Climate Camp sets up at Trafalgar Square

Update: The Camp will hold the space for the entire con­fer­ence, reclaim­ing one the busiest loca­tions in the world to push for gen­uine solu­tions to cli­mate change. So, if you’re not off to Copen­hagen then this is the place you need to be. Bring your tent, warm clothes, and ideas for action!

Decem­ber 05, 2009

with­in the first hour of occu­pa­tion, around 250 sup­port­ers arrived in the square and 20 tents estab­lished. many more are on their way. there are 2 giant manned tripods with the ‘cap­i­tal­ism is cri­sis’ ban­ner fly­ing between them. a yurt has been erect­ed as well as var­i­ous oth­er shel­ters, a kitchen, and stor­age area. the first wood fires are alight, and the mood is excit­ed and opti­mistic despite the damp con­di­tions. there’s a sound sys­tem for announce­ments and music, and the ‘rinky dinky’ sys­tem is mak­ing it’s way up from par­lia­ment square too.

climate camp in Trafalgar SquareUpdate: The Camp will hold the space for the entire con­fer­ence, reclaim­ing one the busiest loca­tions in the world to push for gen­uine solu­tions to cli­mate change. So, if you’re not off to Copen­hagen then this is the place you need to be. Bring your tent, warm clothes, and ideas for action!

Decem­ber 05, 2009

with­in the first hour of occu­pa­tion, around 250 sup­port­ers arrived in the square and 20 tents estab­lished. many more are on their way. there are 2 giant manned tripods with the ‘cap­i­tal­ism is cri­sis’ ban­ner fly­ing between them. a yurt has been erect­ed as well as var­i­ous oth­er shel­ters, a kitchen, and stor­age area. the first wood fires are alight, and the mood is excit­ed and opti­mistic despite the damp con­di­tions. there’s a sound sys­tem for announce­ments and music, and the ‘rinky dinky’ sys­tem is mak­ing it’s way up from par­lia­ment square too.

there is a full two days of work­shops and oth­er activ­i­ties planned, and vis­i­tors are wel­come to the square to find out what the issues and pos­si­ble solu­tions are.

Time­line

Groups cycled to Lon­don, stop­ping off spread­ing aware­ness about cli­mate change, such as Cli­mate Chains who came down from Leeds & else­where (more info here too)

What to bring
Sim­ple. Just a tent, warm and water­proof clothes. Oh, and all your friends!

Wish list
Veg­an food, blan­kets, tarps, pal­lets, party/frame tents, card­board,
ban­ners, big water bot­tles + any­thing else you think may be help­ful…

—

Press release:

Hun­dreds of cli­mate activists have set up a Cli­mate Camp at Trafal­gar Square in the run up to the COP15 talks in Copen­hagen next week.(1)

The ‘COP out, Camp out’, organ­ised by a group of peo­ple who met at the Camp for Cli­mate Action in Black­heath this sum­mer (2), is tak­ing place after thou­sands of peo­ple marched through the cap­i­tal as part of ‘The Wave.’(3)

Tra­cy Wor­thy from the Camp for Cli­mate Action said: “We are here with the Par­lia­ment in view to high­light that the elit­ist and unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic talks in Copen­hagen are part of a polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic sys­tem that puts cor­po­rate prof­its before the needs of peo­ple. We need sys­tem change, not cli­mate change.”

“The false solu­tions being pushed in Copen­hagen, such as car­bon trad­ing, will not solve the cli­mate cri­sis. For the bankers, cor­po­ra­tions and politi­cians who brought us the finan­cial cri­sis, Copen­hagen is no more than busi­ness as usual.”(4)

The loca­tion of the camp was kept secret until the last minute, when the tar­get was announced through mass text-mes­sag­ing. The activists met up at Jubilee Gar­dens (out­side the Shell Build­ing) and marched on to Trafal­gar Square. Tra­cy Wor­thy com­ment­ed, “The camp will be a space for peo­ple to get inspired and pre­pared for tak­ing action dur­ing the COP15 talks.”

END

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