20 October 2008
London Rising Tide’s Greenwash Guerillas Brigade, Detection Platoon #1, moved into action this morning at 08:00 hours – targeting dirty great energy corporation Électricité de France (EDF) at the central London headquarters (HQ) of their UK subsidiary EDF Energy.
London Rising Tide used to meet fortnightly, but the wild success of the massive Climate Camp 08 outside the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station [1] has boosted the veteran climate change campaign to even higher levels of participation and direct action. I attended a ‘Film Night for Newcomers’ on Thu 18 Sep 08, as did a whole bunch of folks new to Rising Tide, and such was the upswing of enthusiasm, energy and creativity, we’ve been meeting weekly ever since.
Inspired by our sisters and brothers in France demonstrating against new nuclear power, we chose to target EDF’s attempts to muscle in their FALSE nuclear solution to the looming disaster of catastrophic climate chaos. Testing the mettle of seasoned campaigners, we newbies chose 08:00–09:00 on a Monday morning to kick up a stink about the dangers to the biosphere, humanity, and REAL renewable energy solutions posed by the nuclear fission industry rearing its ugly head.
And inspired by the response of our Argentinean sisters and brothers to having their life savings stolen by the banks, we made ours a Noize Demo [2] – pots and pans, whistles and samba bells echoed off the blank face of the bland corporate architecture at No.40 Grosvenor Place, drawing the attention of EDF bosses inside and thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, bus+coach passengers, van+truck drivers, and motorists outside to the greenwash bullshit leaking out of their stone-n-glass bastion. And in return, scores of vehicle horns saluted our protest, sounding a general public approval for protest against Nuclear Capital’s dirty machinations for new nukes.
If you feel inspired to take action for a future free from the threat of catastrophic climate chaos, you’ll be welcomed with open arms and a cup of something hot and refreshing at London Rising Tide’s next meeting: Thu 23 Oct 08, 19:30 to 21:00, at the London Action Resource Centre (LARC), 62 Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, London E1 1ES – and down t’pub after (optional ;-).
—-
For immediate release
Climate activists to target EDF
Photo opportunity: 20 October 2008 8.30am, 40 Grosvenor Place, London
On Monday 20 October climate activists calling themselves the Greenwash Guerrillas will be on hand to detect “dangerous levels of radioactivegreen hypocrisy”[1] eminating from the london offices of pro-nuclear lobbiests EDF.
Equipped with greenwash detectors and kitted out in toxic-waste suits, activists will be testing office workers for pro-nuclear PR contamination, and highlighting the unsustainability of the governments current energy policy.
The activists are outraged that given the recently announced target of an 80% reduction in Carbon dioxide emissions, Gordon Brown, and of course his brother Andrew (head of corporate communications for EDF), are arguing that new nuclear power should be central to our energy security.
Nuclear power is far from carbon neutral[2]
Nuclear power is unsafe[3]
Nuclear power is hugely expensive[4]
Real sustainable solutions exist[5]
The real solutions to the energy gap and climate change are available now!
1 — The Greenwash Guerrillas reveal PR tactics employed by corporations to deflect attention from their poor environmental standards for the greenwash it truly is.
www.greenwashguerrillas.org http://www.greenwashguerrillas.org>
2 — Generating a unit of electricity from nuclear power creates at least 33% of the CO2 emissions of a unit produced from gas when mining, disposal & decommissioning are also considered.
www.stormsmith.nl/report20050803/Chap_1.pdf
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-climate_change_debate/2587.jsp#one
3 — Over 100 staff at the EDF operated Tricastin plant were irradiated on 24 Jul 2008, the fourth such scare in a fortnight.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/26/britishenergygroupbusiness.utilities
France’s independent radiation watchdog sounded the alarm Thursday after a nuclear leak – the fourth such scare in a fortnight.
French nuclear operator EDF comes in for a pasting, for saying that the latest nuclear blunders had no impact on “peoples health” or “the environment” because the doses emitted fell short of the maximum limits set by international standards.
Electricité de France workers were exposed to radioactive particles on Wednesday 23rd July, that escaped from a pipe at a nuclear reactor at the Tricastin complex. Experts said that the latest incident involved the highest number of workers to be collectively contaminated in French nuclear history.
4 — Nuclear power stations require huge initial investments, ongoing maintenance and the decommissioning costs*
* (at least £63 billion).
www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/news_release_national.pdf
Last week it emerged the cost estimate for cleaning up nuclear waste in the UK had risen by £10bn in one year. That increase is the same as the current cost of the 2012 Olympics — the finances of which have generated so much political heat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/26/britishenergygroupbusiness.utilities
5 — New nuclear power stations are a distraction from the real solutions to climate change: decentralised energy as seen in Scandinavia, renewable technologies and energy efficiency.
Renewables would come online more quickly, require no fuel and won’t have the danger or cost of the nuclear power. The generating cost of onshore wind power is already cheaper than nuclear power, with nowhere near the level of investment and no emissions.
London Rising Tide,
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES; Tel: 07708 794665
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk
www.artnotoil.org.uk — (send us your art!)
Shell’s now sponsoring ‘Oedipus’ at the National Theatre. Look out for the
gallery of images made in response, which we’ll add to the ‘Shell’s Wild
Lie’ counter-exhibition: www.artnotoil.org.uk/gallery/v/Shell
See also the Camp for Climate Action site: climatecamp.org.uk
as well as Climate Indymedia: climateimc.org