London: Climate activist ‘super-glued to door’ of lastminute.com
An environmental activist was so enraged that lastminute.com continue to push ‘short haul’ flights whilst knowing the damage they do to the climate, that she super-glued herself to the front door of the company’s Victoria HQ.
At 8am this morning, Penny Eastwood – a member of climate action group, Plane Stupid, pasted superglue over her hands and glued herself to the front doors of the building — blocking staff from entering their offices.
Penny said, “Whilst G8 leaders have simply spouted more hot air, I’ve showed what one woman alone can do to shut down climate criminals.”
She added, “Lastminute.com irresponsibly encourage people to binge-fly five times a year. They’re forcing the world towards the brink of eco-meltdown and all for a quick buck!”
Penny Eastwood is one of those planning to attend this summer’s Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow.
info@planestupid.com
http://www.planestupid.com
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London Rising Tide and Friends descended on Chelsea Tractor country on Friday night in a protest against the G8’s pathetic attempt to “consider” climate change and to reduce CO2 emissions.
The Tigers and Clowns blockaded the E$$O station at Fulham Rd for over to two hours to highlight Exxon Mobil/E$$Os role in bankrolling our future down the pipe. Their support for the Liquid Natural Gas pipeline coming to a city near you is paving the way for new Gas Fired power stations, locking us into another 30 years with these emission-spouting beasts. The emissions from these stations are comparable to the existing Coal Fired ones!
Because the tankers carrying this gas have to come from Qatar and are so huge, they cannot navigate the Suez Canal so have to circumnavigate Africa, freezing the gas as they go. In terms of emissions this makes the final figures at use almost as high as energy derived from coal. LNG is NOT a clean fuel!
The protest went well with the overwhelming majority of people, including car drivers… were positive to the message that we were giving out. The Police arrived after about thirty minutes, but after telling us to stay out of E$$Os forecourt, we remained for another hour: their threat of “ten minutes of you’re in the van” being the usual bravado. A good time was had by all, and the Tigers will continue to prowl…….
To get in touch:
london@risingtide.org.uk
For more info on ESSO’s pipeline http://www.fightthepipe.co.uk
STOP THE PRESS:
With the pipeline converging on two fronts the protest three camp in the Brecon Beacons has just been served with an eviction notice and are now on high alert for Monday 11th. Activists are now dug-in and locked-on up trees with support from local people, ready to resist. They need your support. If you can get down there, ring the camp hotline on 07917383517, or email
bristol@risingtide.org.uk
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At around 7.15 pm on the 8th May, in a non-violent action activists from London Rising Tide, who are concerned about climate change, blockaded an ESSO petrol station in West London.
They claim ESSO’s huge economic clout enables the company to influence energy policy, and that that a high pressure pipeline currently being constructed to carry ESSO natural gas to UK power stations is unsafe. They maintain that the solution to the climate change problem is an overall reduction in energy use. The construction of the pipeline has also led to concerns over its damage to environmentally sensitive areas.
Funny clowns with red noses supported activists who were dressed as ESSO tigers while motorists were leafleted and engaged in debate about their energy use. The police arrived after an hour or so and where generally well behaved. At one point the police told activists they could only carry on their protest for another 10 minutes however a deal was done allowing access to for motorists to the petrol station, and the action carried on for another 45 minutes or so.
This action was timed to coincide with the end of the G8 in Germany.
For more info on ESSO’s pipeline http://www.fightthepipe.co.uk
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Norwich petrol station shut down on DoA Against Climate Change and the G8
During this morning’s rush hour twelve activists from Norwich Rising Tide braved the East Coast storm warnings and shut down their local Jet petrol station as part of the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8.
Having met up at silly o’clock in the morning and gathered together banners, rope and ‘Danger, Global Warming’ hazard tape, we arrived at the Jet petrol station on Dereham Road only to find 8 of Norfolk’s finest lying in wait. Ignoring them, we unpacked our banners and stretched them across the three entrances, preventing vehicles from filling up. Passing motorists rushing to work were treated to the sight of us jumping up and down in the rain, waving banners bearing the slogans ‘Closed for a Total Re-think’; ‘Social Change, Not Climate Change’; and ‘International Day of Action Against Climate Change and the G8.’
We handed out leaflets to drivers and pedestrians, explaining that the blockade was part of a series of events taking place around the world to highlight the role played by the leaders of the high-emitting G8 nations in causing climate change, and to show up this week’s so-called ‘climate deal’ for the sham that it is.
One of the banner wavers was heard to shout: ‘We will not stand by and watch the planet burn as the G8 leaders and their corporate bedfellows trivialise the greatest threat facing humanity with a blind faith in techno-fixes and market mechanisms such as fraudulent carbon offset schemes. If we are going to truly solve this problem, we need a rapid transformation to a low-energy society – starting with the dismantling of the oil industry.’
We chose the less well-known Jet as our target to show that there is no such thing as a good oil company. Jet is owned by ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil refiner in the world, and the first Western oil company to enter Iraq after the start of the war. Jet and ConocoPhillips have so far escaped the criticism that has been justifiably heaped upon industry giants like Shell and BP, but they are no different. ConocoPhillips, like all oil companies, destroys ecosystems and communities around the world, and is profiteering from oil wars and climate chaos.
The response from drivers and passers-by was predictably mixed, and although the early arrival of the police forced us to change our plans slightly, the action still served its purpose: to highlight the inability of G8 leaders to truly tackle climate change, and to take action in solidarity with those disrupting the summit in Germany and those already suffering from the effects of climate change around the world.
norwich@risingtide.org.uk
http://www.risingtide.org.uk
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TOUR OF EEEEVIL IN WHANGANUI-A-TARA, NEW ZEALAND — ACTION REPORT
The number of protesters had been few, the attention by our friends in blue astonishingly intense — 2 cop cars and one paddy-wagon were following the small group closely.
the Tour of EEEEEvil started in Midland Park with a phat boom-box hailing out loud. first they cycled towards the US embassy. crayons were used to beautify the pavement, being under heavy scrutiny by security guards and police.
a cat’s leap later, the protesters rang the door-bell of the German embassy to tell them they are all scummy polluters of the environment. next station was the British High Commission where a banner was unfolded to make capitalism history.
finally, the group was not keen on visiting the other embassies of the G8 and cycled through the CBD and dispersed around Victoria St, receiving smiles and applause from some people on the streets.
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BRISTOL CRITICAL MASS — ACTION REPORT
This morning saw a good natured critical mass reclaim the streets of Bristol from car-culture. A crowd of 40 to 50 riders gathered in solidarity with protests against the G8 and to draw attention to the chaos of climate change.
This morning saw a good natured and fun critical mass reclaim the streets of Bristol from car-culture! A good crowd of 40 to 50 riders gathered in the centre ready to move off in a carnival of cycling in solidarity with protests against the G8 and to draw attention to the chaos of climate change.
This morning saw a good natured and fun critical mass reclaim the streets of Bristol from car-culture! A good crowd of 40 to 50 riders gathered in the centre ready to move off in a carnival of cycling in solidarity with protests against the G8 and to draw attention to the chaos of climate change. It was interesting to note there was lots of media here this time – normally at a critical mass these is no media, but (being cynical) I wonder if the media arrived this time because there was a little agro at the last one? Shame that the media go for sensationalist news and not real news!
Anyway, the crowd moved off towards Temple Quay, the new financial heart of bristol (?) down Baldwin Street, over the bridge and down towards the roundabout that connects to Bristol Temple Meads, then over into temple quay where we found a mural on the floor ‘We Have the Power’ – very apt! Then on towards Broadmead and onto the bottom of the M32 and round back to the fountains. A good mornings work!
The reception was almost totally positive, flyers were handed out to pedestrians and fellow cyclists and drivers explaining what this was all about. Lots of people waved, cheers and beeped as we passed. There were bemused faces in corporate Bristol as the be-suited Temple Quay was invaded by pedal-power!
This event just going to show how people can reclaim a public space from the relentless grind of the rat-race and build some community. Unlike the G8, we care about climate change and got off our ass to do something! See you at the next one!
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Germany: 60 — 70 people are blockading a Shell-Station in Evershagen. Nine police emergency vehicles are at the location, however holding back.
20070608_Shell — video/x‑ms-wmv 7.6M
20070608_Shell — video/x‑ms-wmv 7.6M
On Friday samba bands and protestors shut down the Shell garage in Evershagen, Rostock
Police, unsurprisingly, arrived in seconds, and the riot squads surrounded the garage.
But, despite this, the Shell station was blocked for an hour.
In Germany fuel stations are not kept in stock by tanker trucks. They run huge fuel pipelines from one to the other, linking them across the city. And in every fuel station is an emergency shut-off button.
And, low and behold, someone hit the button, shutting off the fuel supply to some if not all the Shell garages across Rostock, causing a slight headache for the multinational oil and gas company’s profits that day in the lovely north-west German city.
More photos at http://indymedia.ie/article/82971
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Portland, Oregon, USA
ACTION #1: Anti-Borders Action
The Leaders of the 8 most powerful countries, who maintain global inequality, war, and starvation will meet behind closed doors to plot our future for us at a luxurious health resort in Germany June 6th thru 8th. There has been a call out for international days of action across the globe to coincide with the mobilization against the G8. Hundred of thousands of people from around the world are converging on Germany, even some of our neighbors in Portland.
We hear that call and come together in Portland as decentralized and autonomous groups to say No to the G8, No to there Lies, and No More Tricks. They are eight, we are six billion…lets start acting like it and reject their chaotic system of exploitation and control.
We meet at the INS Office to say No to the Border fence being built, ICE Raids, and to reject the idea that multi-national corporations can freely cross borders to exploit people and steal land. While the people are being contained by borders, forced off lands and controlled by militarization.
Friday, June 8th at 5:30pm
INS Office
NW Broadway
Supported by: Cascadia Rising Tide, Portland Sin Fronteras, Food not bombs, and Students for Unity.
ACTION #2: Anti-Dam Action
On Friday, Stop La Parota PDX launched its campaign to pressure companies with ties to the financing of La Parota Dam to sever all connections to the destructive project.
Activists held a colorful demonstration in front of the Lloyd Center Sears to demand the Sears Holding Corporation cut all ties to Grupo Carso. Grupo Carso is the financial umbrella of Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim Helú, who has publicly declared that Grupo Carso subsidiaries will be involved in every aspect of La Parota.
La Parota, a 765-megawatt hydroelectric dam slated for the Papagayo River in Guerrero, Mexico, is a classic infrastructure expansion project resulting from trade agreements like NAFTA and the FTAA in the worst of ways. The dam would submerge 43,000 acres of forest and farmland along the river’s banks, displacing at least 25,000 mostly indigenous campesinos (subsistence farmers) from the Communal Lands of Cacahuatepec. Already, indigenous resistance to the dam has been met with imprisonment and murder.
Far from being a renewable energy source, sediment accumulation limits the electricity generating capacity of dams to 50–100 years. Meanwhile, large dams are significant contributors to global warming. As the tremendous biomass of a tropical forest decays beneath a reservoir, it gives off greenhouse gases. Dams in tropical regions have been shown to produce anywhere from two to 40 times as much carbon dioxide as an equivalent coal-fired plant.
The reason for this blatant exploitation and ecocide? Electricity generated from La Parota would be incorporated into an international energy grid and used to power factory-centers, maquiladoras (export-oriented sweatshop corridors). The phenomenon of seizing indigenous lands and then forcing inhabitants into working for suboptimal wages is not ‘economic development,’ but a modern version of colonialism.
The CFE made no attempt to include the campesinos in the decision-making process regarding La Parota. In July 2003, without giving notice or seeking permission, the commission simply sent in machinery to build two tunnels to divert the flow of the Papagayo. Farmers from surrounding communities responded with road blockades and encampments to keep CFE equipment out of the area. The ongoing roadblocks have been largely successful, and the CFE has been forced to pull out most of its equipment In Chilpancingo, the state capital, the protesters were 30,000 strong. Their message was clear: “We are ready to die for the land.”
The demonstration was held both in solidarity with the resisting campesinos as well as the resistance in Germany to the G8. La Parota is a manifestation of the global system of oppression created by organizations like the G8 to further the interests of transnational corporations at the cost of people and environmental integrity.
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For Immediate Release
June 8, 2007
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
Asheville Critical Mass Confronts Bank of America for Investments in Coal Industry
Today dozens of cyclists paid a surprise visit to Bank of America to protest their financial backing of coal companies as a part of the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and G8. After tying up downtown traffic, the 30-strong bike ride descended on the downtown Asheville headquarters of Bank of America. Once there, a number of people dumped coal in front of the main entrance, while another person spontaneously sacrificed their bike lock and locked the front doors shut.
With police still not in sight, the bike ride continued on to another Bank of America branch, where participants plastered the bank in stickers, handed out flyers to customers, and held banners reading, “Stop Banking on Climate Change” and “Climate Chaos: Brought to you by Bank of America.”
The protest was held in solidarity with the massive anti-G8 protests in Germany, where leaders of the 8 richest countries continue to drag their feet on making any meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The bike ride was organized by Asheville Rising Tide, a group dedicated to confronting the root causes of climate change.
Bank of America plays a major role in perpetuating climate change by its massive investments in the coal industry. Pound for pound, burning coal releases more C02 emissions then any other fossil fuel. Bank of America has facilitated nearly $1 billion in loans to Massey Energy and Arch Coal, two of the largest companies involved in the environmentally devastating process of mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal mining has already reduced 500 square miles of mountains to rubble and buried over 1,200 miles of streams in Southern Appalachia.
Bank of America has also made loans and facilitated stock offerings for Peabody Energy to the tune of several billion dollars. Peabody is infamous for its human rights violations against Native Americans. Since 1975, over 14,000 indigenous people, mostly Dine’, have been forcibly relocated off of their ancestral lands to make way for Peabody’s Black Mesa strip mine in northeastern Arizona. This strip mine, the largest in the US, has devastated thousands of acres of indigenous land and drained local aquifers that are essential for sustaining life in this desert climate. In addition to these abuses, Peabody Energy, along with a number of other companies funded by Bank of America, are pursuing the construction of a new wave of dirty coal plants.
“By targeting coal industry investors, we can undermine their financial support which they depend on to continue operation. The less money they have, the less coal they can extract and burn. In the face of cataclysmic climate change, we do not have time to wait for government regulations. We must directly intervene now!” said Jennifer Clayson, who participated in the ride.
This week’s G8 meetings failed to even begin to address climate change. While some European countries pushed for 50% emissions cuts by 2050, the US managed to derail even this goal, which falls far short of the reductions that are necessary. In the end, the G8 countries agreed to “consider” cutting greenhouse gas emissions. “In the face of massive species extinction, drought, and rising sea levels, the best these world leaders can come up with is to ‘consider’ doing something? Until there is real change, we, along with people around the world, will continue to take direct action
against those responsible for climate change,” said Liam Jefferson. According to scientists, greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed by at least 80% by 2050 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
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San Francisco Bike ride against G8
On Friday June 8, 2007, there was a critical mass-style bicycle ride with an anti-G8 theme which initially gathered at Justin Herman plaza, and then proceeded along the Embarcadero, Columbus Avenue, Market Street, Valencia St., and then ended at Dolores Park. Everything proceeded peacefully, and the size of the group was good for being able to be aware of everyone’s location. There was a large police presence the entire time. This might have stemmed from a fiasco of police response to the 2005 G8 protest which resulted in commanders getting reassigned, inventive charges against participants and FBI visits to journalists.
Most people on the sidewalks appeared happy to see us, or at least had no negative reaction. Sometimes call-in radio shows and ranting sections on youtube and newspaper websites give the feeling that the public has a lot of antibicycle fanatics, but we didn’t see any.
Appearances were made by both Gabe Myers, who was basically arrested during the 2005 protest as a ‘sucker’ and charged (and later let go) with felony lynching after dropping a foam sign in the road as a police car drove at high speed towards him, and also Josh Wolf, who spent a record amount of time in jail for refusing to speak to a grand jury formed to probe the battery of the other officer who was driving the vehicle. Grand juries gathering evidence and issuing indictments are allowed unrestricted questioning of witnesses, unlike regular courtroom practice, and a witness is not allowed to have a lawyer present. In situations where a political group is involved (such as the Red Scare of the 1950s), these juries are capable of vastly overreaching and gathering long lists of names of people uninvolved in crimes, who could be branded as suspects. Press reports created a confusing picture, but Wolf was not considered in contempt of court for refusing to testify about the injury of the officer, or to show his video tape, but rather he didn’t agree to unrestricted questions about participants who he had a confidential journalistic relationship with.
The ride was pretty nice. It was very sunny, and most of the route had long stretches uninterrupted by short cycle lights. The nature of the large police response was interesting in that only a small group of friendly bicycle officers, plus some Harley and motorbike riding police officers were mixed together in the crowd. We had no trouble splitting the road and tunnel with cars, and things felt much safer than during ordinary times when you inevitably split the right lane with buses and right-turning cabs. In a few cases, there was mixed body language when some officers objected to the tail-end of the group continuing to move on a red light, so people became worried and stopped. Yet other officers appeared to be hurrying the group through on the red by stopping traffic. In any case, every so often one could squint two blocks down and make out police vans, Chevy Suburban/Tahoes, and cars moving by, sometimes briefly sounding a horn as though they were trying to get around traffic. Occasionally the ride would come across a new group of police parked well away from the start, such as Columbus avenue. Then at the end where people listened to music, while a smaller group stood across the street, it seemed like more vans with police emblem kept turning the corner to drive by.
Reasons behind the negative response by thousands of people (from the left, right, and center) to the G8 are difficult to summarize briefly. On the surface, a meeting of world leaders might appear to be a positive thing, akin to the creation of the UN. In addition, it isn’t clear how much could really get discussed during 2–3 days of talks, or how anything so ominous could arise out of this.
The easiest way to explain it is that the era of colonialism never ended. Governments (spanning multiple presidents) have spent the last few decades working closely with large companies and are controlling the economies and governments of most of the third world against the interests of their populations. It is easy to let your eyes glaze over and think “yes, we just need to invest in Africa” and not realize that the areas of Africa with the most foreign ‘investment’ are the most impoverished, for instance the horrible resource wars in the Congo (where the United States helped assassinate their democratic leader in the 60s, and installed a dictator), or Shell Oil destroying the land base in the Nigerian Delta while sharing none of its profits.
Much of the decisions and content of these meetings is worked out beforehand. Institutions such as the World Bank are where the details of public/private plans are worked out by small committees. One of the most common mechanisms for creating third world poverty is the forcing of countries to take loans for large infrastructure projects such as dams, waterworks and power grids which aren’t used by working class, are carried out by first world corporations (such as Bechtel in Bolivia) and end up indebting the population for decades.
Finally, while it seems like individuals have little chance of influencing such powerful institutions, it is important to remember that the WTO has had to make major concessions to emboldened latin american, african, and SE asian contingents after the major turning point after the 1999 protests. The signing of Merkel’s Climate statement was regarded as a big success during this meeting, although the lack of concrete actions promised in this agreement makes it seem like the public was just successful in making the leaders want to seem responsive. You as an individual might not be able to change it all by yourself, but it is coming about as an emergent property of a movement of less than 10% of the population who become activists.
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FLORIDA: CRITICAL MASS
Picket signs blew in the wind as three bikers rode slowly but surely down Dixie Highway. Uniting with activists worldwide in protest of the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Lake Worth contributed a total of six. But the issues they brought hit close to home.
Their destination was the Palm Beach Gardens home of FPL Group Inc. Chief Executive Lewis Hay III.
Their complaint: FPL’s decision to build the West County Energy Center, a natural gas plant, about 1,000 feet from a wildlife preserve, according to the group’s flier. “You can’t smoke 1,000 feet from a school, but you can put a power plant 1,000 feet from an animal preserve?” asked supporter Rachel Kijewski, 22.
The group rode a large part of the four-hour trek in front of their veggie truck. The beat-up blue solution to global warming fights petrol with vegetable oil. “Its exhaust smells like tempura,” said bike rider Panagioti Tsolkas.
Most drivers’ reactions to the trio were positive, giving them thumbs-up. Their journey, however, was not without challenges. Mother Nature poured down rain all Friday afternoon. Averaging 7 to 10 mph on the highway, the group pressed on, stopping traffic the entire way until they were stopped outside the gate leading to Hay’s home inside Old Marsh Country Club.
As the G‑8 summit’s gathering of the eight industrial powerhouses comes to a close, Lynne Purvis said she feels their fight is just beginning.
“It’s hard you know,” Purvis said.
“We’re all pretty low budget. These rich executives have all this security and money and to supply these things and we use cardboard signs and public transit.” Laughing in spite of their small numbers, the protestors remained optimistic.
“We’d love if he decided not to build an energy center,” she said. “As easy as it is for him to keep this in his nine-to-five life, it affects us too.”
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Nottingham: Activists picket A453 exhibition
The Highways Agency held a fancy exhibition in Clifton today, to promote their planned widening of the A453. So climate-change activists picketed it.
With thoughts of the G8 and the international day of action on climate change in our heads, we came to the roadbuilder’s PR show to put the other side of the argument. Our display was a lot less flash than that of the H.A. but we got our message across, and many visitors to the exhibition were very supportive.
We wanted to point out the links between the proposed A453 scheme and the proposed M1 widening and EMids Airport expansion…a combined recipe for more traffic growth, more pollution, more C02 pumped into our dying atmosphere. Strangely the H.A. exhibition made no mention of climate change, although they were tackling pollution by giving away free in-car air fresheners!
The exhibition is at Clifton Leisure Centre, Southchurch Drive all day tomorrow (sat 9th). Why not email your comments on roadbuilding and climate to A453Widening@highways.gsi.gov.uk as well.
climateactionnow@hotmail.co.uk
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In Portugal, the G8 Network has made accions in city of Lisbon and Porto at 8 of June, International Day of Direct Accion for Climate Accion. You can see fotos and videos in the blog www.geoito2007.blogspot.com
In Lisbon we made, in Down Town (Augusta Street), a batlle for climate justice (“World isn´t a target, from CO2 has to be saved”), in wich the people of the street tried to stop the 8 leaders of G8 to fill the world, speacilly south hemisfere, with pollution: the world against the politics of G8! In a world map the G8 throw black balls (the CO2) to the poorest countries while people throw green balls (“the good actions for climate”) to prevent climate disaster and social injustice: meaning that G8 are historical responsables for climate change and their politics will not prevent serious disasters that affect primarily the poorer, because they will continue to polute the world making business of pollution and exploring the poorest countries. We made also some games in the street, inviting people to step pollution and save climate (the G8 stepped the actions to save climate and not pollution…), and put banners in one of the most polluted avenues in city due to automobile traffic saying: “400 thousand cars for day…is to much”, “less car, more public transports, less polution”, “freedom to move, city to the people”.
In Porto we simulate, in Down Town (Santa Catarina Street), a emissions trading market. The G8 leader traded emissions between them (black ballons) and then offered pollution to the people on the street.
Congratulations to all!
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A bad smell surrounded Bicyclist’s Square last friday morning, Global Direct Action Day against G8 and Climate Change. All around the world, people relcaimed the streets to say no to the letarghy of the 8 leaders that met in Germany behind fences and armys.
In Sao Paulo, Brasil, 25 human beings joined to celebrate life, sustainability and the act of living togheter in a Critical Mass ride for life. In Germany, there’re only 8 human beings deciding to keep war and preadatory waste of resources that destroys the planet and kills lifes all around the globe.
A tree was planted on Bicyclist’s Square. It was in honor of a homeless man that was sleeping below the Square and was killed by a car on may 25th, a few hours before may Critical Mass take the streets to celebrate life.
First stop: Italian Consulate. Fiats, Ferraris, Masseratis, Lamborghinis and Berlusconis kills thousands of human beings every year.
Second stop: Petrobrás building, the brazilian fuel company. The plan to make Brazil become a huge cane brake is no energetic or ecological solution, but only a way to fuel an obsession and keep the state of war, enviromental destruction and irrational mobility standarts.
Off the bikes on the crosswalk, going to the third stop: Japan Consulate. Hondas, Toyotas and Mitsubishis kills thousands of people every year all around the world.
Fourth stop: French Consulate. Renaults and Peugeots pollute as much as the others. In Sao Paulo, air pollution kills about 8 people a day. More than a half of the air pollution comes from private cars.
Still We Ride
Fifth stop: German Consulate. Mercedes, BMWs and Audis spread individualism and agressivity, contributing to the planetary state of war.
Who makes profit on that?
In front of British Consulate, Earth on Danger on the hands of war poodle Tony Blair.
They’re responsible for recycling in São Paulo.
Love against war.
Ethanol is a lie.
Mr. Puttin was’t there.
We’re traffic.
Critical Mass at Daslu, the store where the richest people in Brazil shops. Our “G8-people” shop there and seems to feel nausea about their own land: english written phrases, employees dressing french butler clothes, just beside the polluted Pinheiros river and surrounded by third world favelas.
Canadian consulate on World Trade Center Sao Paulo: Earth in danger (and it’s not because of Bin Laden).
U.S. Consulate. Outside, it looks like Guantanamo.
Note to Mr. Bush: “Brazil isn’t a cane brake / G8: State Terror”
66 years old, 22 years riding.
A gift from Critical Mass: one less car!
19 June 2007.
16.06.2007
Stop them driving the planet to destruction
The cycle police were pretty laid back and vastly outnumbered, though they did still try to manage the ride by blocking the front so that the back could catch up. What does it matter if a 1,000 riders get split into two or more though? Towards the end of the ride the police seemed to give up doing anything, they didn’t even try to stop a couple of cars going the wrong way down a one way street, and they just blended in and became a part of the Mass.
In the fourth year of this imaginative and spectacular environmental protest, The World Naked Bike Ride is to see its first event in Southampton on Friday 8 June.