Climate change & climate action

1 September 2007News

In February, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (the Western Islands Council) approved plans for a giant “wind factory” with 181 super-size 140meter-high turbines on the north west of the Isle of Lewis.

With another planned 57 turbines on the island, this would mean a 40-mile stretch of wind turbines across the island, making it the largest wind farm in Europe.

The top-left-hand corner of the British Isles might seem like an ideal spot in which to tuck away such a wind farm. But for…

1 September 2007News

There was a lot of good news to do with the Climate Camp, including the fact that BAA tried to get an injunction which could have applied to five million people anywhere near Heathrow, and instead got an order against three individuals - who were legally entitled to go to Climate Camp because it was outside the area described in the order!

On 5 August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield detention centre near Oxford. (At the time of going to press, 10 have still not been captured.) It…

1 September 2007Review

Earth-scan, 2007; ISBN 1 84407 426 9; 326pp; £14.99

The fundamental premise of this surprisingly gripping book is that “individuals rather than governments or companies are going to be the driving force behind reductions in greenhouse gases.”

Annual UK CO2 emissions amount to 12.5 tonnes per person, roughly half of which is generated by individuals running their houses, cars and taking transport. The other half is generated by activities such as agriculture, industry, and transporting goods. By a closely examining the emissions…

1 September 2007Review

Fourth Estate, 2007; ISBN 0 00 720904 5; £12.99

What happens when the earth's climate warms by several degrees? Mark Lynas's latest book discusses changes predicted at various levels of global warming. By assigning each of the six chapters to degree of warming, Lynas illustrates the range of scenarios from one degree to six degrees. Some ideas presented will be familiar (rising ocean levels, crop failures, violent storms), but many more will come as a shock (more rainfall predicted for the Sahara desert, the Amazon rainforest easily…

1 September 2007Review

Myriad Editions; ISBN: 978 0 954930936; £6.99 www.cartoonkate.co.uk

This content has been removed from the website on request of the author.

1 September 2007Feature

Climate change is a danger to the whole human race (and a lot of other species), and is caused by greenhouse gases. One way we can cut down on the amount of greenhouse gases that we create is by stopping eating meat. Did you know a kilo of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car for 250km! It's partly the gases given off by the cow (mostly burping), but mostly all the energy used to produce and then transport the artificial food for the cows. (Cows and similar animals pro-…

16 July 2007Feature

Could it really be done? Could over 700 people - many of whom had never met before - not only build and manage a massive camp site on the perimeter of Heathrow, whilst organising a day of mass direct action against the aviation industry, but do so using participatory, consensus decision-making?

This was the utopian vision outlined in the pre-publicity for the `Camp for Climate Action', and from what I saw as a participant during days three to five the answer was yes.

Arriving…

1 June 2007News in Brief

“War is still the issue”

Voices in the Wilderness UK and others behind last October's No More Fallujahs camp are organising an unauthorised peace camp in Parliament Square (23-28 June) to mark Tony Blair's departure from office.
The organisers say: “Unless we step up our resistance it will be business as usual with Tweedlebrown after Tweedleblair: more war, more terror, more nukes and more restrictions on civil liberties. Celebrate Blair's departure and demand the withdrawal of all…

1 May 2007News

The Bush Administration was dealt another blow over Iraq in April after three of its top generals turned down a new high-profile post tasked with overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The retired generals were approached by the White House but rejected the job, with one citing the chaotic way the war was being run as the reason for his decision.
Climate activists have once again been busy in the East Midlands area -- this time disrupting work at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-…

3 March 2007Comment

In equal measures: hope and despair

This March marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the start of the long-term military and economic occupation.

Tens of thousands of civilians and more than 3,000 coalition soldiers have been killed; thousands more have been horrifically wounded. Over the past four years people have lost their homes, their livelihoods, their families and their minds. Iraqi society is in ruins and the occupiers' political stability is on a…

1 March 2007Feature

"We are witnessing the birth of a new social movement to force action on climate change." Johann Hari, The Independent, on the Camp for Climate Action 2006

Over fifty years ago, the peace movement burst into life in response to the very real threat posed by nuclear weapons. Mass collective action - from Aldermaston to Greenham Common - was successfully used to wake up the world to the madness of the cold war and the arms race.

Today, it is widely agreed that climate change is the greatest threat facing humanity. A new generation is mobilising to confront the root causes of this danger and to create a space for the radical social change…

1 December 2006Feature

"The ignorant people of the past, the unfortunates of the future, and the disenfranchised people of developing nations, are all powerless to affect the out-come of our terrible gamble with the world's climate. There is nobody else. We - that's you and I - need to take action, and fast." Leo Murray, from direct action group Plane Stupid, explains why he joined the group that shut down an airport.

I first met Plane Stupid in November 2005, at a protest outside a conference gala dinner for aviation executives on London's TowerBridge.

I was struck by the juxtaposition of coach-loads of radicalised grannies from local airport residents' opposition groups standing side by side with the young climate change activists who had broken up the conference earlier that day with an inspired combination of balls [ovaries?] and brains. This looked interesting...

We can win

At the Camp…

1 December 2006News in Brief

Congratulations to local campaigners working to stop the planned Stansted airport expansion. At a packed local planning meeting on 29 November, Uttlesford District Council voted unanimously against the plans of airport operator BAA, which would have seen an additional 80,000 flights per year. Speaking after the decision, Peter Sanders of the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign said, “BAA's plans would have had an appalling impact on this predominantly rural area, as well as generating the…

1 December 2006Review

Allen Lane, 2006; ISBN 0 71399 923 3; 304pp; 17.99

In Heat, George Monbiot attempts to construct what too few thinkers have attempted until now - a solution to climate change.

Refreshingly, he spends little time on the problem itself, declaring (correctly) that the debate on the science is over. Rather, the question is how we now deal with the greatest threat faced by humankind. Pointing out that current scientific estimates predict that the UK will need to cut its CO2 emissions by around 90% by 2030 - a far greater cut than…

1 November 2006Feature

Speaking in 1994 on the likely global conflict trends for the next 30 years, Professor Paul Rogers of the Bradford Peace Studies Department was astute to recognise the relationship between environmental resources, climate change and conflict. He wrote: “... It is probable that environmental conflict will escalate. This may be local or regional, on issues such as food, land, or water, and global on issues such as energy and mineral resources and transnational pollution. The Gulf War was an…