaults. It goes with­out say­ing that no Gar­dai have been pros­e­cut­ed for their vicious assaults to date. While some fines and sus­pend­ed sen­tences have been hand­ed down, and Gar­dai have per­jured them­selves on the stand and the judges have lapped it up, no one has been found guilty of Gar­da assault to date (some cas­es had to be appealed to secure this). There are still many Shell to Sea cas­es before the courts, from local peo­ple refus­ing to bend to the cor­rupt will of Shell and the state. They need help to con­tin­ue resist­ing!

Shell have recent­ly put in plan­ning appli­ca­tions for the onshore sec­tion of the pipeline which can be seen here www.corribgaspipeline.com

The eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion has utter­ly changed and most peo­ple in the coun­try are seri­ous­ly ques­tion­ing cor­po­rate pow­er and gov­ern­ment sub­servience to that pow­er. Recent­ly even the Gar­daí took to the streets to oppose gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy (and no one threw them off the road!!!).
We are in a lot more favourable times to try to get our mes­sage and points across than this time last year.
We can win but we need your sup­port!

For trav­el direc­tions, leaflets, more info about the cam­paign pls check out:
http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com

Upcoming action dates, activist gatherings, & the official meetings en route to the Copenhagen climate summit, 2009 — updated

‘Offi­cial’ meet­ings on the Road to Copen­hagen:

31 March to 8 April 2009
First Post-Kyoto Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions (UNFCCC Inter­ces­sion­al Meet­ing), Bonn, Ger­many

‘Offi­cial’ meet­ings on the Road to Copen­hagen:

31 March to 8 April 2009
First Post-Kyoto Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions (UNFCCC Inter­ces­sion­al Meet­ing), Bonn, Ger­many
The first meet­ing on the “road to Copen­hagen” and first inter­na­tion­al cli­mate meet­ing for the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. Expect­ed Out­come: Broad dis­cus­sions on respec­tive mit­i­ga­tion goals for devel­oped and devel­op­ing coun­tries. How­ev­er, it is unclear whether Pres­i­dent Oba­ma will have a cli­mate nego­tia­tor and under sec­re­tary in place at this time so there will real “nego­ti­at­ing” at this meet­ing. http://unfccc.int/meetings/items/2654.php

2 April 2009
G20 Meet­ing, Lon­don, Eng­land
This will like­ly be Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s first large-scale meet­ing with oth­er world lead­ers. The agen­da will like­ly look to tack­le the finan­cial cri­sis, but the G20 web­site men­tions the need to “make progress on long-term issues such as cli­mate change and inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ment.” Expect­ed Out­come: Devel­op a com­mit­ment that the glob­al eco­nom­ic recov­ery will fac­tor in car­bon emis­sions. http://www.g20.org/

24–26 May 2009
World Busi­ness Sum­mit on Cli­mate Change, Copen­hagen, Den­mark
The Copen­hagen Cli­mate Coun­cil is orga­niz­ing the World Busi­ness Sum­mit on Cli­mate Change, which will bring togeth­er the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, top sci­en­tists, econ­o­mists and oth­er lead­ing thinkers. Expect­ed Out­come: Issue rec­om­men­da­tions for the next inter­na­tion­al glob­al warm­ing agree­ment. http://www.copenhagenclimatecouncil.com/

1–12 June 2009
Sec­ond Post-Kyoto Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions (UNFCCC Inter­ces­sion­al Meet­ing), Bonn, Ger­many
Draft nego­ti­at­ing text is expect­ed to be issued before or dur­ing this meet­ing and will like­ly be very gen­er­al with all the con­tentious items placed in brack­ets, but it will be the basis for actu­al nego­ti­a­tions. Expect­ed Out­come: Draft nego­ti­at­ing text. http://unfccc.int/meetings/items/2654.php

8–10 July 2009
G8 Sum­mit, La Mad­dale­na, Italy
The host, Ital­ian Prime Min­is­ter Sil­vio Berlus­coni, does not share the com­mit­ment to address­ing cli­mate change of pre­vi­ous G8 hosts. Address­ing cli­mate at this meet­ing will be crit­i­cal for keep­ing momen­tum toward Copen­hagen. Expect­ed Out­come: G8 Agree­ment set­ting the stage for Copen­hagen
http://www.g8italia2009.it/G8/G8-G8_Layout_locale-1199882116809_Home.htm

31 August – 4 Sep­tem­ber 2009
World Cli­mate Con­fer­ence Three, Gene­va, Switzer­land
The World Cli­mate Con­fer­ences (WCC) is the major “sci­en­tif­ic” meet­ing for 2009 and is the third in a series of inter­na­tion­al meet­ings, orga­nized by the World Mete­o­ro­log­i­cal Orga­ni­za­tion
about glob­al cli­mate issues. The sec­ond WCC in 1979 result­ed in the cre­ation of the U.N.‘s Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Pan­el on Cli­mate Change. http://www.wmo.int/pages/world_climate_conference/index_en.html Expect­ed Out­come: Group will address cli­mate pre­dic­tion, dis­as­ter risk reduc­tion and adap­ta­tion to cli­mate change.

August 2009 (date not set)
Third Post-Kyoto Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions (UNFCCC Inter­ces­sion­al Meet­ing), Bangkok, Thai­land
This is the third meet­ing on the “road to Copen­hagen” and, by this point, par­i­ties should have set their nego­ti­at­ing posi­tions so the frame­work for the next inter­na­tion­al treaty can start to be craft­ed. Expect­ed Out­come: Nation’s set nego­ti­at­ing posi­tions. http://unfccc.int/meetings/items/2654.php

21–25 Sep­tem­ber 2009
Unit­ed Nations Gen­er­al Assem­bly Cli­mate Sum­mit, Copen­hagen
New York, New York — *UN Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Bon Ki Moon has indi­cat­ed that he plans to hold a spe­cial ses­sion with heads of state to address cli­mate change. Expect­ed Out­come: Indi­ca­tions of nation’s nego­ti­at­ing posi­tion for

Octo­ber 2009 (date not set)
Fourth Post-Kyoto Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions (UNFCCC Inter­ces­sion­al Meeting/Minister’s Meet­ing), Loca­tion to be deter­mined
Expect­ed Out­come: Final draft text agreed to. This is the final nego­ti­at­ing ses­sion before Copen­hagen and may be attend­ed only by envi­ron­ment min­is­ters mak­ing it a closed door meet­ing designed to set the stage for COP 15.

7–18 Decem­ber 2009
UNFCCC Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties 15, Copen­hagen, Den­mark
If there is to be no gap between the Kyoto Pro­to­col and a new agree­ment, a frame­work must be agreed to at this meet­ing. Expect­ed Out­come: New inter­na­tion­al glob­al warm­ing treaty. http://www.cop15.dk/en

2010 (dates uncon­firmed)
UNFCCC Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties 16, Jamaica

=============

Old dates from this cal­en­dar:

Com­piled at the recent EF! Win­ter Moot (scroll down for your sum­mer of fun — dates up until Decem­ber ’09):

21–22 Feb­ru­ary 2009
No Bor­ders UK gath­er­ing, Bris­tol

26 Feb­ru­ary 2009
Demon­stra­tions at UK Coal Awards (www.climaterush.co.uk) & at UK Coal HQ (www.northernclimaterush.wordpress.com)

5 March 2009
Next Cli­mate Rush, Lon­don
> http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22254

13–15 March 2009
EF! Treeplant­i­ng, Heb­den Bridge
(trees@riseup.net > www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22158)

13–15 March 2009
COP15 Inter­na­tion­al Mobil­i­sa­tion Net­work meet­ing, Copen­hagen, Den­mark (www.climateaction09.org)

14–15 March
Nation­al squat meet­up, Bris­tol
(www.squatmeet09.wordpress.com)

21–22 March 2009
Cli­mate Camp Car­bon Trad­ing Edu­ca­tion Week­end, Lon­don
(international@climatecamp.org.uk)

21–22 March 2009
Direct Action train­ing, 10am at Cow­ley Club, Brighton
(www.cowleyclub.org.uk)

1 April 2009 Fossil/Financial Fools Day
G20 Protests + Events List + Loca­tions Map
Squar­ing up to the Square Mile: the Lon­don G20 map

Cli­mate Camp in the City, Lon­don (www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20)
G20 Melt­down at the Bank of Eng­land (www.g20meltdown.org)
Fos­sil Fools’ Day, every­where (www.risingtide.org.uk/fossilfoolsday2009)
Times & resource links > http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22258

* G20 Crit­i­cal Mass
9:00 AM Meet at Bank Junc­tion (Bank tube sta­tion) EC2

* Finan­cial Fools Day Street Par­ty
Assem­ble at Can­non Street, Moor­gate, Liv­er­pool Street or Lon­don Bridge sta­tions 11am to form four march­ing blocks head­ing towards the Bank of Eng­land for 12-noon, in the ‘Square Mile’ of the City of Lon­don.
See: http://www.g‑20meltdown.org/
Bring a portable radio!

* Cli­mate Camp in the City
The cli­mate camp are camp­ing in the Euro­pean Car­bon Exchange, Hasil­wood house, City of Lon­don 12-noon.
See: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20
Final update on what to bring and what to do where at http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22291

* Fos­sil Fools Day: ‘Your Par­ty’s Over!’ *** POSTPONED by BP fol­low­ing police advice. ***
Cli­mate Crim­i­nal BP is cel­e­brat­ing its cen­te­nary with cock­tails and canapes at the British Musem. And we will be there too, between 6–7pm, to say ‘Your party’s over!’
Meet at 6pm at the British Museum’s Gt. Rus­sell St. gate
See: http://www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org
Bring ban­ners, musi­cal instru­ments, a sense of cli­mate jus­tice and a non­sense of fool­ery.

2 April 2009
* Crash the Stock Exchange
Eat cap­i­tal­ism for break­fast. Dis­rupt the traders whose finan­cial ego­ma­nia per­pet­u­ates glob­al injus­tice: let’s shut­down trad­ing for the day.
Meet out­side the Lon­don Stock Exchange, 10 Pater­nos­ter Square, City of Lon­don, Lon­don EC4M. 7am (traders arrive at 7am, trad­ing com­menc­ing 8am). Near­est tube: St Pauls — have a pleas­ant jour­ney in… tubes might be busy.
* Excel Cen­tre
Direct action all day against the Excel Cen­tre, Can­ning Town where the G20 will be meet­ing
ExCeL Lon­don, One West­ern Gate­way, Roy­al Vic­to­ria Dock, Lon­don, E16 1XL
A coali­tion of groups includ­ing: The Pales­tine Sol­i­dar­i­ty Cam­paign, Stop the War Coali­tion, The British Mus­lim Ini­tia­tive, and CND have called two protests at the G20; a march and ral­ly in cen­tral Lon­don on the after­noon of April 1st, and a protest to the con­fer­ence itself on April 2nd.

3–5 April 2009
Demon­stra­tions at NATO 60TH Anniver­sary Sum­mit, Baden-Baden, Ger­many & Stras­bourg, France
http://dissent.fr/taxonomy/term/165

24 April‑5 May 2009
Coal Car­a­van, cycling from Not­ting­ham, through Der­byshire, York­shire & .
Stop­ping off at a vari­ety of open-cast sites, pow­er sta­tions and oth­er beau­ti­ful places! Full details of how to book, itin­er­ary for where to join.
(caravan@climatecamp.org.uk > www.coalcaravan.org.uk)

25/26th April 2009
Sizewell anti-nuclear Camp and Demo

2–3rd May 2009
Anti-mil­i­tarist con­fer­ence, Brighton
(http://antimilitaristnetwork.noflag.org.uk)

4th May 2009
Smash EDO May­day! May­day! Street par­ty against war and greed, Brighton.
(http://www.smashedo.org.uk)

6 May 2009
A Wake for BP at the oil behe­moth­’s cen­te­nary par­ty

29 May‑1 June
Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp sum­mer gath­er­ing

1 June
Cli­mate Rush Ped­al Pow­er
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22611

6 June 2009
Eco-vil­lage occu­pa­tion, SW Lon­don
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22593

6–7 June 2009
Nation­al Anar­chist Gath­er­ing, Lon­don
www.conference09.org.uk

11–14 June 2009
Scot­tish Cli­mate Camp Con­ver­gence
(http://climatecampscotland.org.uk)

23th-29th June 2009
Calais No Bor­ders Camp
(http://calaisnoborder.eu.org/)

3–5 July
For­est Cir­cus fes­ti­val, Lap­pers­fort, Bel­gium

8–10 July 2009
Demon­stra­tions at G8 Sum­mit, La Mad­dale­na, Italy

11–12 July 2009
Anti-Mil­i­tarist Net­work Gath­er­ing, Not­ting­ham
(http://www.antimilitaristnetwork.org.uk)

11–19 July 2009
Dan­ish Cli­mate Camp, near Copen­hagen
(http://camp09.dk/)

12–19 July 2009
Das Kli­ma Work­shop Festival/Le camp cli­ma­tique, near Berne, Switzer­land
(http://www.netzwerkzeug.org/)

18th-? July
Sav­ing Ice­land Sum­mer Mobil­i­sa­tion 2009
(www.savingiceland.org)

20–26 July 2009
NO to Ura­ni­um Pow­er — Anti­nu­clear Cli­mate Camp, Ter­vola, Fin­land
(http://www.hyokyaalto.org/category/english)

23rd-27th July 2009, Oxford­shire.
You are invit­ed to Peace News’ first ever sum­mer camp.
(http://www.peacenewscamp.info)

3–9 August 2009
French Camp Action Cli­mat, Notre Dame des Lan­des, Nantes
(www.campclimat.org)

3–9 August 2009
Dutch/Belgian Cli­mate Camp
(www.klimaatactiekamp.org)

3–10 August 2009
Scot­tish Camp for Cli­mate Action
(http://climatecampscotland.org.uk)

13–16 August 2009
Cli­mate Camp Cym­ru, Near Merthyr Tyd­fil, South Wales
(http://climatecampcymru.org)

15–23 August 2009
Irish Cli­mate Camp
(http://www.climatecamp.ie)

18–24 August 2009
Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing, Cum­bria
(www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk)

20–23 August 2009 IN SALENTO, NUCLEAR CLIMATE CAMP, Italy – Lec­ce
More info

21–23 August 2009
Beyond Bor­ders week­end, Not­ting­ham
A week­end of skill­shar­ing and dis­cus­sion about fight­ing bor­der con­trols and show­ing sol­i­dar­i­ty with migrants
(http://beyondbordersweekend.wordpress.com)

27 August‑2 Sep­tem­ber 2009
UK Camp for Cli­mate Action — con­ver­gence with­in the M25/London (www.climatecamp.org.uk)

Sep­tem­ber 2009 (dates uncon­firmed)
Cli­mate Camp, South Aus­tralia
(http://climatecampsa.org)

North Amer­i­can action camps sum­mer 2009
inter­na­tion­al list of Con­ver­gences for Cli­mate Action

12–20 Sep­tem­ber 2009
Bris­tol Co-Mutiny

18–19 Sep­tem­ber 2009
squats and autonomous spaces — 2 days of direct action around hous­ing and the cre­ation of more autonomous spaces at this time of cri­sis. See link

10–11 Octo­ber
Work­ers’ Cli­mate Action con­fer­ence, Lon­don

12–16 Octo­ber 2009
Glob­al Mobil­i­sa­tion in Defence of Moth­er Earth and the Peo­ples
called by the 4th Con­ti­nen­tal Sum­mit of Indige­nous Peo­ples Abya Yala (”Amer­i­ca”)
More info/resources

16–18 Octo­ber 2009
COP15 Inter­na­tion­al Mobil­i­sa­tion Net­work meet­ing
(www.climateaction09.org)

17–18 Octo­ber 2009
The Great Cli­mate Swoop, clos­ing down Rat­cliffe-on-Soar coal-fired pow­er sta­tion
More info

24 Octo­ber 2009
Lon­don Anar­chist Book­fair
(http://www.anarchistbookfair.org)

24 Octo­ber 2009
Inter­na­tion­al Day of Cli­mate Action
http://www.350.org/

31 October‑1 Novem­ber
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/23245

31 Oct‑1 Nov 2009
Gath­er­ing Against the Prison Soci­ety, Brighton
Dis­cus­sions & pre­sen­ta­tions about the strug­gle for lib­er­a­tion, inside and out­side of the prison walls
More info

21–22 Novem­ber 2009
No New Nuclear. Plan­ning to win strate­gis­ing week­end, Lon­don

28 November‑1 Decem­ber 2009
Week­end of Action and Work­shops at Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp

5 Decem­ber 2009
COP15 OUT, a secret plan to take a space in the City of Lon­don away from and after the Wave. It’s time to show our ‘lead­ers’ how we’re going to take action to reduce emis­sions our­selves.

3–9 Decem­ber 2009
Social and Cli­mate Jus­tice Car­a­van from the WTO Min­is­te­r­i­al in Gene­va to the COP15 sum­mit in Copen­hagen.
http://www.climatecaravan.org

7–18 Decem­ber 2009
Demon­stra­tions at COP15 Sum­mit, Copen­hagen, Den­mark
(www.climateaction09.org)
See this arti­cle for back­ground & links to Action Guide & Map

7–18 Decem­ber 2009
Kli­mafo­rum: Peo­ple’s Cli­mate Sum­mit
http://www.klimaforum09.org

11 Decem­ber 2009
* Our Cli­mate! Not Your Busi­ness! (organ­ised direct action to stop Cor­po­ra­tions tak­ing part in COP process)
http://notyourbusiness.hacklab.dk/

12 Decem­ber 2009
* Flood for Cli­mate Jus­tice (demon­stra­tion by FoE)
http://www.foei.org/en/what-we-do/un-climate-talks/global/2009/the-flood-is-coming
* Glob­al day of Action
http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/
* March for Cli­mate Jus­tice (includ­ing sys­tem change, not cli­mate change bloc)
* Don’t Nuke the Cli­mate! Inter­na­tion­al Day of Action
http://www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org/index.php?lang=en

13 Decem­ber 2009
Hit the Pro­duc­tion of Cli­mate Chaos
http://htp.noblogs.org/
* Farm­ers action (Via Campesina against agro-indus­try)

14 Decem­ber 2009
* No Bor­ders, No Cli­mate Refugees! (Day of action in Copen­hagen. Call to action to inter­na­tion­al no bor­ders groups dur­ing the COP 15 in Copen­hagen)
http://info.interactivist.net/node/13135
* Repa­ra­tions for Cli­mate Debt

15 Decem­ber 2009
* Resis­tance is Ripe! Agri­cul­ture Action Day (Change the food sys­tem not the cli­mate)
http://www.climate-justice-action.org/mobilization/agriculture-action-day/

16 Decem­ber 2009
* RECLAIM POWER! — Push­ing for Cli­mate Jus­tice! (Mass action to enter the COP15 con­fer­ence area and dis­rupt the ses­sions in order to hold a Peo­ple’s Sum­mit for Cli­mate Jus­tice. Con­fronta­tion­al civ­il dis­obe­di­ence)
http://www.climate-justice-action.org

18 Decem­ber 2009
* (last offi­cial day of the sum­mit) — “Nev­er Trust a COP” actions through­out the city
http://www.nevertrustacop.org/

Manchester students occupy roof of Royal Bank of Scotland

Around 35 stu­dents held a cli­mate change ‘Evic­tion Demon­stra­tion’ out­side (and on top of) a Roy­al Bank of Scot­land branch at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter Stu­dents Union on Wednes­day 11th Feb­ru­ary 2009.

Evict RBS flyerEvict RBS rooftop demoAround 35 stu­dents held a cli­mate change ‘Evic­tion Demon­stra­tion’ out­side (and on top of) a Roy­al Bank of Scot­land branch at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter Stu­dents Union on Wednes­day 11th Feb­ru­ary 2009. The group from Peo­ple and Plan­et have sub­mit­ted a motion to the Union Gen­er­al Meet­ing propos­ing that the Union does not renew the lease for RBS’ branch when it expires in Jan­u­ary 2010.

The demo began on the steps of the Stu­dent Union at noon. RBS had hired in extra secu­ri­ty, and the cam­pus cops were sniff­ing around. So a group went to the front of the RBS and talked loud­ly of their plans for ‘rapid infor­ma­tion dessim­i­na­tion’.

Whilst this dis­trac­tion ensued, tieing up secu­ri­ty, a sec­ond group snuck round the back and climbed aboard the roof. From here they dropped ban­ners adver­tis­ing RBS’ fos­sil fuel invest­ments and adver­tis­ing the Union gen­er­al meet­ing the fol­low­ing week.

Mean­while the rapid infor­ma­tion dessim­i­na­tion went ahead with every­one rac­ing off to speak to as many peo­ple as they could in 20 min­utes before return­ing back to the RBS branch to com­pare scores.

The Roy­al Bank of Scot­land pro­vid­ed $16 bil­lion for coal com­pa­nies and explo­ration projects from May 2006 to April 2008. This has includ­ed some of the dirt­i­est and most dan­ger­ous oil and gas projects includ­ing the Baku-Cey­han pipeline in Tib­lisi, Geor­gia which has been crit­i­cised by Amnesty, WWF, and Friends of the Earth for its human rights and pol­lu­tion impacts. The embed­ded emis­sions from RBS loans total more than those of the whole of Scot­land.

Toby Brett, 19, Physics Stu­dent at Man­ches­ter Uni­ver­si­ty says; “We hope to send a clear mes­sage to RBS that if they con­tin­ue with their irre­spon­si­ble invest­ments then they will not be wel­come to rent branch space from our stu­dent union.”

This action was part of a wider nation­al cam­paign call­ing for a boy­cott on RBS in Sep­tem­ber 2009.

Man­ches­ter Peo­ple and Plan­et have pre­vi­ous­ly staged a flash­mob protest against RBS at a Uni­ver­si­ty recruit­ment event
(http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21650)

And award­ed RBS a spoof green­wash award at their region­al head­quar­ters in Deans­gate.
(http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21907)

For more detail on RBS’ cli­mate crimes please vis­it:
www.peopleandplanet.org/ditchdirtydevelopment
www.oyalbankofscotland.com

Ex-oil exec’s luxury home burned down by molotovs

Edmon­ton, Cana­da — The lux­u­ry home of for­mer Syn­crude pres­i­dent and CEO Jim Carter was burned down by an arson­ist Sat­ur­day night. Inves­ti­ga­tors believe that envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns may have been the motive.

Ex-oil exec's luxury home burned down by molotovsEdmon­ton, Cana­da — The lux­u­ry home of for­mer Syn­crude pres­i­dent and CEO Jim Carter was burned down by an arson­ist Sat­ur­day night. Inves­ti­ga­tors believe that envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns may have been the motive. The build­ing was struck by two molo­tov cock­tails and was quick­ly con­sumed by flames, before fire­fight­ers had a chance to con­trol the blaze. Dam­ages were esti­mat­ed at $850,000. Carter who has ties to the oil and gas indus­try was out, as were his fam­i­ly mem­bers, at the time of the inci­dent which took place at approx­i­mate­ly 8:15 PM. No one was injured fight­ing the fire.

ELF Sabotage RBS Bank

“Self-pro­mot­ed as ‘The Oil & Gas Bank’ RBS fanat­i­cal­ly finance dan­ger­ous oil and gas projects, accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change, forc­ing species into pover­ty, migra­tion and wars as mur­der­ers con­tin­ue to burn and exploit the plan­ets nat­ur­al ‘resources’.

“Self-pro­mot­ed as ‘The Oil & Gas Bank’ RBS fanat­i­cal­ly finance dan­ger­ous oil and gas projects, accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change, forc­ing species into pover­ty, migra­tion and wars as mur­der­ers con­tin­ue to burn and exploit the plan­ets nat­ur­al ‘resources’.

In 2006 alone the greedy bankers pumped $10 bil­lion into fos­sil fuels fund­ing cor­po­ra­tions demand­ing drilling rigs, pipelines, oil tankers and oth­er tools destroy­ing the Earth and its pop­u­la­tion.

It should come as no sur­prise that Elves sab­o­taged a RBS bank in the south west, glu­ing the doors closed in resis­tance to anthro­pocen­tric poli­cies. This action was inspired by the eco­teur who shut down Kingsnorth pow­er sta­tion, reduc­ing UK cli­mate change emis­sions by 2% and the eco-anar­chist cell for direct attack.

For the col­lapse of civ­i­liza­tion, the sab­o­tage will con­tin­ue.
— Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front”

received anony­mous­ly by http://directaction.info

Students roll out red carpet for RBS greenwash award show

Stu­dents from Man­ches­ter Peo­ple and Plan­et groups host­ed an awards cer­e­mo­ny and award­ed the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land with the pres­ti­gious “2008 Green­wash Award”.

RBS Greenwash awardsStu­dents from Man­ches­ter Peo­ple and Plan­et groups host­ed an awards cer­e­mo­ny and award­ed the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land with the pres­ti­gious “2008 Green­wash Award”.

On Wednes­day 3rd Decem­ber stu­dents of Man­ches­ter host­ed an elab­o­rate awards cer­e­mo­ny out­side the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land offices. At 2pm, around 50 stu­dents wear­ing evening suits and ball gowns, rolled out a red car­pet and set up a podi­um. The pre­sen­ter bound­ed up onto the stage to begin the pro­ceed­ings.

After Oscars style nom­i­na­tions in which E.On, BP, Shell and BAA were announced as run­ners up, RBS was declared the win­ner of the 2008 Green­wash Award show.[1] A mock rep­re­sen­ta­tive from RBS’ Cor­po­rate Social Respon­si­bil­i­ty sec­tor call­ing him­self ‘Gra­ham Wascha’ then gave a very enter­tain­ing yet poignant speech about RBS’ green­wash. He was reward­ed with a gold­en stat­ue and a large cheque con­grat­u­lat­ing their mas­sive invest­ments in indus­tries that accel­er­ate cli­mate change.[2]

RBS-NatWest have fund­ed almost $16billion for coal com­pa­nies and explo­ration projects from May 2006 to April 2008[3], yet their green­wash claims that they are financ­ing a tran­si­tion to a low car­bon econ­o­my. [4][5]

This award show was part of a series of actions by stu­dents from the cam­paign­ing group Peo­ple and Plan­et against RBS and oth­er big dri­vers of cli­mate change. It fol­lows a recent action by Man­ches­ter stu­dents against RBS and E.On which saw over 50 stu­dents demon­strat­ing at a busi­ness recruit­ment fair. [6][7]

Quotes:

Abi­gail Dil­li­way, 21, pri­ma­ry edu­ca­tion stu­dent at Man­ches­ter Met­ro­pol­i­tan Uni­ver­si­ty says “I have cho­sen to take part in this action because I believe that RBS have com­mit­ted a green­wash atroc­i­ty. They have cho­sen to only cel­e­brate their invest­ment in renew­ables whilst fail­ing to com­pre­hend their invest­ment in fos­sil fuels and thus the dev­as­tat­ing envi­ron­men­tal impli­ca­tions of their actions.”

Alex Foun­tain, 20, busi­ness stud­ies stu­dent at Man­ches­ter Met­ro­pol­i­tan Uni­ver­si­ty says, “RBS claims to be com­mit­ted to a long-term tran­si­tion to a low car­bon econ­o­my yet con­tin­ues to mas­sive­ly fund fos­sil fuel infra­struc­tures. This will lock us into high emis­sions for many decades to come and jeop­ar­dise any attempts to stop run­away cli­mate change.”

ENDS

Notes to the edi­tor:

1. Green­wash – “Green­wash (a port­man­teau of green and white­wash) is a term used to describe the per­cep­tion of con­sumers that they are being mis­led by a com­pa­ny regard­ing the envi­ron­men­tal prac­tices of the com­pa­ny or the envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fits of a prod­uct or ser­vice. It is a decep­tive use of green PR or green mar­ket­ing.”

Wikipedia — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwash

2. Cli­mate change is the biggest threat to a secure future cur­rent­ly fac­ing human­i­ty. If cur­rent trends con­tin­ue, aver­age glob­al tem­per­a­tures could rise by 6.4˚C by the end of the cen­tu­ry with dev­as­tat­ing and per­ma­nent results for the plan­et. — “Sum­ma­ry for Pol­i­cy­mak­ers”, Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Pan­el on Cli­mate Change, 2007

3. RBS is respon­si­ble for $15.93 bil­lion worth of loans from May 2006 to April 2008 to com­pa­nies engaged in loans to com­pa­nies engaged in the extrac­tion and/or com­bus­tion of coal. — http://www.oyalbankofscotland.com/cioc/pdf/cashinginoncoal.pdf

4. In 2007 RBS’ embed­ded emis­sions (emis­sion due to its invest­ments) was over 43 mil­lion tonnes, more than Scot­land — PLATFORM, ‘The Oil and Gas Bank – RBS & the financ­ing of cli­mate change’, http://www.carbonweb.org/documents/Oil_&_Gas_Bank.pdf

5. RBS claim that they only lend to projects that con­form to the high­est envi­ron­men­tal and social stan­dards yet finances some of the dirt­i­est and most dan­ger­ous oil & gas projects, includ­ing the Baku-Tbil­isi-Cey­han pipeline from Azer­bai­jan to Turkey crit­i­cised by the WWF and Friends of the Earth for its human rights and pol­lu­tion impacts.

Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPLW2H88q7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xm0q9_CfRw

Shell to Sea / Rossport Solidarity Camp Update from Erris Co. Mayo. November 2009.

While Glen­gad and Shell issues have large­ly gone from the pub­lic eye, and indeed things have qui­etened down some what, that’s not to say that stuff hasn’t been going on, it just doesn’t always make the media.

The last few months have seen a few devel­op­ments since the Soli­taire left our shores.

While Glen­gad and Shell issues have large­ly gone from the pub­lic eye, and indeed things have qui­etened down some what, that’s not to say that stuff hasn’t been going on, it just doesn’t always make the media.

The last few months have seen a few devel­op­ments since the Soli­taire left our shores.

* Shell have com­plete­ly vacat­ed the Glen­gad com­pound in the last few week or so. Unfor­tu­nate­ly they haven’t done a won­der­ful job of clean­ing up after them­selves. Plen­ty of rub­ble was left behind on the beach from the cause­way that they extend­ed out to sea and then removed.

The “cliff” has been banked up with soft mate­ri­als which don’t look too sta­ble to me and will like­ly con­tin­ue to be washed out by the rain­wa­ter. In the old com­pound itself large heaps of mate­ri­als have been piled and net­ted over to pre­vent birds nest­ing? Strange­ly they have not attempt­ed to net the re-banked cliff area, as they had before. Some of the old net­ting can be seen on the cliff top, inter­meshed with the grass on top.

Their chan­nel buoy mark­ers have been wash­ing ashore recent­ly also, as they left these behind to. At the road entrance to the Glen­gad com­pound all the fenc­ing and gates have gone (as it has around the whole site), to be replaced with reg­u­lar cat­tle fenc­ing and gates, hav­ing pulled out at this time of year the whole place is a bit of a mud bath.

* The road, left unfin­ished by Mayo Coun­ty Coun­cil now Shell have pulled out, is already show­ing signs of dete­ri­o­ra­tion, with pot­holes form­ing in the tar­mac beside where the entrance gates to this com­pound stood. The Co.Co. have left the road as it stands from what I can see, with­out fin­ish­ing the works, just loads of signs and bol­lards left around every­where.

* Nov 10th last saw a pro­ces­sion along the Bel­lan­aboy Road up to the main refin­ery gates, attend­ed by about 50 local peo­ple car­ry­ing cross­es with the names of the Ogo­ni 9, to mark the exe­cu­tion of Ken Sara Wiwa and 8 of his col­leagues in 1995, the Niger­ian activists who were exe­cut­ed by the Niger­ian Mil­i­tary Dic­ta­tor­ship at the time, at Shel­l’s behest.

* The Gar­da pres­ence is like­wise down, but still tan­gi­ble.

* After a meet­ing some time ago with a few min­is­ters, the silence has been loud from the pow­ers that be, despite their recent announce­ment of set­ting up some forum or dia­logue with peo­ple involved in the Cor­rib Gas issue. How­ev­er no one here has actu­al­ly heard any­thing or been con­tact­ed about as of yet. Min­is­ter Eamon Ryan has admit­ted in the media that ‘mis­takes were made’ but has refused to dis­cuss the mov­ing of the refin­ery or the appro­pri­a­cy of a pipeline land­fall at Glen­gad. “There will be no re-vis­it­ing of the con­sents / per­mis­sions already giv­en to Shell”, he said. As usu­al the terms of ref­er­ence are pre-set by the ‘author­i­ties’ in order to avoid a fair and prop­er address­ing of the issues.

* The AFRI hedge school a few weeks ago was real­ly fan­tas­tic with some great peo­ple com­ing to have an input/speak includ­ing Den­nis Hal­l­i­day and oth­er peo­ple who have been deal­ing with Shell in oth­er coun­tries.

The fight goes on.

Activists in Dublin renamed the street where the Shell office is after Ken Saro Wiwa

Sur­pris­ing­ly, many streets in Dublin, cap­i­tal of the Repub­lic of Ire­land, are still named after heroes of monar­chy and colo­nial­ism.

Ken Saro-Wiwa Street sign replacement, DublinSur­pris­ing­ly, many streets in Dublin, cap­i­tal of the Repub­lic of Ire­land, are still named after heroes of monar­chy and colo­nial­ism.

Ade­laide Road, which is home to the main entrance of Shel­l’s Irish head office as well as the gov­ern­ment depart­ment which hands out licences for the exploita­tion of Irish gas and oil reserves, is named after Queen Ade­laide, the unfor­tu­nate Ger­man princess who mar­ried the Eng­lish King William IV (he already had a mis­tress and ten chil­dren).

At the week­end, oppo­nents of Shel­l’s activ­i­ties in Ire­land and around the world took the deci­sion to rename the street after Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was the leader, until his death, of the Move­ment for the Sur­vival of the Ogo­ni Peo­ple and a fierce crit­ic of Shel­l’s destruc­tion of the Niger Delta and its peo­ple.

Ken Saro Wiwa and eight oth­ers were exe­cut­ed by hang­ing in Port Har­court prison on Novem­ber 10th 1995. The Niger­ian gov­ern­ment claimed he was guilty of con­spir­a­cy to mur­der, but exec­u­tives from Shell pri­vate­ly admit­ted that they were behind the pros­e­cu­tion, tri­al and exe­cu­tion of Saro-Wiwa and the oth­ers.

You can see a short video of the chang­ing of the signs here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBHp–u4QVk

and a few more pic­tures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24935400@N06/sets/72157608792269359/

rememberkensarowiwa@gmail.com
http://www.remembersarowiwa.com