Category: Squatting / Free Spaces / Protest Sites

14th July 2008
In the last few days Australia’ Climate Camp was established at Newcastle, Australia. Yesterday, people from the camp chained themselves to a coal train, blocking access to Carrington coal terminal for most of the day and costing the company an estimated 1.2 million US dollars. Today, more climate camp activists are blocking work at the world’s largest coal port at Kooragang.

Australian coal train and world’s largest coal port peacefully blockaded.

As the G8 leaders fail to achieve any meaningful agreement on tackling climate change, thousands of activists from Britain to Australia are spearheading a radical approach to the issue. Inspired by previous Camps for Climate Action at Drax and Heathrow, six “Climate Camps” are taking place across the world throughout July and August in what is dubbed “the Convergence for Climate Action” [1].

In the last few days the first camp was established at Newcastle, Australia. Yesterday, people from the camp chained themselves to a coal train, blocking access to Carrington coal terminal for most of the day and costing the company an estimated 1.2 million US dollars [2]. Today, more climate camp activists are blocking work at the world’s
largest coal port at Kooragang [3].

The events in Australia will be followed by camps in Germany, the UK [4] and three across North America into late August. Each camp has the same messages of education on climate change and direct action against some of the major polluters and other climate criminals. Coal is a strong theme, featuring as the principle target in a number of countries.

“We are running out of time,” said Lizbeth Halloran from Australia, where hundreds of people have already gathered. “The G8 are making pitiful noises and insulting our intelligence with their so-called targets. With world leaders so clearly the puppets of the corporate profit motive, it is ordinary people who have to put the brakes on climate change when nobody else will.”

The camps share the same four key objectives: show sustainable alternatives in action, share skills and knowledge, build a grassroots movement against the root causes of climate change, and take direct action, which is seen as a proportionate and necessary response to the scale of the problem. There is also a recognition that there needs to be a ‘just transition’ [5] to bring about an environmentally and socially responsible society.

“Two years ago we started off as six hundred people in a field in Yorkshire, but it sparked something massive worldwide,” stated Connor O’Brien, a spokesperson from the UK’s Camp for Climate Action. “Now we know whatever we achieve in our local struggles this summer, they are amplified by the achievements of the five other climate camps around the world, the many more planned for next summer, and the year-round worldwide social movement that is both resisting runaway climate change caused by the pursuit of economic growth at all costs, and building pathways to a sustainable future.”

The camps bring together diverse elements of the anti-globalisation, social justice and environmental movements, united by the recognition that governments and corporations are part of the problem and therefore cannot be part of the solution. As well as taking direct action against some of the root causes, they seek to promote sustainable solutions to the challenge of climate change.

-End-

Contact: UK Camp for Climate Action media team on 0793 209 6677 or 07772 861 099; email: press@climatecamp.org.uk. Our website is at http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

Notes for editors

1. The global Camps for Climate Action are:

Newcastle, Australia, 10th -15th July ( http://www.climatecamp.org.au), targeting coal exporting from Australia Hamburg, Germany, 15th-26th August ( http://www.klimacamp.org)
United States ( http://www.climateconvergence.org)
– West Coast Convergence, 28th July-August 4th, Eugene, Oregon, resisting Liquified Natural Gas development
– North East Coast Confluence, 30th July-3rd August, High Falls, New York.
– South West Convergence, 5th- 11th August, Louisa County, Virginia, targeting coal and uranium mining.
2. See http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gpSZdMNkmFJv-LPVY0Q2LB4_mslg
3. See http://www.climatecamp.org.au/2008/jul/13/nine-climate-camp-activists-stop-work-kooragang-co
4. The UK Camp for Climate Action will be taking place near Kingsnorth Power Station, Hoo, Kent, from 3rd – 11th August. Energy giant E.ON are pushing to build the first coal-fired power station in the UK for 30 years at Kingsnorth.
5. “Just Transition” is the principle that changes to employment or activities made for the sake of environmental sustainability should be fair and not cost workers or ommunities their health, wealth or assets; and that those affected by these changes should take a leading role in creating new policies and solutions.

photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28555566@N06/

Their website is here:
http://www.climatecamp.org.au/